Words by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Pix by Sarah Gilpin Photography
With Sounds of Rock – the annual Australian music festival featuring legendary rock artists – offering a line-up like Jon Stevens, The Angels, Baby Animals, Pseudo Echo, Dragon, Eurogliders, Taxiride, Dogwood Crossing and Sagnar – it screamed out “road trip” – and so we did the drive to Hervey Bay and it was an awesome day of Australian rock ‘n’ roll and we have the sunburn to prove it!
It was a great day for the festival as the weather gods were kind and it remained just right – a sprinkle of rain and a bit windy – but it settled, and we all got into an outdoor festival without being soaked to the skin or covered in mud. A first!
The day kicked off with the Sagnar (that’s Rangas backwards) as the young Hervey Bay High School lads of Roman (lead guitar/vocals), Kye (bass) and Max (drums) kicked off the festival with a set of punk rock original songs and two covers. The band are writing original material with a sense of humour as can be heard in Aliens Exist, Bits Are Missing and Encore. Sagnar delivered a great set on a very large stage. Their sound held together well, and it has a Green Day/Blink 182 vibe about it. The covers they chose to play, such as Men At Work’s Down Under and German band Nena’s 99 Luft Ballons was nicely punked up and delivered. There was a lot to like here.
The next band to the stage were the locals Dogwood Crossing, and they brought the heavier rock sound to the venue. The band had won a local competition to perform here, and I can see why. The lead singer, Tim Earle, has a rich and fantastic rock voice. Their lead guitarist was terrific with those sweet melody lines, and the bassist with the moustached bass guitar was in lock-step with the drummer. Dogwood Crossing played some great original songs in The Darkness, Borderline and Fight. It was a great set and the band was impressive.
Then, the first of the headline acts of the day started, and it is rare that Taxi Ride and Jason Singh would be early, but today they were at the front to kick-start the energy. Taxi Ride were the sound of Year 9 in High School during the early 1990s when the internet was dial-up copper, frosted tips were peak fashion, kids got their music from ABC’s Rage or from random compilation CDs delivered from record companies. Taxi Ride started their dynamic set by reminding the crowd that Taxi Ride through Jason Singh made their stamp on a pre-millennium Australian musical landscape, and his work in preserving it is worthy and justified by the music being delivered today. The band, all dressed in white, featured David Jones on guitar, Peter Drummond on drums, Alan Dinh on bass and Jeremy Diffey on keyboard and saxophone while the flamboyant Jason Singh was dressed in red and white.
The band whipped through Taxi Ride hits without taking a breath. It was quite a ride! Singh jumped into the crowd, threw out merch into the crowd, and sprayed people with water as he quipped: “Told you I’d get you wet!”. The band and Singh made great use of the harmonies that were the sound of Taxi Ride, with the soaring vocals, guitar-driven rock, and a blended synth sound. Aside from the Taxi Ride back catalogue Singh threw in a couple of songs from Queen that are part of his Heaven’s Greatest Hits show. As he said: “I wouldn’t dare do an INXS melody with Jon Stevens on the bill”. It was a great fun set full of energy and action that seemed way too short.
The Eurogliders were next to the stage, and I was really looking forward to seeing the icons of Australian music, Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch. They opened their set with the fabulous Without You and followed it with Can’t Wait to See You before delivering Absolutely and it felt like the crowd had gone back to the mid-1980s. Then, Knight said: “We are going to play a new song – a risk at a festival” and the crowd replied “okay” and then the chimes for Heaven (Must Be There) rang out across the venue as she said “just joking”. It was wonderful to hear that song as the crowd sang along at full volume. Knight also managed to break the microphone during the song, but the crowd took ove,r and it was fine.
The Eurogliders catchy, upbeat pop music that combines a touch of jazz and funk was fun as the crowd sang along to The City Of Soul, No Action and then to We Will Together. And then it was over. It had been so quick. The crowd were really happy to see Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch. The fabulous backing band helped fill out their sound, especially Alex on guitar, Rob on keyboards and Gordo on drums. It was another fun set that was also over too soon.
Fans gathered at the front, tripped down memory lane, singing along with unbounded enthusiasm to some of the most iconic, beloved down under rock classics from Dragon. The band delivered a set of wall-to-wall hits: from the opening song Speak No Evil to the amazing end with Rain. Dragon are a band that have five decades of musical skill to call on and a ton of songs to choose from.
The years melted away as the Antipodean rock legends delivered Dreams Of Ordinary Men, Young Years, April Sun In Cuba, No Mercy, Are You Old Enough and Still In Love. Marc Williams still has the moves and the grooves, and his voice is still so strong and filled with heart, passion and power. Dragon’s songs still sound fresh and dynamic. The festival crowd was singing along. And, it was huge. Remembering it. Feeling it. Especially when the lyrics “Stuck downtown in a local bar/Drinking rum and smoking tar” were belted out. It was an impressive set!
Then, after a few years’ absence, Pseudo Echo delivered their fun time – showtime set. The band is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the classic album Love An Adventure, and right now in 2025, they are just as relevant as ever. They delivered a polished performance. The band kicked off with A Beat For You and then delivered wall-to-wall bangers Don’t Go, Living In A Dream, Listening, Nutbush City Limits, and Real Life’s Send Me An Angel.
Brian Canham and his band (Valentina Taylor, Andrea Krakovská, Danny Ammar, Elliott Orban and Michael Kasif) were so tight and controlled. It was rock action, and at the end of their set, they took the crowd to Funky Town and finished in a blaze of glory with a toughened-up extended version of the chart-topping hit, which had a few teasers, including AC/DC’s TNT and Deep Purple’s Black Night mashed into the mix. The crowd was up and about, dancing and singing like they didn’t want this set to end. Pure gold!
And, speaking of gold, the Baby Animals came to the stage and delivered a “gold standard” set. The band and frontwoman Suze DeMarchi took to the stage and opened with Rush You. Suze DeMarchi is the definition of the rock queen. The band were all smiles throughout the set as the crowd really delivered the energy back at them. DeMarchi’s rhythm guitar playing was on point. Dave Leslie’s skilful guitar playing was on full display. Dario Bortolin was dynamic on bass, and drummer Ricki Rae meshed the melodic elements together. And, the result was tremendous. And, the Baby Animals were on fire!
Baby Animal’s set was wall-to-wall hits and it had fans singing from the start with the wonderful Waste Of Tim. Painless followed, then the romantic Break My Heart and the incendiary One Word. And that was just the start, and we weren’t even near their biggest hits like One Word, Early Warning, or Ain’t Gonna Get. The band performed “their festival track” a cover of Fire by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The track demonstrated Leslie’s real gift for playing guitar. His riffs and his solos are so unquestionably his and at the core of the signature sound of the Baby Animals.
The Angels (with a varied line-up as Dario Bortolin helped out on bass) kicked off their set with No Exit., following up quickly with After the Rain and No Secrets. They set a cracking pace. The songs and the speed reminded everyone in the crowd why The Angels have endured for five decades as one of Australia’s best live bands. The Angels delivered all the classics like Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again with its famous chant of “No way, Get f@*%$d, F@*k off!”. Then they played the classics Down On Me and We Gotta Get Out of This Place and by then the whole place was going off.
Each song bled into the next with little punctuation, maintaining a high-octane energy that peaked with the best songs of the night, Take A Long Line and the wonderful Marseilles performed with Rick Brewster’s classic guitar solo embedded in it. The Angels still have that raw and urgent tone. Their songs resonate immediately in a live setting—brooding and punchy, giving the Brewster family plenty of room to stretch out their signature guitar sounds.
Then, the night was down to one last performance, and it was Jon Stevens, the former Noiseworks and INXS frontman. He delivered a powerhouse performance that had the Hervey Bay crowd roaring from the first note to the last. Stevens strode onto the stage like a prize fighter flanked by a tight-as-nails band (Tim Henwood, Johnny Salerno, Christopher Bekker, Tony Kopa and Glenn Reither), and wasted no time in reminding us why he’s one of the most enduring voices in Australasian rock. The energy was undeniable, the sound crisp, and the man himself was electric.
He delivered a mix of INXS and Noiseworks songs like Kick, Touch, Devil Inside, One Of My Kind, and What You Need. However, the best songs were No Lies and Take Me Back which had the crowd singing along at full tilt, while Never Tear Us Apart was a goosebump-inducing tribute to his time fronting INXS. Hot Chilli Woman set the night on fire with Stevens prowling the stage, mic in hand, while the crowd lost their collective minds. He nailed each note with clarity and intensity that had the entire venue hanging on every syllable.
It was a wonderful day full of great live Australian music, and that is so worth celebrating. Each and every band made the Sounds of Oz Festival a truly great event.
