Pat Drummond
Pat Drummond is an Australian singer/songwriter based in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales.
Biography
Beginning with stints in the Sydney 'sing-along uni/ bar/ pub' scene of the late '70s and early '80s, Drummond became known for writing musical mini-operas that included sections scripted for and performed by the crowds. Although the music was actually 'folk rock', it was a very 'punk' philosophy of performing.
Drummond had a 10-year Friday night residency at Sydney's Rest Hotel. The night before its demolition in the late '80s the whole soundscape was captured by CBS/True Blue on the Double CD, 'Live at The Rest Hotel' in a gig that saw over 2000 people turn up to a pub that only held 350.
Drummond's next project was the 1986 Rock opera 'Skooldaze'. This show provided his next 'character driven' reinvention and saw Drummond and his six-piece Rock outfit, touring with Cold Chisel and Marcia Hines in 1985 /1986. The album explored the concept of 'hidden curriculum ', the lessons that children often actually learn from the school experience as opposed to the ones the curriculum claims to teach them.
Drummond was invited by his friend, Roger Corbett to join the revived the Bushwackers after which he became a duo partner to John Schumann after having supported Redgum on a national tour. With the release of his "Tales from the Local Rag' CD in 1990, Drummond adopted the on-stage persona of a 1940s newspaperman. On stage and off he interviewed at every opportunity those people who subsequently became the subjects of his songs.
Drummond then toured across Australia working for community-based organisations, schools, preschools, toy libraries, church groups and service clubs, staging fundraising concerts. By 1993 he had been Joint Winner of Male Vocal of the Year at the Australian Bush Music Festival and was Grand Finalist for Album of the Year, Producer of the Year, Heritage Award and Country Song of the Year in the Toyota CMAA Australian Country Music Awards (The Golden Guitars). He later undertook a series of tours, a number of which became the springboard for community festivals, which he co-directed, notably The Galston Country Music Festival which by 2005 had become Sydney's largest Country Music Event. In October 2000 Drummond was awarded the Australian Independent Country Music Artist of the Year.
Since "Laughter Like A Shield" in 1993 each of Drummond's albums had incorporated at least one poem with his "Wheels and Wires" CD (1996) yielding the "Colours of the Cross" . By 1998 his long standing interest in spoken word led to an association with The Naked Poets; a gathering of five of Bush Poetry's comedic performers. The group featuring Marco Gliori, Shirley Friend, Murray Hartin, Ray Essery and Bobby Miller first performed with Drummond at The Tamworth Golf Club in 1998– 1999.
Next came the Lie...v (Naked Poets 1) album. With sales in the tens of thousands nationally it was a success for the independent label, Shoestring Records. The single, Murray Hartin's, "Turbulence" went on to win The Australian Bush Laureate Award – Best Single Performance in 2000 and the following year, the Naked Poet's second album, 'Newdirections' won both the Album of the Year category and Best Single Performance, for a poem written & performed by Marco Gliori.
Drummond collaborated with 2002 independent female country vocalist Karen Lynne. Produced by Rod Coe, "Six Days in December" saw them pick up the 2001 award for Contemporary Country Song of the Year with a duet called "The Rush", which had previously already taken out two sections of the Queensland Songwriting competition.
In 2001, Drummond toured, "The Chess Set", which created two new characters which led to an in-depth musical examination of the political divisions that had emerged throughout Australia. The Left Wing Black Knight and The Right Wing White Knight took up the cudgels over issues such as Australia's involvement in the Iraq War, The Refugee Detention Centres and Reconciliation.
In 2004-2005, Drummond released a double boxed interactive CD which featured 26 new songs and political speeches. It also included his live theatre show from the project featured at The Blue Mountains Folk Festival and The National Folk Festivals in 2006. In 2008, his new close harmony three-piece comedy outfit, the BBQ Kings was signed to ABC/Universal and their first album 'The Fellowship of the Grill' was released nationally and received a Final Five Nomination in the 2009 ARIA Awards for Comedy Album of the Year. With fellow songwriters, Tony Williams and Chris O'Leary the show was set around three old mates who meet at a BBQ after not having seen each other for nearly a decade and explored through comedy the triumphs and tragedy of the middle aged male.
In January 2016, The Tamworth Country Music Festival, Drummond was given The TSA Songmaker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting. His 'live' double CD, " Late Final Extra - Tales From The Travelling Years " was released in December 2016.
Drummond has served five years with The CMAA (The Country Music Association of Australia), 12 years as Entertainment Director at The Galston Country Music Festival (Sydney NSW), and more recently with The Blue Mountains Folk, Blues and Music Festival, The Hartley Big Backyard Bash, The 2LT Oberon Music Festival and The Steam and Vintage Fair.
Discography
Albums
Solo and with Karen Lynne
- What You See Is What You Get (December 1980, Shoestring Records)
- Pat Drummond (1981, Shoestring Records)
- Skool Daze (February 1985, Shoestring Records)
- Age of Rage – Live at the Rest Hotel 1977–87 (1988, Shoestring Records)
- Tales from the Local Rag (September 1990, True Blue Records)
- Laughter Like a Shield (May 1994, Larrikin Records)
- Of Wheels and Wires (August 1996, Larrikin Records)
- Through the Cracks- Live at the Clarendon (March 1998, Shoestring Records)
- Six Days in December (April 2000, Shoestring Records)
- The Chess Set Volume 1 and 2 (2003, Shoestring Records)
- The Long Journey Home (2008, Shoestring Records)
- The Shark In The Bath and Other Tails (2009, Shoestring Records)
- Late Final Extra - Tales From The Travelling Years" (2016 Shoestring Records)
Singles
- "Chippendale Song/The Lucky Country" (1981, Shoestring Records)
- "The Kelly Option/The End Of The Line" (1989, Shoestring/True Blue)
- "Shoahaven Man / Flicker Of An Eye, (1990 True Blue Records/ Larrikin Music)
- "The Sao Song"/The Local Rag (1991, True Blue Records)
With The Naked Poets
- Naked Poets...live (1999, Shoestring Records)
- Naked Poets...newdirections' (2001, Shoestring Records)
- Naked Poets...buttseriously (2003, Shoestring Records)
- Naked Poets...swinginockers' (2005, Shoestring Records)
- Naked Poets...looseends&wobblybits (2009, Shoestring Records)
With The BBQ Kings
- The Fellowship of the Grill (2008, ABC/Universal)
Trivia
- Pat Drummond can be found in a cameo role as the "schoolteacher" in his son, Matt Drummond's debut feature film Dinosaur Island (2014).
