the tommys

It’s been a busy year for the Tommys: plenty of shows pushing our new 45 "Born To Follow" b/s "Window Pane” including a live-to-air on 3CR’s fabulous "Burning Vinyl" radio show.

1. 1969 Ludwig Supraphonic snare drum
There’s a reason why this is the most recorded snare in history. Just killer.

2. Pork Pie Drum Throne.
To any drummer or bar stool hog out there. Pay the extra and never look back

3. Little Green Festival, St Kilda Bowling Club, March 2025

4. The T Bones celebrated their 40^th Anniversary with a cavalcade of lineups from over the years.
Helen "Hellcat" Cattanach of Moler and I were the rhythm section on the first 45 and album. Great fun to rock out again including a warmup show at Bar 303, Northcote.

5. Show with Kreep 500 Town Hall Hotel at North Melbourne
Played some fun shows this year with Mick and Otto's raucous rockin’ garage two-piece.

6. The Wraylettes with The Tommys - Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood

7. Pearly Shells with Robert Susz - Jazz Lab, Brunswick.
I lived in Darlinghurst in 1985 and used to catch Continental Robert and his bar band at the Piccadilly Hotel in the Cross every Sunday arvo for free. He still has the tone and chops, and the Pearly Shells Big Band nailed it.

8. Ocean Vuong – The Emperor of Gladness

9. Archie Moore, kith and kin – Queensland Art Gallery 
Immense.

10.  Perfect Days - Wim Wenders.  

The Born Out Of Time mini-festival has been dormant since COVID times but is returning to Melbourne to deliver some savage Antipodean sounds.

Saturday May 17 is the date to be at the Town Hall Hotel, North Melbourne, for a bill featuring Gas Babies, The Tommys, Dino Bravo, young upstarts Howl, plus a mystery band.

It’s primo rock ‘n’ roll proudly presented by Munster Times Zine, I-94 Bar and Off The Hip. The shindig kicks off at 5pm, and entry is free. Delish pub grub is available from 5-9pm. See you there.

After a 20-year hiatus, Melbourne slackabilly surf trio The Tommys are back on the live circuit and launching a new singe. 

Well pedigreed veterans Ollie Laurie (Exotics), Jonathan Lickliter (Died Pretty) and Rob Lastdrager (T Bones) are unveiling their red vinyl 45 single, “Born to Follow” b/w “Window Pane”, at the Old Bar in Fitzroy from 4pm on Saturday. June 7.

They'll also play a live-to-air on Melbourne community radio station 3CR's Burning Vinyl Radio show radio on the Friday between 2-4pm. 

The Tommys released their debut album, “Grow Fins”, way back in 2000 and the follow up single, “Chastity Melts”, recorded live and dirty at the Old Bar in Melbourne, four years later.

Reforming for Garage Fest 2024 they toured of duty in Cambodia and now they’re thrilling audiences in Melbourne and Sydney once more with their tsunami of lo-fi garage surf grooves.

Special guests The Kreep 500 are supporting with their own brand of savage howls with garage nous. A duo far beyond the sum of its parts (think Cramps, Scientists, Reigning Sound),their debut album sold out in months and its follow-up is due in late 2025 on the Groovie (Europe) and Off The Hip(Australia) labels.

Window Pane b/w Born To Follow - The Tommmys (Fry Up Records)

With a storied membership of guitarist-vocalist Ollie Laurie (The Exotics),bassist Jonathan Lickliter (Died Pretty) and drummer Rob Lastdrager (T Bones), this red vinyl 45 from Aussie trio The Tommys promised to deliver something out of the box on this 45. And they do.

The Tommys play surf-influenced garage rock that's so out of kilter with anything you'd hear tin mainstream radio that it could only flourish in the darker recesses of the divergent Melbourne rock scene. Open chord twang and spiralling leads pull against alternately surging or shuffling rhythms to create a dark undercurrent.

People went nuts for this stuff in Europe in the pre-grunge 1980s - and probably still would, given the right distribution.

 _{The Tommys at The Tramway Hotel in the day. Robert Lastdrager (drums), Ollie Laurie (guitar) and Jonathan ‘Ike’ Lickliter (bass.)}

The Tommys - The Old Bar Fitzroy on Sunday January 14 2024 
We played our last gig at the Old Bar in Fitzroy in December 2003. Our first reunion rehearsal early December was a cachopany of muscle memory gone wrong. Now we’re sounding loose and mean. Like being 18 again, “Oh the humanity”.

Chloe Cox aka Sorry Jimi
Fabulous singer, songwriter, guitarist who moved to Melbourne a few years ago from QLD to kick start her rock and roll journey.

The Green Mist - Shotkickers, Thornbury, Melbourne
A great, raucous winters evening of Rock and Roll.