By Luke Voogt
Iconic Geelong cover band Glitter Gang will celebrate its 25th birthday with a 10-man extravaganza next Saturday.
Grovedale singer Grant Whiteside, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, is the only member to play at every show.
“(Original guitarist) Anthony Roberts has been with us since the beginning but has missed shows,” Whiteside said.
“Anthony and I grew up together with all the seventies glam rock.”
The band played its first official gig at the Barwon Club on Australia Day 1992.
“But it sort of goes back to October 1990,” recalled Whiteside.
At the time the then 25-year-old had been playing for two years with local band the Finkers, which had released an EP.
Then the band belted out a few 70s hits on a whim.
“Someone suggested ‘how about you guys get dressed up and play a whole set of 70s rock?’” Whiteside said.
“We just did that as a joke in October 1990 at the Eureka in front of a punk crowd. It was fantastic – the Eureka was a pretty pumping live venue in those days.”
The city’s music venues dried up in the early 90s when “Victoria got hit with the pokies curse”, Whiteside said.
The Finkers died out but Glitter Gang continued to score gigs.
“As we got a name and a reputation, we started doing football club balls and functions,” he said.
The current line-up is an eclectic mix of blokes not often found in a rock band. Roberts has a science doctorate while Whiteside worked in IT for 25 years.
“We all work outside the band,” Whiteside said. “We’ve always tried to keep it something fun and resisted the urge to turn it into a job.
“We’ve always strived to be as good as we can without taking ourselves too seriously.”
The Glitter Gang made the finals of ABC’s national Exhumed competition at Sydney’s Rooty Hill RSL, for “never-were bands” regarded as “local legends”.
“Anthony always said ‘we know we’ve made it if we played at the Rooty Hill RSL’,” Whiteside said.
But for the long-time singer nothing beats playing at home.
“Personally, I just love playing at the Barwon Club – it’s like playing in your lounge room,” he said.
“We do the odd road trip but the number one priority is having fun rather than following dollars or fame.”
Whiteside Geelong was undergoing live-music “resurgence”.
“People are committing and putting together venues for live music.”
“I think Geelong crowds have always loved live music even with the venues drying up. We’re playing to an older crowd that have grown up with a fantastic vibrant live music scene.”
Glitter Gang’s past and present members will be decked out in their signature glam rock gear as they reunite at the Barwon club on 4 February.
“We play some ridiculous number of songs now,” Whiteside said.
