Peculiar Clerk

Peculiar Clerk was a popular Western Sydney band based in Blacktown, that lasted from March 10, 1979, to March 09, 1984. The band was formed by Peter Keen and Rob Manego, both of whom went to the same High School in Blacktown. With a couple of other schoolmates, they set about forming a band.

A number of members came and went before a chance meeting on a train between Rob and a slightly younger Drummer, Steve Wold, led to the formation of Latis. An advertisement in a local paper for a Lead Guitarist was answered by Peter Marples who became known affectionately as ‘Freddie’. The audition went well, and Latis had their fourth member.

Latis played a number of gigs around the suburbs (mainly out west) when Booking Agency Nucleus was approached by the band for representation. The Agency wasn’t overly impressed with the name Latis and a search began in earnest for a new name. Over a few bottles of wine, Freddie came up with Peculiar Clerk, a play on the name of a rather famous singer, Petula Clark.

Eventually, drummer Steve Wold was replaced by Steve Askins who was a rather energetic drummer and suited the bands live energy very well.

Peculiar Clerk had five years playing gigs mainly around the western suburbs, but also played regular gigs in Newcastle, Wollongong and as far west as Lithgow. There were many support gigs with some of Australia’s best-known bands of the time and they shared the stage with many great characters.

My time with Peculiar Clerk began in early 1983 after I auditioned for them to replace then guitarist Brian Gully. Although the audition went well, the band ultimately went with Ian Blakey. For whatever reason things did not work out with Ian and I got the call in June of 1983 to start rehearsals. My first show with the band was in June 25 at War & Peace in Parramatta, a grueling 5 set show that started at 9PM and went to 3AM.

My next gig with the band was to a sold out show at Blacktown RSL with a 1000 crowd capacity, the largest crowd I had played to at that time. As we continued to play around the Sydney club circuit, Steve Askins announced he was leaving the band, at which point a long-time friend of the band Martin Odgers joined as the new drummer. Steve Askins played his last show with the band at War & Peace on August 20, 1983.

Peculiar Clerk’s gig schedule started to slow down towards the latter half of 1983 and disbanded in the early part of 1984. It was a real shame, as I had a blast in that band and learnt a lot.

Band Members