Hi all

I was the original lighting operator for “Mad Gorilla” from the first gig at Parramatta Bowls Club until I retired just before their last gig at Cambelltown Leagues Club 27.09.1985.

I designed all the stage lighting as well pioneered all the projection special effects we used on stage. But enough of all that the reason I am writing this is to let any Gorilla fans know you can now see the band as I video recorded them live at the gigs we did. The video quality is not the same as today but I have managed to enhance as much footage as I can. I am still working on the project and will add selected songs to YouTube as we go. Here is the first one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU905TDp30w This was recorded at the Manly Hotel in 1983, the video is of Frank doing his Kate Bush impersonation then with the band he rips into the old Dragon hit “April Sun in Cuba”, the sound is pretty good on this one and visuals have scrubbed up well for it’s age. Watch here as more come online or you can contact me thru my webpage http://www.xtremelaser.com Enjoy and your comments are welcome good and bad:-) And a big hello to any of the band members who frequent this site I hope this will bring back some happy memories for you.

all the best and remember old rockers never die they just mellow gracefully

Roger

Another video of Mad Gorilla Live at BLACKTOWN RSL Recorded on 18.05.1984 Stix belts out “TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS” and some great duel guitar leads from Zack and if my memory serves me right I think the other lead is a guy called Terry, if i’m wrong let me know so I can correct this. Remembering anything now at 61 years of age is an effort:)
Somewhere in my collection I have the Undertaker show (which I will post when I find it) recorded 23.04.1983 at The Riverstone Hotel just a stones throw away from The Mushroom Farm were we used to rehearse amongst other things:) Other videos to come will include Doyalson RSL, Mittagong, Penrith Leagues and Springwood RSL plus hopefully the entire video of Parramatta Road, this was part of a Australian Film & Television School project I organised with one of the students J Abineri (director) and was recorded on 5th December 1983.
I also have some 8m/m film (silent) footage from our 1st tour away out west who else remembers Boppy Mountain and one of the band (George I think) spraying the water tower with “Mad Gorilla for the 80’s” in black spray paint from the roof of the truck?. Plus I have lots of still pics , newspaper items, flyers etc. will get around to those soon. I have kept in touch with Stix and Dave it would be nice to hear from other band members and crew, but for now enjoy Taking Care of Business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8D1az55ew

Well guys here it is “The Undertaker Show” recorded at Riverstone RSL Club 22nd April 1983. The sound is OK but not as good as I got at Manly but it will have to do, as far as I know it’s the only copy of the Undertaker show in existence (let me know if you have a copy) we did not have any flashpots and were very limited in lighting cans at this time….
Enjoy “The Undertaker”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx4XV98r_rk

Thanks for your positive comments Gibbo I remember Sefton well we played there quite a few times over the years.
I hope to have all my videos of the band mastered on to DVD and Blu-Ray over the coming months it’s a big task but one worth the effort I feel. Here is another clip one of my all time favourites the band used to play “Framed” this was also recorded at Riverstone as part of the Undertaker show enjoy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_KkfW4W98
BTW great to hear from you Frank S thanks for the emails

I found this amongst my Video collection and as much as I do not want to cause any embarrasment to Dave (Owens) I feel it is a part of Gorilla history of ex members and needs to be put on the record. Now this is just a little fun Dave hope you don’t take it seriously. This is a little gem from “Hey Hey it’s Saturday Red Faces” recorded 30th June 1986. I must admit Dave when asked how many songs you had written if you had said a couple of hundred it would have been nearer the truth, you wrote heaps with Gorilla:-) and take a look at Red and Shorrock in their youth..
this has kept quite good quality it’s complete and untouched so sit back take a deep breath and enjoy…….and remember to vote for the Video:-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLrtQBclXpU

Hi Geoff it’s really great to hear from you after all these years, you too Jack say hi to your mum and dad for me. I am in the process of scanning some photos from the early years before I had a video camera to create a memorable DVD if you have anything you want to add to it (I KNOW COBY WOULD HAVE HUNDREDS OF PICS) send me your scanned pics with a brief description date time place subject etc. Anyone who sends me pics will get a DVD of the end result.

Hey Gibbo I found a poster from the Sefton Hotel would you believe! I will add it to the DVD plus some others I found.

I also found the master video of Parramatta Road they gave me from the Film School but I don’t have access to a U-MATIC video machine…. ANYONE?. Also an audio master 16/24 track of “Conspiracy” which was recorded by Spencer Lee at United Sound studios, I scratched my head thinking were the hell did this !@#$% tape come from and I eventually remembered it was for a film called called “Going Down” 1983 which I organised with an eccentric film director friend Haydn Keenan who used Conspiracy in his movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085604/

Here is a sample of what I have so far put together for the DVD please remember this is very rough… dates, places names, titles are still to be added plus a lot more pics I still have to scan, I kept diaries of our gigs so I think I can pinpoint the locations and dates etc…
The quality is poor on TouTube the DVD will look much better, Hope this sample brings back some fond memories for you all…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcQR-ceI1Uw

MAD GORILLA LAST GIG PENRITH LEAGUES 19.10.1985 sadly this was MGB’s last gig although they had retired the week before at Cambelltown they reformed to do this one last night. This was also my last night doing lighting for bands, sadly the damned video camera decided to play up and the sound level was just audible, I have completely ripped the sound of the video enhanced it and raised the level to an acceptable compromise to remove the hum. To my knowledge Mad Gorilla never played again under this name (let me know if i’m wrong)

enjoy their last gig………..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1O9jF0mxNs

Hi Recko it’s really great to hear from you after all these years it’s been great catching up with the clan again, this has been a great experience putting all these videos and pics together after all this time. Where you living now?
Anyone heard from Don or Neddy? Shovel was up my place a few months ago and we dined out local with his girl, Stix was up here last July 2007 and we had a bbq with his friends at my place we email each other regular. http://www.tcb99.com/rog.stix.jpg
Hopefully a lot more will meet up here and we can organise something.
Here is another blast from the past those who were at the Highway Hotel Wentworthville will know what this one is about
it’s from Penrith Leagues last gig 1985 enjoy
Highway Robbery………..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05XrECMZRrE

Hi Mark

I got all the images you emailed me I havel enhanced them all and added them to the DVD plus youtube many thanks for your effort, anyone else who has any images of the MGB days please send them to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw7DZUb9ZYc

Cheers

Roger

The Undertaker has had over 117 downloads from Youtube as of today in just over a week but as the quality is not that good I have decided to release the original MPEG version to the Internet that can be burnt to CD / DVD this is the best quality I can get of The Undertaker show if you can do any better be my guest.
Download Link
http://www.xtremelaser.com/MADGORILLA-UNDERTAKER.htm
If you have any problems downloading let me know…enjoy