The Vee Bees

Formed in the year 2000 in a back yard in Canberra, up wind of the dunny and close to the esky, The VeeBees started as they meant to continue, in a raucous hail of stupidity and bullshit, seconded only by the pub’n’rock’n’punk’n’roll racket they belt out.
From the start the whole purpose of it all was to have a bit of a laugh and a bloody good time, and nobody has laughed as long and as hard since Grandma got her left tit caught in the mangle back in ’76.
The band was started by two good blokes, Glenno (bass) and Tommo (drums) who, after a couple of snags and a few stubbies were suddenly struck dumb by moronic genius and came up with a six pack of song titles, and the idea for a style of music they called Fair Dinkum Rock’n’Roll, otherwise known as Grog Rock.
Based on the classic Aussie pub rock sound it was chucked in the burley bucket and mixed with the punk style of The Ramones and volume of Motorhead. Then a great dollop of ocker humour was added a la’ Rodney Rude. A few loose rules were then made up: ‘we’re not gunna sing about nothing we don’t know about’ and ‘Don’t make the songs so hard ya can’t play ‘em after a gut full of tinnies’ being the most notable.
Guitarist/vocalist Simo was recruited into the ranks and the idea became reality. The first year saw the release of the first two albums Fair Dinkum Rock’n’Roll and Get It In Ya. These two albums contain some classic VeeBees material. Half the songs off these records is still in the live set. Song titles like Whaddya Reckon About Me Ute, Beer O’Clock, Aussie Beef Snags, Shootin’ & Rootin and C’mon C#nt should give you a good idea of what the band is about.
Politically correct? Not really, but rock’n’roll was never supposed to be nice.
A coupla years later and Simo left the band to be replaced by Davo (Guitar) and Norro (vocals). Apart from the line up nothing much changed except for the fact that each band member now only got 6 beers out of a carton instead of 8.
More classic songs were written, amongst them Drive Thru Bottlo, Roo Bar and Up The Shit which appeared on the you beaut 2006 album Crack Us Anotha.
Shortly afterwards the now infamous film clip for Drive Thru Bottlo was launched onto the unsuspecting public. This fine piece of cinematography is a great introduction to the wonderful world of Fair Dinkum Rock’n’Roll for any VeeBees virgin. An audiovisual feast of ute’s, beer‘n’barbeques and muckin’ up.
2007 saw the reissue of the 1st two albums, Fair Dinkum Rock’n’Roll and Get It In Ya on one CD with a bonus track chucked in for good measure, and in 2009 Crack Us Anotha was re-released with the bottlo fillum clip on the same disc.
In 2008 The VeeBees played a series of shows at Australia’s premier muscle car event ’Summernats’. The band finally got to realise a long held dream of playing a gig while cookin’ up a barbie live on stage. Downright un-Australian fire regulations mean that a BBQ can’t be fired up in the dingy venues that The VeeBees normally frequent so these were was truly exciting times. Needless to say the band and BBQ combination was a match made in heaven and the punters loved it almost as much as the band. By some fluke the whole event was recorded and the results can be heard on the Live At Summernats album. The best live grog rock album you will ever hear!
2010 see’s The VeeBees turning ten years old and still going strong. To celebrate they book themselves into a studio over the Australia day long weekend and record a new album, Roots’n’Blues. It’s the product of 5 long and hard years of independent research into the history and concept of Aussie Roots’n’Blues. The results are in, and amongst others I’d Rather Be On A Brewery Tour, Pocket Pool and Three Thongs show that the time has been well spent.
Yet another grouse album of Grog Rock anthems from the masters.
March 2011 and founding member Tommo quits the band to move to South America.
No bloody commitment Tommo!
Nielo is recruited into the ranks and fits in like a c*ck in a s*ck. New songs are underway so look out for a new albun in 2012.