Dear old Harv (Chris Harvey to his mum) starting playing music at age 6, but he was 15 before he realised his hands were made to fit an electric guitar, and that he was born for the blues.  He played in countless blues bands around London as a teenager, sharing the bill occasionally with celebrated musicians from bands such as The Small Faces and Thin Lizzy, and turned professional at 25, playing mostly with a boogie pianist named Dino Baptiste, also playing with Big Joe Turner.  Did you know that Chaka Khan has a sister named Taka?  Harv does – he played with her too.  In 1998 Harv saw the light, had the operation, and relocated to Western Australia where he proceeded to work in every single other Perth band that Matt didn’t work in, including Gecko and Blue Soup.  Without Matt and Harvey ever meeting or working together (though don’t start them talking about Perth people, they know all the same shifty blokes), Harvey sauntered east in around 2002 and has spent the last five years playing with the majority of Brisbane’s blues stalwarts, including Blue Rhythm Kings where he plays with drummer Jules.  In late 2005, Big Kitty and MGM met Harv at a mutual muso friend’s party and knew instantly from the cut of his smart tan leather jacket that he was going to fit right in.  The Guv is Big Kitty’s blues man: he wails on old jump and barrelhouse blues and it simply doesn’t know what hit it.  Not to mention his rockabilly chops…they’re sweet too.

If ever there was anyone who had rockabilly and country in their veins (picture tiny cowboys and aces of spades rushing round in there), it has to be Rupert Jenner.   And everybody in Brisbane seems to recognise Rupert from bands he played in aeons ago, such as The Shed Men and The Shakin’ Quavers, which is one of the reasons these guys need to start touring interstate.  As far back as 1991 Rupert was playing with The Shed Men, with whom he supported the iconic Sleepy la Beef, and already on his way to becoming the most recognisable face on the east coast.   He joined Sydney band Little Hornet in 1994, who enjoyed JJJ high-rotation airplay and supported some of Australian rock’s favourites including the Mentals, Baby Animals, Boom Crash Opera and the Choirboys.  JJJ hadn’t heard the last of Rupert; another of his bands (Blue) won the unearthed competition in 2000 with a song Rupertly-named “I Like Girls”.  In 2002 he toured the US with rockabilly’s Josie Kreuzer, and in the years since then he’s spent long lazy residencies on Hamilton Island in a duo, played with Jeff Lang and Fiona Boyes at Woodford Folk Festival, been to Qatar on Australia Day 06 to support the troops, played with Brisbane rockabilly crews West Texas Crude, Men Into Space and the Rumble Kings, and begun to delve further into the traditional jazz that is his dad Andy’s home turf, playing in a jazz trio with the paternal one.  In Big Kitty, Rupert twangs, jang-jang-a-langs, picks them country chickens, and sings the sweetest of country vocals.

Got a bad pun?  Betcha Jules can beat it.  Jules is a long-term blues drummer who has decided finally to add rockabilly and country as fine strings to his weighty bow.  Jules’s blues history stretches as far as his tall tales: originally from places unknown, he appeared mysteriously in Brisbane and proceeded to play with a hefty register of blues bands and musicians including his own band with Guv’nor Harvey, the Blue Rhythm Kings.  In the hot, sticky February of 2006 Jules accepted a seemingly innocent invitation from Harvey to fill in for Big Kitty’s drummer at a rock’n’roll club dance in Ipswich.  This evening turned out to be a key moment in Big Kitty history – 40 degrees at 10pm, dancers impatient for the band breaks to end, four hours straight of brand new music in similar tempos, no fans, no air-conditioning, and relentless dad jokes provided by the newcomer.  Of course Jules was hooked, as was the rest of the band, and by late 2006 he had shifted from playing fill-in gigs for Big Kitty to being the permanent skins operator.  With Machine Gun Matt, Jules rounds out the rockin’ Big Kitty rhythm section, providing the get-up-off-your-chair-and-dance groove the band are becoming renowned for, wearing the best sunnies, and tirelessly rolling out new comedic routines for the band members.  Expect to see a mic near Jules’ cakehole soon – he’s also an impressive blues belter.  Five-part harmonies, anyone?