Growing up in the small country town of Orange in central New South Wales, I was very fortunate to have a group of friends who shared a love of performing music.

With the help of PCYC Orange, our bands The Urchins and later The Young Ones were fortunate to perform many shows with the major performers of the time including The Easybeats, Normie Rowe and Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, plus we promoted our own shows throughout central-western NSW.

When I was 18, I joined famous country singer Chad Morgan’s band as a singer guitarist and we played in show tents through NSW & Queensland.

After touring with Chad, I formed a new band in Orange called Eros with ex Young Ones guitarist Albert Calvo, Hammond Organ player Ray Vanderby and Bob Carrol on bass.

The Australian Army then called me up for National Service and upon release I formed the band Mantle with ex Young Ones drummer Archie Van Thiel.

After working with Swanee, drummer Neil Marr and myself put a new band together with Eddie Brown and Barry Gill called The Go, playing mostly British covers from the 70’s, and we recorded the album Wadaya Reckon.

Then we reformed as Envy Green and released a four-track EP that was recorded at Electric Avenue Studios with producer Phil Punch.

We also recorded So Long Ago at Split Enz drummer Malcom Green’s studio The Green Sound Studio and as luck would have it, we made it to the Oceania National Finals of the Emergenza Band Competition.

I’m currently playing solo shows around Sydney, plus band shows with a new line up of Beats Workin’, the Bee Gees acoustic show The Three Gees with Stu Ford and Steve Husband from Family Affair, local Erskineville band The Erskinevillains, and vocal group The Four Visions, performing songs by Frankie Vali & The Four Seasons.

Aged 23, I relocated to Canberra with Albert, Bob and Archie. We called ourselves Phalanx and played the local scene for about a year before disbanding. Archie and I then joined local Canberra band Crossroads with future Midnight Oil bassist Pete Gifford and we toured the Snowfields and The Riverina.

This took me to Melbourne where I joined Keith Lamb of Hush for a tour with legendary American band Canned Heat.

It wasn’t long before I found myself back in Canberra joining forces with Nic Ward, who was a founding member of The Church, and Greg Higgs from Flake, in the rock band Skannerz, and we did a couple of tours before disbanding.

Then I hooked up with Sydney band Passion, which changed names to Beats Workin’ and we toured NSW extensively.

After many years and several line-up changes, we linked up with Scottish Aussie legend John “Swanee” Swann and around the traps we went again. While working with John, I played guitar & sang on his acclaimed album Heart & Soul.

I’m currently recording my album Reflections, a compilation of favourite songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s featuring some of my amazingly talented friends including Albert Calvo (acoustic and electric guitars, production), Stuart French (pedal Steel), Bill Kezelos (drums), Noel Elmowy (piano, organ), plus incredible vocal harmonies from Maryanne Griffin, Steve Husband, Lynda Rae Harris and Marcy Gray.

I’m very fortunate to have such great people working on my album and I can’t remember ever being more excited about a project.  

Best regards,

Geoff “Geoffro” Cartwright.