If there’s a gong going around for the hardest workingman in show business, Scott Lapthorne may be in the running. Lapthorne, whose style owes more than a passing nod to Keith Moon, drums with both The Incredible Strand and The Sunbury’s.
While The Incredible Strand have been doing the rounds for a couple of years, The Sunbury’s are relatively new to the scene. Still, in the twelve months they’ve been together, the band has hardly rested on their laurels.
“We’ve been busy,” begins Lapthorne. “We’ve done a few gigs around town. We’ve done a swag at Ric’s and the Seafood Festival at Caxton Street. We’re a three-piece, so we travel pretty light.”
Joining Lapthorne in the band are guitarist Anthony Dettori and bassist Andrew O’Sullivan. Until now, Lapthorne and Dettori were best known for their time with local legends, Shutterspeed.
“Anthony and I were always keen to have our own band, even when we were with Shutterspeed,” he continues. “In fact, we played together before Anthony joined Shutterspeed. We’ve got a similar taste in music and have the same references. Anthony is into the things I’m into as well; we can talk for days about Manfred Mann, The Pretty Things, Humble Pie and stuff like that. My favourite contemporary band would be Oasis. I love Zak Starkey’s drumming.”
Rather aptly, The Sunbury’s took their moniker from the Australian rock festival of the same name.
Lapthorne was originally mentored on the kit by Bruce Anthon of The Survivors – a Brisbane identity from the ‘punk’ days of the late 1970’s.
While live shows have been a priority of late, The Sunbury’s have recently cut their debut album between a garage in Moorooka and Newstead’s Black Box studios.
“We recorded the album really fast,” explains Lapthorne. “We rehearsed the tunes up and then headed down to Jeff Lovejoy’s home studio. We did final mixes and overdubs at Jeff’s place. I reckon we recorded and mixed the album in around ten days.”
Tentatively titled Here Comes The Sunbury’s, the album should be out later this year. The Incredible Strand are also set to release a double ‘A-Side’ single.
“It’ll be good to get some new music out,” concludes the drummer, “The Strand are looking to do some more recording this year too. We’ve got a song called ‘The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair’ which has been featured in Kelly Slater’s new doco, Letting Go, so that’ll be a single for us.”
The Incredible Strand’s album The Name Of This Band Is The Incredible Strand is out now through Sony/BMG.
