JOHN HOOD

HOME
BIOGRAPHY
BANDS
GUITARS
BOOKINGS
THE ROOSTERS 1978-79
As I said previously, when I split from the Elks, Reg and Ivan followed soon after. The good thing was, they had met a singer/guitarist in Melbourne who had auditioned for The Elks, and had enticed him to come out west.

I'll never forget the day he turned up in this absolutely huge green V8 (Chevy?) with his girlfriend. It was like a scene out of an American movie!

Reg had also found a bass player, so the lineup was as follows.

Mick Tennyson - guitar and vocals, Ivan Zar - harmonica, Steve Smith - bass, Reg Zar - drums and JH on guitar. 

I played a Les Paul Deluxe in this band, at least that's what Gibson were calling them then. Gibson change the names of their guitars to suit themselves but basically it was a late 60's goldtop Les Paul with the smaller size humbuckers. 

Mick was an incredible rhythm player, he had all of that Chuck Berry stuff down. His background was in rock'n'roll and rockabilly and his singing reflected that. Steve Smith (RIP) was also very solid, so the band absolutely rocked.

It's funny, I made more money in this band than in any other. We didn't have managers, we weren't saving up to make records or tour, and the scene was really happening at this time, plenty of work.

1. San Hozay (excerpt) (1:17)
2. Roll and Rhumba (2:38)
3. I'm a Man (5:13)
4. I'm Leaving (5:10)

For an MP3 download of a complete version of this live session at Parkerville click here

Sorry I don't have any pictures of this band. 

I don't remember why I left the band after about a year. It was probably due to long-forgotten personal reasons, so I shall leave it at that. I played brief stints with a couple more bands and then went back to Uni for a degree in computer stuff and got a "real" job. There was still a lot of music to come. It just took a while to get there.

© Copyright 2005 www.jhredguitar.com