Band Member Bios

The lead feline and driving force behind (and usually in front of) the Scaredy Cats is otherwise known as Anna Eves, whose searing lead vocals and buckets of sass set the tone for the kind of night a Big Kitty crowd is in for. Big Kitty herself started early, beginning with her first public performance as Pontius Pilate in the Easter play in Grade 3, moving on to singing in all-girl trio "Jazz" from age 12 until 20-ish, and along the way cutting her pointy teeth as a solo jazz vocalist, front person for a variety of uni bands, acoustic and jazz ensembles, and in revues, musical theatre and tribute shows in Queensland, Sydney and later Perth. More than two decades on from her fancy gladiator outfit, she was living in Perth working in acoustic duos and trios and fronting ten-piece blues and soul ensemble Rubber Biscuit, when she eventually ran smack bang into Machine Gun Matt. The rest is Big Kitty history: the two founded BKATSC for a one-off gig in Perth, moved to Queensland and found three likely lads that their mums let them play with. Now Big Kitty provides the croon, the roar, the wail, the sigh, the hoot and the holler, and the tongue firmly planted in cheek for her band.

A devoted sand groper who just happens to live in Brisvegas now, Matt Eves has been working as a professional musician since the tender age of 13. For the first half-dozen or more years of his musical career, MGM was focused on jazz, in which he quickly became a celebrated talent in Perth and farther afield. In between playing with almost every jazz musician and at every jazz and blues festival there is over in the west, Matt spent two years at WAAPA studying jazz, managed to travel the US, playing and taking master classes with the likes of Ellis Marsalis and Rufus Reid, and began sniffing around genres outside of traditional jazz. His formative jazz years were spent as the bass player for the Cornerhouse Jazz Band until he stepped into the jump blues and swing arena with Jus’ Jump in 1998, who went on to become a Perth institution. In time Matt formed Johnny Law & the Pistol Packin’ Daddies with J. Law himself (and they proceeded to enjoy a two-year weekly residency at the famed Mustang bar), and joined Men And Their Sheds, a down and dirty, hard touring, hard playing Aussie rock combo. Along the way he managed to play with a huge list of Perth bands across a range of genres. Since his arrival in Queensland, MGM has spent a year as the Caxton Street Jazz Band’s bassist touring around the state and into NSW, played with jazz legends George Washingmachine and Ian Date as well as the majority of the traditional jazz crowd of musicians in Brisbane, and of course re-formed Big Kitty for the eastern staters. Machine Gun Matt’s slap bass reputation has now definitely cemented itself in Queensland as it did in Western Australia: he’s the Big Kitty engine, its cheeky grin, its extreme vocalist, and its sweaty stuntman.

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.