Banger
Harvey ‘Banger’ Wright
Harvey ‘Banger’ Wright (b. Brisbane – Australia 25th November, 1949 - ) learnt various instrument whilst growing up. Piano, Piano Accordion, Mouth Organ and then later on started playing his favourite instrument Drums. Almost finishing school in 1967, Banger went looking for a band to join, but eventually formed his own band with a friend (Calvin Playle) he had meet while travelling on the train to work each day. The band was called Green Ginger (Banger – Drums and Vocals, Cal Playle – Lead Vocals, Rod Compagnoni – Lead Guitar and John Mason – Bass Guitar) which went on to do a little bit of work around Bribane during 1968.
In the early part of 1969 whilst playing at the Open Door (Turbot Street – Brisbane) Green Ginger approached members of another 3 piece band playing to see if their Rhythm Guitarist and Bass Guitarist were interested in joining up with us. The reformed band became know as Red Pepper (Banger – Drums and Vocals, Cal Playle – Lead Vocals, Rod Compagnoni – Lead Guitar, Fred Arnold – Bass Guitar and Kevin Hayden – Rhythm Guitar and Vocals). Red Pepper went on to do quite a bit of work around South East Queensland during 1969 and 1970. The band broke up prematurely towards the end of 1970 due to Rod and Kevin getting called up for National Service. All members of this line up are still going strong and will be reforming for a one off set on the 28th November, 2009 to celebrate Bangers’ 60th Birthday.
After the breakup of Red Pepper, Banger moved to Mackay in North Queensland and formed a band called Powerhouse (Banger – Drums and Vocals, Lance Hayward – Vocals, Bud Moore – Bass Guitar and Don ???? – Lead Guitar). After Powerhouse broke up in 1973, Lance moved back to Brisbane and became a member of Able Magwitch and Four On The Floor. Banger went on to play in a couple of other bands in Mackay – Enigma (Banger played Keyboards in this band) and Hun – before moving back to Brisbane in early 1974.
Sometime after arriving back in Brisbane, Banger formed a band called Blue Light (3 piece with Lead, Bass and Drums) which did work around South East Queensland until early 1975. Later that year, Banger on his birthday tried our with a band called Switch and made the cut. At the time of joining the line up was Kevin Williams – Vocals, Phil Kerr – Bass Guitar, John Forster – Lead Guitar and Banger on Drums and Vocals. This band played around South East Queensland on and off until 1985 with various changes in the lineup. (Peter Price – Lead Guitar, Jeff Fyfe – Lead Guitar, Perry Swanborough – Keyboards, Philip Wright (no relation to Banger) – Lead Guitar and Wally Young – Lead Guitars).
After the demise of Switch, Banger took a break from playing for a while until he got the urge to start playing again. Banger contacted his old lead singer from Powerhouse in Mackay – Lance and they formed a band called Four On The Floor (Peter Game – Lead Guitar and Vocals, Lance Hayward – Vocals, Banger – Drums and Vocals and Lance Thompson – Bass Guitar) which did quite a bit of work around South East Queensland.
After the demise of Four On The Floor, Banger decided to take another hiatus for a period and around the Turn of the Century, decided to give it another go. Banger joined Weekend Warriors and played in a few lineups during this time. Banger approached some people from Warriors to form a more permanent band. The band which was put together was called Minus 20 (Kim Henshaw – Vocals and Guitar, Banger – Drums, Graham – Guitar and Vocals, Richard – Guitars and Paul – Guitars and Vocals). Over the next few months there was quite a few changes in lineup and a name change. The Band was now to be called Not Dead Yet (taken from a song by Styx) which featured Kim and Banger and new members David Milne – Guitars and Vocals, Jeanel Dalgrin – Vocals and Keyboards and Banger invited his old Bass Guitarist – Phil ‘Harmonic’ Kerr from Switch days to join (which he was only to happy to accept). In 2006 Kim decided to pursue other areas and Not Dead Yet invited another previous member of Switch – Phil Wright – Lead Guitar to join. This is now the current line up of Not Dead Yet.
In 2008, our old Lead Singer from Switch, Kevin ‘Master Blaster’ decided he would like to get the old band back together. He invited myself and Phil ‘Harmonic’ Kerr to join the band (we accepted) and after a few changes in relation to the Lead Guitarist position we finally contacted one of the old guitarists from Switch – Wally ‘Hammer’ Young. Unfortunately we could not use to old name so decided on SwitchBack. And now we have newcomer Matt on keyboards and guitar and vocals -- Back to our classic line up.
Banger in Powerhouse 1972
Bundaberg 1978
Banger 1980