Lead Vocals Lead Guitars & Keyboards
My name is Warren Keats I was born in Ivanhoe in 1961 the younger son of Les & Joy Keats, We lived in West Heidelberg not far from the Olympic village.
I was part of a musical family, Older brothers Garry & Kerran both played guitar Mum and Dad had a country band And both brother's played in it.
I didn't know at the time but not everybody had a family band.
Most aussie famlies argued about Ford And Holden,
Not us, We were more interested in arguing
about Gibson's & Fender's & that Martin (just like Hank Snow's)
my Dad always wanted.
My Dad liked pigeons, beer & country music,
My Mum liked country music, Rock And Roll & my Dad.
I guess my first musical memories are a strange mixture of 3XY, 3KZ and 3UZ radioBuck Owens, Hank Snow, Jean Shepherd, The Twilights, The Easybeats, Jimmy Rodgers, Bobby & Laurie, The Who, The Beatles, The Monkees & many
other bands my brothers exposed me to by leaving old 45's layin around the
house.
Although no-one will admit to owning "Auntie Maggies Remedy"
by The Fourmost which would make them responsible for the song
haunting me for my entire life,
and possibly the beginnings of my father's habit, every-time I asked him
"Who wrote that song Dad?" of replying with a dead straight face
and all the authority of an expert "oh George Formby wrote that one"
I can still remember Mum And Dad's band rehearsing "Carroll County Accident".
Because Lionel Rose was bringing Laurie Allen to the gig to do a floorshow
I was inducted into the family band as a singer at around 7 or 8 yrs of age
when in an explosion of rehearsal I was taught to sing "A Boy Named Sue"
and told in no uncertain terms what would happen to me if i said
"Your'e The Sonofabitch That Named Me Sue"
And off we went to a gig at Point Cook Sergeants Mess, where I got to share
the bill with both Lionel Rose and Laurie Allen, and for the first time ever see
my cousin Rod Ladgrove play guitar.
Up until I saw Rodney play guitar I thought my Dad was the best uitarist in
the world, even if he did insist the frets past the third one were purely cosmetic
and not needed!
The other thing that made me want to be a guitar player was "Apache" by
The Shadows.
I had been beating around on an old drum someone had left around and I
was pretty keen on being a drummer after watching one of Mum and Dad's
drummers playing "Wipe Out". (his name was Richard Foster).
But I was walking up Marie Ave one day and from Lyn Krell's window
was coming this noise,
It was the most fabulous thing I'd ever heard.
"Apache" on a scratched up old 45 RPM record.
The sound of that guitar made me think I could do worse things than make
a noise like that.
While the run of the mill life in West Heidelberg usually involved stealing
a car or getting a tattoo, this was probably a very sensible decision.I am now 47 years of age and I'm still one of the few kids From Marie Ave that hasn't got a tattoo or an earring.
A family meeting was held, and that old drum disappeared,
I was allowed to ouch the guitars at home and get the odd lesson
from Mum.
After a while "Lionel Rose" turned up with a shiny new
acoustic guitar and said "Here Ya Go Waz".
By the time I was about eleven I got Kerran's job which he
inherited from Garry as the lead guitarist in the Keats family band.
I was playing on a Les Paul copy Garry had given me, through a
Coronet 30W amp Garry and Kerran had gone halves in for me for a
Christmas present.
So began a journey that we would share, my Mum and Dad and me
for the next thirty years.
This amazing journey took us to many many wonderful places
and let us meet thousands of wonderful people
all over this large land of ours.
To those that were there I hope these pages bring ack
some of what we lived through in what were to
some of us "The Golden Days Of Australian Country Music".
That was 1971
The rest of the story is contained within these web-pages.
I hope you enjoy the journey as much as i did.cheers Waza.
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