FROM THE END TO THE BEGINNING

Colin Barwick has certainly been around. If he could take his curriculum vitae’ to a band audition, Colin could drop a lot of impressive names. He’s wielded drumsticks for seminal Brisbane acts The End, plus Died Pretty, Ceramic Eggplants, and most recently, The Wickermen.

Now away from the band life since the demise of The Wickermen, Colin Barwick has a valuable insight into the Brisbane scene through the 80's.

ENDZONE: Could you tell us about the, err, beginning of The End?

COLIN: It's funny cause my parents actually knew Brett Myers parents, but I met Brett through another guy, Andrew Massie. We all went to the same school at The Gap.

ENDZONE: A fertile breeding ground..

COLIN: Yes, Brad Shepherd and Robert Forster went there too. And it was like, 'Do you want to have a jam?'. Brett didn’t like jamming, he’d always say, 'Let's play some songs', so we did some covers. The End always had a Velvet Underground or quiet side, and then there was the Sister Ray/Stooges side.

ENDZONE:  Had you been in any bands before The End?

COLIN: I played drums before but not in a proper band. I had lessons for three years since Grade 5.

ENDZONE:   Do you remember the first gig?

COLIN: I think it was at Caxton Street Hall. We were a three piece at first, with Jonathon Lickliter on bass, then Murray Davis joined later on keyboards. This was around the start of 1980.

ENDZONE:  Different days then...

COLIN: There seemed to be a lot more Interest then. Every man and his dog was in a band, and there was a lot of variety. When we went to Sydney I used to think the band scene was actually better in Brisbane. Here the bands were doing more different things.

The End were one of the many Brisbane acts to join the exodus to Sydney, making the move around the time of their only single, 'My Confession' in 1981. Only 300 copies of this record were pressed.  We lived in Paddington for a while, about six months, but there were some changes - a new bass player and a second guitarist. We went back to Brisbane and played a few shows, but I wasn't really happy and left the band.

ENDZONE:  So Brett was then the only original member?

COLIN:  Yes, but it didn't last much longer. There was a farewell gig and a cassette was released with some live stuff.

The transition From The End to Died Pretty was quite smooth. When Brett Myers wanted to get a new band together he called on his old rhythm section from The End, Jonathon Lickliter and Colin Barwick. Ron Peno from The 31st would handle the vocals.  When Died Pretty started it was virtually The End plus Ronny.

ENDZONE:  All this promising team needed was a keyboard player. An unlikely choice, RAM magazine writer Frank Brunetti completed the line up...

COLIN:  Yeah. Ronny had to show Frank what to play.

ENDZONE:  Died Pretty met a much warmer reception in Sydney than The End had. Jumped on by Sydney’s fastest growing label at the time, Citadel, the band saw it's first single climb to #2 on the RAM Indie Chart. 'Out Of The Unknown' remains a crowd favourite to this day and often finishes a Died Pretty live set.

As the group became a hot live attraction on the Sydney inner-city live circuit, a second single 'Mirror Blues' was released, peaking at #3 on the RAM Chart early in 1985. However, some problems in the band came to the surface. Bass player Jonathon Lickliter left the group and soon after Colin followed him back to Brisbane.

COLIN:  I've always been closest to Ike.

ENDZONE:  You mean Jonathon?

COLIN:  Yes, and when he left it kind of lost something for me. The others, Brett, Ron, Frank and the new bass player, Mark Lock, were all very much into the rock'n'roll lifestyle, and I didn’t really fit in with that scene.

ENDZONE:  ...so Colin came home and Died Pretty, after recruiting Chris Welsh on drums, went on their merry way. Most of the songs on 'Next To Nothing' and 'Free Dirt' date from Colin's time in the band. One of these was an old The End Song that grew out of Colin's drum pattern, 'Just Skin'...

COLIN:  Brett wanted to write something different that had an African, tribal feel to it, so I started playing this drum beat and Jonathon played the riff on the bass. In Died Pretty the song was slowed down and Brett played the riff on the guitar. It evolved into a totally different song.

ENDZONE:  ...as good as the 'Free Dirt' version is, The End's treatment of 'Just Skin' stand up in its own right. If you ever get to hear The End's version (and there's a demo floating around), you'll appreciate the difference. Even more recently Died Pretty have been digging up old material - something off their last album for instance...

COLIN:  The song 'Lost' was one we used to do in The End.

ENDZONE:  Did you know that Brett Myers has been playing in a little covers band in Sydney called The Twinkies, and he's been playing a couple of The End songs?

COLIN:  That was a name we used sometimes. The End was called The Twinkies for a few parties.

ENDZONE:  What did you do when you came back to Brisbane?

COLIN:  I'd been in a band called Ruby My Dear concurrently with Died Pretty. We played a kind of jazz. Ike was in the band, and Patrick Whitman. By late 1985 I was in Youth Monster. We played twice, including a gig with 'Luvs é Blur' at Sensoria - that was a great venue. The Ceramic Eggplants were next I think. They were a lot of fun to play in at first. but they started getting serious and it wasn't fun anymore, that's when I left.

ENDZONE:  And most recently you've played in The Wickermen?

COLIN:  I joined in late 1987, after they*d done the single on Bent Records and I played with them until we broke up. We did things like The Triffids support and the 4ZZZ Pool Party which was a bit of a disaster because the thing over-ran, and we were only allowed to play two songs before they closed it down.

ENDZONE:   What happened to The Wickermen?

COLIN:  Michael took a demo tape of some really good new stuff we'd been doing, and went down south to try and get a recording contract. But it never happened. Nikki Jamison went on to My Three Sons.

ENDZONE: Colin opted out of the band scene. With a wife and a baby to look after he’s glad to be away from it now. But Colin has drummed for his fair share of notable Brisbane bands, and in doing so has played major role in the ever-changing face of Brisbane music in the 80’s.

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