Perth Voice Interactive

THEY knocked back a young Johnny Diesel for being late, played a poignant concert on the night of 9/11, and have hosted international musos like Chuck Berry’s old pianist Johnnie Johnson.

Like the genre itself, The Perth Blues Club has experienced beer-sodden highs and lows over the past three decades , but founder Rick Steele says they’ve had a good 2023 and are looking forward to the club’s 32nd birthday bash on Sunday.

Synonymous with The Charles Hotel in Perth, the club’s origins can be traced back to another iconic boozer in Inglewood.

“In the early eighties I ran a Tuesday night at the Civic Hotel called Garage Band night,” Steele says.

“Guests included Dave Hole among others. Famously I turned away – he was too late – a young Johnny Diesel.

“It ran very successfully for about four and a half years before a bloke who can remain nameless rang me and said he had registered the name ‘Garage Band Night’ and I must cease.”

Undeterred, Steele established a successful Beat the Blues Show at the Indy Bar in Scarborough, with punters sitting in with his talented house band.

“The owner bought me a drink when we celebrated taking the till from less than $200 to $2000,” Steele says.

“Talk began of forming a club, and in late ’89 we were fired up after one guy’s wife at a barbeque said – ‘You guys will still be here, drinking beer in five years talking about this ‘Blues Club’.”

The musos formed a steering committee during a boozy meeting at the old Nookenburra Hotel and Steele, who was already playing the cocktail bar at the then-struggling Charles Hotel, persuaded the owner to host a regular Tuesday night blues club.

It was a massive hit and within three years they went from playing in front of 30 folk to about 300, and the club was moved into a larger room at The Charles.

“We started attracting big names from the East – Bondi Cigars, Chain – and from America Charlie Musselwhite and Johnnie Johnson, piano man for Chuck Berry.

“Of course thirty years brings changes – I remember the night of 9/11. It was a Tuesday and we had Corey Harris and Henry Butler from New Orleans performing to 300 people.

“As Bob Dylan wrote twenty years before ‘For the times, they are a changing’ – non smoking came in and also a serious increase of road patrols for drink driving. FIFO took many a member along with marriage death and taxes.”

A talented blues singer who plays guitar and a mean harmonica, Steele is literally the son of a preacher man and moved from New Zealand to Perth in 1971, where he soon established himself on the music scene as a talented country bluesman.

Dubbed Perth’s grandfather of the Blues, in 2016 he was inducted into the West Australia Music Hall Of Fame and is known for his long running association with The Perth Blues Club (he is the current president).

Steele says the club has survived thanks to solid support from hotel management, an outstanding team of volunteers, and of course great live music.

“All musicians, no matter how famous and talented they thought they were, left their ego at the door,” he says.

“Since the pandemic the club has picked up very well, even though our average age has probably gained a few years.

“Our production levels have always been at the highest level, which is why our reputation nation wide is ‘the best blues club in the country’. 

“Award-winning Texan singer, Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges, who has been coming regularly since 1999 reckons we are one of the best in the world. He should know having opened for B.B.King on numerous occasions and a regular world blues traveller.”

Steele says the club are planning a youth and blues project in 2024 to attract a younger membership, but right now they are busy preparing for their 32nd birthday bash on Sunday (December 10).

Held in the Charles Hotel beer garden, the free acoustic gig will feature three members of the long-standing Hot Biscuit Band – Steele, Marc Gordon and Tony Shergold – Italian guitar virtuoso Gabriele Campani, and Gerard Maunick, whose just back from playing in his homeland Mauritius. The gig will be held from 2pm-6pm. For more details on The Perth Blues Club see perthbluesclub.com.au.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK