Craig Tilmouth was born in Alice Springs and is an Arrernte man. He is a multi-instrumentalist, picking up drums and guitar in his teens and his favourite bands were Iron Maiden, Metallica and The Eagles and great Australian groups Cold Chisel, Sunnyboys, The Angels and Australian Crawl.
Craig played in a number bands around Alice Springs and Adelaide before forming NoKturnl in 1996 with his mate Damien Armstrong. NoKturnl released three EP’s and two albums and toured extensively throughout Europe and Australia. As a songwriter, he has written with Paul Kelly, Mark Seymour and David Bridie. NoKturnl has won several Music Deadly Awards and were also nominated for two Music ARIA Awards.
In 2022, Craig was Music Artist in Residence at Koori Radio and recorded a four track EP on which he played all instruments and sang vocals. On invitation to play a set at Yabun Indigenous Festival in January 2023, Craig asked his mates Pete Oxley and Dave Marsalis if they would like to play the show with him.
The power rock trio played a dangerously good set and they had so much fun they decided to keep the groove going.
Pete Oxley started his musical life with his brother Jeremy in High School bands on the North Coast of NSW. Originally starting out on guitar, he moved to bass when their bands couldn’t find any bass players. Pete moved to Sydney in 1979 to study Architecture and formed Shy Impostors with vocalist Pennie Ward, future Sunnyboys guitarist Richard Burgman and drummer Michael Charles.
In 1980, his brother Jeremy moved to Sydney, and with Pete formed the now legendary Sunnyboys. Sunnyboys had Top 10 hits with songs ‘Alone with You’ and ‘Happy Man’ and their debut album received Gold and Platinum awards for record sales.
Sunnyboys recorded two more studio albums and a live record before disbanding at the end of 1984. In 1985 Pete formed a group with his sister Melanie and pianist Chris Abrahams called Sparklers and recorded numerous singles and an album.
Pete has been playing with song master Ed Kuepper since 2005 and continues to do so. Sunnyboys reformed in 2012 and has played sell out shows for the last 10 years, playing their final shows in 2023. He is really excited about playing with Craig and Dave.
Born in Quebec, enigmatic maestro drummer Dave Marsalis is an Indigenous Métisman.
Dave started drumming at the age of 14 in New Zealand playing dub reggae with a cool band called Dread, Blood and Beat.
He arrived in Australia when he was 20 and immediately fell in with the crowd of jazz funk reggae session musicians playing Kings Cross clubs like Round Midnight and Bourbon and Beefsteak. Word soon got around that there was this deadly young drummer playing the scene.
Spotted by Giant Studio boss and producer Peter Dawkins, Dave was taken on as resident in house session drummer at Giant Studios.
He has worked on sessions with Kevin Borich, Dave Dobbin, Dave Faulkner, Floyd Vincent, Brian Cadd, Munk Ross, Joe Camilleri, Eric Stewart 10cc, Eddie Rayner and many more.
A highlight for Dave was recording and touring with Christine Anu for the album Styling Up. Dave had been helping out in The Koori Radio recording studio when he met Craig Tilmouth.
For Dave, this is not just another session. This is the real thing.