A Question Of Drums - The Bill Flemming Story Part 1.
- graemebrown101
- May 5
- 14 min read
The old saying, “If you remember the ‘60s, you weren’t there” does not apply to drummer Bill Flemming. Bill does admit that he does get confused about dates, but he has a clear memory of the people, events and the places he played going back over 60 years. Bill was the session drummer of choice for all the major record producers in Sydney throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s and he played on countless radio jingles. Bill also backed and toured with the top entertainers of the day including the Who, the Rolling Stones, Shirley Bassey, Blood Sweat & Tears, to name just a few. His story is truly remarkable.
Bill Flemming was born on June 10th, 1942. He is the youngest of two boys and his brother Paul was 11 years older. He grew up in Chatswood in Sydney’s Lower North Shore before the family moved to Neutral Bay up until the early ‘60s. The family then relocated to Killara a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney.
Bill attended the Sydney Church Of England Grammar (commonly known as Shore School) and was a boy soprano, singing in the School choir and sometimes singing solo at weddings where he received payment of 2 shillings. Shore used to produce Gilbert & Sullivan musicals every year that ran for four nights and Bill played 'Mabel' in 'The Pirates of Penzance' and 'Rose Maybud' in 'Ruddigore'. The soprano singing came to abrupt ending when his voice broke, and he became much taller than the leading men.
It was while Bill was at high school that he joined the Army Cadets and after a year of General Infantry training, he was asked to specialise. The teachers in charge wanted him to do Bren Gun training but Bill had little interest in guns. He opted instead to join the Drum & Bugle Band and his interest in playing drums really took off from this point. After a year he became the Head Drummer and the following year he started taking lessons from Syd Verey who taught at Palings on Saturday mornings. While at school Bill formed a band called the Sixth Form Jazz band. Well-known blues guitarist Peter Ellison was part of this group.
When Bill left school in 1960 one of his first jobs as a musician was working in a tent show with Slim Dusty at the Royal Easter Show. He recalls,
“It was like a sideshow alley show. We had a sharpshooter who used the stage name Annie Oakley, a hypnotist called Rocky Page and a wonderful juggler (Lloyd Nairn) who used to balance a Victa lawn mower on his chin and juggle. I can remember it really clearly because I got a hundred quid for 10 days. We used to do a lot of shows every day except for Good Friday where we really had to shorten the show because they closed at 6. After it Slim offered me a job but I quickly realised that he was after someone who could put tents up and make a fist of playing the drums a bit so I went somewhere else.”
The first band Bill joined was the Midnighters. The Midnighters played rock’n’roll and are not to be confused with another Sydney group of the same name who recorded singles on the RCA label. The Midnighters Bill was part of included Tony Curby (piano), Tony Joyce (guitar), Bill McIntyre (bass) and Bill Flemming (drums). In the same year the young drummer developed an interest in jazz and played in a trio with Tony Curby and a bass player from Melbourne. They played weddings, parties and other social functions at the Australia Hotel in Castlereagh Street in Sydney.
The Midnighters backed singer Ian Crawford and played at dances promoted by Bob Malcolm at the Ironworker’s Hall near Central Station and the Ironworker’s Hall near Circular Quay. Other dances they played at were at Dapto and Corrimal near Wollongong. The members of the Midnighters were big fans of Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps and this inspired them to dress completely in black including a black cap. Bill recalls an incident that occurred during this time,
“I was driving home one night with all the band gear and a guy cut me off just near Taylor Square in Sydney. I leaned out the window which was my habit at the time and told him something about his linage. He took gross exception to this and pulled over to the side of the road, so I pulled up behind him. He got out of his car, very enraged, and started walking towards me. I unfolded out of my car and at that stage I was about 6’ 4” and very skinny. I was still in my band uniform, black cap, black shirt, black pants, and shoes. He wasn’t a big person and he looked at me and said, ‘I’m not fighting you; you big black bastard: you look like a fucking magpie.’ He got back in his car and drove off. I remember going to the next band job and going, ‘I think we better dice the caps guys’ “
Bill played on his first recording when he was with the Midnighters. The single Juke Box Hop/I’m Lonely was credited to Dale Wayne & the Wanderers and was released on the Lee Gordon record label. The self-penned Juke Box Hop is a lively rockabilly number by talented 16-year-old Sydney teenager Dale Wayne. It should have been the launch of a successful career but sadly, it failed to make the charts and Wayne later moved into music publishing. The song was recently included in a compilation CD of late 50s/early 60s Australian rock’n’roll recordings titled ‘Juke Box Hop’
In the latter part of 1960 Bill formed the Chessmen (not to be confused with Johnny Chester’s group of the same name). The group consisted of Tony Joyce (guitar), John Blake (bass), John Miller (guitar) and Bill Flemming (drums). John Blake left and went to New Zealand and Bobby Miller replaced him. Because the group were a 4-piece they got a lot of work. All of the big acts in Sydney at the time, Johnny O’Keefe & the Dee Jays, Col Joye & the Joye Boys, Johnny Devlin & the Devils and Johnny Rebb & the Rebels all had keyboards, saxophone or both. Because the Chessmen were a four-piece they were cheaper which is something that appealed to most dance promoters.
Popular local DJ Rhett Walker showed a great interest in the group, and he bought them to the attention of EMI. As a result,
they recorded four tracks produced by Joe Halford. To thank Walker for his help the group gave him a writing credit on the three original songs they recorded. Their first single Way Up Thar/Just Because was released in 1960 on HMV. The single received some airplay and created quite a lot of interest around the band. A second single The Stoogie/Hot Spell was released about a month later also on HMV.
The Chessmen played at the Belmore Police Boys Club backing Booka Hyland and also appeared on ‘Six O’Clock Rock’ with Booka. Another venue they played at quite often was the Teen Canteen a teenage nightclub where they backed George Karen, Paul Wayne, Ricky Dell and quite a few other up-and-coming singers. Bill recalls,
“There was a place in Pitt Street just around the corner from Martin Place called the Teen Canteen. It was downstairs and I worked there with Terry Walker (later with the Strangers) and he had a band called Terry & the Teenbeats which I have never let him forget for his entire lifetime. In that Teen Canteen were Digger Revell, Ricky Dell, Paul Dever, Paul Wayne and a few strays. These were all significant singers in that particular era. We are talking about the very early days of the guys who were trying to get up and make it.”
During this time Bill and various members of the Chessmen did quite a lot of recording with Robert Iredale at Festival Records. Bill recalls playing on recordings by Noeleen Batley, Warren Williams and many others. It was through Rhett Walker that the Chessmen were invited to perform at the 6IX Radio Awards in Perth at the Capitol Theatre on October 2nd, 1963. Other Sydney artists to attend this event included Noeleen Batley, Lucky Starr and the Allen Brothers. Local artists included the Tornadoes, the Logan Sisters, Peter Anderson and Pam Bradley. The program for the event described the Chessmen as,
“One of the newest and most interesting teenage instrumental groups to appear on the local music scene is the Chessmen. The boys, whose average age is twenty, are featuring a sound known as “Tex-mex”, which is a mixture of Country & Western, Spanish, Rock’n’Roll and Jazz. They have been playing together for six months and are drawing big crowds wherever they appear.”
When Dig Richards and the RJs went their separate ways, Digby rang to get the Chessmen to back him at what was billed as a dance at Wingham Community Hall, which is just over 300 km north of Sydney. Bill recalls,
“To the consternation of all concerned, upon arrival at the venue, we discovered that there was no dance floor, just row upon row of seats and it was to all intents and purposes, a sit-down concert. Dig was desperate for something other than the Chessmen playing instrumentals and him singing his songs to open the show, so he pleaded with me (a huge fan of Stan Freberg) to do 'The Abominable Snowman' routine that I had been doing on the way up to Wingham in the car. It sort of worked, but to this day, I don’t do stand up.”
Despite all the success the Chessmen achieved, they did not say together long. Bill moved on to another group, the Viscounts. The Viscounts were a pub band, and they played the pop music of the day. Members included Bruce Wormald (keyboards), Tony Joyce (guitar, ex Chessmen, Midnighters), Mike Nolan (bass), Bill Flemming (drums). Bruce Wormald had an extraordinary talent. He specialized in tape echo that made even the worst singers sound good. Del Juliana was also part of this group for a while. The group worked at the Bogner Hotel in Castlereagh Street until 10pm then walked up to the next corner and played at the Royal Standard from 10pm until midnight. Other venues the group played at were the Centennial Hotel in Woollahra and the Oceanic Hotel in Coogee. Bill recalls,
“We had our own PA and I’ll never forget that the manager at the Oceanic was George Glassic. He used to get quite disturbed by us playing too loud. There was a volume control for the PA on the wall and he used to walk into the pub and turn the volume control on the wall down and not realise we had our own PA. So, we used to play a little softer and he went away quite content, and we went back to our normal volume.”
During 1963 Bill continued to be an in-demand session drummer but one recording that stands out is the Jay Justin song, Proud Of You. Bill recalls,
“The session was overseen by Joe Halford but in the studio was the legendary Charles Blackwell from the UK, who insisted on recording my bass drum. This was in 1963 and EMI were horrified as they just didn’t do that in those days. So much so, that they got John Edgecombe (a jazz guitar player & occasional tuba player) to play the same dots as the bass drum to kind of give it some tuning. Things changed fairly rapidly over the next few years, of course, but I remember feeling really pleased by Charles Blackwell’s insistence on recording it as by then some good patterns on the bass drum were coming through, mainly by black drummers on shows like ‘Shindig’ which we watched religiously.”
Late in 1963, Bill joined the Eric Myers Orchestra playing at Cabravale Diggers Club. The ‘Orchestra’ tag came from the inclusion of three front line players; trumpet, saxophone and trombone that gave the band a fairly broad sound. Eric was a handy arranger and had an impressive “book of arrangements” that enabled the band to literally play for just about any event. Bill continues the story,
“Initially Denis Sutherland was the guitar player but as time went on Terry Walker replaced Denis and Terry and I moved with Eric to work in other venues including the Cronulla Sutherland RSL where the band played for some very 'special' Beer & Prawn Sunday Specials where the patrons were all male (at least at birth), and the show consisted of a comedian (the ruder the better) and a stripper. In my opinion the stripper was mostly classier than the comic.”
In 1964, at the urging of John Blake, Bill went to New Zealand and joined the Jimmy Sloggett Five. But when Bill arrived in New Zealand, Blake had returned to Australia. Members of the group included Jimmy Sloggett (saxophone), Doug Jerebine (guitar), John ‘Yuk’ Harrison (bass), Dick Neil (rhythm guitar) and Bill Flemming (drums). Australian born (1940) Jimmy Sloggett was an outstanding saxophone player. In 1958 he played in Johnny Rebb’s Rebels and by 1960 he was part of Johnny O’Keefe’s band, the Dee Jays. It was while he was appearing on ‘Six O’Clock Rock’ that he met New Zealand singer, Carol Davies, who was also appearing on the show. The couple married soon after and travelled to New Zealand. Sloggett formed a band and became so popular that he was soon playing six nights a week. In 1963 he signed to Viking Records, then in 1964 he switched to the Zodiac label. Bill played on the Jimmy Sloggett Five single, Temptation/It’s Gonna Work Out Fine. It’s interesting to note that the group’s bass player was John ‘Yuk’ Harrison who later was part of Max Merritt & the Meteors. ‘Yuk’ was drawing attention to himself for his unusual stage antics as one reporter noted,
“Bass man John Harrison gave a bizarre performance of gymnastics during the show. One got the impression that he was either a former ballet dancer or that he was getting some practice for a marriage proposal, with all the jumping around and knee bending he did.”
The Jimmy Sloggett Five were included on the ‘Let’s Go ’65’ Tour of New Zealand. The tour was promoted by Harry M Miller and Graham Dent was the tour manager. Included on this tour were Peter Sinclair, Bill & Boyd, Jim McNaught, Tommy Adderley, Noel King and Ian Saxon. The tour kicked off in Timaru where a local paper reported,
“The Jimmy Sloggett Five provided adequate backing throughout the show, but their volume and enthusiasm was too much for the voice of Ian Saxon as he sang ‘Some Place Green’. But the powerhouse singing of long tall Texan Jim McNaught was more than audible, and his version of ‘Jailer Bring Me Water’ was one of the highlights of the evening. Making his first solo appearance, the former Howard Morrison Quartet baritone, Noel King, was left in no doubt as to his standing in Timaru. ‘I was feeling kind of lonely’, he said, after finishing ‘Old Man River’ without a microphone. Tommy Adderley was well received, but it was Bill & Boyd who really scored with the audience. Their singing and playing of ‘There’s A Meeting Here Tonight’, ‘Have I The Right’ and ‘America’ earned them two encores.”
After spending a little over a year in New Zealand, Bill returned to Australia in September 1965. He was not home long before he was approached by Max Merritt to join the Meteors. Two members of the Meteors Teddy Toi and Johnny Dick left to join Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs and Max asked Bill and John Blake to replace them.
Max & the Meteors were resident band at the Canopus Room at the Manly Pacific Hotel. They were building up a good reputation around Sydney delivering a set of quality r’n’b. The shared lead vocals of Max and Peter Williams (later with the Groove) was another feature of this band. The line-up of the group at this time included Max Merritt (vocals, lead guitar), Peter Williams (vocals, rhythm guitar), John Blake (bass) and Bill Flemming (drums). It was this line-up that recorded the single, Zippidy-Doo-Dah/I’ve Been Trying released on Parlophone July 1965.
Zippidy-Doo-Dah originated from the 1946 Disney movie ‘Song Of The South’. A version by Bob B Sox & the Blue Jeans was a US Top 10 hit in late 1962. Max’s version was a minor hit in Sydney and was largely boosted by the huge amount of TV exposure the band enjoyed,
“Their image is clean-cut and pleasant; wild enough for the wildest teenagers and professional enough to keep TV producers interested. They’ve appeared on seven ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’s, three ‘Bandstands’ and two ‘Saturday Dates’ and two 'Tonight Shows'.” (Everybody’s July 21st, 1965)
Things were going well for Max at this stage, but he was not happy with his current line-up. He was keen to have red hot New Zealand bass player Billy Kristian (Karaitiana) join his band. Kristian said he would not come to Australia and join Max unless drummer Jimmy Hill could come with him. So, Max decided to sack Bill and John Blake and bring in the two Kiwis. Bill was devastated by being dropped from Max’s band but soon decided he would form a band of his own. Max Merritt & the Meteors finished their residency at the Manly Pacific Hotel and Bill was able to convince the management that he could replace them with a four-piece band that would keep the till moving.
The band Bill formed were the Questions, recruiting three members of Roland Storm’s backing band the Statesmen. They were all outstanding musicians who had been playing in various bands around Sydney since the early ‘60s. The line-up included Billy Green (guitar), Duncan McGuire (bass), Rory Thomas (organ, trumpet) and Bill Flemming (drums). The Questions became the resident band at the Canopus Room at the Manly Pacific Hotel in late 1965 playing six nights a week plus Saturday afternoon.
In February 1966 Max Merritt & the Meteors were asked to be a support act for the Rolling Stones/Searchers Australian tour. For reasons Bill cannot remember, Jimmy Hill was unable to do the tour, so Bill was asked to replace him. But he was concerned that doing the tour would jeopardise the Manly Pacific Hotel residency,
“I was uncertain about doing the tour due to our gig at the Pacific Hotel and the fact that it might endanger our residency, but Nick Devery (the publican) was a wily old bugger and he handled the whole thing like a pro allowing me to get a deputy drummer and do the tour with regular reports about ‘Our man with the Stones’ live from the stage at the Pacific Hotel from time to time during our journey.”
The Stones first Australian tour in January 1965 had been a huge success and promoter Harry M Miller was keen for the band to return for a second tour. The tour commenced with two shows each day in Sydney on the 19th and 20th of February, followed by two shows in Brisbane and Adelaide, then onto Melbourne for three days at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda. At the first show in Sydney Bill made a good connection with Charlie Watts,
“At the sound check in Sydney, I remember teaching Charlie Watts the bossa nova which was pretty new at the time, and it was great to have some ‘drummer’ time as they were just like another band at the time as it was before things really went global for them.”
Prior to the tour Bill had mixed feelings about the type of music the Stones played. But after witnessing their live act firsthand he changed his mind,
“My view of the Stones going into the tour was rather negative due to my (our) love of black music and shows on TV like ‘Shindig’ and the fact that at the time, English bands were re-recording US soul and blues songs almost as soon as they were released in the USA and having hits in England with what seemed to us to be weak ‘white’ versions of soul music. Somewhat to my surprise, my view changed during the tour as I watched the interesting interplay between Keith Richards and Brian Jones, Charlie Watts laying it down, Mick (of course) and mainly ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’ which was a winner.”
When the tour landed in Adelaide, they were met by a group of Mods on motor scooters. They surrounded the tour bus and followed them to their hotel. At least one of the riders has an interesting story to tell his grandchildren as Bill recalls,
“Mick Jagger grabbed some aerosol shaving cream from his (or somebody’s hand luggage) and extended his arm out of the bus window and squirted the cream onto the face of one of the motor scooter riders. Not nice but the rider was okay.”
Bill Wyman was so impressed with bassist Billy Kristian’s playing that at the end of the tour he presented him with the Gretsch bass that he had been playing on the tour. Fifty-nine years after this tour, Bill still has fond memories,
“It was a wonderful experience. Lived at the time as a kind of adventure that just came up really out of nowhere and then back to playing in the pub that had its own reward as the crowds in those days were really into their music and, of course, so were we.”
Sources:
Michael Coomber – Down The Road Apiece, Australian Music Museum #14, Nov 1998
Bill Flemming – interviews & information via email, August - March, 2024
Sargent’s.com – Jimmy Sloggett profile
Chris Spencer – Australian Rock Discography 1956 – 1969, Moonlight, 1998
Clinton Walker – Suburban Songbook 2021
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