Next year is the 50th birthday of one of our most iconic music acts. No, not Air Supply, Boney M or The Boomtown Rats – or the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads or Little River Band, although they all also formed in 1975.
I’m talking about a band that was bigger than any of them – north of the Tweed, anyway. Wickety Wak.
Mention that name and many readers will blink and go “who?”, but for a generation it will bring back memories of: Sir Joh; and Queensland choking in the Sheffield Shield after New Years’; and raids on 4ZZZ at UQ; and Stefan’s afternoon TV show; and Vanessa Venning; and driving down to Tweed Heads to rent a copy of The Last Temptation of Christ; and Agro starring in a panto on prime time television; and Hugh Cornish presenting movies; and the heyday of local personalities like Wayne “Poo” Roberts”, Billy J. Smith, Donna Meiklejohn and Mike Higgins.
Because nothing says ’80s Queensland, at least not to me, quite like the words “Wickety Wak”.
This was a five-man outfit, best known for their comedy numbers, particularly ones where they sent up acts such as the Bee Gees, Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson. They’d also perform songs perfectly straight – and very well too. All five members of the band could sing and play a variety of instruments. There was no single designated frontman for Wickety Wak, meaning members could change costumes backstage while their colleagues kept singing.
The band formed in 1975 and first played at the Kuraby Hotel in Underwood, performing five nights a week. They shifted to the National Hotel in Brisbane and tripled their wage by pretending to be from Perth. After a few line-up changes (and name changes, from The Hummingbirds to The Wickety Wak Show Band to Wickety Wak) the core five was settled in 1976: Greg Doolan, Pahnie Jantzen, Tony Jeffrey, Peter Mackay and Rob Rosenlund.
Over the next 15 years Wickety Wak enjoyed success around Australia – except in Victoria where they were frozen out by their great rivals, The Four Kinsmen (who were kind of like The Rolling Stones to the Wickety Wak’s Beatles on the Australian variety circuit).
However, the Wak’s heartland was always Queensland – and when I say Queensland I’m including the Sunshine State’s border outpost at Twin Towns Services Club in Tweed Heads, where Wickety Wak reigned supreme (if Wally Lewis was the Emperor of Lang Park, the Wak had to be the Tsars of Twin Towns).
The group had a phenomenal work ethic and spawned incredible word of mouth – growing up in Brisbane during the ’80s it always seemed that someone’s aunt had gone to see Wickety Wak on the weekend and “oh, they were just so good they put on such an entertaining show”.
There was a slight naughtiness to some of the humour, but it was motivated by fun rather than malice, and kids and grandma could watch without turning to stone – the tone was Graham Kennedy, say, rather than Rodney Rude. Famous fans included Kennedy himself, Keith Urban (who was given an early career break by the group), Slim Dusty and Barbara Gibb, the mum of Redcliffe’s Bee Gees, who once went backstage after a Wickety Wack show to tell the boys how much she enjoyed their tribute to her sons.
Brisbane had a number of other popular local acts during this era – Rusty and the Ayres Rockettes, Hemi and the Cadillacs, Tuffy – but throughout the 1980s no one topped Wickety Wak. Having made their TV debut on The W Poo Show (a TV special starring DJ Wayne “Poo” Roberts), the Wak became the show band on The Jacki Mac Brekkie Show then starred in a series of television specials for BTQ -7, which dominated Brisbane ratings: Waks Works, Waks Works 2, Waks Works 3, Pop Goes the Wak (a concert film) and Wak About Australia.
They released several albums, having a hit song in Brisbane with their (completely non-comic, Air Supply/LRB-ish) single Moonlight Marvel, which also charted well in Russia and Canada. The Wak won several Mo Awards and were official ambassadors for World Expo 88.
All the touring must have been draining – I read an article from 1986 where the group said they were planning on wrapping things up in 1990. They stuck to this schedule with typical discipline, pulling up stumps after an 11-month Last Laugh Tour, with a final sell-out performance at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on December 8, 1990.
One might assume Wickety Wak’s appeal would have faded on their disbandment. After all, Queensland was changing around that time with a series of events in the late ’80s and early ’90s that made the state seem less cut off from the rest of Australia: television stations being nationally networked; Triple J reaching Brisbane; the birth of the Broncos; the reforms of the Goss government; Agro guest hosting on Tonight Live.
However, the public’s affection for Wickety Wak never faded. A 1997 reunion was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm and the group successfully reformed from 2006 to 2016, always playing to capacity crowds. The outpouring of grief that followed the unfortunate deaths of Pahnie Jantzen and Greg Doolan (both from cancer, in 2013 and 2017 respectively) was genuine and widespread. Rob Ronselund and Tony Jeffrey are still performing.
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There’s a great line I once read from Laurel Edwards, the TV presenter and radio announcer (another Queensland icon), when someone asked her what she’d do if her kids ever wanted to get into showbusiness. She said: “Well, they always need someone to play the piano at the wedding.”
Meaning, the prospect of a career in showbusiness is not scary if you’re willing to do those kinds of jobs. Put in the hard yards, do the meat and potatoes work, not whine about credibility.
Wickety Wak did that, night after night, strapping on wigs and fake breasts, bursting out ballads. They were part of a long, honest showbusiness tradition of just doing it, putting on a show and making the punters happy. Happy Golden Jubilee, Wickety Wak.
To find upcoming Wak-related events, go to wicketywak.com.au
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