Luke Neary

Luke Neary Collection

Luke Neary  —  bass guitarist with Vampire Union, Parachute, Maud + The Kippers (The Kippers), Vandals, Torpedoes, Stormcrow and Where's Your Tie?

Luke recalls ....

Vampire Union was how the Charles, Bob and Luke thing began – all courtesy of Charlie (who was a player way back too, as well as working for Eliane Moody).  Charlie told me when I was in the shop in the arcade one day that there was a bloke looking for a bass player for a gig at The Gladstone (yep, again – it was still reasonably respectable then).  Carl Stacey - ex Blenheim – was trying to put a sort of show band together to be called Vampire Union.  I rocked up and they accepted me.  He had Henry Newman (aka Torch, later of the Comics) but no guitar player.  A quick call to Charlie White, and we were off and running.  That was the most middle of the road I ever got, but Carl was a great guy and I was playing again for the first time in years.   Henry eventually left a while later and we got Bob in.   Then Charles began to take control of the thing and we got a bit more rocky.  We had a gig in Blenheim later on (three nights a week), and we used to drive up there every week.  Eventually Carl was out after the Blenheim gig finished.  I will always be thankful to Carl for that restart.

The Kippers (formerly Maud and The Kippers)  —  Luke Neary (Bass), Barbara Fox-Allchurch (Vocals), Bob Ogilvie (Drums), Mike Waldegrave (Guitar) and Charles White (Guitar)

The filming of The Vandals and Maud and The Kippers (The Kippers) clips for Radio With Pictures were done at the Old Christchurch Civic Centre in Manchester Street.  It was Al Park (Parksy) who drove Mollett Street as a venue for the ex-hippies and other great unwashed at that time.  The Gresham was long gone and there was no venue for the left-of-centre bands given the mainstream pubs covered the more commercial middle of the road bands of the time.  It was also Parksy and Mr Peake who kicked off The Vandals, I don't think old Charlie White was worried about the new music at all.  Mollett Street was great fun, but The Vandals only did a couple of live gigs, and at least one was at Mollett Street – huge fun at the time.  We somehow talked Barb Fox into becoming the second Maud after Nancy Kiel and John Purvis left (when Trevor Spitz fired the band from Christies – a failed experiment on his part really), but it gave The Kippers four nights a week for a while!  The Kippers were resident at the Gladstone and I know Barbs was with us when we did the Radio With Pictures stuff.  Unfortunately The Kippers material was really not usable for a number of reasons and must have been scrapped.  Sadly Barb passed away fairly recently.  "The Tie Band" had a long residency at The Imperial in the mid 80s.  That was a band started by Blair Allchurch to play at Tregattis and began with Blair, Leon Kearns, and myself.  It was one of the most fun bands I ever was involved with, where I was playing bass - and it was called Where's Your Tie? because we had to dress in that 80s style.

Use the following links to access relevant group profiles .....

The Vandals   º    The Kippers (Maud and The Kippers)   º    Stormcrow