'rockin' around since '56, rockin' round in my car'

John Thomas was born in Sydney, but he moved to Melbourne in 1963.  John's interest in music began when he became interested in the guitar, having lessons from Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochrane, Scotty Moore etc via the radio.
In '61,with Sonny Pratt & Bob van Eekeries, John was a founder member of the Sydney based Band THE TELSTARS. John left before the band recorded.
 
In 1964, John Thomas formed the Flies with Themi Adams on bass and vocals, Ronnie Burns on guitar and vocals and John ‘Hank” Wallis on drums.
 
Themi Adams
Themi & I met  while we were both working as door to door book salesmen (unsuccessfully)  We discovered we were both out of work wannabe musicians so we decided to put a group together.
 
Ronnie Burns
I had already met Burnsie & seen  him singing in a folk coffee lounge, The DEVIL'S INN in Melbourne
He was on the same wave length as Themi & I &  also keen to get  a group together. After a few weeks rehearsing, we started looking for a drummer.
 
John 'Hank' Wallis
I had previously played with John in a band called THE RENEGADES & asked him if he'd like to join us.
At the time he joined The Flies, he was catching & collecting snakes, lizards & other reptiles for the zoo & museum.
He had a fenced-in pit in his back yard  in which he kept alligators or crocs (I'm not sure)
One day I had the misfortune to watch him feeding them live 

JT relates: "enfant terrlbles" of the blossoming Melbourne pop scene,The Flies were quite crude but there was good chemistry between the guys & they developed & were known for their wild stage act.They were either loved or hated..... Indeed their first gig (at Coburg Town Hall on Feb 15th '64) was stopped after only a couple of songs, due to crowd trouble. This in turn led to an interview on local T.V. and presumably spurred the band on in their attempts to emulate The Beatles.

Managed by Evan Dunstan, a Melbourne actor who was responsible for steering their early success by shrewd planning and organising, they were then signed by Gary Spry, a local impressario who opened Pinnochios in the fashionable Melbourne district of Toorak. The band was resident at the club for six months during which time the place was packed out every night of the week. Pinnochios quickly became a mecca and starting point for many future successful international acts including The Twilights.
 
The Flies quickly turned professional, and began a short-lived career performing at Car Yards, Football Grounds, Supermarkets and even in a tent at the Royal Melbourne Show as headline for the Big Caramba Show. They also started their first tour taking in approx fifty towns in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
 
Work for the band kept going strong into 1965, with support slots for The Rolling Stones & Roy Orbison at their Melbourne Concert and Little Millie at the Sydney Myer Music Bowl. However after touring Australia extensively, they had a relatively stagnant three month spell in Sydney, where the big breaks eluded them. In October, Ronnie Burns quit to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Peter Nichol (ex-The Wild Colonials).
 The Flies continued for some time, with the second line-up and although their musical ability was increasing, the magic was gradually waning along with their popularity."
 
Thomas quit soon after, as the band continued to fulfill engagements for the next six months as a trio before disbanding. After they disbanded Peter returned to The Wild Colonials, Themi persuded an ecleasiastical career with the Greek Orthodox Church and Hank (John) returned to his Photographic career for short while before joining his next group The Beavers. Wallis later had commercial success as Wallis & Matilda in 1980.
 
After a short stint with Gemini 5, John Thomas moved to Europe in 1967 intending to live in London.  However as he had a German girlfriend, Doris Honigmann, whom he had been going out with in Melbourne, he visited her in Germany.
 
While staying with Doris, his girl friend, now manager, submitted a demo to EMI and subsequently set up a meeting with representatives with EMI Germany in Kohn. Thomas went to London & spent a week auditioning for musicians. The result was the band Rust: with Walt Monahan (bass/vocals),  Brian Hillman (drums) and John Thomas (gtr/vocals).
 
Rust obtained a record contact and recorded an album at EMI Koln , released in Germany, titled Underground. All the songs were originals, co-written by all three members.  However shortly after the release of the album, his relationship with his girlfriend/manager ended, as did their business relationship.  Rust split up shortly after.
  
After Rust disbanded, Thomas went to London & was signed to album deal by Ian Grant at RCA London. Subsequent releases from this deal were two albums: Creepy John Thomas and Brother Bat Bone and one single Ride A Rainbow bw Moon And Eyes Song.  Both albums were recorded with Conny Plank in Koln, Germany.  Session musicians were used on the first album.  One of these, Andy Marx became an important collaborator on both projects.  What started as a solo project evolved into a band kinda thing.  Thomas assisted Plank with the production side of things, and Marx assisted more with the 2nd.
 
I asked John why he took the nickname Creepy:
 
“The name came from a Spider John Korner song called Creepy John on the blues album Blues, Rags & Hollers and it seemed a good idea at the time as I wanted to project a less clean cut non-commercial image. The British blues boom was happening -  Artists like Capt.Beefheart, Doctor John, The Night Tripper, Screamin' Lord Sutch, Howling Wolf etc., all had groovy names which at the time, held fascination for a young wannabe like me.”

All three recordings only achieved mediocre sales in the UK but reasonable in Germany.
They “didn't exactly storm the charts”, but there was some radio airplay in Germany, but very little in the UK.
 
Thomas, along with his supporting band, which included Marx, toured France, Spain & Germany playing various festivals both in the UK & Europe, but TV exposure on shows like Beat Club eluded them.
 
During this time he was based in the UK, and as interest was stronger in Germany, he spent more time touring there.
 
However by the end of 1970, Thomas decided to go to the States.  Initially he was unsure about what he wanted to do.
 
“These were strange times & I guess I lost my way for a while.  I hung out at Wally Heider's Studio in San Francisco and a lot of my time was spent jamming, learning & watching.  I did some occasional gigs & teamed up with George Caldwell for a while.”
George came to London after John returned to the UK & they played in a band together called Tulane Roadblock which only lasted a few months in 1972. One of their gigs was as opening act for Edgar Broughton Band with whom Thomas became friendly.  By this stage, Thomas was no longer signed with any record company and when asked to join EBB, he did so, as Thomas liked the attitude and direction of the band.  “Regular pay was also a pleasant change.”
Caldwell went on to work with Mama Cass, Jackie De Shannon & produce Alexis' Korner's last album in London.
note: George was living in London with Mama Cass when she died
The Alexis Korner album was produced shortly after this so I presume it was produced  in London.
 

Thomas stayed with the Edgar Broughton Band between 1973 and 1976, playing on their Bandages and Live Hits Harder albums as well as countless European & British tours, before recording a third solo album at Conny Plank's studio in Koln. Musicians on this unreleased project included Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart soon to become Eurythmics,  Thomas also performed with the Edgar Broughton Band again in 1979 for a European tour.
  
John eventually left EBB in late 1979 on the very best of terms as he wanted to do his own stuff . He went to Berlin for a few solo gigs in the Singer/songwriter scene. Berlin was an exciting place to be in the years just before the wall came down - a thriving international scene of artists musicians & energy. There were dozens of clubs to work in.
Thomas ended up moving all his stuff to Berlin and formed Johnny and The Drivers.  The band consisted of experienced musicians who were all very good players:
 
Steve Broughton (had recorded albums with EBB, Mike Oldfield, Roy Harper, Dave Gilmore), Joe Di Carlo (from New York had previously played with Todd Rundgren), and Terry Trabandt (from Detroit worked with Joe Walsh & co-wrote Walsh's Turn to Stone) Danny 'Deutschmark' Dziuk  (these days Danny has a strong German following as Dziuk's Kuche & he often  writes & records  music for German films). However Thomas wrote most of the Drivers’ material. 
 
 The band performed live and toured extensively throughout Europe, being one of the first bands to play behind the Iron Curtain touring Poland & East Germany.  During this time they acquired the services of a manager, Jim Rakete who also managed Nena (of the 99 Balloons fame). Because of their good live following and support, they were offered a recording contract. Rakete was able to organise numerous TV work in Germany, mostly what Thomas calls Playback - miming their records. 
 
The group recorded two albums and released one single.
 
This Must Be The Night (Polydor), Homing In On Zero (Phonogram) and a 45 She's A Rocker which charted in Germany.
 
Thomas hasn’t retired the Drivers, they just went on the back burner, although the line ups change.  He's been regularly returning to Germany both with The Drivers & solo. Sometimes they do the occasional gig in London when Thomas can get everyone together at the same time.
 
Thomas, is now based in London and still writing/recording.  He has been interested in producing since he got his hands on a cheap Phillips portable tape recorder in '59.  He is self taught although “I've had the luck to work with guys like Conny Plank who taught me a lot just by observation.  Production is a myth - in my opinion you need a good sound engineer / good material/ good players & good arrangements. If you have success they call you a producer.”
 
John spends his time writing and recording and planning his next attack on the music establishment. He runs Werewolf Music and spends most of his time working with other artists as producer/ musician and songwriter. John, unsigned, produced another solo effort in 2000 - Remember Me This Way which was independently produced, is available from his website.
 At time of  writing he and his band are working on a new Driver's album. This may take some time as all the members are engaged in various projects but all the basic tracks have been recorded
 
 The current line up of The Drivers is  Richard Marcangelo (ex Manfred Mann's Earth Band) on drums, Arthur Grant (ex EBB ) bass/voc, Andrew Taylor (ex EBB) Guitar/ Keyboards/ voc (Lewis Taylor  has also amassed a large following over here as a solo artist), and of course Johnny Driver  on Guitar and vocals
 
Thomas has re-issued one of the Drivers' albums on cd - Homing in on Zero which was also released in Australia thru Polygram.
  
John returned to Australia in 1996 for a Flies reunion and enjoyed catching up with old friends.  While based in Europe he has had the pleasure of running into other Australian musos such as Colin Cook, Vince Malouney, Colin 'Smiley' Peterson, Barry Gibb and Glenn Shorrock.
 
 
 

Click here to order:

Remember Me This Way

Homing In On Zero

ROBERT JOHNSON

"Around 1930 he worked frequently for tips in and around Memphis, Tennessee with Son House, Willie Brown and Willie Borum. He also hoboed from town to town playing small clubs, bars, barrel houses and streets."