The Jimmy Taylor Story Part 2

In early 1966 Thorpe and his band were signed to do a TV show It's All Happening.
The show ran from March to December 1966, broadcast on the 7 Network, Australia wide. Usually 20 songs were presented in one hour. The show featured both Australian and visiting overseas artists like Neil Sedaka. (pictured below with Jimmy up the top fending off streamers and rotten eggs)

The Aztecs provided backing for most of the other guest artists on the show. The production was rehearsed all day Tuesdays and Thursdays at Harrigan's Beach House venue and cut live to air on the Sunday afternoon following final rehearsals earlier in the day. The band was augmented by Rocky Thomas on trumpet and Tony Buchanan on Sax as needed. Thomas wrote all the musical arrangements for the show which was produced by Franz Conde. In early 1967 the show finished and Thorpe had financial problems. After a break of a few months Thorpe returned to live work around Sydney venues such as the Millers Hotel circuit, usually as a duo with Jimmy on the Piano, and sometimes as a trio with Jimmy on bass and Johnny Dick on drums. The trio also went north and did a season at the Lands Office Hotel in Brisbane.
At the end of 1967 the Thorpe connection ended as he wanted to start a new louder and heavier band, which he did early in 1968, bringing Mick Liber ex Python Lee Jackson on electric guitar. So Jimmy went to work with The Rajahs at Bronte Charles and at the Whiskey Au Go Go augmenting a black soul group featuring Chuck Rowan, which Harrigan had brought over from America to get the Whiskey up and running. Later in 1968 Jimmy was approached by George Hilder (Devlin's old tour manager) on behalf of the Defence Forces and asked to organise a group to go to Vietnam to entertain troops at the Australian Army bases. The group consisted of Jimmy Taylor Vox organ with left hand bass section, Mick Jurd on guitar and Leon Isackson on drums (Leon was of course already an old hand at the Vietnam tour caper with the Rajahs). Jimmy's band went under the name of the Wombats and the entertainers they backed were Eden Kane (on the tail end of his career), Maggie Jodrell, the Sullivan Sisters and a hypnotist, Professor Lemar. The Wombats put in two weeks touring the Aussie bases and then returned home which was probably a good thing, the Tet Offensive had already started and much of the countryside was being overrun by the Viet Cong.(pictured with the Wombats Leon Mick and Jimmy)

On his return to Sydney Jimmy was offered a job playing bass with Levi Smith's Clefs, run by group leader Barry "the bear" McAskill. The Clefs now had a residency at the Whiskey which was packed with American servicemen being flown into Sydney from Vietnam for Rest and Recreation leave. The Bear decided to move the band to Melbourne, which did not appeal to Jimmy. Fortunately Mick Downes from the Aztecs contacted Jimmy asking him to join another show being assembled to tour Vietnam. The lineup was Mike Downes guitar, Jimmy organ & bass, John O'Brian drums, Ray Hoff vocals, a NZ girl singer going by the name of Ricky Vooty and two Go Go Dancers. This ensemble toured Vietnam for six months under the name Kings Cross Revue entertaining the American GIs.

Back in Sydney Jimmy took a day job at an electrical warehouse. It was not long however before he was putting together another group to tour Vietnam. Sydney promoter Les Maisler supplied a rehearsal studio and arranged for plane tickets and passports/visas. This time the band was Jimmy organ and bass, Rick Hoare guitar, Clive on drums and his girlfriend Cathy Wayne. Cathy was an excellent singer who had performed on Bandstand and the Johnny O'Keefe TV shows. The entertainers were a Leichhardt pub singer "Jeff the Booza" as MC and two Go Go dancers/strippers. The show set off for Vietnam in early July 1969, but it all ended prematurely in tragedy after only two weeks. During a show in the US officers club, Cathy Wayne who was singing only two feet away from where Jimmy was seated playing the organ was shot dead. It seems that the assailant had intended to hit a senior officer who was seated at the front of the audience.

So it was back to Sydney, but with no immediate band work lined up, Jimmy was persuaded to go back to Vietnam for the fourth time despite the unpleasant experience of the recent near miss. The band was Jimmy on organ, Ray Hoff vocals, David Lindsay bass, Jimmy Barr drums and two female "dancers". The war was now going badly for the US and there weren't many gigs forthcoming. The promoter was an American Dick Broderick who considered that the band weren't making him enough money and refused to pay them. The band finally got their passports back and returned to Australia flat broke. Jimmy once again took a day job at an electrical warehouse where he met a guy called Lumps Cochran who played drums in a jazz band called Colonel Crint & the Regimental Band of the Foot and Mouth Deserters led by Sidney the Kidney. The tuba player had just left the band so Jimmy started playing trad jazz making his Fender sound like a tuba. When Sidney found out that Jim played rock'n'roll piano he insisted that he play a rock'n'roll spot while the banjo player Dennis Tong took over on bass.

In 1972 Jimmy formed a band with Peter Bilney drums and Dave Lindsay bass from his Vietnam band, under the name of the Jimmy (pumpin' piano)Taylor Rock'n'Roll Trio. The new band began playing at the Whiskey's Bonaparte's Theatre Restaurant. The band was an immediate success with patrons queuing up to get in. When Lindsay and Bilney left, Jimmy quickly recruited two new players; Barry Brady guitar and Quentin Chadwick on drums from the Ramrods, now no longer managed by future Prime Minister, Paul Keating. This line up continued on until the Whiskey burnt down in 1975.