November 23, 2015
They didn’t say they’d never play again … it just took them about 25 years to get around to it.
The original members of Pro-Rata, the South Burnett’s premier covers band during the mid-to-late 1980s, are teaming up again for a one-off gig in Kingaroy this News Year’s Eve.
And band members promise it’s going to be h-u-g-e.
Original keyboard player, Murray Harney, said the five founding members of the band realised – a little nostalgically – that 2015 represented the 30th anniversary of the first time they played together in public.
“For all of us, except (drummer) Paul Biltoft, 1985 was our first gig and I think you could safely say we were all ‘shicking brits’,” Murray said.
“We remember it well because it was Noffie Hay’s 21st birthday party in the back yard of Ken and Bev Hay’s place in Avoca Street, and the police shut us down around midnight, which was annoying because we were just getting our musical juices up around that time,” he said.
“It couldn’t have been the volume because we were running sound through this tiny little PA system.
“So it must have been because we sounded awful and some sleep-deprived neighbour took offence … and fair enough.”
Murray said the band had been practising hard in the lead up to the one-off gig and he was surprised at how well the songs were coming together, despite the years.
“The songs themselves were always good, even if the execution left something to the imagination when we played them. But what we lacked in finesse then we make up for in girth now.”
Pro-Rata will be playing in the Carrollee Hotel’s beer garden on New Year’s Eve.
Cover charge is $10, and the show starts around 9:30pm.
