Blood Money

1978 - 1981

Bell, Dave =Bass/Vocals

Ford, Steve =Drums/Vocals

Lewis, John =Guitar/Vocals

Love, Greg =Guitar/Vocals

McMahon, Gerard =Bass/Vocals

McNeil, John =Vocals/Percussion

Williams, Dave =Guitar/Vocals

Hi Bazza

Firstly, I like to offer my congratulations and thanks for all your efforts on a brilliant job well-done in setting up the web-site.

Secondly, I should apologise for not getting my stuff to you earlier, and for the verbosity of this email.

I guess in all probability you wouldn't remember me, but I recall having a few discussions with Willie & yourself down at the Black Diamond Blues bar as it was called back then. In those days I would have been seen hanging around at quite a few Willie Winter Band gigs i.e. Leather Bottle, Top Storey tavern etc., as well as Kevin Borich Express gigs.

Anyhow, I thought I may as well crawl out of the woodwork, throw my hat into the ring (so-to-speak), and tell you a bit about a cheesy little Canberra based rock 'n roll band I played in back in from about late 1978 to 1981 called "Blood Money". At least before any vague memories your audience might have had of the band disappear forever into the heavy fog of obscurity - they most probably have already anyway!

For a short while Blood Money played semi-regularly in the back room at the Deakin Inn, and did support there on at least one occasion for The Days. We also had Neil Bamford do a great guest spot with us at the 'deek' one evening.

Some rare guest appearances on bass were made by one Greg Clift who of course went on to local fame with Naughty Rhythms. I recall young Clifty having arrived late for a gig, and not wanting to be recognised, sneaking behind the band and appearing up-front wearing a green stocking over his head which he wore for the entire performance. If I also remember rightly a young Clift'y did the original artwork for our band t-shirt - have been digging around for an old copy of the band poster but nothing has turned up as yet.

Some Sydney bands we played the odd support gigs for in those days included: Dee Minor and the Dischords, The Cats Pyjamas, and the Breakers (lead by Jimmy Manzies - formerly of Old 55).

Over the time that the band was together we performed at:

- the Charnwood Inn (downstairs - regular weekly spot)

- the old Manuka Football Club (regular Sunday night gigs)

- the Floyd (might have been the Jam Factory by then)

- Ainslie Football Club (upstairs on Sunday night)

- Narooma Golf Club (regular Saturday night spots)

- Ainslie Rex Hotel (Ainslie Rock)

- Woden Valley Rams Club

- The Texas Tavern - Phillip

- Kingston Hotel (Kingston Rock)

- Queanbeyan Leagues Cub

- the old Goulburn RSL (up those narrow bloody stairs!)

- Goulburn Lilac Time Hall

- Goulburn Teachers College

- ANU Refectory

- CCAE Bar

- Cootas Place Belconnen

- Western Districts Rugby Football Club

- HMAS Harman Mess

- Tilba Tilba Hall

- Narrabri Golf Club

- Narrabri (B&S Ball)

- numerous private parties & functions (eg Yarralumla woolshed, CCAE Stone Day, Cooinda Hut, Goulburn Railway Station etc)

An article was once written in the CCAE Caesarian reviewing one of the Blood Money gigs describing us as being somewhere between all your classic hits on K-Tel and "..disprin for the death". But you know what they say "..any publicity is good publicity - just as long as they spell your name right!".

One of our most harrowing gigs was at a wedding reception held in Hall, where eight biker gangs were in attendance. During the course of the evening copious quantities of alcohol were consumed by the attendees in between impromptu displays of prowess in the pugilistic arts. After playing extended renditions of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild", along with a few Hendrix and Cream numbers, we somehow, miraculously, managed to leave the venue with no sustained damage to vital organs, teeth, bones, guitars, or drums.

The band line-up was as follows:

John McNeil "Big John" lead vocal, congas & tambourine, stage theatrics and various artistic impressions

Dave Williams vocals, lead guitar

Greg "GL" Love vocals, rhythm guitar

Dave Bell vocals, bass guitar, (unfortunately died a few years later in a motorcycle accident)

John Lewis vocal, rhythm and slide guitar

Gerard McMahon vocals, bass

Steve Ford "Short Arse" vocals, drums

I have attached to this email a scanned in copy of a proof sheet taken from photos of a Blood Money gig at the Deakin Inn.

The lead singer, John McNeil, was notorious for performing such deeds as chewing and (expelling the contents of) imitation blood capsules on stage and wearing an outfit fashioned after the comic strip hero the Phantom. On one occasion John dressed up in a nun's habit before appearing onstage, which was very amusing given John's appearance at the time - i.e. a flowing beard ala ZZ-Top and a very tall built-like-a-brick stature (John was originally a Phys Ed teacher at local high schools). John was always good value as he had developed a large repertoire of comic impressions that he would launch into during band breaks and would easily built a rapport with the audience. After Blood Money John took up guitar and played solo for a while and has since

gone on to an acting career in Sydney, having appeared briefly in such recent films as: Dirty Deeds, and Kangaroo Jack (no he isn't the big red roo!); and television shows such as All Saints, White Collar Blue, Young Lions, and Blue Heelers. Many Canberrans may recall John from his local performance on stage in "Almost Anything Goes" with Kate Peters at the Canberra Theatre.

Greg Love lives and works on the central coast and has released a number of CD's of his own compositions, and continues to perform one-man shows from time-to-time.

Dave Williams

For my own part (oh know! ...here comes the shameless self-promotion bit!), I originally learned guitar in about '74 from Bruce Stewart and later for a short while with Russell Moran. Since playing in Blood Money, I have at one time or another either jammed, rehearsed, filled-in, or otherwise performed onstage in various line-ups and one-night-only shows (as bands, trio's and duos') with many of the musicians mentioned on your site. Below is a list of some of the local names that I have had various musical encounters with over the years (although I grant you some of these persons may either vehemently deny, or otherwise not remember any of it):

Scotty Ingram, Grant Osborne, James Montgomery, Rob Polkinghorn, Mark Hunter, Lyndon Fraser, Murray Fraser, Murray Green, Alan Sheard, Tony Green, Rod Eckersley, Billy Ebsworth, Malcolm Bennett, Mick Morrissey, McElligott Bros. (Paul & Rory), Dave O'Brien, Lindsay Dunbar, Sean Kavanagh, John Stockdill, Greg Clift, Peter Mutkins, Ajay Mehta and in all probability some others who I can't remember either.

I went a bit country for a while playing in the band "West Ridge"; then a bit cabaret-rock "Three Card Trick" (yes sad to admit it but who hasn't); a short-lived outfit known as "Moon Katz" (1993 world tour of Majors Creek); later on an 8 piece band called Figure8 (with some ex-members of a band called Barrocca-Bye Babies), and still later a four piece band called Rock & Roll Relics.

PHOTOS & WORDS COURTESY DAVE WILLIAMS