It was only some years later when Robbie snuck his then 15-year-old son into a Psychos gig at the Apollo Bay Music festival that Billy got to witness his father playing in a live rock’n’roll band. While his dad’s music, and the music he loved, had been a constant soundtrack in the Watts household, witnessing it first hand sowed the seeds of Billy’s own eventual musical activities. “It was when I saw him play live that was probably when I started appreciating music and all that stuff,” Billy says.
Tragically, Robbie Watts would suffer a heart attack barely a year later while on tour with the Cosmic Psychos. When Billy inherited Robbie’s guitar, he found himself drawn to the same musical traditions as his father. “I picked up his guitar and started playing it, just by ear,” Watts says.
Billy agrees that getting more into music did help with the emotional healing process after his father’s death. “It was hard to learn to play guitar and watch footage of him at first, but it drove me to achieve something. He was world renowned [from] touring overseas, so it opened my eyes to doing that. Over time I decided to start my own bands and build my own experience,” Billy says.
By the end of high school Billy had started jamming with friends, as well as joining his father’s former band mates on stage at the occasional show. “At that point in time Cosmic Psychos were a big inspiration on my guitar playing. When I started playing with them I’d only been playing for about a year, and some of these shows were sold out shows at the Espy, the Tote, even the very first show I played with them in Castlemaine,” Watts says.
Prior to joining the band, Robbie had played bass in the infamous St Kilda punk troupe I Spit On Your Gravy, fronted by the irrepressible Fred Negro. “Because of my age I never got a chance to see I Spit On Your Gravy play or experience the full punk scene, but I know they were a pretty legendary band,” says Billy. “They were pretty out there, which you can guess from Fred Negro’s Pub strip – he’s a pretty out there sort of guy. There were always I Spit On Your Gravy photos in the photo albums at home, as well as Cosmic Psychos.”
Billy did, however, get the chance to watch his father playing banjo on the steps of Flinders Street station, where he’d busk for some cash, and then take his children out to lunch. “He was actually very, very good at playing banjo, and he loved busking, so he’d take us all down to Flinders Street station. For half an hour he’d busk and then he’d take the kids out for lunch with the money he’d made,” says Billy. “He did it as a hobby, not because he needed the money.”
On Friday July 1, Billy’s new three-piece band Destrends will headline a tribute show to Robbie Watts, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of his death. Also on the bill will be his first band, The Dukes of Deliciousness, and the first live performance in 15 years – and possibly the last ever – of I Spit on Your Gravy.
The idea for the show came from conversations between Billy and his mother; one thing led to another, and a full bill of bands was developed. “Because I’m a musician, I thought I could easily put together a few bands. I started asking a few bands, then I asked I Spit On Your Gravy, which was a bit of a long shot,” Billy says.
After the punk legends did the rock equivalent of putting the issue to committee – that is, talking about it without coming to a conclusion – Billy had to hassle them into making a decision. “Nothing was getting organised, so I said ‘are you going to do it, or not?’, and they said they’d do it, it’d be the last show in honour of dad,” Watts says. “They haven’t played for such a long time, so I don’t know how it’s going to go. But I’m sure they’ll pull it together.”
As for Fred Negro’s onstage antics – which over the years have included violating rubber chickens and a raft of other confronting acts that you still can’t show on prime time television, Billy isn’t sure. “There’s been a lot of talk about that,” Billy says. “They’ve got a few plans, but I can’t give any of them away. [In] some of the Gravys songs Fred plays drums, but he’s done his back so he won’t be able to. He’ll be out the front with The Spittettes, but I don’t know what else.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
