And, at least in the very early days, it all seemed to just fall in their laps. Young, fresh and enthusiastic, with creamy harmonies punctuated by the booming bass tones of the almost cartoonlike Ian ‘Peewee’ Wilson, the Beanpole of Bop, the Delltones were humorous, entertaining and irrepressible, able to light up a stage or a television screen. The Delltones were part of a burgeoning rock ‘n’ roll environment which largely invented itself part of a community which drew guitar patterns on Fantales boxes in darkened cinemas, ran sprawling suburban dances with pug nosed boxers as bouncers, blew international touring acts off stage with raw, blustery energy, and gleefully upset the social order of a young and conservative country. Only a few had all three.Īustralia knew that it loved the Delltones in 1958, when the four young lifesavers, Noel Widerberg, Brian Perkins, Warren Lucas and Ian ‘Peewee’ Wilson, appeared gawky, gangly and hopeful at the Bronte Surf Club, then in Australian stadium ‘Big Shows’ with mentor Johnny O’Keefe, on pioneering radio show Rockville Junction and television shows Six O’Clock Rock and Bandstand, and finally on record with their debut top twenty hit, the Crows’ doo wop standard Gee. Those which did survive the initial, blistering impact of rock ‘n’ roll plainly possessed something that their audience was not content to let slip away, be it an irresistible sound, a presence, or a personality.

Its protagonists, metaphorically and sometimes literally, lived fast, died young and left a good-looking corpse. It is a remarkable affection which Australia has for the indefatigable Delltones, an entity which has been a part of our lives through not just a phase of rock ‘n’ roll but pretty much its entire span.

Make It Music by Everly Lucas