The band has been championing the aforementioned goal as The Mighty Kings since late 2013, with a set that transverses classic rockabilly from the ‘50s and ‘60s right across to ‘80s and ‘90s rock and pop, and can also include underground rock royalty guests like Heath Brady (Dirt River Radio) and Rosie Conforto (Pretty Villain) getting on the mic for these occasions.
But The Mighty Kings story goes much further back than 2013, as explains Giovinazzo, it goes right back to the early ‘80s and the suburb Reservoir.
“Gabby and I met in Prep and then went to high school together,” recalls Giovinazzo. “In about Year 10 I was heavily into dance music and then Gaby introduced me to Elvis.” A nostalgic Giovinazzo now recounts the exact experience when Bainy converted him to classic rock’n’roll.
“I remember we walked around Edward’s Lake in Doncaster with a ghetto blaster just playing Elvis Sun Sessions and from that moment I fell in love with Elvis and that kind of style of music.”
To add further legitimacy to The Mighty Kings’ claim they are Melbourne’s local champions of promoting and sustaining rockabilly, listening to Elvis was the only reason that Bainy and Giovinazzo learnt to play guitar and at this point the band’s history Bainy takes over the narrative.
“We were actually a little bit confused of how we were going start this. ‘Who was going to play double bass?’ ‘Was there going to be a double bass?’ ‘How were we going to get a double bass?’ ”
The two high school students, in typical pubescent boy fashion, had a guitar solo competition to see who would be the band’s guitarist with the loser taking on the imposing task of learning the double bass.
From the band’s current lineup, it’s clear Bainy won, with Giovinazzo becoming the double bass player, resting his stand-up bass a plank of wood on a crate with a makeshift Sure mic and a single string. From here, the boys got a real double bass and recruited their original drummer Deryl Watson and began gigging.
Giovinazzo now gives context to Melbourne’s music scene in 1989 – 1990. “[During] the period we began, the band Stray Cats had just hit the scene and rockabilly had become a fad so everyone started going to rock’n’roll and rockabilly shows and wearing the hairstyles.”
The three piece now known as The Mighty Kings were, back then, known as The Runaway Boys – the title of a Stray Cats song – and they gigged around for about a year until one night when the band was forced to change their name, resulting in a decline in momentum and ultimately the end of the band until they reformed last year.
“One night around ’92, we were just piss-farting around at the drummer’s house, because that’s where we rehearsed, and his mum called us into the TV room and this talent show New Faces was on and said, ‘Watch these guys.’ It was a band called The Runaways Boys, same as us, so we looked at each other in disappointment and said, ‘We gotta change our name,’ ” states Bainy with a cheeky wonderment before revealing, “The Runaway Boys [are] now known as The Living End.”
From then, even though they weren’t in a band together anymore, the two school friends remained close mates. Last year Bainy, now a family man, called up Giovinazzo and asked him reform their rockabilly band. Both guys had remained active musicians in the time elapsed so it wasn’t a huge ask, but the fact remained Giovinazzo hadn’t played a double bass in 20 years.
“He called me up in mid-2013 and said, ‘Hey Don, I’ve got this open mic night in Reservoir can you help me out? – I’ve got a double bass in garage you can use and I was like, ‘Shit I haven’t played in 20 years but bring it over,’ so he gave me a list of rockabilly covers and we rehearsed the songs with drummer, who was actually a guitarist but he could keep a beat, then we played the open mic night under the name Just Because – that is an Elvis song – and everyone lost their minds so we thought, ‘This has legs, let’s see where it can go,’ So I Googled some band names that weren’t taken and found The Mighty Kings and thought, ‘This is perfect for a rockabilly band,’ ” explains a chuffed Giovinazzo.
In just over a year, The Mighty Kings have become regulars in the Melbourne music calendar, with at least a gig a week. This week’s performance at Rockabilly Sundays at Prince of Wales Public Bar will see the band celebrating a very successful month-long residency with the show potentially featuring a cover song the band have been working hard to convert from glam-rock to a rockabilly format, sitting well with their other covers, like Walk This Way, Tainted Love and Fight For Your Right.
“Mötley Crüe Kick Start My Heart – we’re trying to get it right so we do it justice, we have practiced it for months, but we are struggling to keep it ballsy but make it fit into a rockabilly set.”
BY DENVER MAXX
