He’s the true definition of an aging rocker: black Led Zeppelin shirt, black jeans, a husky voice and a life filled with music.
John Bedson has called Tamborine Mountain home for 46 years and in that time, he’s entertained locals and visitors with his many bands.
“I play a lot of music,” he said in his laconic manner.
John is a man of few words, preferring to let the music speak.
As a teenager at boarding school at The Southport School (TSS) John said he’d sit in his room with drum sticks and tap on his books while listening to music.
“It got me away from the boring boarding school antics. I just wanted to get to the restaurant to start cooking,” he recalled.
He couldn’t wait to leave school and at 17 he finally left TSS and joined his father at his Gold Coast restaurant where he was thrilled to find a drum kit waiting for him.
“A couple of guys moved into the flat next door and heard me practicing and asked me if I wanted to join their band,” he said.
So, while learning to be a chef he began playing at the restaurant at the age of 21 in a jazz trio called Newmena.
He went on to open his own curry restaurant, The Sultan’s Kitchen in Surfer’s Paradise, where he worked for four years before heading off to the Whitsundays touring with the band Just Jad.
John returned to the Gold Coast and joined a band called Activist Link playing blues and jazz.
Later he played the drums in the Jackson Brothers band doing gigs around Brisbane playing a mix of jazz and Led Zeppelin.
He met his wife, Katrina, at his restaurant.
“She didn’t like the date she had, so she started talking to me and that was it,” he said.
“We went around the world for three months after getting married.
“It was fantastic. I still remember Amsterdam. That was a good spot. There was lots of music going on.
“Then down to Spain and Ibiza, a little raging island.”
In England they visited the legendary Ronnie Scott’s and checked out some of the punk and reggae bands that were big at the time.
The couple returned from overseas and built a house on Tamborine Mountain where they raised their two sons, Callum, now living in Ipswich and Shane in Wollongong.
Neither has followed in John’s musical footsteps.
John’s first job on the mountain was as a chef at St Bernards Hotel. He then ran the kitchen at Club Tamborine and later at the Eagle Heights Hotel.
Music remained John’s passion and he entertained locals putting on dances at the Tamborine Mountain Showgrounds hall several times a year, playing in a band and cooking the food.
“It was pretty popular. We played a bit of reggae and a bit of rock and punky type stuff,” John said.
People would come all over to dance and enjoy the atmosphere of the night.
For nine years he also played in the band Barb Wired at the bowls club with Craig Larrate on guitar and Dave Keyan on base.
“That was a great band. We did soft rock,” he said, adding it was the highlight of his week.
“I had to get my chef mate to take over the kitchen on Thursday nights.”
They moved from there to Curtis Falls, where he formed a band with Ken McSloy and Matt Culfal called the Kenwhwa Experience.
“I was part of the driving force behind the mountain’s music scene. I had music going each week,” John revealed.
For 30 years he also ran The Green Room at The Belvedere restaurant on Main Street. A music night on Thursdays where anyone could come in and a have a play.
“We filled the place,” he said. On one occasion they were even joined by renowned blues guitarist, Phil Manning.
Now the famous music night has reincarnated at the Zamia Theatre once a month, offering artists a chance to play a variety of styles of music.
Locals who enjoyed John’s music years ago have now returned to hear him smash the drums at Zamia.
And although he calls himself retired, he’s in four bands and remains a mainstay at JB’s Mountain Music Shop, which he opened in 2016, selling unique guitars as well as CDs and old records.
From there he also runs his radio station, TMFM, every Saturday playing music from his time in the various bands and his gigs around the mountain.
“I just wanted to get our music out there,” he shared.
It also includes interviews fellow musician Ludek Nemecek has done with local musicians discussing their life.
“I’m not a talker,” he reminded me as he described what the radio station was like.
“I look out the window for weather. I don’t do news.”
“I just say this is what we have played and this is what we have coming up.”
“Some of it was good, some of it was pretty ordinary, but people seem to like it.”
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