The Ghoulstones

ORIGINS: Blue Mountains, NSW

GENRE: Metal, Horror Punk

YEARS ACTIVE: 1990-1993

 

MEMBERS:

• Jason Jordan - Vocals
• Richard Downs - Guitar
• Sam Skinner - Guitar (1990-1992)
• Kevin McGlashan - Bass
• Matthew Conolan - Drums (1990-1992)
• Matthew Hobson - Drums (1993)

RELEASES:

• Demo (1991)
• 1. Ghouls
• 2. Undead Pantomime
• 3. The Lake
• 4. Whatever It Was, It's Dead

• Self-Titled (1992)
• 1. Hippy Zombies
• 2. Short Fuse
• 3. Faust
• 4. Whatever It Was, It's Dead

• Selected songs - Download Here.

SUMMARY: The Ghoulstones began when vocalist Jason joined with the rhythm section of an earlier band called Tempting Fate. The Ghoulstones were part of a wave of bands that emerged in the lower Blue Mountains during the early '90s, often playing venues such as Old Lawson Hall. A lineup shuffled occurred towards the end of the band, with a new drummer coming in. 

 

SHOWS: 

• Warrimoo Hall, Warrimoo - 21st September, 1991
• Old Lawson Hall, Lawson - 9th May, 1992
• Old Lawson Hall, Lawson - 12th December, 1992
• St Marys Memorial Hall, St Marys - 16th April, 1993

ORAL HISTORY:

JASON: Metal, particular the faster metal, was chewing up a lot of my listening time.. Whenever I had enough money saved to buy a record I would take a train down to Utopia Records in the city, having to fare evade so that I didn't have to spend the few bucks I had to buy a record. Steadily I listened to more and more of this more extreme kind of metal and when I saw local band Third Degree, I was like wow! I tried to get my hands on everything Metallica did. Their EP Garage Days Re-Revisited... was very raw. In particular, the last two songs on the album, 'Last Caress' and 'Green Hell', played back-to-back, stood out for me. They were originally by the American horror punk outfit The Misfits. I became very curious about The Misfits, having a love for horror movies I naturally wanted to find out more. Before long I locked onto The Misfits with an addictive obsession.

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

SAM: My parents weren't musicians but they played music all the time. My dad was usually Rolling Stones, Zappa and Bob Dylan. Mum played classical '60s and '70s folk music. I loved it all but the first time I heard Joan Jett singing 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' I was hooked. Something about the dirty guitars an dangerous sounding lyrics. From there it was a path to Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. As for playing, it was really the people around me who already played that inspired me. The first Metallica song I heard was 'Leper Messiah' on someone's Walkman on a school bus. They counted it in with "1,2,1,2,3,4,5". The heaviness, odd time signature, and aggressive vocals were a revelation. I bought a cheap Les Paul knock off and started jamming with whoever would put up with me. I could barely play. 

Sam Skinner (Guitarist), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JASON: I was at this party at the end of Elison Rd in Winmalee and I was watching this band, Tempting Fate, at a safe distance... During the night, one of them knew I was a Misfits fan and asked if I'd like to sing a Misfits song, 'Brain Eaters'. With the okay from the other singer, I took up the mic and pounded it out. It felt great... A week later I got a call from the bass player, Kevin, asking me if I'd like to join. I said yes, but with the proviso that they change their name, which I thought was awful (...) I was keen on calling us The Ghouls, a very Misfits genre name, but I wasn't getting any traction with it. I remember Richard saying that we needed a cool name like The Rolling Stones... so someone said, "What about The Ghoulstones?".

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

SAM: The Ghoulstones was my first band. We were all friends at Winmalee High School. Richazrd, the lead guitarist, could play and Matt the drummer had his dad's kit at home and a rehearsal room. Kevin and I just fucking winged it but we practiced every weekend. We played parties at first, then gigs were organised at Community Centres for kids.

Sam Skinner (Guitarist), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JASON: It came time to play our first gig at the Boys Club in Springwood. People started showing up, quite a few people. I was getting very nervous, but I kept it mostly in. There was a guy there also called Jason, who gave me a few swigs of Vodka before I went on and it did the track. While we lacked a lot of basic musical skill and we sounded pretty bad, we had the right energy... Among the songs we did was 'Sunshine of Your Love', 'Mother' by Danzig, and "Drink Till I Die'. 

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

SAM: Our first show was at Springwood Community Hall, which got condemned after the gig because the floor collapsed in front of the stage. People stacked chairs over the hole so kids didn't fall through and we could finish playing. My neighbour, Rob Spark, did the mixing. I think he was quietly horrified at all the punk and metal as his favourite band was Huey Lewis and The News. Once the ball was rolling with kids being interested, a few people got more organised. Matthew Parsonage, who was a couple of years older than us, called venues and put up posters... He got us added to Blue Light Discos, and we played in Katoomba, Lawson, Blaxland, Springwood, and Penrith. 

Sam Skinner (Guitarist), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DAN: In 1989/1990 I was playing in a high school covers band called Third Degree. We'd do gigs up and down the Great Western Highway wherever we could - our setlist was a daft mix of excellent songs by Slayer, AC/DC, Metallica, The Misfits, interspersed with two of the greatest Oz Rock songs you've never heard by The Heroes, with a couple of songs by The Cars and Spy vs Spy for some reason. Through some of these gigs I met Sam, Kevin, and Matt, who told me they had started up a band too - The Ghoulstones - and we should play together. Third Degree broke up fairly soon after that but The Ghoulstones played all the time. They were a great, fun five-piece band that would pretty much play entirely Danzig and Misfits covers alongside at least a half dozen of their own songs, that sounded quite a bit like Danzig and Misfits, so win/win. 

Dan McKay (Friend of the band), Noise Levels correspondence, 2026

JASON: Most of the material was horror-themed as I was very much immersed in everything Misfits related. The first song we wrote was called 'Ghouls'. It was shamelessly derivative of the stuff I was listening to at the time, mostly Danzig-inspired material. 

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

CRISTIAN: I saw a bunch of bands at the Old Lawson Hall in the very early '90s. Ghoulstones were my favourite back then because of their Misfits/Danzig covers. The Ghoulstones were full Misfits and Metallica worship. 

Cristian O'Sullivan (Punter), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JASON: We went to my friend's neighbour's house, his name was Benny, and we recorded an EP in his parents' basement on his four-track mixer. Benny was a whiz at mixing, he's already recorded some very funny songs and other bits and pieces... years later he went on to record funny topical songs for the Ray Hadley show on 2GB. He did our recording for nothing and the whole experience was awesome. 

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

DAN: All Ages gigs at Old Lawson Hall and Springwood Community Centre would get any teenagers with a passing interest in a distorted guitar to come along for regular nights of punk and metal. At this point most bands in the area tended to fill their sets out with a few covers. Just about everyone was underage and played in a band. I started hanging out with Sam, Kev, and Matt a lot - we'd go to any of these All Ages gigs that we could. One night Kev and I worked out we were born two days apart and we vowed to celebrate EVERY BIRTHDAY TOGETHER! Which we didn't, but we did when we could, and still do when we can.

Dan McKay (Friend of the band), Noise Levels correspondence, 2026

JASON: Most of our performances were at youth events in Community Halls and at parties. Some of the parties were great and some were downright terrible. I remember playing at a guy's house in Winmalee where barely anyone showed up. The poor guy was devastated... The worst party we played was at a rental of several of the band members. We barely played and the house got totally trashed. There was one party we played up at Leura... I put a hole in the wall with my back after plunging into it during a song. I had to pay for the repairs in the ensuing months. It was a nightmare because I was only working part-time as a trolley boy and a night filler and paying it back seemed to take forever. 

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

DAN: The Ghoulies had enough songs to record a demo or two; maybe one of them was recorded with Ben 'Benny' Robertson on a Tascam 8-track or similar. Bass and Guitars direct-in for full fly-in-a-jar tones! 

Dan McKay (Friend of the band), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JASON: I was involved in a fight in one of the final Old Lawson Hall gigs. I turned up and I immediately noticed this guy giving me death stares. I heard he had a problem with me because he thought I was full of myself... We'd learnt Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' and when the intro started I saw this guy right up the front trying to stare me down. The music got the better of me and without even thinking I got close enough to get in a good headbutt. Straight after that I launched myself onto him off the stage and we started laying into one another. he got on top of me and had me pinned down. The intro to 'Master of Puppets' was long and I found myself yelling, "Let me up, man, I've gotta sing!" To my surprise he just let me up and I finished the set unhindered. Afterward, he wanted to continue what I'd started. I wasn't having any of it. He looked like he kne whis way around a good stand-up fight, so just talked my way out of it. I was offended that he thought I'd hit him in the head with my microphone. I said, "No, man, it was a headbutt". 

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

Blue Mountains Gazette, December 1992

DAN: At some point Matt Conolan split from the band and Sam followed either at the same time or pretty much immediately after. The Ghoulstones recruited gun drummer Matt Hobson who brought a more polished vibe to the band - he was big on The Beastie Boys, Living Colour, Faith No More, etc., so with him on drums and stripped back to one guitarist the band took on a different vibe and recorded a new set of songs with Wayne Grech at Saturation Level Studio in Blaxland. I don't really know why the line-up changed but Sam, Kev, and Matt Conolan still hung out all the time and lived together for a bit so there was definitely no ill will. Sam, Kev, and myself started up a little band called MEAT with Cristian O'Sullivan, who'd go on to bigger and better things with Low Life. MEAT had a couple of originals and played some Meatmen songs, early Spiderbait tunes, Massappeal, The Hard-Ons...

Dan McKay (Friend of the band), Noise Levels correspondence, 2026

JASON: We did some recordings at a sound studio in Blaxland with Wayne Grech. We'd saved up some money and we booked in a session at this cool renovated house/studio. Wayne was a drummer himself and he had converted the upstairs of his parents' house to a fully decked out studio. It was so amazing. We spent the whole day there recording four original tracks. It was a very unique experience and a step up from Benny's basement and four-track recorder. 

Jason Jordan (Vocals), Grunge Mountain, 2018

DAN: The Ghoulstones never really busted out of the Mountains. They'd played a stack of gigs, wrote heaps of songs, and were a heaps good band, but they just kind of fizzled out. Jason, Matt Hobson and myself started a band with a guy called Muzzy and we played just the one gig in Springwood. Then me and Kev got Crotch Rot/Gritter happening with Jason Carey, Nigel Chad, and later Jacob Cook and Rod Hunt. Eventually Sam moved to Goulburn to study music. The Blue Mountains between 1989 and 1996 had a pretty cool live music All Ages scene. Not so much in pubs - the pubs were more or less cover bands and the kids at the All Ages shows were the ones writing new music. That's my memory of things... but maybe the memory is as hazy as the peaks you see driving west up the Great Western Highway. 

Dan McKay (Friend of the band), Noise Levels correspondence, 2026

RELATED BANDS: Fish River Dam, Crotch Rot, Gritter, The Beanies, Meat, Tempting Fate, The Harridens, Chaos Theory