SONS OF THE VEGETAL MOTHER

Sons of the Vegetal Mother (also known as The Vegetals to fans) were an Australian "esoteric special-occasion progressive band", formed in late 1969, with a floating line-up based around the nucleus of Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford (both ex The Pink Finks, The Party Machine) and singer-drummer Gary Young and bassist Wayne Duncan, who had both been members of veteran Melbourne band The Rondells, who are best known as the backing group for pioneering beat duo Bobby & Laurie.The Vegetals performed intermittently at multimedia and art events, 'happenings' and concerts at Melbourne galleries and venues like the TF Much Ballroom. Band 'members' at these events included Wilson and Hannaford's former Party Machine cohort Mike Rudd (later in Spectrum) and bassist Tim Partidge (Company Caine) and it was planned that other performers would join in, such as Wilson's friends Keith Glass and Gulliver Smith.

The Vegetals made few recordings—their only known release is 'The Garden Party', a custom-pressed EP played at and given away to audiences at an event/exhibition called The Garden Party. Sons of the Vegetal Mother were part of the line-up at one of Australia's first outdoor rock festivals at Myponga in South Australia at the end of January 1971, and this proved to be a watershed in the group's short career. The enthusiastic reception given to Daddy Cool's set eclipsed the Vegetals' performance, making it clear that Daddy Cool was taking on a life of its own, and Sons of the Vegetal Mother was soon phased out altogether. It was during the Myponga performance that Chris Lofven filmed the footage that was later used in his promotional film-clip for "Eagle Rock". A few months after Myponga, Daddy Cool was spotted by former teen guitar prodigy turned producer Robie Porter who signed them to the Sparmac label, and in May 1971 they released their debut single "Eagle Rock". The single quickly reached #1 and stayed there for a (then) record ten weeks.

Members

Ross Wilson (vocals, guitar), Ross Hannaford (guitar, vocals), Trevor Griffin (piano), Wayne Duncan (bass, vocals), Mike Rudd (bass), Tim Partridge (bass), Jeremy Kellock (Jeremy Noone) (tenor saxophone), Bruce Woodcock (tenor saxophone), Ian Wallace (alto saxophone), Simon Wettenhall (trumpet), Gary Young (drums)

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_the_Vegetal_Mother