The Waifs' Donna Simpson recalls gigs ahead of book on WA bands

In 1991, two local residents from Albany drove 400 kilometers south to a farm on the outskirts of a city near Perth to attend a 21st birthday party. Their 1964 Beetle car had two guitars and a small amplifier in the trunk.

The sisters later became members of one of Australia's most beloved bands, The Waifs. Donna and Vikki Simpson were in the early stages of their collaboration, picking up odd gigs and working to make a name for themselves. They performed at that very birthday party. “I remember getting a hand-drawn map, and we drove miles and miles out of town looking for a sign that said ‘Guy’s 21st’,” Donna Simpson said. “We played for hours in this shearing shed, and I’ll never forget the smell of lanolin from the wood.”

Since performing at Guy Tilbrook’s 21st birthday party, Donna Simpson has toured the world with The Waifs and released numerous albums. “I wish we could still do shows in shearing sheds, I think it would be an amazing independent tour, going around to shearing sheds all over Australia,” she said. Reflecting on the past on ABC Story Stream, the musician suggested that reviving larger-scale rural shows could help put rural towns on the map. “I know they’re doing little hall festivals, there’s someone running opera nights near Borden in the Great Southern,” Simpson said. “Bring back the celebration of the shearing shed – it could be a fantastic way to put a small town in the spotlight. You could have a market day and get people to see what’s happening on the farm.”

The Waifs are one of many bands to have emerged from the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Musician and author Kevin Gomm is trying to capture some of their history for a book due to be published later this year. “I didn’t realize there were so many bands from the area – so far, I’ve documented over 180 bands from the 1960s to the present day,” he said. “We’re looking at getting all the musicians together for a red carpet night later in the year to coincide with the book launch.” The author said many of the musicians he had interviewed for the project had been involved in shearing shed tours. “Bands were forged in those types of gigs – it was an important part of the music industry,” Mr. Gomm said. But he said the live music scene in the WA region had changed dramatically. “Like the whole live pub rock industry, it’s so different to what it was in the 80s or 90s,” Mr. Gomm said. “Societal changes… like the internet and media, have changed it.”

Balancing farming and music has been a long-term passion for Great Southern farmer Andrew Bradshaw. He was a member of a band in the 1980s that played regional gigs all over the state. “It wasn’t about the money, we just enjoyed each other’s company and having a bit of fun along the way,” he said. Bradshaw still performs solo or in bands, saying it is a way for him to relax. “It’s a great hobby – at rehearsals, you’d sit around and talk about farming for half an hour, we were all woolgrowers and bouncing ideas off each other,” he said. “I used to be a shearer back in the day, so I’d spend the week in a shearing shed, go to another shed to rehearse at night and then play in a shearing shed on the weekend.” Bradshaw is one of the figures featured in Mr. Gomm’s book about bands from the Great Southern, which is expected to be published around June this year.