The Gordon Bennet prehistory
Doug Berge and Stephen Phillips were two improverished but bright students at the University of Melbourne many years ago. Doug used to fill his time between lectures selling matches on street corners whilst Steve sat on the steps at Flinders Street station with an upturned hat whilst he attempted to play "Danny Boy" on the spoons.
Somehow they met up and decided to form a band - The Gordon Bennet - which grew to almost legendary status - in their own minds at least. Throughout the 1980s the band played at a number of pubs in Melbourne and included quite a few musicians who came and went during the life of the band. On some occasions the band actually made a profit, as long as you excluded petrol costs!
Steve and Doug both thought they could turn out songs pretty well already. With Steve's background in elementary Status Quo, combined with Doug's advanced Prog Rock credentials perhaps things were never destined to go smoothly, however Steve and Doug soon set to work cranking the handle to push out huge numbers of songs onto an unsuspecting world.
Their major claim to (a complete lack of) fame was their masterpiece - the rock opera RASPUTIN, GURU TO THE TSARS. Some of the music from the rock opera will be included on this website when time permits.
This website will remind you of the music and people who made THE GORDON BENNET what it is today - forgotten.
