DYLANESQUE
Keyboards & Backing Vocals.
Simon plays Keyboards for tribute band 'DYLANESQUE'. The band currently perform a Bob Dylan & Tom Petty tribute Show named, 'True Confessions Revisited'.The show is based on the 1986 Bob Dylan world tour, on which Bob Dylan joined forces with Tom Petty and The Heart Breakers, and Stevie Nicks.
DYLANESQUE are staggering audiences accross Australia with their new show, which has everyone rocking out to the very best songs from these music icons.
DYLANESQUE are staggering audiences accross Australia with their new show, which has everyone rocking out to the very best songs from these music icons.
REIGN
Keyboards & Backing Vocals.
Simon plays keyboards for rock band 'REIGN'. The band pays tribute to two of Australias most iconic bands, 'Dragon' and 'Australian Crawl', playing all the popular hits. We also play popular hits from Ice House, Mondo Rock, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, Hoodo Gurus, Jimmy Barnes, INXS and more.
THE GROOVE DEALERS
Keyboards & Backing Vocals.
The Groove Dealers are a fantastic little trio Simon put together with long time friend Ashley Hill, and features the wonderful lead vocals of Susan Weir. The Groove Dealers cover songs from Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow, Pink, Divinyls, Melissa Etheridge, Jewel, Amy Winehouse, Baby Animals and more.
TOUCH
Keyboards & Backing Vocals.
Simon plays Keyboards for Noiseworks tribute band 'TOUCH'. The band play all of the classic Noiseworks hits + other popular 'B side' tracks.
TOUCH launched with their 1st show at Musicland on Sat 14th March.
TOUCH launched with their 1st show at Musicland on Sat 14th March.
REIGN
Keyboards & Backing Vocals.
Simon plays keyboards for rock band 'THE ACCELERATORS'. The show "Classic Highway Rock" is a guaranteed night of nostalgia and dancing, and promises to take the crowd to ‘a time where you were free, out on the highway with the windows down, wind rushing through your hair & singing along to your favourite tunes on the stereo.’
LAW OF THE LAND (LOL)
Keyboards (sampling Bass Guitar, Guitar + Piano, synths etc) & Backing Vocals.
These 3 Lads are longtime friends & fellow musicians, who played and toured together during the 90's. For a long time now Simon Rhodes, Tony Stamkoski & Jimmy McGeachy kicked around the idea of forming an original rock band together. Well recently that time came to fruition, and the boys have been busy writing.
"We have a bunch of original song ideas which we have been working through, and some very decent home studio recordings of our ideas".
Simon, Tony & Jimmy are the core of the band, writing and recording the material. Additional members will be selected to come on-board at a later date.
Simon Rhodes is an Australian born musician based out of Melbourne. Simon's influences are pop, rock & roll and rhythm & blues and southern rock.
Simon's was introduced to the family piano when he was about 4 years old, and he instantly took to it. He started to play tunes that resembled the songs he would hear around the family home at a very young age. The family piano was a small wooden upright with a beautiful and lively rich tone to it. As a young boy there was always music playing around the house, the Beatles, Elton John, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond plus a host of other artists. It was the songs of these artists that he grew up with, and learned to play on that piano.
At the age of 15 Simon formed a high school band called 'Something Simple', and they played at lunchtimes in the school gym. The accoustics were terrible, with plenty of reverb! It was a fun learning experience.
After many school gigs & loungeroom appearences, Simon joined he's first real band when he was 18, a five piece rock & roll covers band called 'Public Notice'. They played a lot of Australian rock / pop covers and the band had a great sound. Public Notice played at pubs and clubs such as the Hampton Hotel, Fosters Night Spot, The Junction Hotel and the Armadale Hotel plus many others. They played parties and functions, whatever. Public Notice pretty much played a gig wherever they could fit the band!
A few years later Simon started working with 'Andy Court and the Adventurers', a 5 piece Blues / Rock band, which lead to many shows in W.A. with another band called 'Double or Nothing', a 6 piece covers & original Rock / Blues band and played regularly at the 'Newport' and the 'Metropolis'.
During the 90's Simon worked with a numerous bands as the keyboard player & backup vocals.
After Midnite, a covers Rock / Pop band formed by a talented group of local musicians. The band wrote a small number of original songs, and played a small number of pubs, parties and private functions.The 'Andrea Lees Band', a 6 piece Dance / Funk band.The Groove Foundation, a 6 piece Dance / Funk band which played at 'Juice' and 'Stylus' night clubs in Melbourne plus other pubs & venues.
In the mid 90's Simon started working with the well-known Melbourne covers Rock band 'Drop Dead Gorgeous'. They held a 2 year residency at the IVY nightclub in Melbourne, and also played in Country towns, Universities, AFL functions etc... In 1996 the band recorded an album of original material and gained a small amount of airplay. Simon recalls "I think we produced about 1000 CD's from the album, we sold about 900 of them and kept a handful for each band member". The album was called 'On Arfur Semalli's Request'. The most common question Simon and the band were asked about the album was, 'who is Arfur'? Well Arfur was an elusive character, a figment of the lead singers imagination. Arfur was anybody and everybody. I'll leave it at that. It was alot of fun with a great bunch of guys. Track2 from the album is featured in the media gallery.
In the late 1990's through to about early 2004 Simon worked on and off with Soul Sister, a popular Melbourne covers band playing local pub gigs as well as large scale corporate events (Melbourne Cup, Crown Paladium).
In amongst playing covers Simon had always enjoyed song writing, but never really had the right opportunities to put it out there. On 23rd November 2003 Simon won the best vocal performance award in the Andrea Marr student showcase performing an original song he wrote back in the 1990's. A song called 'Long Way Home', or as some people like to call it 'The Sidney Song', which was played on occasion by 'Public Notice' & 'After Midnite', but most importantly - loved by many. From time to time when playing solo, Simon is known to sneak an original song or two into his set list!
In 2015 after a substantial break, Simon returned to his roots, playing solo piano & vocals, piano bar covers of Elton John / Billy Joel & others, with the odd original thrown in for good measure!
In March 2016 Simon was invited to record a session with 'Andrea Marr' and 'The Funky Hitmen' playing the piano on Andrea's new track called 'Force Of Nature', which was released in July. Simon had alot of fun with Andrea and the band during the recording session and supported Andrea playing the piano on that track at the Docklands Blues Festival as well as a number of Andrea's local gigs around Melbourne. It was fantastic working with Andrea and her band. Andrea's such a professional and She's so good at what She does, and the band are awesome.
2018 / 2019
You can currently catch Simon playing in and around Melbourne weekly, either solo 'Piano Bar' gigs, or with Simon's trio The Groove Dealers, or Aussie Rock trubute band REIGN, or with the Tom Petty / Bob Dylan show DYLANESQUE. Check out the 'Events' tab for details.
"Life's short, live each & every day as if you know it's your last, love everyone around you, love what you do"
Simon Rhodes xx