By MICHELLE HERBISON
FORTY years had passed since Normie Rowe and the Playboys’ bass player Peter Carroll picked up his instrument when the band came knocking.
“He said, ‘Oh I’d love to but I haven’t got an instrument’,” Rowe recalled of Carroll in September.
“So he went out and bought himself a reissued 1963 Fender Jazzmaster bass and an amplifier. He made a damn good fist of it.”
Reforming the band had encouraged fans “out of the woodwork” to sell-out shows around the country, Rowe said.
“Us old guys have got some energy left, I tell ya.”
The band’s Saturday night show at Geelong RSL promises to feature a string of old favourite tracks, with Graeme ‘Trotta’ Trottman, Steve Kelson, Billy Billing and Roger Montgomery joining Carroll and Rowe on stage.
Rowe and the band was “pleasantly surprised” when the members went through their back catalogue remembering earlier successes.
“We first started off thinking, ‘Oh God, how are we going to have enough stuff to put a show together?’ But we didn’t remember how many hits we had.”
Rowe, described as “Australia’s biggest pop star of the ’60s”, produced 11 top-10 hits and five gold records with hits including Ooh La La, Que Sera Sera, Tell Him I’m Not Home and It’s Not Easy.
Rowe hinted the new string of shows might serve as a warm-up for something bigger, including a new album, since 2015 would mark the 50th anniversary of his big break with It Ain’t Necessarily So.
Reflecting on his long career in music, Rowe lamented the loss of regular entertainment variety programs such as The Don Lane Show and Countdown to kick-start young artists’ careers.
“With the internet, a lot of people have panicked and thought about what’s going to happen with the industry. But the only thing that’s changed is the system of delivery,” he said.
“We need the Federal Government to force TV networks to put shows with Australian contemporary performing arts on.”
Also on the cards for Rowe this year would be a wedding to fiancée Penny Perrin, he said.
“Her mother actually named her after one of my songs,” Rowe revealed.
