Saved by the Blues: THE MAL EASTICK TAPES

Snippets from the archives of a bygone era

In 1986, posters advertising the Mal Eastick Band began appearing taped to telegraph poles and plastered on walls around major venues. This signalled that the standout guitarist and songwriter, who was a founding member of country rock band Stars and a sought-after guitarist for touring and recording acts such as Max Merritt, Renée Geyer, Glenn Shorrock, and Jimmy Barnes, was now a headlining act.

It was Kevin Borich who tipped me off about Mal Eastick’s remarkable career, and after contacting Eastick for an interview, the Adelaide-born guitarist gave me some insights into his labyrinthine musical journey.

“As a kid, I was immediately drawn to music without knowing why because no one else in my family was musical; they didn’t even play records. I started playing guitar at 16, and I was trying to find some other guys in the neighbourhood who played,” says Eastick.

Eastick explains how, while waiting for a doctor’s appointment in 1973, a chance meeting of future band members of Stars unfolded after he heard the sound of musicians rehearsing some distance away. “I walked towards where the music was coming from until I was outside a shed. I opened the door, and that’s how I met Andy Durant (guitarist) and Glyn Dowding (drummer). We formed the band Astrakhan, which was totally covers and our very first band,” says Eastick.

“After the band (Astrakhan) separated, I met Mick Pealing (vocalist), and we formed a band called Flash, which was only together for six months. Andy Durant was exploring some other musical styles at the time, and he left to play in a band doing a kind of King Crimson jazz rock thing,” says Eastick.

Stars

Mick Pealing, Glyn Dowding, and Mal Eastick formed the band Stars in 1975 with Graham Thompson on bass. Stars caught the attention of Little River Band’s Beeb Birtles during a performance at the Mediterranean Hotel, Adelaide, and they were subsequently signed to Mushroom Records and relocated to Melbourne, where they were joined by Andy Durant, who then became the major songwriter of the band. The line-up became Mal Eastick (guitar), Glyn Dowding (drums), Mick Pealing (vocals), Graham Thompson (bass), and Andy Durant (guitar, vocals).

During those early years, Stars supported acts including Joe Cocker (1977), The Beach Boys, and Linda Ronstadt (1978–1979). Stars first album, Paradise, was released in 1978, followed by Land of Fortune in 1979. Stars also performed at the November 1999 Concert of the Decade on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to an audience estimated at over 100,000. Then tragedy struck with Andy Durant being diagnosed with a melanoma that sadly took his life at the age of 25 in May of 1980.

Devastated by the loss of his best friend and fellow band member, Eastick began to plan a memorial concert. “I conceived it on the way home from his (Andy Durant’s) funeral.

I then went to Gudinski (Michael Gudinski), Michael Judd, and Frank Stivala, the leading booker in Melbourne. They had all managed and booked Stars. I told them what I wanted to do because I was shattered. I organised the whole thing, even the players and what songs they played. It wasn’t done for money; it was done for my friend; it was done for cancer research (Andrew Durant Cancer Research Foundation),” said Eastick.

The memorial was staged at the Palais Theatre in August 1980. The concert featured Stars band members along with artists including, Jimmy Barnes and Ian Moss (Cold Chisel), Renée Geyer, Broderick Smith (ex Dingoes), and a line-up of other accomplished musicians. The concert was multi-track recorded for television, and highlights of the concert were remixed for a double album that was released the following year under the title, the Andrew Durant Memorial Concert.

Broderick Smith

Eastick later joined forces with Broderick Smith in a band that was initially called Broderick Smith’s Hired Hands, which then became Broderick Smith’s Big Combo. Eastick was a member for three years. “With Broderick, we really just cut our own pace, our own path, and we were one of the hottest bands in Melbourne,” says Eastick.

The Jimmy Barnes Band

After iconic Australian band Cold Chisel disbanded in 1983, Jimmy Barnes put together the Jimmy Barnes Band, which toured from 1984 for the best part of two years. Barnes chose Mal Eastick as his lead guitarist. It would have been no easy feat following Chisel’s former guitar maestro, Ian Moss, but Eastick generated his own signature backing and blues lead breaks, along with some very silky licks, which were seamlessly meshed in between Barnes’ vocal phrasing. In fact, Barnes could often be seen glancing over his shoulder, relishing the cohesion. Eastick went on to play guitar on Barnes’ first two solo albums, Bodyswerve, and For the Working Class Man. “A lot of blues purists criticize me because I played with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, but the truth is that Jimmy Barnes hired me because he wanted the blues influence in his band,” says Eastick. And when Eric Burdon (The Animals) toured Australia in 1989, Eastick was chosen as his backing guitarist.

Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack was an American singer and guitarist who pioneered blues rock guitar. “It was the first show under my own name, the Mal Eastick Band, and we opened for Lonnie Mack at the Basement in Sydney. It was only supposed to be one night, but we ended up selling out eight nights. When Lonnie Mack did his encore for the last set of those eight nights, he called for me to come up and join him. So that was my first time playing with an international. I was pretty nervous, but what an honour that was,” said Eastick.

Johnny Winter

“In August of 1986, I was asked to open for Johnny Winter for four shows in and around the Sydney area; the first one was at Dapto Leagues Club south of Wollongong. I got to meet Johnny backstage that night, and that is an extremely rare thing because of his inhibitions. To meet with him in the back room was an honour, and he said to me, ‘Hey, you’ve got that Lonnie Mack tone.’ It’s because I’ve got the effects to sort of create that Lonnie Mack vibrato thing, and I did two Lonnie Mack songs.”

Eastick explains how he caught a glimpse of Johnny Winter, who was behind the stage curtains watching him play. “Imagine what it was like when I turned around in the middle of the song, looked over at my bass player, and saw him through an opening in the curtains; there he was with this white hair and the most incredible Texan hat with feathers on it,” said Eastick.

Buddy Guy

When American blues guitarist Buddy Guy, the muse for guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, toured Australia in the 90s, Matt Taylor’s Chain with Mal Eastick on guitar were the supporting band. Buddy Guy had been a very close friend of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who had died in a helicopter crash in August of 1990, and it was forbidden to speak about him on the tour. However, on the final night of the support, Eastick asked and was granted permission to play ‘Lenny’, a Stevie Ray Vaughan instrumental dedicated to his wife Lenora ‘Lenny’ Bailey.

“After Buddy Guy’s last show finished, Buddy’s tour manager came up to me and said, ‘Buddy would like to have lunch with you tomorrow,’ which obviously meant that he approved of how well I played the song and how respectful I was,” said Eastick.

Surgery and Recovery

In 1993, Eastick was diagnosed with a rare condition, which he describes in layman’s terms as tangled blood vessels in the brain. At the time, the condition was considered inoperable. “While I was finishing my Spirit album in 2000, I could feel that I was going down. I went to see a surgeon who’d replaced the surgeon I saw in 1993, and he was the new protégé, who had developed a lifesaving skill for this condition. My wife was pregnant at the time, and I named our second son (Morgan) after that surgeon (Professor Michael Morgan). I named that album Spirit not long before I went for my big surgery in case I didn’t come back out,” says Eastick.

Musicians on the Spirit album, who perform as Mal Eastick and the Spirit Band, are John Makey (vocals), Rudy Miranda (drums), and Ian Lees (bass). “When I got the word that I was going to have this surgery, I had to pluck up the courage to tell my band and ask them for the biggest favour of all, and that was, if I was able to play after recovery, that they’d still be there for me. And they all were,” says Eastick, who since has also had 10 operations on his hands so he can continue playing guitar.

Kevin Borich

It was Eastick’s long-time friend, Kevin Borich, who invited him to return to the stage at the Longview Farm Party, NSW, in 2004. Borich’s long association with Joe Walsh was also responsible for the Eagles’ superstar being a guest performer at the event. “That was my first gig since March 2001. I only played three songs, and that was a huge challenge at that time during my recovery. But I met Joe Walsh, who gave me a wonderful compliment about my playing, which meant the world to me at that time. Kevin was the last act on, and then Joe Walsh joined him for the culmination at the end of the day. Kevin said to me, ‘Why don’t you come up and jam with me and Joe?’ Wow, imagine what a turning point that was for me!” said Eastick.

Under The Stars

In 2017, Stars regrouped: “We put a line-up back together, and I played lead guitar on two albums. The first was called Boundary Rider, which is a song that Andy and I co-wrote, and I finished 10 or 15 years after he passed. The next Stars album was One More Circle Around the Sun, which was released in 2020,” says Eastick, who laments that the Covid lockdowns, lockouts, and closed borders contributed largely to ending his association with Stars and his ability to tour and perform. Although Eastick performed under the Stars name, he never felt the same experiences that he felt when Andy Durant was in the band. “That was only because I knew nobody who could replace Andy Durant and play in the style that he did,” says Eastick.

Blues has been Eastick’s inner inspiration for a long time. “I didn’t realise it at the time, but the first three songs that I wrote and recorded with Stars were blues shuffles,” he says. His albums The Southern Line and Spirit were recorded on his own label, Bluefish Records. He is currently booked for a return performance at the Longview Farm Party, NSW, which runs from Friday October 4th to Monday October 7th, 2024. Eastick is also active in other elements of the industry, including online guitar tutoring via Zoom, and he also partners with Andrew Hegedus in an acoustic blues duo. In 2015, Mal Eastick, Andy Durant, and Mick Pealing were inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame.

Both Mal Eastick and Kevin Borich have undergone lifesaving surgeries, and while attributing their recoveries to gifted surgeons, friends, and family support, they both share a spiritual connection with the blues that incites them to keep on playing. Kevin Borich has a song entitled Saved by the Blues, and this theme has been touted as a documentary about Borich and Eastick.

For online guitar lessons from one of the masters, you can contact Mal Eastick via email, admin@mal-eastick.com