The Happening Thang

The Happening Thang were an Australian country pop group, which formed in 1988 in Sydney by Ricky Cole on drums, Jeff Mercer on guitar, mandolin and dobro, David Patterson on bass guitar and vocals, Rose Pearse on vocals, Andy Travers on guitar, vocals and harmonica, and Cathy Wearne on fiddle and vocals.[1] In 1983 Travers had been a drummer for Adelaide-based group, the Spitfires, before he relocated to Sydney.[1] There, he was a member of a rockabilly group, the Milky Bar Kids, on guitar from 1984 to 1986.[1] While a still member of the Happening Thang, Travers guested on drums on Neil Murray's debut album, Calm and Crystal Clear (April 1989).[2]

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described how the Happening Thang, "combined Hank Williams-style country roots with pop melodies to produce an uplifting, Australian urban and western sound. Other influences included Gram Parsons, Jimmie Rodgers and early Elvis Presley."[1] They issued their debut single, "I Don't Wanna Work" in February 1989. At the Australasian Country Music Awards, in January of the following year, they won New Talent of the Year for the song.[1][3][4] Kathryn Whitfield of The Canberra Times, in March 1989, had felt that "I Don't Wanna Go to Work" was "repetitive garble. Twanging, monotonous tripe, which even the most ardent of country and western (or both) fans would find hard to bear. It's very Australia, very country, but very boring!"[5]

Their second single, "Drive Away", appeared in July 1989 and was followed in December by an eponymous album on Trafalgar/WEA.[1] Most of its tracks were written by Travers.[6] For that album the line-up of the group was Mercer, Patterson, Travers and Wearne, which was augmented by additional musicians: Pearse on vocals and bass guitar, Kathy Bluff on fiddle, Murray Cook on piano, Jim Niven on piano accordion, Dave Faulkner on piano, Peter O'Doherty on backing vocals, Ian Simpson on pedal steel guitar, Robert Souter on drums, and Bruce Thorburn on fiddle.[7] At the ARIA Music Awards of 1990 it was nominated for Best Country Album.[8] They appeared on the 1990 compilation album Breaking Ground - New Directions in Country Music which was nominated for the same award in 1991.[8]

The Happening Thang's second album, Saddlepop (1990), provided a single: their cover version of Neil Young's "The Losing End".[1][9] For this album the group's core members were Michael Kerin on fiddle, Mercer on electric guitar, mandolin, dobro and backing vocals, Patterson on bass guitar and backing vocals, Ross on drums, Travers on lead vocals, electric, rhythm, and acoustic guitars, and Wearne on backing vocals.[9] They were assisted in the studio by Bluff and Cook; it was co-produced by Rod Coe and the band.[9]

After the group disbanded Travers joined Dog Trumpet, in 1995, on drums, alongside that band's founders O'Doherty on guitar, mandolin and bass guitar, and his brother, Reg Mombassa on guitar and lead vocals.[10] They were joined by Amanda Brown on violin and backing vocals (ex-The Go-Betweens).[10] That line-up issued an album, Suitcase (January 1996).[10]

In the mid-2000s Mercer and Patterson formed a country music group, the Cartwheels, in Hepburn Springs. The line-up included Patterson's wife, Wendy Phypers, on rhythm guitar and vocals, and their son, Charley Phypers, on drums.[11]