Women in Music (St Kilda)


Angela Howard

Angela Howard was part of the original Crystal Ballroom set in the late 1970s and spent 3 decades as an audience member before she started playing music herself as a bass guitarist and a keyboard player.

Angela's  bands are as follows:

  • Angela's very first show playing bass was a gig at The St Kilda Bowlo in 2012 called 'Crystal Bowlroom'.  Mick Harvey, Phill Calvert, Angela Howard & Ron Rude got together after one rehearsal and performed a selection of Young Charlatans songs from 1977, as a  tribute to Angela's brother, Rowland S. Howard. Watch video footage of this gig HERE

  • Angela performed at a Rowland S. Howard tribute gig at MEMO Music Hall in February 2013, which included half a dozen Boys Next Door songs, written by Rowland S. Howard, with Angela's brother Harry Howard on guitar and vocals,  Phill Calvert on drums, and Mick Harvey on guitar and vocals.  

  • Angela played bass and performed backing vocals in Winter Sun from 2014 - 2023.  Their lead singer and songwriter was the talented and beautiful Laura Trapnell, with Rob Wellington on guitar and Peter Cave on drums.

  • Angela played bass in Garry Gray and The Sixth Circle in 2014. The band included Tex Napalm, Spencer P Jones and Rob Wellington on guitars, along with Graeme Ward on drums. Chris Taranto joined on guitar after Spencer became ill.  They  played at the St Kilda Bolwo, ant the St Kilda Army and Navy Club and broke up 2017.

  • Angela plays bass, keyboards and performs vocals in pop-punk covers band The Peptides, who formed in 2014 for the final day of an exhibition titled Punk Journey: St Kilda + Beyond, and are still going strong 10 years later. They play mostly punk rock covers, and most of the eight members of the band were around at the at the beginning of the punk scene in Melbourne. The Peptides had a residency at The Dog's Bar for a couple of years until Covid shut everything down. They now have a residency at the St Kilda Bowlo. 

  • During covid lockdowns in 2020, Angela and her husband Rob Wellington started playing together daily for fun.  Now they are a duo called 90BPM.  Angela plays synthesizer and Rob plays guitar and they both sing their own songs and a few old favourites.

  • Angela also been lucky enough to do some guest vocals with USER in 2021, as well as take part in the touring concert 'Pop Crimes - The Songs of Rowland S. Howard' in 2014, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024. 

Angela has played gigs at St Kilda music venues including: MEMO Music Hall. St Kilda Bowlo, The Vineyard, St Kilda Army and Navy Club (SKANC), Prince of Wales Hotel, Dogs Bar, Pause Bar, George Lane, Pause Bar, The Fyrefly, Inkerman Hotel. 

"Lots of my friends, and my brothers, lived in St Kilda, and they also played in bands and I attended a lot of the gigs and parties in St Kilda.   It had never occurred to me that I could play music too.  But one birthday I asked myself  "why not get a bass guitar?" I’d never played guitar before and I love very deep sounds, so that felt right to me.

I decided on not getting lessons (as my brother Rowland had had one lesson, and he was a unique player consequently). So I just looked up tabs on the computer for songs that held meaning to me. I think the very first song i tried was 'Shut me Down' (by Rowland S. Howard), then, 'Sweet  Jane' and 'Come on Billie'.  The very first gig playing my bass was in 2021 at the St Kilda bowlo.  I was very terrified, but I grew to love it! Performing that is!!"

Angela  Howard, 2018 - Photo by Jason Coldicutt - Source: Angela Howard  

"I stumbled around and found that i just loved playing and singing, so i took the old saying from the punk rock days. “you don't have to be able to play, to PLAY", and I saw the truth in that and ran with it!  And i am still running! I finally realised it is all about THE DOING, and although i was extremely nervous about being onstage it occurred to me that i didn’t want to NOT do something that I loved BECAUSE there was an audience, and that somehow shifted the whole experience to be much easier for me.

I basically had very little idea what I was doing and pretty much learned the bass on the job and felt very lucky to be included in Winter Sun. I did backing vocals which was great fun for me as i have always loved singing harmonies, but only to myself, under my breath."

Angela Howard, The Peptides, 2018, Lost on Barkly - Photo by Helena Black - Source: Angela Howard 

"I have found playing music an amazing thing, extremely therapeutic and enormously fun and satisfying.  I immediately felt like I'd joined a club, and find other musicians are very supportive, and positive people. Obviously that is a generalisation but that has been the case for me. I think having 2 talented younger brothers actually put me off getting started as I knew that I would always be compared to them, and that made me feel very self conscious.  

But of course it means i get to play in the Rowland tribute shows and that is a very special thing for me obviously.  I am very sorry that Rowland never got to see me play,.I think he thought it was kind of funny that I started. He had a chuckle about it! Which was kind of condescending!!"

Angela Howard, Winter Sun, 2019 - Photo by Nadia Moth -  Source: Angela Howard 

"I have to say that i think Lisa Miller inspired me a lot, our kids went to the same Primary School so I would see her play at fund raisers and so on and I adored her albums and loved to harmonise whilst listening to her music. Still do! Also THE original ORIGINALS were very inspiring to me, 3 women singing and playing together… Megan Bawden, Vivienne Leigh and Rosie Hayden.

My favourite venues to play in St Kilda would have to be the lovely George Lane, with it’s cosy lounge and beautifully lit stage, so good for band photos.  And the St Kilda Bowlo for being such a great piece of old Australia, 150 years old and so cool and spacious, and has such a great mix of folk."

Angela Howard, 90BPM, 2024 -  Source: Angela Howard 
Herstory Anne McCue