I wrote this profile about my fabulous friend, Ryan 'Brooksy' Brooks last year for a university assignment.
Booksy, Dreamy Steve, Pope and Scotty the Hottie are now almost finished recording an original rock album under the name of Jackseven, which I am sure is going to be phenomenal!
(Photo from Jackseven website)
Brooksy & Co: Brisbane's Best Covers Band
It’s a Saturday night and the crowd at Tempo in Fortitude Valley have filled the dance floor to shimmy to Brooksy & Co’s intoxicating interpretations of our favourite rock, R&B, dance, house and Top 40 songs.
Scantily-clad women jump on stage between songs to shout requests to Steve Williamson, the handsome guitarist with a heart-melting smile, or Scotty ‘The Hottie’ Saunders, the hunky bass player. Steve Pope rocks a solo on the drums to a cheering crowd then in true rock star fashion, casually chugs beer between songs.
But the real star of the show is Ryan ‘Brooksy’ Brooks, the band’s enigmatic namesake and lead singer. He’s lean and wiry and pulsates with energy, climbing onto the speakers to serenade the crowd or jumping off the stage right into their midst. While he’s singing, Brooksy shows off his dance moves which are a unique blend of inappropriate gyrating and uninhibited bopping. His stage presence is huge despite his not so huge stature.
“I love the vibe,” Brooksy says. “There’s not many jobs you can work at where you get feedback automatically and people come up to you and tell you you’re making them have a good time. It’s a happy environment.”
The crowd loves him and sing along as he belts out tunes from his extensive repertoire, which includes everything from classic rock anthems like ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to iconic ‘80s tracks such as ‘Push it’ from Salt-n-Pepa and crowd-pleasing chart toppers like ‘Sex on fire’ from the Kings of Leon.
But his favourite song to perform (at least at the moment) is Van Helan’s ‘Jump’. With Scott Saunders stepping up to sing lead vocals, Brooksy does the keyboard lines which he says is “awesome fun”.
That’s because it’s no ordinary keyboard. It’s Brooksy’s new favourite instrument, resurrected straight from the decade that has now become cool rather than cringe-worthy: the ‘80s keytar. Slung around his neck, Brooksy smashes the keytar in all its synthesised glory and somehow makes it look incredibly cool.
Bizarrely, Brooksy says becoming a musician wasn’t really a dream job but rather, “it all happened by accident”.
“In high school, I got a good mark in music and I thought, ‘I’ll do music – I’ll become a music teacher.’ I was playing saxophone at the time, but I didn’t sing at all,” he says.
“So I auditioned for the Conservatorium of Music and I got the lowest mark and thought, ‘F*ck what am I going to do now?’
“But Jazz Works had an advanced diploma in jazz so I did that for a year. I reauditioned for the Con, got in and studied jazz saxophone. Then in my second year, I joined a band called Space Invaders, an ‘80s covers band.”
In his first gigs with Space Invaders, Brooksy played saxophone, provided backing vocals and put his basic knowledge of keyboard chords to use. Then slowly he started to sing more and more lead vocals and began crafting his career as an unforgettable front man.
Now even Brooksy’s hair is attention grabbing, cut in an Avatar-type do with shaved sides and about half a dozen dreads on the crown of his head, occasionally topped off with a pirate-style bandanna.
Brooksy’s popularity around Brisbane is clear in just the sheer number of different venues the band perform at each week. In addition to Tempo, the boys are regular features at South Bank’s iconic Plough Inn, Oxford 152, Elephant and Wheelbarrow, Stock Exchange, Tinbilly’s Backpacker’s Bar and Titanium Bar and Mermaid Beach Tavern at the Gold Coast.
But Brooksy says his best live experience came while playing with Space Invaders. In 2004, the Australian army flew the band to East Timor to play six gigs for the troops, one of which was before Brooksy’s biggest crowd.
“We played at Jelly Stadium to eight thousand people,” he says. “We were just doing our thing, playing the eighties covers, and the comedian Fred Lang starts up a ‘Brooksy’ chant.
“He’s going ‘Brooksy’ then eight thousand people yell back ‘Brooksy’. I couldn’t believe it!
“Then he changes it ‘Brooksy’s a wanker’ and the crowd says ‘Brooksy’s a wanker’ and I had no idea what they were saying. It was just hilarious.”
Brooksy’s wicked sense of humour is clearly visible on stage. He fills lapses between songs with quick quips and funny anecdotes or asserts his front man power over the rest of the band before a new song by telling them all what key they should be playing in.
“A minor, Steve!” he shouts.
The band also like to provide some comic relief in song and cover several Flight of the Concords songs like ‘Business Time’ as well as a very entertaining tune entitled ‘One-eyed trouser snake’.
Dave McGuire, one of the band’s former guitarists and a regular guest performer at gigs, says playing with Brooksy is “always interesting”.
“There is nothing Brooksy won’t say into a microphone,” Dave says.
Whether he is pelting out one of his favourite songs like ‘Final Countdown’, rocking the keytar, going solo on the saxophone or strumming an acoustic guitar in a more sombre moment, Brooksy captivates the crowd. The throng that fills the floor in front of the stage dance and scream and cheer for the band and when it’s all over and Brooksy announces the night’s final song, they cry “ENCORE!”
