Father and daughter Tony Armstrong-Carrigg and Rachel Cumming make up two-ninths of recently formed band The Sound Collective. They chatted to Matt Hewson about the intersection of music, family and friends.
Tony Armstrong-Carrigg has been playing music in the Geelong region for a long time.
The 69 year old’s new band The Sound Collective brings together some of the best musicians in the region as well as family, but the story of its formation hearkens back decades.
Tony, one of The Sound Collective’s lead vocalists, began as a drummer in 70s, playing with bands that supported touring bands at classic Geelong venues such as the Sundowner and the Eureka.
“My journey goes a long way back… when I was 16 I was playing in bands that would go on before Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, the La Di Da’s,” Tony said.
“We were the local act. That was a lot of fun – I was in a pub as an underage kid playing all sorts of interesting music, we had a pretty good band and it was very exciting.”
The heady days of rock and roll evolved into the cabaret band scene for Tony, until he hung up the drumsticks when he and his wife’s first son Matthew came along.
“Music didn’t really come back until Matty was overseas, he was about 25,” Tony said.
“He didn’t even know I was into music, so he was quite surprised to come back and see I had bands going again.”
Tony had been inspired by the 2001 Sting concert/documentary All This Time, which featured the ex-Police frontman leading an extended band, including multiple singers and a horn section, performing rearrangements of his own music.
“From there I developed the concept of the Bash Big Band… I thought, what a great concept, bringing all these people together,” he said.
“I thought, I’ve got lots of people that want to have a go, I’ve got good players and I’ve got people that need to learn and develop.
“One of my friends said, I’d love to do that but I wouldn’t have the ability; I said, you can do it. So we got a whole heap of people, some with experience, some not, and brought this thing together.”
The Bash Big Band played R&B, blues and 70s rock around the greater Geelong region for more than 20 years, following an inclusive policy that welcomed anyone to join in.
“The concept of the Bash Big Band came from giving everybody a go; if you think you can do it, get up and have a crack with us,” Tony said.
“We were not precious about that. It meant that people could say ‘I got up with the Bash Band last Saturday night, I gave them a song and they helped me through it’.”
One of the people that got up and had a crack was Tony’s daughter, Rachel Cumming.
“I was watching Dad (in the Bash Big Band) from probably age eight,” Rachel said.
“Some of the girls would sing songs I knew and they’d give me an opportunity to jump up and sing a song or two on the night. I feel like, with the Bash Big, I was keen to do it but I probably wasn’t ready.
“Then, when Dad felt like he needed to step back from the Bash, he had this concept with some other musicians that were dads to bring their daughters forward to start singing. So we started the Fam Jam.”
Fam Jam began with father-daughter duos Tony (drums) and Rachel, John (bass) and Rory Crosgrove and Dean (guitar) and Izzy Rowlands.
One of Fam Jam’s first gigs was at Bash Big Band sax player Robbie Calvert’s 80th birthday, which, thanks to Robbie’s extensive national and international touring career, was attended by many famous musicians.
“That was maybe my second or third gig, playing in front of all those musicians,” Rachel recalled.
“Also, I was just seven weeks pregnant, and no one knew. I was sick as a dog, singing up there in front of them, like, what am I doing? It was quite overwhelming.”
Fam Jam formed the house band for the night, with various players getting up throughout the night to perform with them.
After that initial success, the band has continued to gig around the Bellarine and Surf Coast, but recently Tony felt the itch to get the big band sound happening again.
Tony (who switched from drums to lead male vocalist), Rachel, John and Rory Crosgrove formed the nucleus of The Sound Collective, and are now joined by Tony’s longtime collaborators Robbie Calvert (sax), Rex Foord (trombone), Dahl Murphy (drums), Ashley Ward (guitar) and Peter Bowers (piano).
The band has three high-energy sets full of music from 70s and 80s artists such as Joe Cocker, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Christopher Cross, as well as modern tracks like Dua Lipa’s Levitating, Amy Winehouse’s Valerie and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk.
Tony said it was “amazing” to be sharing the stage with his daughter.
“I’m 69, so will I still be playing in 10 years? Hopefully,” he said.
“I know that I’m coming towards the end of a musical career that’s spanned many years and I’m rapt that I’ve got Rachel now coming up as well. And our little granddaughter, Willa, she gets up on stage with us shaking an egg.
“She is going to join the band eventually. If I’m around it’ll be great. It’s been wonderful to have the family be a part of it.”
For Rachel, who is still in the early days of her musical journey, she couldn’t imagine a better band to be a part of.
“We all just want to support each other and make sure we’re all doing our best,” she said.
“If someone makes a mistake, it’s like don’t worry about it. We laugh it off, then get to rehearsal and fix it up straight away.
“Rory has taken me under her wing to help me be more confident, helping me heaps with learning harmony lines. Everyone’s so kind and just wants everyone to succeed.”
For Tony, The Sound Collective has another purpose aside from just putting on great gigs; to help support music generally in the region.
“I’ve lived so much of my life down on the coast, but Geelong is, in a way, my home,” he said.
“I think that there are so many good opportunities here… great rooms that need to have regular performances happening.
“I come from the days of the Eureka, the Sundowner, when music was huge. To see music now in Geelong not as strong as it was, I’d love to be able to be part of bringing that back, and working with my demographic to try to get them out again.”
The Sound Collective are at The Piano Bar on Friday, June 13. Visit soundcollectiveaust.com/shows for tickets and more information.
