What an epic set in Adelaide tonight Im from Perth , went last Saturday and she couldn’t come so we flew in today for my 14yr old daughters first Metallica concert, even wearing one of my old school shirts nearly twice her age and the boys delivered in spades…. 🤘

For those in the know, it’s all laid out now with the recent release of the 24-track compilation Zoot Archaeology (EMI/Universal) which celebrates the band’s 50th anniversary, combining the hits, B-sides, album tracks, a number of rarities and even a new Zoot single, a version of The Dream Academy’s 1985 classic ‘Life in a Northern Town’.

For those who might need a brief history lesson: Zoot was an Australian pop rock band, formed in Adelaide during 1967, disbanded in Melbourne 1971, fronted by singer Darryl Cotton, featuring bassist Beeb Birtles and, in a number of different line-ups, drummers Teddy Higgins and Rick Brewer and guitarists John D’Arcy, Steve Stone, Roger Hicks and Rick Springfield. Among other things: Birtles went on to international success with Little River Band; Springfield was a hugely popular solo artist and actor; Cotton was part of Cotton Keays and Morris; Brewer went on to join The Ferrets. As the EMI promotions machine would have it, “Zoot were the ultimate supergroup in reverse”.

People might also recall the “Think Pink-Think Zoot” promotional campaign, which saw the band decked out in all pink clothing and thrust to the forefront of the emergent bubblegum pop movement, vying with the likes of The Valentines, The Flying Circus and New Dream for a place on the charts and in the hearts of teenage girls. With the move into a heavier rock direction, the band’s biggest hit came in 1971 with a thunderous re-arrangement of The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’.

So what’s in a band name? Beeb Birtles, who also recently had his memoir Every Day of My Life published, is on the phone from his home in Nashville TN with the explanation. “Well, it was actually Doc Neeson who came up with the name. That was such a funny meeting… we were originally called Times Unlimited, straight out of high school, and when Darryl joined we changed the name to Down the Line, which was a Hollies song. Doc was a young dance promoter in Adelaide at the time and he was one of these two guys who approached us. They told us that they thought we had a lot of potential but they didn’t really like our name. That’s when Doc said, ‘why don’t you call yourselves something like Zoot, you know, something short and punchy that doesn’t actually mean anything’.