THE
PENETRATORS
Biography
By Mark Robinson
After tasting a bit of
success with 'Salt Lake City' drummer Mark
Robinson and guitarist Larry Shone
decided to move on and form their own band. They recruited
'Sky's' old bass player Roger Koller
and went about trying to find a singer. Mark had been talking
to his friend Steve Mac, who spoke of this singer who they had been
jamming with in 'Barracuda', his name was Bob
Hanley. I said, "yeah that guy from 'Katch',
he's got a big voice, I wonder if he can sing 'AC/DC' ?"
Larry, being a Maitland boy, knew where he drank on a Thursday night,
so we bailed him up in an East Maitland hotel. He sounded pretty keen,
and I was amazed he was even interested because he had a single out
with 'Katch'. Where as we were almost nobody's.
We started rehearsals at N S W's Music store in east Maitland, I think
Bob had a half share in the business. Our repertoire consisted of
songs by 'The Angles', 'AC/DC', 'Thin Lizzy', 'Foreigner', 'Bad
Company', 'The Knack' etc. I remember one night at practice Larry
stepped from the gutter and tripped while carrying my 16 channel 'Jands'
mixer, and crashed through the stores plate glass window. He was the
luckiest man alive hardly even a scratch. We gaffed it up with cardboard
and started rehearsal.
Another incident was when Bob was running late, he came screaming
down the highway, his brakes locked up on the Falcon, and he just
stopped short of running in the back of my car. I still remember his
comments when he got out of the vehicle.
He said, "I'm a firm believer of not drinking and driving"!
Bob was known to like a drink or two
.
Roger came up with the name 'Buster Hyman and the Penetrators',
we liked it but eventually it was shortened to 'The Penetrators'.
Our first gig was at the Critereon Hotel at Islington next door to
the local brothel. We were told quick smart to move our cars from
the driveway, because it was holding up business. We were around about
twenty two at the time and the madam of the night certainly intimidated
us. The gig went well and we collected our $40. (that was the band
fee) We played a couple more times, then put the fee up to $100 bucks,
and then they sacked us!
We needed a new name, I came up with 'The Globes' and then
we started getting regular gig's at the Commonwealth Hotel Cooks Hill,
Catherine Hill Bay Hotel, Hunter River Hotel, Ambassador Nite Club
and Swansea Workers Club. We supported touring acts like 'The Reel's',
'The Radiator's' etc.
After a couple of months Bob decided to leave and move to Melbourne
seeking fortune and fame. He got on national television with Bert
Newton's New Faces and won his first heat. He performed around the
traps there for twelve months.
We recruited Michael Armitt and
later Ross 'Rex' Melville but
that's another story!
Thanks for visiting this site, if you want to learn more about 'The
Globes' go to the 80's page and follow their success story.
Mark
Robinson