Peter Head (Beagley) takes the Headbands, 1970s Adelaide rock-blues quartet, on an adventure in styles
Peter Head (on piano) and Headband (also Mauri Berg, Joff Bateman, Chris Bailey) in the early 1970s took on a huge range of musical styles, including barbershop quartet (above). Their album album A Song for Tooley (1973), with cover artwork by Vytas Serelis, was their break into the national Top 50 charts.
Peter Head (born Peter Beagley in Adelaide in 1946), pianist and singer/songwriter, rose to prominence with Adelaide progressive versatile rock blues band Headband (1971-74) and then the Mount Lofty Rangers (with Fraternity and AC/DC’s Bon Scott on lead vocals).
Starting at 11 to learn piano “from a little old lady, playing things like ‘Roll Out The Barrel’”, Head joined Adelaide’s first rock and roll band, Johnny Mac and the Macmen, two years later, in 1959. He also accompanied the showgirls at Hindley Street, Adelaide city, club, La Belle, after school. Playing three to four nights a week while at school, Head’s grades fell from “top of the class before my parents bought me a piano” to failing his Leaving certificate.
As a teenager, Head continued lessons well-known pianists such as Bobby Gebert and Roger Frampton and played modern jazz. He also played at many shows, accompanying a young Johnny Farnham and Doug Ashdown. Deciding at 16 he hated “pop and became a jazz nut and a musical snob”, Head started the Peter Beagley Trio, including Peter McCormick. At 17, he attended art school and opened his own art gallery briefly with his wife.
Head went to London at 19, appearing in bands and loose formations alongside artists such as Georgie Fame, Alan Price, The Foundations and Kind Crimson. He joined a Jewish band that toured Austria and Germany, before returning to work in London and touring with reggae band Boz, run by Boz Burrell (Bad Company): "It turned out they were all registered addicts but they were tremendous musicians”. After a year in England, and “just before we starved, my wife's father brought us home”.
In 1968, Head was musical director of the Redlegs Club in Adelaide, playing in a trio and a ballroom orchestra. In 1970, Head formed Headband with vocalist Chris Bailey (Red Angel Panic) on bass, Mauri Berg (Silhouettes, Ides of March, Resurrection, W.G. Berg, War Machine) on guitar and backing vocals, and Joff Bateman on drums and backing vocals, Headband played progressive blues-rock with symphonic, country and pop influences.
Managed by Hamish Henry who also handled Fraternity, with Bon Scott, Headband worked hard rehearsing and performing, including three shows a week in Adelaide high schools: "We did modern jazz at nightclubs, rock 'n' roll for discos, J.S. Bach for pleasure, barbershop quartet stuff for laughs, electronic music at jam sessions, blues when feelin' low, and country and folk for interest”. The band practised "group indoctrination" in all types of music, even attending chamber music concerts together. The four-piece group supported Elton John at his 1971 Adelaide show at Memorial Drive tennis centre, and the Rolling Stones in 1973 in Sydney. They finished third in the 1972 national Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds. Berg did most of the band's compositions, with the band producing a song each week at its most prolific.
Headband released four singles but the album A Song for Tooley (1973) was its real start. From Uriah Heep-styled heavy rock to psychedelic pop and progressive jazz, the album featured Sydney Symphony players and a 110-piece children's choir. The album spent five weeks in the charts, making the top 50. Headband moved to Sydney in 1973, playing the pub circuit with residencies at Whisky Go Go. Peter Head and Headband, who returned to Adelaide in 1974 when they separated, were inducted into the South Australian Music hall of fame in 2016.
After Headband broke up, Chris Bailey joined The Angels in 1977. He was later a founder of GANGgajang. Mauri Berg joined a new Fraternity lineup in 1974, including John Swan on drums and vocals and his brother Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel) on vocals. Peter Head formed a loose collective, The Mount Lofty Rangers, in 1974, starting with musicians from Fraternity and Headband. It included Adelaide notables such as Glenn Shorrock, Robyn Archer and Bon Scott, who later joined AC/DC.
