Gerard Corben

Gerard "Ged" Corben was the lead guitarist of The Lime Spiders, between 1985 and 2016. The band released three studio albums.The band toured the USA, UK, Europe and widely through Australia.

In 1987, he and his brother David "d" Corben (bass guitar) formed The Cruel Sea with Danny Rumour on guitar & Lucky Jim Elliott on drums. ^[1] They both played with the band from its inception before Tex Perkins joined, "d" leaving in 1989. Ged stayed on until 1992, leaving to concentrate on The Lime Spiders. He appears on four studio tracks with the band on their first release “Down Below”. He still plays instrumental surf music with The White Pointers.

Lime Spiders

Joined Lime Spiders 1985. He toured and recorded three studio albums with them, as well as a number of singles and one-off tracks, until 1992, leaving due to personal differences. He teamed up with the band again in 1996. His first recording is the single "Out Of Control". He played lead guitar on all their recordings from 1985 to date.

The Lime Spiders were heavily influenced by the 1960s psychedelic movement, especially The Nuggets recordings. In 2009, Corben's son, Tom, joined the band at age 17, replacing Richard Lawson on drums. Ged & Tom both left the band, along with bassist Tony “Chief” Bambach, after the Hoodoo Guru’s Dig It Up Festival in 2013.

Classical

In 1994, he gained a Certificate in Music with Distinction from the Australian Institute of Music. He went on to study performance and solo classical guitar to degree level and graduated with distinction in 1998.

Celtic and American folk

Ged plays guitar, resonator and mandolin in The Righteous Prannies. Aust Champ & multi Golden Guitar Winner fiddle player and flatpicker Mike Kerin [Flying Emus, Slim Dusty, Anne Kirkpatrick] leads the group, bass player and producer Michael Vidale who is also a multi Golden Guitar winner [Flying Emus, Jimmy and The Boys, Don Walker, The Bushwackers]. Tinker Duffy (accordion) and Luke Robinson (percussion).

They play Celtic, Appalachian, old time, bluegrass, Americana and Western swing.

The Prannies were the core of The Wheelers and Dealers, who toured Australia from 2001 to 2011, performing at national festivals including The National Folk Festival and The Port Fairy Folk Festival. The Wheelers and Dealers won the award for Folk Song Of The Year in 2004 for "Woomera", a song about the detention centre set up by the Howard government.

Teaching

From the early 1990’s Ged has taught at primary and high schools and privately to people of all ages. He plays and teaches a wide variety of styles including rock’n’roll, heavy rock, classical, punk, blues, finger style blues, Celtic, indie, alternative tunings and surf music, slide guitar, mandolin and ukulele.

Discography

References