Photo: Peter Mackay, Bob Gardiner, Phil Carr and Harry Herni.
The Harts
Central to the story of the Harts is the journey of its vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bobby Gardiner. In August, 1963 Bobby Gardiner and the Valiants started up the Valiant Club in the Enfield RSL Hall. Despite a few setbacks with guest artists running late and amplifiers blowing up, the crowd still enjoyed themselves according to Young Modern. Influenced heavily by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Valiants’ life was a short one.
Gardiner was soon appearing as a featured vocalist at the popular KT Club in the King’s Ballroom in the city until he met drummer Peter Mackay who asked him to join his band, the Steelmen. During 1964, the Steelmen changed their name to Bobby Gardiner and the Pirates, who performed regularly at the KT Club.
Along the way they recruited a new guitarist, Mike Wade. However, in 1965, the Pirates broke up and Gardiner and Mackay joined up with Derek Manning (bass) and Harry Herni (lead guitar) from fellow northern suburbs band the Exiles, to form the Harts.
The band made a name for itself with its early performances at the Cardijn Club in the Seaton RSL Hall and, after that was forced to close, at Lockleys RSL Hall. The Harts were strongly influenced by the Beatles and Gardiner in particular, by Paul McCartney. Harry Herni soon left the Harts, the first of a number of confusing line-up changes over the years which, amazingly, did not seem to de-stabilise the band.
He was replaced by former Pirate Mike Wade, who in turn departed for Melbourne in mid-1966 to replace Terry Osmond on lead guitar in the Vibrants. Herni returned to the fold, then left to be replaced by ex-Southern Gentleman Mike Brady (not the MPD Ltd vocalist), who stayed only briefly before Herni again returned.
In November, 1966 the Harts took out the Big Daddy’s Big Band Bash and headed for Melbourne where they played at Impulse, Black and Blue and the Thumpin’ Tum. They arrived back in Adelaide in time to accept an invitation to play on the ill-fated Live at Big Daddy’s LP of Adelaide bands. The Harts chose Little Richard’s 50s hit The Girl Can’t Help It and a cover of an old chestnut previously recorded by the Hollies, That’s My Desire. Like the Hollies, the Harts had excellent harmonies which enabled them to update old numbers such as You Made Me Love You and All My Sorrows which went over well in their sets. During the Xmas/New Year period, the band was flat-out with work, performing eight shows with Bev Harrell at Princeton at Victor Harbour.
In January, 1967, Harrell and the Harts appeared on the Big Show at Centennial Hall as support acts for the Walker Brothers, Roy Orbison and Yardbirds. Go-Set columnist and 5KA DJ Chas Lumsden reported that the band were turning fully professional and returning to Melbourne.
The Harts would make many trips to Victoria but tended to make quick forays, always returning home to Adelaide. Because of the prohibitive cost of air travel, it was necessary to traverse between the two cities by road which increased the risk of car accidents. In March, 1967, on a return journey, Derek Manning rolled his car but was fortunate to suffer only a broken tooth.
While interstate, the band had laid down their first single at Armstrong Studios with producer David Mackay, having signed a deal with EMI.
Bob Gardiner’s song writing skills had begun to flourish and they were given the go ahead to record two of his compositions. Little Girl (I’m So in Love With You) was a superb song with a great beat and nice guitar flourishes, similar to the kind of records that were taking Herman’s Hermits to the top of the charts with regularity at the time. However, according to Bob Gardiner, an earlier demo version of Little Girl recorded at Moger Lane with Max Pepper was superior. Cry No More was absolutely superb, a restrained beat ballad with an aching chorus line that the Hollies would have been proud to have done. However, when they heard the record that had been pressed, the band were not happy with the sound quality. Greg Hocking, their manager, took it back to EMI to arrange for a re-pressing.
While they were waiting, Herni and Gardiner narrowly escaped being beaten up by sharpies (a 60s Melbourne gang subculture who were sworn enemies of mods) in Toorak. The next thing they heard was Grantley Dee playing Little Girl on Melbourne radio, talking about the incident and announcing that the band would be playing at a renowned sharpie dance! They escaped the gig unscathed. Released in April on the HMV label, the band’s strong Adelaide following saw Little Girl rise to #17 on the Action Radio 5AD Top 40 and #20 on the 5KA Top 50. The record would have gone even higher but for the fact that they ran out of copies in Adelaide. Another recording made at the time, You See Love by Bobby Gardiner remained unreleased until retrospectively included on the compilation CD Big Beat Cellar Scene in 2009.
As far as Adelaide goes, by 1967 the Harts were pretty much at the top of the tree. In May, they supported the Easybeats and Twilights at Centennial Hall. However, during the year, while in Melbourne, they lost Derek Manning who was replaced on bass by Phil Carr. Harry Herni again departed, electing to remain in Melbourne where he later joined the Laurie Allen Revue. His replacement was Mike Brady for a second stint with the band. In September, the Harts played the 5AD Spectacular with the Hergs, Third Party, Raymond Parker Occupation, Force, Syssys, Village Eyes and Zoot. Workwise, they were regular performers at the Cardijn Club, Princeton, 20 Plus Club and Shindig in the Glenelg Town Hall.
In February, 1968, after a round of “farewell” performances, the Harts again returned to Melbourne. Mike Brady left at some point and South Australian Mike McGuire joined en-route to receiving an offer from Kevin Smith to join the Cherokees. His replacement was Harry Herni post Laurie Allen Revue.
With Darrel Sambell now their manager, the Harts continued to work the 20 Plus Club, Combine and, following the end to early pub closing, venues such as Carnaby Court at the Freeway Hotel in Pooraka. When the Hotel Australia, Adelaide’s premier hotel, opened Swinger in November, 1969, they invited the Harts to play the opening night and become the resident group. Keen to release another single, the band recorded an updated version of the old Ronettes hit The Best Part of Breaking Up at Nationwide Studios in Hindley Street. They were very pleased with the results and gave the tape to Sambell to take to Melbourne for EMI to hear but somehow Sambell managed to record a Johnny Farnham gig over the top of it. In December, 1969 the Harts did make another record but as the Strah (Harts spelt backwards) backing disc jockey Neil Humphrys. Gardiner wrote the A-side Mr Smith. Not happy with the recorded version, he intended burying Humphrys’ vocals further down in the mix but the record was released before this could be done. The single got a few plays on Humphrys’ station 5AD but it never threatened to dent the charts.
In 1970 original member Peter Mackay accepted an offer to join Ian Saxon & the Sound in Queensland. He was replaced by John Van Zyl, previously the vocalist in Hugo, who worked under the name of Tea Marion. Sambell managed to get the Harts a series of gigs in Brisbane as part of the Ivan Dayman circuit. However, Phil Carr and his family were involved in a serious car accident and, although they tried playing a few gigs with a substitute bass player, it wasn’t the same and they packed it in and came back to Adelaide.
The Harts supported the Hollies at Memorial Park in February, 1971. The band were support to the “Easybeats” the same year along with “The Twilight” at Centennial Hall.
Subsequently, they ventured to Perth once again playing the Perth clubs.and and also spent considerable amount time touring Western Australia before disbanding at the end of that year in 1972.
The Harts over the years played their home town of Adelaide SA, Perth WA, Melbourne VIC, Sydney and Brisbane QLD.
Discography
Singles
Little Girl (I’m So In Love With You) / Cry No More For You (HMV EA 4849 – April 1967)
As Neil Humphrys with Strah
Mr Smith / Winter (Nationwide MX 161261/2 – December, 1969)
Tracks on compilation LP
Live at Big Daddy’s (recorded 1966) (Raven RVLP 26 – 1986) (includes The Girl Can’t Help It / That’s My Desire)
Big Beat Cellar Scene – (Nickoff NCD 003 – 2009) (includes You See Love)
Entered at https://www.musicfinder.online/