Where Can They Be Now?
The Age
Saturday December 4, 2004
GREG HAM (flute, sax, keyboards, 1979 to 1985, 1996 to 2002)
Lives in Carlton. Ham and Hay were last to call it quits from Men at Work in 1985. They reunited to tour the US and South America from 1996 to 2002. Ham often appears on stage at Hay's annual Australian summer shows. He teaches music at three Melbourne schools, plays occasionally with Miss Dorothy and the Fools in Love and every Sunday with the Nudist Funk Orchestra at the Esplanade Hotel. Reunion prospects? "At various stages it was kind of discussed, but to some extent, Colin and I are the only ones that continued to play music."JOHN REES (bass guitar, joined 1979, sacked 1984)Lives in Fish Creek, Gippsland. "I can't live without playing music. I teach five instruments. I also play in four or five bands. I think I'm the only member of the band that wanted to keep playing. Why was I thrown out? I don't really know. I still think about it. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the band, but when I get a royalty cheque it's already gone. The tax department wants my blood." He plays with the Swinging Blue Dogs, a "kinda punk jazz band", Wednesdays at Cafe Invidia in Ashburton. "I see Jerry every couple of weeks, talk to Ron maybe twice a year. I send psychic messages to everyone every couple of minutes."COLIN HAY (vocals, guitar, 1979 to 1985, 1996 to 2002.)Hay was working in Sydney in 1978 on the musical Heroes when he met Ron Strykert. They formed a duo and, in Melbourne, began performing the songs that would become Men At Work's hits, including Down Under, which was originally a B-side but went to No. 1 in Australia, the UK and US in 1982 and '83. It has helped sell 12 million Men At Work albums. Hay has said he began to write it while driving in Hawthorn. He still plays it at his solo concerts.RON STRYKERT (guitar, joined 1978, left 1985)"Ron is the guy you won't be able to find," says Greg Ham. "He's in Billings, Montana, in America, as part of a religious group called the Church Universal and Triumphant. As far as I know, Ron hasn't done a gig since his last one with Men At Work. He played on the last album in '85, but he just stopped turning up at the studio one day and that was it."JERRY SPEISER (drums, joined 1979, sacked 1984)Lives in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Has sat in on various low-key recording projects and sessions, which are taking a back seat to a parallel career in seminars and business consultancy, based on the principles of US social scientist and inventor Buckminster Fuller. He is writing a book on the subject. Until recently he played in a jazz band at the Hyatt hotel."I haven't seen him for a few years," says Greg Ham. "His daughter and my daughter were in the same choir."
© 2004 The Age
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