Nick Barker has put The Reptiles back together.
Nick Barker - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
The band from Melbourne, Australia formed in 1980 but it was their 1988 version of Steve Harley’s ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)’ that put them on the ARIA chart reaching the Top 30 in November, 1989.
Nick Barker & The Reptiles released two albums, ‘Goin’ To Pieces’ (1989) and ‘After The Show’ (1991). Barker released ‘Happy Man’ in 1994 and solo records between then and 2009, the last being ‘Black Water Blues’.
More recently, Nick told the story of Bon Scott in ‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’.
The Nick Barker & The Reptiles live shows will feature the classic line-up from the first album ‘Goin’ To Pieces’, Drew Basford, Adrian Chynoweth, Chris Harris, Davey Pinder with Nick
For the guys in the band, it closure because the band didn’t end well. “Everyone was confused,” Nick tells Noise11.com. “I was confused, we didn’t know how the industry worked and got a very hard lesson. Everyone was embittered. It’s a healing process”.
So far they’ve done a few shows including The Community Cup and a gig in January at Wheeler’s Hill in Melbourne. The setlist features about half the songs from the two albums including a cover of Georgia Satellites ‘Keep Your Hands To Yourself’.
Dates so far are:
June 22, Merang, Qld, Hinterland Hotel
June 23, Booval, Racecourse Hotel
June 24, Fortitude Valley, Tempo Hotel
June 29, Marrickville, NSW, The Factory Theatre
June 30, Towradgi, NSW, Waves
July 1, Heathcote, NSW, The Heathcote Hotel
