The Masters Apprentices 1965 – The Gov Friday 3 August 2018.
Words Geoff Jenke
The Masters Apprentices formed in Adelaide in 1965 when Mick Bower (guitar), Gavin Webb (bass) and Brian Vaughton (drums) advertised for a lead singer. Enter Jim Keays (R.I.P.) and a classic rock band was born. The original line up of the Masters released great era defining songs such as Undecided, Buried and Dead and War or Hands of Time before going through many line up changes until 1973. Along the way they played garage and punk rock, psychedelic rock, pop (both good and bad), progressive rock, hard rock and releasing the best Australian song ever, Because I Love You. They did it all!
Today, The Masters Apprentices 1965 consist of the original 3 members as above with Rick Harrison (guitar) who joined the band in 1967, along with Rob Pippen to help out with guitar, keyboard and vocalist Ian Polly Polites, second drummer Matt MacNamee and singers Craig Holden and Nanette Van Ruiten.
The set started with The Masters debut single from 1966, Undecided, so named as the band hadn’t come up with a name for the song so wrote “undecided” on the tape. The record company thought it was the name of the song so released it as so. It may well have been the first ever “punk” record, such was the power of the record at the time. The psychedelic Living in a Child’s Dream, written by Mick Bower and once described as “blissful psychedelic pop” was up next.
Later Masters hits, 5:10 Man and Think About Tomorrow Today, which these members didn’t play on but are still classic songs today, followed. War or Hands of Time, another Mick Bower original, was the first anti-Vietnam war song ever released by an Australian act and still sounds as relevant today as 1966 when it was first released. Some covers of songs from the 60’s followed, some the original Masters would have played live in the day.
After a short break the band were back for more hits and memories. More psychedelia in Elevator Driver started the second set before covers of Hey Joe and Sunshine of Your Love. While the band covered these songs admirably, being The Masters Apprentices 1965, I would have liked to have heard more songs that made the debut album or were recorded at the time, like Hot Gully Wind, My Girl, Don’t Fight It, and Black Girl (in the Pines) (The Masters version far far superior to Nirvana’s unplugged version). We did get two “new” songs by Mick Bower, written in 1966, Wild Wild Party and Bye Bye Baby which were great.
The final song was of course Because I Love You sung by Nanette, “for Jim”. The crowd sang along with gusto and feeling. The encore started with the two drummers doing a drum duet before the band came out and launched into Gloria before finishing with the fist pumping Turn Up Your Radio.
Without Jim Keays on vocals one could argue this is just a tribute band, but with the four original members, this is far from just a tribute band. They give us the hits, songs and memories from an era long gone, but one that should not be forgotten. Long may they rock.
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