Roger
MontgomeryEntering Australia in early 1965 as a 10 Pound Tourist, Roger spent the first twelve years exploring the Eastern States, engaged in a variety of jobs, from driving cranes, trucks and forklifts, cotton chipping, pre-stressing (and being stressed by) concrete, an industrial therapist at Glenside Mental Hospital (S.A), working on the auto line at Chrysler, traffic light installation through to fruit-picking (naturally) and accepting the odd managerial position, all the while gaining many valuable insights into workaday Australia.
The evenings were spent playing in various bands/groups specialising in performing Australian and Irish music.
From
1977-1984, moving West, Roger became firstly roadie and then frontman
for the
Mucky Duck Bush Band, performing at schools, evening gigs, woolshed
dances and a
myriad pub sessions throughout W.A. and S.A. Whilst with the Duck, an
extensive
'Life Be-In-It' schools programme
was brought into fruition, taking Australian music and dance to city
and
country classrooms. He also conceived and wrote the script for 'Moondyne
Joe', a musical
play for the 1980 Festival of Perth, a very successful collaboration
with the
then 'Hole in the Wall Company', and has also acted up in several other
plays
with the 'Hole' (Oedipus the
King and a Midsummer Night's Dream)
Leaving the 'Duck', Roger took out a Free Lancer's ticket, working in a variety of positions for various Arts Councils, the A.C.T.U. & T.L.C., the Corporate Body, schools and local councils, handling many projects e.g. 'The Pilbara Connection'. . a nine month venture involving songs and poems collected from the iron-ore families of the N.West of W.A. Many other projects and residencies over the years have been successfully undertaken, ranging from Perth to the North-West, across to N.S.W, Victoria and up to the N.T.
Roger has
written and co-produced six radio ballads for A.B.C.F.M. Two solo
productions 'The Life and
Times of Jack Sorensen' and ' Turbulent Times in W.A's Great North
West', and
co-written (with mega talent Tim Lambert) 'Gallipoli . . Over Here,
Over
There', 'Mad Dan Morgan' and the harrowing 'Bad, Sometimes Brutal Days
for Bruce', all
musical radio plays. He and the ABC also co-produced Moondyne Joe, the Radio Play
Throughout
the last seventeen years Roger has also been playing around with the
Dingo's
Breakfast
Oz Music and Poetry Band, travelling North, South and Interstate. (too
wet to
the West) 'doing' Festivals, Woolshed Dances, Cabaret and Quiz nights
and the odd
session, as well as numerous residences. For the last five years he and long time friend John Angliss
have toured the Eastern States 'doing various festivals' (LINK)
Energy is also applied to 'The Bruce Brothers', working with noted comedian and writer Jon Doust, posing as a couple of slightly twisted Aussie yarnsters, taking Oz Poetry and Yarns to comedy clubs, various Big Biz and Gov. seminars, dinners and lunches etc. and on mini-tours North and South.
Also
performs knock-a-bout poetry, either under the name of 'Two Bloody
Poets' with Yarn Spinning and Poetry Champion, Peter Capp, or as a solo
act. He has
taken his poetry to schools,
has worked in Comedy Clubs in W.A and Victoria (terribly
hair-raising experiences) and regularly entertains at private
functions, state
and interstate festivals and as an after dinner speaker at various Big biz seminars and
conferences.
Roger
was a regular tutor for the Perth Theatre Trust's 'Theatre Go
Round',
an annual
children's theatre project, did a three year stint working with two
Senior
Citizens Groups in the Kalamunda Shire, teaching all facets of theatre
skills,
from writing and performing through to three successful productions.
Roger was employed for six months by Princess Margaret Children's
Hospital (WA) as a Music Therapist (un-qualified) he was asked to
continue but declined due to over-empathy. (cowardice)
He
is a certified Theatre Sports Player, and with Mike Burns is co-writer
and
co-producer of a gamelan Ned Kelly play 'Wayang Kelly' using shadow
puppets and
a mix of Australian and Indonesian music. The play follows the
Kelly
Saga, in the
attendance of several visiting Indonesian gods curious about Oz gods
and their
heroes. Roger joined the troupe as a tyro dhalang and performed in a
six hour
version of Wayang Kelly at the 1998 Surabaya (Java) Arts Festival, to
the great
pleasure of all and sundry. Wayang Kelly was also performed at the 2010
National Festival (Canberra) Two performances, two standing ovations.
He has recently published and launched
his fifth book. [1]Moondyne Joe (the stage play) [2] The Pilbara
Connection. [3] Kicking Against the Pricks. [4] Still Kicking Against
the Pricks. [5] Drowning in Lunatic Soup (Part Three of Uncle Jimbo's
History of Oz) . He is in the process of writing a 'Handbook
for Real Men'. Watch this space.
Roger's great on-going literary challenge is to complete 'Uncle Jimbo's 'History of White Australia'. This three part Radio Ballad is
nearing
completion. Part one 'The Right and Proper
Currency' and part three 'Drowning in Lunatic
Soup', have been performed around Oz by
the Dingoes, to
critical acclaim . . .Part Two, 'Battles, Battlers and Right Bastards'
is currently being worked on. ( for more info on UJ . . [LINK]
(for a simpler timeline . . [LINK]
Roger's last major project was a beauty !! - Telescopic Roger ! . . . but . . [LINK]