I Never Saw The Cat Bootleg Recordings – Owl Broadhurst 1967 – This Is It! The Worst of The Wilts (2000) CD

In 1979 I moved to Bermagui where Allan and Clayton lived. When
the Le Marlin Café opened for business in 1982 we all started
jamming, mostly backing bluesman Neil Graham - who had previously
played in Melbourne blues units like Reuben Tice and Salters Rush
Blues Band.

When Neil stopped attending, we had no one to back, so Allan and I formed The Wilts duo and we played our first gig at the Le Marlin Café in December 1983, after which we continued to work together on various musical projects, namely Owl Broadhurst & His Band (1997) and the Owl Broadhurst CD, I Never Saw The Cat.

Bob Harris and Martin (Marto) Fowler joined the Wilts in September
1984. The duo played mostly restaurants and a few pubs, the 4-piece
played mostly pubs and a few restaurants.

The Wilts performed 19 gigs as a duo and 16 as a quartet playing gigs
from Pambula to Moruya – a total of approximately 40 gigs, with at
least three and up to five Wilts. The Wilts performed 13 times at the
Le Marlin Café. As a 4-piece, we charged $400 a night, and $200 at the Le Marlin Café. As a 2-piece it was half of that. The band broke up in October 1985.

It has performed since with John McVeity as a fifth member, and on one frightening occasion with Clayton Simms as the sixth.

The Wilts usually played two 40 minute sets, sometimes three. The idea
was to play familiar – preferably kitsch - songs and trash them, so we have only ever performed three original compositions.

This is a complete list of songs performed by the Wilts:

Ain’t She Sweet, Around & Around, Bel Air, Blowing In The Wind, Blue Moon, Boom Boom,
Boomerang, Bring It On Home To Me, Catch The Wind, Communist Girls, Cool Water,
Crying Time, Da Doo Ron Ron, Devil In Disguise, Donna Donna, Easy As Can Be, For Your
Love, Framed, Gimme Some Loving, Glad All Over, Green Green Grass of Home, Hallelujah
I Love Her So, Heart Full Of Soul, Hey Paula, High Noon, Hold On I’m Coming, Honey Pie,
I Belong With You, I Shall Be Released, I (Who Have Nothing), I’ll Make You Happy, I’m A Boy,
I’m A Man, I’m Gonna Get Me A Cat, I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door, In My Book, In The
Summertime, It Ain’t Me Babe, It’s Now Or Never, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka
Dot Bikini, I’ve Got To Get A Message To You, I’ve Told Every Little Star, Jean Genie, King
Of The Road, Lazy Sunny Afternoon, The Leader Of The Pack, Le Mer, Let It Be, Let The
Water Run Down, Little Boy Lost, Little Honda, Little Surfer, Living Doll, The Loved One,
Love Minus Zero (No Limit), Love Potion No 9, Mama Don’t Allow, Mr Apollo, My Generation,
My Skin, One After 909, Only 16, Over The Raindow, Pipeline, Poison Ivy, Rainbow, Red
Roses, Ring Of Fire, Rubber Ball, Running Bear, Satisfaction, Save The Last Dance For Me,
Shakin’ All Over, She’s My Baby, She’s Not You, Silhouettes, Singing The Blues, Somewhere, The
Spider & The Fly, Tonight Will Be Fine, Summertime Blues, Surf City, Surfer Girl, Surfing Safari,
Teddy Bear, Tell Him, Telstar, That’s All Right Mama, Then He Kissed Me, Things, Tiptoe Through
The Tulips, Try A Little Kindness, Under The Boardwalk, You Ain’t Going Nowhere, You Can’t Do That,
You Really Got Me, You’re No Good, You’re The Reason, Walk Right In, Wedding Ring, Wild Side Of Life,
William Tell Overture, Willie & The Hand Jive, Wipe Out, The Women’s Auxiliary, Wonderful World.

In 2000, Allan and Nick Lister compiled The Worst Of The Wilts CD, which was criticised by some for attempting to capture on CD a visual act whose aural delights were not its highpoint.

The Wilts take great pride in being genuinely endorsed by Glenn Wheatley as ‘the world’s worst band’.

We feel that Glenn Wheatley is on the money, because we qualify on at least five counts:

1. We performed a selection of the world’s worst songs
2. Nobody has ever been known to voluntarily play the CD through from start to finish (excluding Allan and me)
3. No tracks have ever been played by any radio station - not even community radio programs run by friends and sometimes relatives
4. With 50 CDs available on the open market for the past three years The Worst Of The Wilts has never sold one
5. And, the drum solo in Wipe Out.

CD tracks: Knock On Your Door (Eddie Hodges), Message (Bee Gees), Satisfaction (Rolling Stones), In The Summertime (Andy Williams), Surfer Girl (Beach Boys), Boomerang (Charlie Drake), Tell Him (Exciters), You Really Got Me (Kinks), I [who have nuthin] (Shirley Bassey), Let The Water Run Down (P J Proby), Surf City (Jan & Dean), Donna Donna (Donovan), Mr Apollo (Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band), Wipe Out (Surfaris), In My Book (Easybeats), Robber Ball (Bobby Vee), Red Roses (Wayne Newton, Catch The Wind (Donovan), Somewhere (P J Proby)

Availability: The Worst Of The Wilts has been available in shops and on the open market for the past three years, but as there is no public interest, its availability is irrelevant.

Contact: albroad@westnet.com.au

Raving on:

After the Wilts:

• Bob ‘Hound Dog’ Harris (guitar/vocals) and John McVeity (bass) put together the popular local band The Spinners, and toured Burma, Martin ‘Marto’ Fowler released a CD, Between Two Worlds, and toured America, Allan ‘Owl’ Broadhurst released a CD, I Never Saw The Cat and had a heart attack,