Interview With: Ross Wilson

In the first of a 2-part interview, Ross Wilson discusses his career, from the Pink Finks, through Party Machine, Procession, and Sons of the Vegetal Mother, to Daddy Cool. In Part 2, Ross discusses what happened after Daddy Cool, covering his time with Mondo Rock to thepresent. (Recorded January, 2002) The interview is in RealVideo format. You will need a 56K modem or better, and a RealVideo player - click the icon below if you don't have one.

Below is an excerpt from the interview.

EN. How much was Daddy Cool an accident?.

RW. We'd been dabbling slightly in those areas in Party Machine, as far as that send-up doo wop which was influenced by what Frank Zappa was doing. But that led to a love of doo wop. When I'd got back from England I'd stumbled quite fantastically upon this essential stuff - once again trawling around Batman's - and I found the original 'Louie Louie' by Richard Berry and a lot of other Richard Berry material, and a whole genre from the West Coast I hadn't been aware of. High-energy, really great harmony R'n'B that to me is a missing link between pop and R'n'B and rock'n'roll. I still love it.

That was all a mystery to me and I dived head first into it. This was while we were playing as Sons of the Vegetal Mother, which was a conglomerate, a pretty modern band which picked up where Party Machine had left off. It had a harder edge. We were playing 'Eagle Rock' and the other songs I was writing at the time, but we never had more than about ten songs because, with a couple of exceptions, we only ever performed at the T. F. Much Ballroom. It was just what I could gather. I knew Mike Rudd and Hannaford, and I'd met Gary Young and he knew Wayne Duncan and it was just drawing together everyone I could find to play a few tunes at the Ballroom.

Out of that group, Hannaford, Duncan, Young and me were having a lot of fun with old records I'd bought as a kid, like 'Lollipop', 'That'll Be The Day', etc and having a ball getting into them at a more knowledgable level. And that was the basis of our repertoire, together with songs like 'Eagle Rock' and 'At The Rockhouse', which I'd already written.

We had one rehearsal and that was it. It was fantastic...

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