Every Day of My Life. Beeb Birtles

up and people were always asking us to recommend new bands. Naturally, we recommended Zoot and not long after we were playing shows together. Within a short time, Zoot had surpassed our ambitions and moved to Melbourne. The bastards!

      Lots of my music friends in Adelaide would say: “Hey, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we became popular all over Australia and got on the telly and everything?” And I would think: Popular all over Australia? Forget that, I want to be playing music all over the world. I always had big dreams.

      THE APPRENTICE

      Through my dad’s contacts in the building trade, he arranged for me to get a job as an apprentice with a ceramic tiling company. He knew a German man by the name of Gunther who owned The North Adelaide Tiling Company. Right from the start, I think Gunther was reluctant to give me a try, but for my dad’s sake he did.

      For the next two years I worked for the various ceramic tile layers who worked for Gunther. I learned how to mix cement and cut ceramic tiles to size. I soaked the ceramic tiles in buckets of water and got everything ready for them to tile shower stalls, bathroom walls and floors as well as kitchens. Occasionally we worked on the street, tiling the front of shops.

      I’ve never been a lazy guy so I didn’t mind the hard work. At that time I still didn’t own a car so Dad would drop me off on a particular street corner and whoever I was working with that week would pick me up and give me a ride to the job site. I worked during the day and at night played with Zoot. I was making more money playing in the band than I was as an apprentice. When I think back to those days I don’t know how I kept it up.

      I regret the way I treated my mother during these years. I was very disrespectful and I’m ashamed of the way I yelled at her at times. She would come in to wake me in the mornings and I would scream at her to get out of my room, shut the door and leave me alone.

      Thinking back on all that now, the only possible excuse I have is that I must have been so tired from working all day and playing music late into the night that I was totally exhausted. I was truly beat when I climbed into bed at night. But still, I can’t believe what a prick I was to her during those years.

      It wasn’t unusual for me to come home from work, jump straight into the shower and immediately head out the door again for a gig. There wasn’t enough time to sit down and eat dinner. I’m sure my mother was worried about me, though she never really said anything.

      Towards the end of my time as an apprentice I was given small jobs to do by myself. Most of them were tiling windowsills and kitchens. I was never very fast because I cared more about doing an excellent job. But all Gunther cared about was getting the job done so he could invoice the builder. The fact that I was slow must have really frustrated him. He complained about me taking too long. One day when he confronted me about this, I’d had enough and I quit.

      After quitting the tile business, I got a job at the Chrysler car factory in Christies Beach, drilling holes in parts for car doors. During the week I stayed at Christies Beach, sleeping on the floor of Darryl Cotton’s bedroom at his parents’ place so I wouldn’t have far to go to work. I can’t say I exactly leapt out of bed every morning, eager to go to the factory. By this time, Zoot had become the number one band in Adelaide and we were thinking about going professional. Drilling holes in car doors was not part of the dream!