Women in Music (St Kilda)


Vivienne Gay

Vivienne Gay is a singer and musician who has lived in St Kilda since 1980. Vivienne's genre of music is Original Country, Folk and Gentle Rock.

Vivienne's bands are as follows:

  • North to Alaskans was a band with Spencer P Jones and Johnny Topper. Vivienne sang on the recording of Crimson and Clover,1980

  • Red=Blue=Yellow, 1984 - 86 - Recorded at Richmond recorders with Chris Thompson. Vivienne played clarinet and sang.

  • Love Galaxy, 1986 - 88, also recorded at Richmond recorders with Tony Cohen.

  • Wonderland by Night and Go Wild in French, 1985-87, were two groups with lan Stephen at the helm (known from The Slaughtermen). Vivienne wrote songs and played percussion and sang lead and backing vocals. 

  • The Dirty Hanks, 1989 - present day - Vivienne sings, plays percussion and writes songs. The Dirty Hanks, were legends on the live scene; and dominated country music in Melbourne in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. They attracted a large ‘cult’ following, in particular, through their marathon seven year Saturday residency at the Prince Patrick Hotel, Collingwood and Thursdays at the Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda. The band won an inaugural Victorian Country Music Award for their tape, Hanks A Lot. 

  • Hanks Ahoy, 1994 - 96. This band was a spin off from the Dirty Hanks - focusing on a more traditional style of country and including Paul Cumming after his car crash which left him a quadriplegic. He played slide guitar with specially crafted guitar picks. The band recorded with Barry Stockley. Vivienne sang and played percussion.

  • Vivienne sang on The Fuck Fucks album Millenium Buggery in 1998

  • Vivienne put together a band with comedian Anthony Morgan called Los Capitaines de la Industriale in 2000. They recorded and played here and there for a year or so and they had a CD called There are Worse Things.

  • Vivienne played on Rod McClennans album Guns are Dumb and sang and played percussion with his band, The Free Radicals. The genre was Original Country music. The album was recorded at Simon Grounds studio in Collingwood. Legendary!

  • In 2000 Vivienne started working with Adrian Chenyweth and Shane Walsh in a band they called Butterfly. They played the Orange cafe in Windsor with Conway Savage and it was recorded. The genre was Folk, Country and Gentle Rock.

  • Conway Savage employed Vivienne to sing on his album Nothing Broken in 2000

  • The YouYangs was a group that Vivienne worked with from 2008-2009

  • There was a recording studio in Balaclava around this time. Ian Rilen, Kim Volkman and Maurice Frawley were some people who recorded there. Vivienne sang on Kim Volkman’s record Heaven and Hell in 2008. Chris Dyson’s son, Spencer, was the sound engineer.

  • Vivienne sang on Shonkytonk’s CD, I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter in 2008

  • Around the time also, Fred Negro and Jason Evans put together a tribute show to pulp fiction and Quentin Tarantino called 'Dog Fiction'. There was a cast of super rock legends and guests that played at the Palace nightclub. "It was a great honour to be given 2 songs to sing."

  • In 2009, Fred Negro was playing in a band called The Twits and Vivienne sang on the song "Alphington".

  • Around 2012 Megan Bawden, Rosie Hayden and Vivienne put together a band called The Originals. They recorded at Atlantis studio in South Melbourne, one of the last recordings made there before they had to move on. The Originals played together until 2020. 

  • In 2014, Vivienne was commissioned to write and record a song for a friend who was writing a book for young people.

  • Vivienne recorded The Colours with Adrian Chynoweth and Rosie Westbrook at Rosie’s house. 

  • Vivienne is currently working with Dave Moll in a country duo called The Puckerups And Fred Negro’s new band and record 3182 Etc.

Vivienne has played gigs at St Kilda music venues including: The Espy, Prince of Wales Hotel, Greyhound Hotel, Dogs Bar, Tolarno’s, St Kilda Bowlo, George Lane, Claypots,  Surabaya Johnny's, Pause bar, Lost, Robarta, St Kilda Yacht Club, St Kilda army and Navy Club (SKANC), Newmarket Hotel, Galleon Cafe Cabaret, The Ballroom, Pint on Punt, St Kilda Festival, The Vineyard, Post Office Hotel, The Inkerman Hotel, Joey's Nightclub. 

"In 1979, my cousin, Keryn Townsend and I lived in Eildon Court in St. Kilda. We were both studying at Rusden College and Dandenong road took us straight there.

St. Kilda was sensational in every way. Being an ozone junkie, l had to live near water and I'd found my perfect place. Quite an eyeful of a scene, where punks, drag queens, Indigenous people and international refugees were all parading by.

The great equaliser, ”cheque day”, was a colourful slice of life in the bank. That diversity was evident everyday and particularly when the 'Thursday Crawl' occurred. A combination dinner/drink event, the crawl began at The George and went all the way round to the Esplanade Hotel. One dollar pots of beer and platters of cheese cubes, crackers, kabana and little sandwiches made a knees-up dinner for all.

I made a very experimental film in the old sea baths, with a full size mannequin and a wild soundtrack which my cousin and a friend played live to tape. That was my media studies project."

The Dirty Hanks, c. 1991 - Source: Twangsville Revisited

"A couple who lived upstairs in our block were musicians who were attending singing lessons and asked me if I wanted to attend.

The teachers name was Molly Hayers, an 86 year old former opera singer who taught a pared down version of the Marchesi method. So began many years of lessons with various teachers.

Another teacher was Murray Mardady, who died last year. I happened across the funeral notice in the paper, and attended the funeral with my old friend Deborah Force. We wanted to put a band together called 'Gay Force', but no one wanted to be in it. We were a bit before our time.

I dated Vince Jones for a while and one night we were going out for dinner and he made me stay in the car until I sang 'Nature Boy' by Nat King Cole to his satisfaction. That took an hour or so, and has kept me in good shape for singing the song ever since."

The Originals, 2015 - Source: Megan Bawden Facebook

"I met Gordon Stooke around this time through a friend, Deborah Walker. She lived on the upper Esplanade and was an art student at VCA.

Gordon and I formed 'The Sallys' who played a few venues in St Kilda; The Espy, and The Prince.

We had a song which Gordon wrote called 'Since you left me Ruth, I've been so Ruthless', which Spencer P Jones loved.

In the late 1980’s we formed 'The Dirty Hanks' which has persisted until the present day. The Hanks played a decades worth of NYEs at the St Kilda Army and Navy club (SKANC) in Acland street.

An all ages extravaganza which were highly amusing and great fun."

3182 Etc. 2024 - Source: 3182 Etc. Facebook Page
Dirty Hanks 
Tanya-Lee Davies Wendy Rule