Lee describes the event as a celebration of Kustom Kulture – an umbrella term describing rockabilly music, hot rods and other vintage cars, pin up girls, art work (for instance, Tiki style or pin-striping, which is the hand-painted, thin line work that you see on a fancy, old set of wheels), vintage clothing, and rock’n’roll or rockabilly dancing. “GreazeFest is where all of that comes together,” Lee says. “We create a playground for all of those facets.”
Before GreazeFest, there was nothing of its kind in Australia. “There’s always been nostalgia events,” says Lee. “But never anything that was for an underground scene. It’s weird to talk about that now, because there’s nothing underground about rockabilly anymore – it’s well and truly above ground because of things like GreazeFest and the internet. But back then, it was a closed off scene – it was almost secret handshake style stuff to unlock the doorway into this world. Now, thanks to the media loving us so much because we’re so colourful, we’ve gotten a lot of exposure and people know what rockabilly is. 15 years ago, people would’ve stared at you blankly.
“We’re into this stuff everyday, we don’t just slick the hair back one weekend a year, this is our lifestyle. We wanted to have our own party and now we have it and it’s huge.”
What sparked Lee’s life-long obsession with rockabilly? “As a 16-year-old you don’t think something is going to become your business and your life, but it was The Cramps who turned me on to it,” she reflects. “Their cover of Dominoreally did it for me, so I went looking for the original version of the song. I found a record that had Dominoon it called Rockabilly Rules Ok. A crap album title, but it had a whole bunch of Sun Records tracks. That was it, it opened the door. It’s a long life though, you can’t just listen to Memphis 1956 forever. I’ve got broader tastes, well not really that broad – I like ‘50s and ‘60s.”
The pinnacle of these types of events internationally is indisputably the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly festival, but we aren’t doing too badly. “You read about Viva and see the tattoo and Kustom car shows on the TV from the States and think, ‘Geez, their scenes must be huge’,” Lee says. “But really, they aren’t any bigger than what we’ve got here. The grass isn’t any greener. What we’ve got going on in Australia is some of the best in the world. We’ve certainly got some of the best rockabilly musicians in the world. With all respect to musicians in Europe and the States, but those cats aren’t rocking harder than we are.”
In line with that philosophy, the lineup for this year’s GreazeFest is a mine of Aussie-rockabilly talent, including Sydney barber and rockabilly rebel Pat Capocci, The Detonators, Scotty Baker and Double Black. The event is rounded out with pin-up parades, internationally renowned pin-striping artist Von Hot Rod, US pin-up queen Sabina Kelly (who’s now a Melbourne resident) and Mimsy of Trailer Trash Tattoo, who’ll become a resident feature of the festival, inking customers out of her sparkly, pink 1960s Sundowner Caravan in her inimitable colour poppin’ style.
Some of the heaviest hitters when it comes to international rockabilly will also grace the stage, including the US’s Rhythm Shakers – a rockabilly, surf music outfit fronted by the savage and sassy Marlene Perez. Lee is especially looking forward to seeing UK wild cat John Lewis. “I saw him last year in Japan, headlining a rockabilly festival and he was so good,” she says. “He is the real deal. It’s like he’s got the devil inside him when he gets warmed up onstage. His eyes pop out and the veins in his neck start to throb and he gets this growl in his throat. It’s so exciting to watch. And, he’s a gentleman, so he’s lovely to hang out with.”
When pressed for a GreazeFest highlight, Lee starts chuckling. “That’s really hard, but I’ll try,” she says. “Last year when Double Black were playing, they came to the end of the set and I was down the front dancing. I got them back on for an encore – it’s one of my specialties, getting the crowd vocal – and the encore was incredible. They did a Link Wray cover and at the very end, on the very last note Travis threw his drumsticks at the drums and they bounced out into the crowd and I caught one. It’s just a fuckin’ drumstick right, but I’ve never caught a bouquet – that was my bouquet.”
BY GEM DOOW
