My connections with music span well over four decades, which often allowed me to associate with bands and performers who are now a part of Australian Music History. Although I didn't achieve the monetary success, like some of my contemporaries, I thrived by constantly taking on new challenges and exploring different genres of music. Even now, at age 66, I still enjoy learning things that help me improve as a performer, composer and teacher.

My interest in music goes back further than I can remember. According to one of my mum's stories, I was standing in my cot, singing "Figaro" on top of my little voice, when I was about two years old. As I grew up, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, because mum had to work. Nan always had the radio going, mainly Classical and traditional Bavarian music, so I got used to hearing that kind of stuff, humming along to it. I think my family had latent musical talents, but never did anything about it, except on occasional Sunday afternoons, when we sat out on the patio of a boarding house shared by about six families. One of the men could strum a few chords on his guitar, my dad played harmonica and my mum sang a bit. I still cherish those days, rare as they were. There was a wonderful feel about the whole thing and I loved the sound of the guitar. Mum learned guitar before I was born, but she never followed through with it, so we had this instrument laying around and I plucked on it from time to time.

By the time I turned ten, my parents decided that I should learn an instrument, because they felt I had some musical aptitude (must have been my Figaro rendition in the cot!). I thought, "great, I'm gonna play the guitar!" Unfortunately they had other plans and got me a piano accordion. As if that wasn't bad enough, with it came this hideous teacher, who was probably one of Hitler's offsiders during the war! You think I'm kidding? Well, that guy and that stupid instrument almost ruined my love for music forever! Let me tell you about my music teacher - he was Dracula personified! I froze every time I saw his boney frame appear in our doorway, those piercing eyes, that vulture nose and that sadistic grin. I told mum years later how this monster used to beat me whenever I played a wrong note - not only me, but other kids too. We were rehearsing for some Accordion Ensemble concert and he got stuck into this little girl in front of our group. None of us dared to interfere, because we all thought he was going to bite us on the neck and suck our blood!

I finally "escaped" the old bloodsucker's fangs a year later, when my parents enroled me in a boarding school, because I wanted to become a priest. The school had wonderful music facilities and I was chosen to sing Lead Soprano in the church choir. The vocal training was intense, but with the discipline came reward. That choir achieved excellent performance status and we got to travel around all the local villages on gigs in other churches and community events.

Music did a complete turn-around for me when we migrated to Australia. All of a sudden I was exposed to all these "Great American Tunes," by Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, et al. Naturally, my parents hated this music and insisted that I continue playing the accordion, but their idea clashed with my plans of becoming a "Teen Idol." I ditched the old squeeze box for a guitar. My friend had a weird looking thing with a metal plate attached to its body (a Dobro) and let me have it for twelve quid.

In March 1960, I joined my first Rock n' Roll band, "The Black Angels." They sounded absolutely atrocious but hey, it was my first crack at being a 'star,' besides, I didn't know any better. A retired boxer who used to fight in carnival side shows organised some gigs for us - way out in the bush, on Saturday nights. He used to advertise me as an American singer, to draw a crowd. By then I'd also changed my name to 'Freddy Cooke.' We actually drew up to 500 people a night, who were either tone-deaf or too drunk to notice this pathetic band with their fake 'Yank' front man. All guitars and vocals plugged into one 30W "Moodie" guitar amp! The "side-show boxer" got 50% of the door takings, because he owned the amp and microphone. Some of the gigs were like a scene from the "Blues Brothers" movie, minus the chicken wire!

My next band, the "D-Men," initially played "Shadows" covers and I sang all the Cliff Richard tunes. We got into writing songs and by the time the "Beatles" hit the world stage, we had built up a sizeable original repertoire heavily influenced by the "Mersey Sound." We got a manager and a recording contract with CBS. For the next 18 months we were busy putting out three 45rpm singles, performed on National TV and toured with the Aztecs, Whispers and the Easybeats. Things were going well, until we discovered that our manager was dipping his hands into our till. We never got it together after that, plus I got bored with the Pop scene and felt it was time to move on.


When I left the D-Men in 1966, I changed my name to 'Marc Leon.' I wanted to take on a totally new identity, as my musical direction shifted more towards the sounds of Ray Charles, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane and B.B. King. I poured most of my energy into 'woodshedding' on the guitar, writing songs, recording demo-tapes and jamming with Blues and Jazz musicians in nightspots around Sydney's Kings Cross. One of my demo-tapes caught the attention of David Mackay, who had produced a string of hit records with the Twilights, Masters' Apprentices and the Vibrants for the EMI label. David worked with me on two singles, aiming for a brassy sound, similar to the Stax and Motown styles that worked well in the US, but never had the same impact in Australia. One day, David rang to tell me that the Vibrants were looking for a new lead singer. They'd heard my record and wanted me to join the band.


Melbourne was the undisputed 'Rock Capital' in Australia during the Sixties. Almost every top band in the country either came from - or was stationed there, so when I teamed up with the Vibrants, I became part of Australian "Rock Royalty" and it was fun for about six months. Then I got tired of the hype and falseness which is always such a big part of the Pop industry. I also missed playing the Blues.

I quit the Vibrants in October 1968, along with two other group members. Our original idea was to play more progressive music, influenced by John Mayall, Jethro Tull, Chicago and Traffic, but our manager had a different vision. He was pushing for club gigs and a female vocalist, so that the corporate voyeurs had something to drool over. He also thought "Graduate" was a terrific name for the band. Initially I was opposed to the proposals (including the name), but with some compromise, we became a marketable and successful band that survived in various line-ups for 10 years.

Graduate's extensive work schedule covered all Australian states and toured South-East Asia in 1970, for six months. We often supported international acts like the Kinks, Bee Gees, Jose Feliciano, Fairport Convention and appeared on all major TV shows. I wrote a lot of songs at that time, with a couple of guys and we entered one in the 1976 American Song Festival. We made it into the finals and received an honorary mention. I also recorded some of these songs for EMI, Festival and RCA with Graduate. The band finally called it quits in 1978, when the "Disco Invasion" dealt a heavy blow to the 'Live Music' scene all around the country.

For the next four years, I worked as a freelance musician, doing studio sessions, floorshows and concerts with national celebrities. This was a huge learning experience for me, because most of the gigs involved reading music charts and discipline, playing only what's written, no ad-libbing! As I became more proficient at it, I got calls for gigs as musical director for big-name stars like John Farnham. During this time, I frequently performed Solo, just guitar and vocals, playing Jazz standards, Duke Ellington, all that kind of stuff. I was also teaching guitar and bass for a couple of music schools.

By 1982 I conducted guitar classes and workshops in my home studio and concentrated on a Solo career. I incorporated sequencers with my guitar playing and became quite adept in programming interesting bass & drum arrangements for my songs. This wasn't at all like 'Midi- files' or 'Karaoke.' Since I did all the programming, I allowed myself lots of room for soloing, being creative and having fun on the gigs. Later I added a guitar synth, but as the novelty wore off, I just used it at home for writing and recording.

In the mid-eighties, a friend and ex-Graduate, Brian Fitzgerald coaxed me into doing a Blues album. We shared in the song writing and costs of a project that dragged on for a couple of years, due to individual work commitments. We hired some great players for the sessions and about half of the album called,"The Power of the Blues," was recorded 'Live.' Not long after that venture, I started writing for "Horizons," an all instrumental album, which I recorded and mixed in September 1992 over a three week period.

A couple of years later, I joined the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society (MBAS), where I met - and jammed with the city's great (and not so great) Blues players. In March 1995, I put together a trio to enter in the "MBAS Blues Performer of the Year" contest and got into the finals. Rob Kermac, my bassist in the competition also sang with "Whipping Post" who were into the Allman Brothers in a big way. Rob introduced me to the band and we hit it off really well from the outset, as we shared similar musical influences.

Joining Whipping Post was a totally new experience for me, I rarely played with another guitarist. Ray Flegg's approach was more aggressive in contrast to my melodic style, yet we somehow managed to complement each other. Same thing with the song writing. Rob's lyrics were witty and distinctly "Aussie." Ray would play a riff on the guitar and tell Rob to write a song around it, whereas I wrote on my own and came to rehearsals with a demo of the finished song. In either case, Mark and Ross, who formed the the rhythm section, had a major input in determining the groove of the song. Although we 'borrowed' heavily from the "Southern Boogie Sound" of the U.S., all of the above mentioned aspects were the key elements that ultimately forged Whipping Post's 'trademark sound.' We had a large group of supporters, a 'ready-made' audience that showed up wherever we played and we continued like that for the next three years, until the release of our CD, "Damn The Distance." We organised a very successful CD launch, attended by over 300 guests and wouldn't you know it - within a week of that event, Ray resigned to join a "John Mellencamp" cover band!

I have since moved into the country with my family, where we enjoy a more laid- back life style, but I still get to play most weekends with some of the local musicians, doing mainly covers of 'Classic Rock' tunes .

Between August and October 2005, I returned to the studio with a drummer and bass player to record a few Blues originals as well as some covers. We recorded the songs mainly to have fun, not as another Album project and I was very pleased with the result. You can listen to these songs on the *ReverbNation* player on my Home and Music page here, as well as on my MySpace page page.

In February 2008, I got together with Barry Gray (drums) and Trevor Daly (bass) and started rehearsing a repertoire of songs, consisting of my original songs, plus some Blues standards and Classic Rock tunes. We participate in Jam sessions around local Bendigo Pubs and so far performed on stage at Melbourne venues like *MusicLand* and *The Noise Bar*. Although *live* gigs are scarce, our spirit and enthusiasm to play our music is kept alive by regular practises in my garage on weekends.