1976.

At a party held by Terry Driscoll and wife Trish, Robert and Lynette met Barry Masters, a very clever young man who specialised in building model trains, cars, transparent women and dolls houses. He also constructed models for display in real estate rooms, civic centres and other public places, of buildings ranging from houses to hospitals, prisons and blocks of flats. Terry said that Barry had recently designed and built a stage set for his latest concert, ‘Not Quite Folk’, a combination of folk and classical music which he shared with his singing partner, Rosemary.

Terry explained that he and Barry had decided to do a repeat of this show calling it ‘Not Quite Folk, Part Two’ but unfortunately Rosemary was no longer available. Barry suggested that Robert might care to join them in this venture and could he find a singer/entertainer as competent as Rosemary.

It was then that Robert remembered Viv, the Scots woman who had auditioned for his duo idea the previous year. At her request they visited Viv at her home in Bondi Junction and it was clear within a very short time that she would be suitable for their show.

‘Not Quite Folk Part Two’ ran for no more than two nights. The Scouts had a Gang Show on the following weekend, but Terry declared that they would do it again in 1977.

In the mean time Bobby Gripweed’s musical career was expanding. Whilst still charming the Yagoona residents at The Bac’a Bourke Lynette introduced him to one of her favourite watering holes. One Monday evening, after picking her up from work they adjourned to the wine bar known as The Brewers Elbow on the corner of Merriwa St., and the Pacific Highway, Gordon.

Over glasses of rough red and even rougher cider they listened to Patricio Rodriguez singing his Latin/American songs. Although he was an ex native of Ecuador S.A. Pat was determined to be a Mexican and concentrated on the songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Herb Alpert and other Latino’s.

1977.

The only problem with Patricio’s performance was the sound. What with the low rumble of voices and the cacophonous clatter of wet glasses his voice and gut stringed guitar could hardly be heard. Being the kind person Bobby hoped he was, on the following Monday he brought along his amplifier and speakers and set them up. This of course enhanced Pat’s sound and now the patrons were actually listening to him. In time the manager Barry Cuthbert, shifted Pat’s night to Wednesday and after hearing Bobby’s rendition of ‘A Proppa Cuppa Coffee’, a song he had picked up several years before from a Chris Sandford record, (loaned by his friend George, the shy ex accordion player), offered Bobby Gripweed the Monday night spot.

Now Bobby was working on Monday nights (at the Brewers) and Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at The Back ‘a Bourke.

During this period Pat and Bobby often exchanged venues and sometimes actually performed together as a  somewhat odd duo with Pat referring to Bobby as his cousin from Guadalajara and Bobby calling Pat his cousin from Ireland, adding that their daddy  had been a travelling man. Their show-stopper was a song written by the Mexican patriot Jose Marti titled , ‘Guantanamera’ or sometimes ‘One Ton Of Marrows’ and ‘One Sunday Mirror’. (I doubt very much that The Sandpipers, Pete Seeger or Jose Marti  saw the funny side of these malapropisms)

During his day to day work as a salesman in a steel company Robert made the acquaintance of Allan Nowers, a fellow musician and complete ratbag. Although they had never actually met face to face they quite often spent more time than they should have on the phone, batting the breeze, for their sense of humour ran along the same track. Eventually they met at the Union Hotel in North Sydney and for more than three hours kept Lynette in stitches with their running repartee. With Allan was Rod Stanton the younger brother of the erstwhile famous Barry Stanton, an Elvis Presley lookalike who had made a minor name for himself in Channel Nine’s ‘Six O’Clock Rock’.

It was Rod’s intention to start a group and in between jokes and jugs of beer he attempted to outline his ideas, for he had written more than two dozen songs and was anxious to not only air them but put them on vynil, in the hope that he would manage to get one or two, or all of them, for that matter, into the popular Hit Parades. We would, he suggested, practice on weekends in brother Barry’s garage in Greenwich. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, the idea got no further than one Saturday morning goofing around, but Allan and Bobby became friends and sometimes Allan joined him at The Brewers Elbow or The Bac’a Bourke steakhouse.

Joining Terry and Barry, Robert and Allan concocted Not Quite Folk Part III, adding three humorous skits plus a selection of songs other than folk which included some recorded impersonations. They persuaded Viv to return and asked Bev, Robert’s partner from The Back’aBourke, to add her talent to the show. Barry M. designed and erected all the stage sets and had Terry’s wife Trish as stage manager. It was only shown for two nights but they were both full houses.

1978.

Apart from his Monday night’s Brewers Elbow gig Bobby Gripweed had picked up a Wednesday night’s spot at Mirror’s Wine Bar at Gladesville which only gave him a couple of nights off every week. To make matters all the more challenging the owner of The Settler’s Mulgoa based restaurant offered him a fulltime residency entailing Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, an offer he couldn’t refuse. This literally meant that Bobby Gripweed was now a professional entertainer. To keep things all above board he engaged the services of an accountant and became a member of Actor’s Equity, (later known as Media Ltd)

Lynette persuaded Robert to take a trip to Britain in 1979 and on the Christmas of ’78 they made their plans. The manager of The Settlers agreed to allow him five weeks holiday in the June of ’79, getting an Irish waiter, Mike to fill in whilst he was away. Before he departed Barry and he started devising a new show to open at the Dural Hall later towards the end of the year. It would be entirely different from the Not Quite Folk shows and would involve more actors and sketches.

It would be called ‘It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time’ and would be based on the male psyche, after all Reg Livermore had been giving the female psyche a bit of a bashing lately with his ‘Betty Blokkbuster’ and ‘Wonderwoman’. Who knew, with a spot of good luck they might just get Harry M Miller in one of their audiences and then they’d be on their way.  A nice piece of wishful thinking indeed.