HI EVERYONE, welcome to another week of Local Sounds. There has been a recent explosion in the rock ‘n roll dance scene on the Far North Coast – with people frequently travelling for miles to dance to these types of bands.
This week I caught up Phil Eizenberg the guitar and amp doctor at Tweed Creative Studios to talk about his very popular band PPR Express.
Q. How long has the band been established?
We have been playing as PPR Express for a year, the band was originally playing together as the Chevrolets one of Australia’s leading Rock’n’Roll bands until the lead singer Bernie Hutton was taken by illness and passed away. That was the end of the Chevrolets and the beginning of PPR Express. So Peter Hall and I decided to stay together and Peter knew Roger who had the same high voice as Bernie so the repertoire was virtually the same.
Q. Do you have a regular following?
Yes we have, the Gold Coast Rock ‘n Roll dance clubs like us very much. Wherever we play they come and support us, they hit the dance floor and they stay on the dance floor for every set. It’s just terrific. It’s great to see people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s dancing, and I see them as teenagers when the music was first started and they’re still there. They have aged but the music hasn’t and their feeling for the music hasn’t, which is interesting. They remember every song they sing all the words and they dance energetically and its great and I love playing for them. And we just play really good dance music. From the Beatles to The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Herman’s Hermits, The Shadows and David Bowie, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly, all the great groups. Plus we write our own material. So were now really proud to present our new song Get a Wriggle On written by myself and my brother Arthur.
Q. Are you still in the recording process?
Were still putting final touches to recording we’ve got a few more to record. We’ve recorded 4 songs and have 4 more to record.
Q. You’ve played in a few well known Australian bands?
Yes the Mighty Guys, Glenn A Baker’s band in the eighties. We had a modicum of a hit called Be Cool Be Smart which was written for me as a bit of comic relief we had a guy from UK Squeeze come out from England. We met him in a hotel room in Kings Cross and he had a listen to the track liked it and agreed to re mix it. The song was released and ABC used to play it every morning. My sister used to listen to it on her way to work every day. Lots of people heard it. We played it on Countdown. That band had done every tv show in Australia, the most written up band in Australia at that time.
Before that I was in the Ferrets who also had a hit called Don’t Fall in Love, and then we had a follow up called Janie May released in 1977. Then we recorded an album Dreams of Love and it was really great.
For more information about the band go to www.pprexpress.com and for Guitar and Amp repairs and service call Tweed Creative Studios (02) 6672 5556.
