Goanna

Goanna was a musical co-operative which in the early 1980s touched the Australian subconscious with its songs about the state of the nation.

Raised in rural Victorian Warnambool of Irish stock, with six brothers and sisters, near an aboriginal settlement, Shane Howard left home to wander Australia, busking and working odd jobs. In 1977, when he returned, the family had moved to nearby Geelong and Shane set about assembling another 'family', a band.

The Goanna Band was as casual and non-competitive as a county town compared to the Big City. They were worlds away from whatever pop music was the going thing in the big city. Just doing their own thing. There was never a permanent line-up. Just Shane and his friends, picking up a following by playing to surfies and "heads" along Victoria's coastal regions. Two things stood out, Shane's storytelling angry young man songs, and once she joined in 1979, the extra jazz-tinged presence of Rose Bygrave on vocals and keyboards. Now there was something 'different' about Goanna, and the Big City started listening too.

The current line-up recorded an independent four-track EP named after Shane's 'Livin' On The Razor's Edge' and produced by ex-Dingo Broderick Smith. The EP and Goanna's shows did enough to land them a 'big league' record contract with Warners in February 1982. The band had also taken over a condemned two-story building in inner-city St.Kilda. They had a manager now, who told the State Government the band and their friends would renovate the building if the government supplied the materials. That building was a symbol of the Goanna Band as more than just a band. In some respects that building would also consume them.

Ahead of the 'Spirit Of Place' album, the single 'Solid Rock' told the story of the white invasion of Australia, using Uluru as a symbol. The Rock also featured on the cover of Goanna's album, while the liner notes were written by celebrated historian Manning Clark. Another piece of evidence of Goanna as more than just a rock band. Shane Howard's love of Australia had resulted in an exchange of letters between the young musician and the elder historian. Manning Clark was happy to provide his words of wisdom and insight.

The album itself took much longer to record than expected. It was the group's first time in the studio. Listening to all the voices was producer Trevor Lucas, the Australian folk music legend who had made a name for himself in England as part of the Fairport Convention axis. Lucas had just returned to Australia after more than a decade away. His presence also marked Goanna's album as a special event.

Goanna's socially-aware conscious-pricking album obviously matched the mood of the day.' Solid Rock' and 'Spirit Of Place' both reached #2 on their respective national charts. Their popularity coincided with the protests against the proposed flooding of Tasmania's wilderness, and as Gordon Franklin Goanna recorded the protest song 'Let The Franklin Flow' while Shane Howard joined the picket lines.

In the end a lot of factors contributed to success not sitting well with the Goanna Band. The line-up continued to shift around the front line of Shane, Rose and Shane's sister Marcia Howard. It fell on a few to keep everything, including that building in St.Kilda going. The band added to the problems by insisting on financing the second album themselves, to ensure creative freedom. They brought in Little Feat's piano player Billy Payne as producer. With the band's approval he shifted the focus from guitars to keyboards, from Shane to Marcia. Goanna were always more than one band in one, and their dream was to split off into solo projects, and bring it all together as Goanna. As happens so often in those kind of creative situations they didn't bring the audience into their confidence. From out in the audience Goanna was changing as quickly as the back line-up. The second album 'Oceania' , recorded by another slightly altered line-up, was only a moderate success.

The shifting line-up shouldn't have mattered, because between them Shane, Rose and Marcia were the heart and soul and sound of Goanna. A flow of new musicians could just as easily have invigorated them. And throughout their career they'd known nothing else. But somehow it did matter, on top of the burdons of paying for 'Oceania' and the upkeep of "that" building. In September 1985, still promoting 'Oceania' five months after its release, Shane Howard was reported missing, and the band was forced to cancel $20,000 worth of bookings. It turned out that a disillusioned Shane had decided to travel to South Australia with aboriginal musician Bart Wiloughby. It was the end of Goanna.

Shane Howard started his solo career four years later. Nine years later, in October 1998, Goanna recorded a third album 'Spirit Returns' and gave just two live performances. Producing and joining the line-up as a musician and songwriter was Kerryn Tolhurst of the Dingoes. Rose Bygrave released a mail-order album, 'White Bird' in 1999.