Antipodean Beat

Originally called the Beagle Boys from 1965 to early 1966.

Band Members:-

Herman Marcic – Bass (6-Feb 1966-68) Blue Hair
Rudolph Marcic – Drums (6-Feb 1966-68) Green Hair
Eric Marcic – Lead Guitar (6-Feb 1966-67) Red Hair
Keith Matcham – Vocals (6-Feb 1966-68) Purple Hair
Michael Parnis – Rhythm Guitar (?1966)
Richard White – Rhythm Guitar (1966) Pink Hair
Greg “Sleepy” Lawrie – Lead Guitar (1967-?68) Red Wig/Hair

Record Releases:-

All I Do is Cry/Mona (66|Sound S45-01) ??-66
Ugly Thing/Your One And Only Man (RCA 101803) 11-67

This article was first written and published by Dean Mittelhauser in his fan magazine The Livin’ End #3, November 1984 and is copyright © 1984 Dean Mittelhauser.

The Creatures are one of those almost “mythical” bands that created a legend 15 years on because they dared to be different. What was it about them that has created (or at least helped to create) such great compilation LP’a as “Ugly Things.” Was it their name? If that didn’t catch your eye you would have had to have been a dead set preppie, or just dead full stop. Was it their classic 45 “Ugly Thing”, or maybe the even more elusive 66 Sound single. Was it their incredibly long hair, dyed in various mind boggling colours? Whatever it was, they are probably, along with the Missing Links, Australia’s only true punk band of the sixties. Let’s backtrack a few years to Mildura, 1965, and see what made ‘em tick…

The band were originally formed as the Beagle Boys in 1965. They all came from the bustling border town of Mildura, and concentrated mostly on instrumentals with a few vocals thrown in. Xmas was the turning point of the band. They supported the Easybeats at a local dance, and the promoter (Tom Towle) suggested that if they changed their and image, he would get them work in Sydney. They began performing R ‘n’ B songs and on February 6th, 1966, the officially became the Creatures. The lineup at this stage was: Keith Matcham (vocals, he was brought into the band specifically for their new sound), Eric Marcic (lead), Rudolph Marcic (drums), Herman Marcic (bass), and Michael Parnis (rhythm).

True to his word, Towle got them work in Sydney and they regularly supported the Easybeats at Beatle Village. They also played quite a few country gigs and even toured Queensland. Around the middle of 1966, the band got restless. Although getting good live reaction, they felt they weren’t progressing enough, and needed a gimmick.

Apparently a French hairdresser that used to do hair of one of the band’s girlfriends (Editor – vocalists Keith Matcham’s girl.) had made some passing remark that he would like to get hold of someone and dye their hair lurid colours. She mentioned it to her boyfriend, and hey presto! Here was a gimmick tailor made, and without much ado, Eric became a redhead, Herman a bluehead, Keith a purplehead, and Michaela pinkhead. Rudolph naturally turned green with envy. (Later on the band appeared on the television show “I’ve Got A Secret”, and we can’t half guess what their secret was, can we? Betcha it fooled the contestants!)

Naturally they were frequently hassled, but the dyed hair certainly achieved the desired effect – it got people talking about them. At the time, there was so much competition that any sort of recognition from the public was worthwhile.

Late in ’66, a friend and part time roadie of the band had mentioned that he knew a guy (David Gibson) was building his own recording studio in Hurtsville. The boys met him and helped him finish building and seting it up, eventually recording the legendary “Mona”. Copies of the single are as scarce as hens’ teeth and not even any of the band members have a copy. I’ve also heard a vague rumour that there was another 45 released on 66 Sound (though not by the Creatures.)

Problems over the band’s management occurred between the members, and Eric left not long after the single came out. He was replaced by Greg Lawrie, whose hair, at the time, was very short. To get over this, he would wear a wig when performing. On one particular nightwhen the band were ready to go back onstage, Greg was otherwise engaged in chatting up a chick. After repeated pleas from the band, they finally went over and picked him up, carrying him over to the stage. As they reached the stage, his wig fell off, and frantic attempts to replace it proved fruitless. At one stage he even had the damn thing on backward!

Management of the band was now being done by well know television announcer Max Rowley (who now does the voice overs for Perfect Match.) Back then Rowley, apparently was only into managing bands. They went to Queensland for some months and took over the running of their own discotheque, the Op A Go Go, in Surfers Paradise, where they played as the sole band.

Returning to Sydney, everybody had their hair bleached white, except Keith who had his dyed black. They made another move, this time to Melbourne, and played the cool haunts, such as Catchers, but no sooner had they arrived, when RCA rang them up to see whether they’d be interested in recording a single. THey jumped at the chance, and drove all night in an effort to be there by the next day. By the time they’d arrived, they were all pretty stuffed and recorded the single in a half stupor. Despite this, what came out of that studio was one of the snottiest tracks ever to be recorded in Australia. They returned to Melbourne, and their management was taken over by David Flint, also manager of CamPact, and owner of the Thumpin’ Tum. They also felt that their name the Creatures was outmoded and began to think of a name change. Allegedly Ian Meldrum came up with their new name, the Chocolate, and Flint secured them a contract with Festival records. The resultant single “I’m An Animal”, was recorded in a small studio in Chapel St, St Kilda. AS to be expected the single bombed, and the band band soldiered on into 1970, but broke up soon after. They’d been together for just over four years, and yet released only three scant singles in that time, certainly a bad oversight made by the talent scouts of the day. Whatever, “Ugly Thing” will stand long testesmance to their ability.

Each of the band went their own way, Herman played for a few months in Toby Jug, a band which contained a very young Garth Porter. Sadly Keith Matcham was shot to death on the premises of the panel beating business that he ran with his wife, some years ago.

Many thanks to Peter Markmann whom provided the colour photo of the Creatures & the RCA label scan.