Southern Moreton Bay Islands Local Musicians

13/06/2026

30/04/2026

This week featuring
MICHAEL HARRISON

My solo band name is
'The Revenge'
I have been performing on the SMB’s for two years. I sing and play guitar my genres are 70s 80s 90s and some late music.
I grew up in the Redlands Shire and started playing guitar and I was 15. I love to make people sing and dance my inspirations come from the lights of Eric Clapton Stevie Ray Vaughan Doobie Brothers 10 mL etc. I have a great 70s vibe and deliver a very modern sound with full backing tracks.
I have many original compilations and you can tell that I grew up playing music of the 70s. My original songs are about all day everyday life love and the landscape.
I’m also a tradesman plumber and love typical outdoor activities.
I was nominated in the top 150 for lead singer of INXS when they were looking for a new front man and I did audition league guitar for the choir boys. I’ve played over 2500 gigs and have memories of many pubs and clubs throughout Queensland Hemmant Hotel outdoor gigs 2 to 3000 people.
I play regularly at Russell Island Bowls Club and you can ring Allen Brooks the entertainment manager as a reference to my delivery as a solo musician
I have a website for bookings and required information
www.therevenge.com.au
Michael Harrison contact number 0402 272 259

23/12/2025

This week we are featuring Macleay Islands TIM CATERER
Read on to discover more about another one of our Islands many talented musicians. Thank you Tim for sharing a bit about you.
You can find Tim performing at many of our Bay Islands venues

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Tim Caterer is my name and business stage name. I am a multi-instrumentalist I just finished my bachelor of contemporary music majored in guitar, I have played guitar for over 30 years but only professional for the last 5.
I love all music but specialise in funk blues and soul RNB. I also sing, play bass and drums. I am a local raised here in the Redlands I grew up in Thornlands and went to Cleveland high.
My influences are many and varied but it all began with people like Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Jackson, I really enjoy fusion and math rock stuff, it's cool bands like Tool and Nirvana were also big idols of mine.
I would describe my sound of late to be laid back pocket easy listening groove music. I have released a couple of songs a few years ago, I'm in the process of writing new stuff.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7iODCrdR99c8mQVclHwlgl?si=EZGQ92RkToKHtwYSm6Px2w
I'm not sure what I am compared to?
I love what I do, I used to work full-time in a very stressful environment, I now only play music and use it as a form of healing therapy if you will.
As far as performing with well known artists I have played with the band that supports Amy Shark recently and have met some cool names like Louis Shelton (played guitar on Michael Jackson's Motown records)

*See
Macleay Island Gig Guide for upcoming performances

Artist · 2 monthly listeners.

17/12/2025

This week we are featuring Macleay Islands STEVE RUSSELL
His relationship with music spans 60+ years. Toured and performed with many other musicians in his time.
Thank you Steve for sending in a little background 🙏🏽.
You can see Steve live regularly at Macleay and Russell Islands venues.
*See Macleay Island Gig Guide for upcoming performances
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Name: Steve Russell
Born in Newcastle Australia. When I was in primary school some people from the Conservatorium of music visited and handed out some instruments, I picked up a violin and to everyone’s surprise managed to actually get a note out of it, fell in love with the instrument and studied it for years.
My older brother had a cheap guitar so I used to “borrow” it and taught myself to play it, and in my early teens like so many other kids at the time formed a band with some school mates. None of us could play our chosen instruments, in fact we initially had to borrow them, but that didn’t matter because we were A Band!!!!
What I love best about being a musician is I can reach people on a level that, being a bit of an introvert isn’t always comfortable for me in social settings.
In terms of genres I tend to favour “unpolished” music like blues, folk early rock n roll etc, but I also love listening to Baroque music and stuff like Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
I guess I like honesty and emotional depth.
Therefore my sound can be a bit rough around the edges but I hope it’s honest at the core. My classical background means I do value technical proficiency and professionalism but I think of those as a necessary means to the end, not the end itself.
I haven’t written for years because I very much regard myself as an interpreter not a composer, and maybe the classical background influences that, I don’t want to turn up at an Australian Chamber Music Concert to hear “a tune I wrote on the bus on the way to the gig”. I don’t regard myself as a “covers Artist” but rather as an interpreter of music in the tradition of many of the Blues folk jazz and classical musicians I admire.
I’ve played with countless musicians over the years standouts include a couple of extensive tours as lead guitarist in Bo Diddley’s Australian touring band back in the early 80’s
See us on the Mike Walsh Show here:

https://youtu.be/4xYPwhzw1gg?si=FE7alDoupoba1a2L
a close friendship with Australian blues legend Dutch Tilders that included a lot of gigs together, and a whole lot of gigs with great but not necessarily well known musos in bands in Newcastle, Sydney an Canberra.
Outside of music, I enjoy a bit of painting and I love cooking!

*FOR GIGS CONTACT FB MESSENGER

01/12/2025

Meet SWAMPFISH

Swampfish: Kim Downs (guitar, banjo, mandolin), and Liz Hall-Downs (autoharp) play roots, blues, folk, Americana, alt-country, pop classics, and originals, with an emphasis on strong vocal harmonies and simple acoustic arrangements. They’ve been a couple for 33 years, and are both published writers. Moved to Macleay in 2018.
Kim is also a sculptor in timber, his last exhibition was at MIAC in 2022.
Swampfish’s 2014 CD, ‘Homeward Dove’ is available on the usual platforms. A new album of Kim’s contemporary songs is currently in post production.
Here is a link.to their page:
https://www.facebook.com/share/17x9NxjvtB/

16/11/2025

09/11/2025

Elly Hart

07/11/2025

Meet Alan Jefferies, a local published Poet who is currently starting up a 'Poets Group' on Macleay Island.

Alan Jefferies is a poet and children’s author born in Brisbane and raised in Quandamooka Country, the Redlands.

He started writing in High School and publishing after moving to Sydney in the mid-seventies. He's published six books of poetry — his most recent "in the same breath" (Flying Islands) was launched in Sydney in February 2022.

Between 1998 and 2007 he lived and worked in Hong Kong where he co-founded “OutLoud”: Hong Kong’s longest running English language reading.

He has been an invited guest at poetry festivals in Brisbane, Hong Kong, The Peoples Republic of China, Egypt and Romania.

He is currently resident on Macleay Island, Quandamooka Country.

A link to some work here:

(The Weekend Australian, 28-29 Oct, 1989) (The Newcastle Herald, 4 Feb, 1995) (The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 Apr, 1988) (The Weekend Austral...

31/10/2025

🎃🕷️CARBON rocked it at Macleay Island Hotel (Pub Paradise) Friday night