George Fotakopoulos

George Fotakopoulos

• Given (1994-2018) - Guitar
• The Bernie Lomax 5 (2008-2011) - Drums
• Uncle John (2010) - Guitar, Vocals
• Circle of Gin (2012-2018) - Vocals, Guitar, Drums
• The Windjammers (2018-2025) - Drums, Vocals
• And Laments (2021-2025) - Ukulele, Guitar, Bouzouki, Vocals
  
• Fur Brain (2025-Current) - Drums, Vocals
• The Black Pints (2026-Current) - Drums

REGION: Penrith, NSW

The Bernie Lomax 5

 

ORIGINS: Penrith, NSW

GENRE: Indie, Punk

YEARS ACTIVE: 2002-2011

 

MEMBERS:

• Colden 'Bundy' Locke - Vocals, Bass
• Luke Bartolo - Vocals, Guitar
• Mitchell McLennan - Guitar (2004-2011)
  
• George Fotakopoulos  - Drums (2008-2011)
  
• Cecilia 'CC' Manson - Keyboards (2010-2011)
• Steve Dickie - Drums (2005-2007)
• Matt Gildon - Drums (2005)
• Daniel Eschler - Guitar (2002)
  

RELEASES: 

• Demo (2004) 
• 1. Mosley
• 2. Free Robots

• Demo (2007) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Free Robots
• 2. RiverKings
• 3. Great White Hunter
• 4. Black Caesar
• 5. The Way You Move
• 6. Drink

• It's The Way You Roll (2008) - Download Here.
  
• 1. In For the Weekend
• 2. Holiday Monday
• 3. Out For Life
• 4. Bike Tracks
• 5. The Last Crusade
• 6. Mosley 

• Shane (2009) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Shane
• 2. God's Country
• 3. Friday and Saturday
• 4. Me and My Turtle
   
• History is Written by the Winners (2010) [Unreleased]
  
• 1. Red Lights and Blue Music
• 2. Sex in Cars
• 3. Thieves of the Skyline [Lost recording]
• 4. Goodnight Mr Tom
• 5. Black and White
• 6. Eleven [Lost recording]
• 7. The Fish and the Chips
• 8. A Dog's Life [Lost recording]
• 9. Stray Pigeons 
• 10. Next to You [Lost recording]
• 11. The Brass Chorus
• 12. Wolf Eagles (The Wolves Who Are Eagles)

• Live @ SWR (2011)
• 1. Thieves of the Skyline
• 2. Live It Up
  

SUMMARY: Formed after the demise of The Shenanigans as 'Yossarian Lives', the band eventually solidified as a four-piece called The Bernie Lomax Five in 2005 (with Bernie Lomax being the always absent fifth member). The band later settled with Fotakopoulos on drums after second drummer Steve Dickie moved to the wilds of Blainey. Playing a handful of shows throughout the '00s, the band worked on an album in their last couple of years with the addition of CC Manson on keyboards before finishing up when Locke decided to take a break from music.

 

SHOWS: 

• National Beer Day, Gearin Hotel, Katoomba - 5th November, 2005 
• Springwood Royal, Springwood - 29th December, 2005
  
• The Harp, Tempe - 9th March, 2006 
• The Union, Penrith - 8th April, 2006
  
• Repressed Records, Penrith - unknown date, 2006
  
• National Beer Day, The Union, Penrith - 4th November, 2006 
• Victoria Hotel, Orange - 7th July, 2007
• The Pitz, Marrickville - 11th August, 2007
  
• La Campana, Sydney - 27th August, 2008
• The Basement, Blacktown - 31st July, 2009 
• Lansdowne, Sydney - 20th November, 2009
  
• The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill - 1st April, 2010
  
• The Townie, Newtown - 28th April, 2010
  
• UWS Bar, Kingswood - 12th May, 2010
  
• Lansdowne, Sydney - unknown date, July 2010
• The Townie, Newtown - 13th October, 2010
  
• Valve Bar, Tempe - 14th November, 2010
• The Basement, Blacktown - 19th February, 2011
  

RELATED BANDS: The Shenanigans, Given, The New Justice Team, Skuzz, Earth to Nigel, Circle of Gin, The Windjammers, And Laments, Normal Day, Fur Brain, Qabbala

National Beer Day

 

A brief history of 'National Beer Day'...

Let me set the scene for you. It was 1998, on the northern outskirts of Penrith, in the historical suburb of Cranebrook. A house perched on a hill, overlooking the then-newly-created Penrith Lakes, and a line of century-old olive trees between the edge of the suburb and the undeveloped land beyond... These were teenage years, the time of jamming in the garage on crappy $100 instruments, riding around all night long in cars because you were too young to go to the pub, and going to boozy parties in people's backyards where parents sent you packing by 9pm.

Enter Mitchell, a young enterprising lad with a dream. This dream was called 'National Beer Day', and it was to take place on the first weekend of November every year.

In reality, it was just a party. The first National Beer Day took place in my garage/backyard at Mitchell's insistence. My house was opposite the aforementioned Cranebrook olive trees on the top of a hill that overlooked the Penrith Lakes. I was crook as a dog and I didn't really want my mates coming over to drink a bunch of beers in front of me but peer pressure did its thing and I even forced myself to drink a beer to show solidarity with the 7 or so people who attended. It was a painful drink because my throat was so sore at the time. I then told everyone they should go out somewhere and leave me behind, so they did. And that was the first National Beer Day.

National Beer Day 2, 1999. South Penrith hosted it's only National Beer Day, a party of about 20 people or so at a rental house (hi Megan!).

National Beer Day 3, 2000. This took place in another friend's garage (hi Mick!) in Cranebrook and was also about 7 people or so. It was a little underwhelming, but Mitchell's passion did not die. 

[National Beer Day 2001, Left to Right] Pablo (Save Some For Daddy), Sean, James (Vanity Star), Marko, Adam (Barkode), Pat (Dyasphere)

National Beer Day 4, 2001. Back to Cranebrook as I now had my own rental property that I lived in alongside my brother Jon and my housemate George Fotakopolous. My involvement in the local music scene as part of The Shenanigans meant that this was now a bit of a happening party. National Beer Day was always meant to move around but, as few of my friendship group had their own place, it was decided by Mitchell that this rental house (colloquially known as the Ben Nevis Hotel, creatively named after its address on Ben Nevis Rd) would host subsequent National Beer Days for the forseeable future. 

The first of the NBD Games at National Beer Day 2002. Note the red and white NBD shirts.

National Beer Day 5, 2002. This is when things started to shift and it ceased to be a thing for just one group of friends. Yes, the name is generic and the idea behind it is paper-thin, but something happened in 2002 that transformed National Beer Day into something of a pre-internet meme. We made merchandise and people bought it to wear... in our backyard. We created games and events that people could watch... in our backyard. We put on food and it was generally a positive vibes-only party.

NBD 2003 - Snake Races involved racing without using one's arms or legs.

National Beer Day 6, 2003: If one single National Beer Day could be described as the National Beer Day, I would say it was this one, the final one to take place at the Ben Nevis Hotel in Cranebrook and the final National Beer Day to not include bands. I decided, in an act of bold stupidity, to advertise the party online via the Bombshellzine.com forum which, at the time, was a great way for bands and music fans to network and talk nonsense across the states. It resulted in 250 people making the pilgrimage to Penrith and then to Cranebrook, people from Queensland and Sydney, lots of people who'd never met each other in person before but knew of each other via online ridiculousness. This party just about broke our rental house at the time, with someone running right into the fence and busting it open, which outraged the neighbours. There were more games, like Snake Races, Jelly Wrestling, and The Bounce Off. Some random guy fell asleep on our lounge and we simply walked the lounge outside and tipped him onto the lawn. The party was big enough for a shirtless stranger to come running in off the street... he attempted to blend into the crowd but was promptly tackled by the two police officers who had been pursuing him through Cranebrook that night. Again, for all its eventfulness, I seem to recall that it was a pretty chill night with positive vibes-only.

Click here for more about NBD 2004

National Beer Day 7, 2004. Mitchell and I became ambitious this year. It also didn't help that myself, my brother Jon, and my old flatmate George, did not live at the Ben Nevis Hotel any more. My dad had a mostly unused property up at Putty at the time so we convinced him to let us host the party there. Have you ever been to Putty? Or heard of it before? It's not really a place, just a vague location along an old trucking road that connects the Hawkesbury to Cessnock, and it takes forever to get to. We hired portaloos, a minibus to transport people, and a generator so bands could play in the middle of nowhere (Putty doesn't have any electricity, that's how remote it is). By this point it was expected that we would create T-shirts to help fund the party so I decided to help bolster this funding by creating a dodgy National Beer Day compilation CD. We sold a few of these... I'd hesitate to say they'd be worth anything now though as they were a burnt-CD home job. About 100 people attended the Putty National Beer Day and camped out. It was a good time. My main memory is that, when my friend Shane got back to Penrith, he fell asleep after consuming some ridiculously hot chili sauce. While sleeping, he wiped his eye, and then woke up to find it so swollen that he couldn't see out of it. 

Bands who played at NBD 2004:

• Bagster
• Stereo City
• The New Justice Team
• ROFL
• Given
• Save Some For Daddy
  

Steppin' Razor at NBD 2005

National Beer Day 8, 2005. As fun as Putty was, it was also a logistical nightmare to organise, so we decided to put on National Beer Day as a show at the Gearin Hotel in Katoomba. Bands played, various online friends made the trek from as far as Forster (hi Bones!), and about 30 people crashed out in the incredibly run-down rooms above the bar. 

Bands who played NBD 2005:

• Steppin' Razor
• Kampei
• The New Justice Team
• The Undersided
• The Bernie Lomax 5
  

National Beer Day 9, 2006. By this point myself and my old flatmate George were living in a sharehouse again. This was a hundred-year old rental house in Penrith that we'd imaginatively dubbed The Union (it was on Union Road). After a previous party with bands had gone relatively well here we decided to return to National Beer Day's house-party roots. Around 150 people attended and a big lineup of bands played in the loungeroom, including two bands who were on tour from Queensland at the time. It was very DIY - we set up a drum riser in the tiny loungeroom by placing some detached doors on top of some besser blocks. Lacking a proper microphone stand, we shoved a mop between some bricks and then taped a microphone to the top of it. The highlight was probably Rex Banner playing, which prompted some crowd surfing in the lounge room. Being an old house, the roof was one of those really high ceilings. This makes all the more impressive the fact that someone's footprints were left on it.

Bands who played NBD 2006:

• Dick Nasty
• The Quickening
• Rex Banner
• Steppin' Razor
• Extra Limb
• Chaz H. Scally
• The New Justice Team
• Save Some For Daddy
• The Bernie Lomax 5
  

National Beer Day 10, 2007. In the tradition of most things, National Beer Day's ten-year run ended with a whimper. People were getting older and no one was willing to hand over the use of their house for a party of this size, so we tried to turn it into a pub crawl in the Rocks. I think only ten people attended in the end, which is fitting considering how small this event was when it started. The highlight was National Beer Day diehard Matt Black asking the house band at a pub if he could sing with them, and then performing 'Mack the Knife' perfectly. We didn't even know he could sing... in those days we just knew him as Parramatta Matt. These days he fronts boisterous folk-punk band The Bottlers. 

Given

ORIGINS: Cranebrook, NSW

GENRE: Hard Rock, Metal

YEARS ACTIVE: 1994-2013, 2017-2018

 

MEMBERS:

• George Fotakopoulos (Guitar) (Vocals, Guitar - 2002-2003)
  
• Gary Thomas (Guitar) (Vocals, Guitar - 2002-2003)
  
• Josh McHattan (Drums)
• Jai Pearce (Vocals) [1996-2001, 2004-2018]
  
• Jason 'Colty' Coltan (Bass) [1995-1996]
• Shane Wallis (Bass) [1996-2018]
  

RELEASES: 

 

• Demo (1996)
• 1. Imagine
• 2. Down and Out

• Self-Titled (1999)
• 1. Down and Out
• 2. Outfit
• 3. Empty Room
• 4. Twice Shy
   

•  Sony Demo (2000) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Drive
• 2. Fade Away
• 3. Empty Room

• Given EP (2002)
• 1. Promises
• 2. When You're There
• 3. Mostly Me
• 4. Reason
• 5. Never Before
• 6. Demist

SUMMARY: Given formed under the name Utopia while Josh McHattan, George Fotakopoulos, and Gary Thomas were in Year 9 at Cranebrook High School. Jason Coltan was recruited on bass but was replaced within a year by Shane Wallis, and singer Jai Pearce was the last member to be added after he left his previous band Watteva. The band played their first show at a bikers' club house (just prior to Pearce joining) and by 1996 they were playing under the name Exile and had recorded their first demo.

 

In 1999, after steadily gigging around Sydney with a mixture of originals and covers, the band changed their name to Given. During this time, around 2000, the band had their song 'Fade Away' picked up on the American college radio circuit and they became the house band at Richmond Royal jam nights. In 2001 they won the Great Western Bar band comp and used the money to record an EP, and toured parts of New South Wales in support of the Led Zeppelin and Doors show. Pearce left the band in ???? when he moved to Melbourne to work, prompting further name changes to Project (briefly) and Media Tramp, during which time Thomas and Fotakopoulos shared lead vocal duties. Pearce returned to Penrith in 2006 and re-joined as vocalist but the band's activity eventually slowed to a stop as members started raising families or playing in other bands. 

In 2017, the band re-formed as The Des-Men, in honour of their friend Des Thomas who had passed away in 2016. They have played a couple of times under this name at memorial events.

 

SHOWS:

• North Richmond Community Centre, North Richmond - 6th September, 1996
  
• Harbour Cruise - 21st September, 1997
  
• Arthur Neave Memorial Hall, Werrington - 13th December, 1997 
• Uncle Bucks, Mt Druitt - 23rd May, 1998 
• Nepean Band Comp, Swamp Bar, UWS, Kingswood - 11th May, 2000 (as Exile)
  
• Great Western Bar, Penrith - 11th October, 2000
• Great Western Bar, Penrith - 17th January, 2001
• Bat & Ball, Surry Hills - 13th April, 2001
  
• Swamp Bar, UWS, Kingswood - 3rd May, 2001
• Battle of the Bands Heat, Great Western Bar, Penrith - 10th October, 2001
  
• Battle of the Bands Grand Final, Great Western Bar, Penrith - 31st October, 2001
• Monkey Magic, Channel Cafe, Penrith - 17th November, 2001
• The Axolotl, Werrington - 23rd March, 2002
  
• Great Western Bar, Penrith - 25th April, 2002
• National Beer Day, Putty - 6th November, 2004
  
• The Union, Penrith (House Party) - 8th April, 2006
  

ORAL HISTORY:

GARY: I remember how the band started like it was yesterday. We were in Year 9. It all came about from Josh sitting next to me in Maths. He knew I played guitar and I knew he played drums. Literally, that was all we knew about each other. And he chatted my ear off, suggesting I come over to his house for a jam. Our first practice was him and I with George playing one intro on acoustic and screaming into a shitty mic.

Gary Thomas (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

JOSH: At the time I was looking for musos to jam with but the school drummer position was filled. George made a random comment, "I'll learn and play guitar". Not long after, he was given an acoustic and we were jamming... poorly, but it was jamming. I then met Gary in a Maths class. Someone mentioned to me that he played guitar. I asked him to join us. I was so impressed he had a guitar that looked like an Angus Young SG! He was in. Jason Coltan then said he could play bass.

Joshua McHattan (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 

 

COLTY: We would practice at Josh's house and go up to Kingswood Park shops to get hot chips and Utopia drinks. And that's where the name came from, we saw that word and it was like, "That's a mad name for a band". 

Jason Coltan (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

 

GEORGE: Josh and I wanted to start a band in late 1994. He had drums and could play. I didn't have a guitar, couldn't play a note, but it still sounded like a good idea. By the time school went back in '95 we had recorded our first song and Josh had found out that Gary had an electric guitar so asked him to join. The issue at this point was that Gary and I didn't like each other but once you're in a band you get on with it. Colty then joined very reluctantly on bass. He wanted to play guitar but Gary and I are pretty stubborn and obviously we didn't want to play bass either. We had shitloads of fun with Colty but we needed a committed bass player 'cause we were super keen on improving. Shane had his own bass and amp, so he was in. 

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

COLTY: We were teenagers and no one knew what they were doing. None of us could keep time. I didn't fit in with what they were doing, which was very much an AC/DC or Metallica sound... I wanted to do something different, I wanted to get sounds out of instruments that you shouldn't be able to get out of them. And I didn't want to play bass. But it was so much fun. It was a fun time. They kicked me out of the band without really kicking me out of the band, which is how it's done when you're a teenager. They were just like, "Shane's playing bass now," and was like, "Yeah, thanks."

Jason Coltan (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

Year 9, 1994

 

SHANE: I remember Colty was the bass player but the guys wanted to play Metallica... They knew I had bought a bass and could play it so I was invited to practice at Josh's house and the first song we played was 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and I nailed it. 'Enter Sandman' was next if my memory serves me correctly and I played that as well. I don't think anyone officially asked me to join... I just played with them from then on. 

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

JOSH: Our first show was most likely the jam night that used to be in the old Reactor room at Panthers Leagues Club. We tried to play a cover of Faith No More's 'Gentle Art of...' without a singer. Most that track is bass chug and hi hat.

Joshua McHattan (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 

SHANE: One of our first shows was either the jam nights at the Royal in Richmond or maybe a Bikie Club in Southwest Sydney. George's neighbour was the Sergeant-at-Arms of that chapter. 

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JOSH: We had no singer forever. When Jai finished with his current band we asked him to join. We jammed and our line up was complete.

 Joshua McHattan (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

 

JAI: I remember watching the boys play on a Sunday afternoon at Panthers when they used to play jam nights. I was singing with Watteva at the time and thought I would love to have a jam with them. I knew Shane as our Dads used to work together, and I knew of Gaz through rollcall at school. I asked them if I could sing 'Pure Massacre' as they had jammed on it the week before. We played it and I thought it was awesome. I think I got invited to a jam at Shano's hosue the following week and we just kinda started there.

Jai Pearce (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

SHANE: We got kicked out before we even played at Cronulla because we were all underage and our mate Mitchell tried to buy a beer. 

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

GEORGE: I rarely play the pokies but for whatever reason, after we played a show, I went halves with Shane and we had a $700 win. We split the winnings but basically spent it all on screwdrivers, which is basically vodka and orange juice. Neither Shane or I have ever had one again after this night. Anyway, we ended up at Great Western Bar in Penrith and our kind of potential manager at the time, Tony Le Rhodes (The Choirboys), saw us and introduced us to his bikie friends. One of these bikies gave me a fucking massive bunger and said it would be really funny if I lit it up inside. Penrith used to be really rough and you did yourself no favours doing dumb shit like that inside a fucking rough pub. In a split second, I decided it would be really fucking funny to throw the bunger at the bikies that gave it to me. Before I did this, I turned to Shane and told him to run. I must've had that look in my eye because he didn't ask me why, he just did it. I wasn't far behind him and halfway across the street you could hear the massive bang and we ran all the way to Shane's house in the next suburb over, Lemongrove. We were wanted for a little while. In fact, I think Gary was pulled up about a year later and he wasn't even there at the time!

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

SHANE: We were pissed out of our brains after a night at Panthers drinking vodka and orange. And half of the Penrith bikies threatened to beat the shit out of us.

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JOSH: I used to really enjoy playing with the Led Zeppelin Show at the Richmond Royal. The drummer, Theo, was awesome and I got to play his kit a few times, which I thought was incredible. They also had a massive PA, it was way overkill for the venues but gee, that sound was huge. In terms of a great show, we also played the Mona Vale Hotel. There were actual punters there and it was a taste of having a half-decent crowd.

 Joshua McHattan (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 

JAI: My favourite memories were practising at Adrift Studios, playing the various jam nights and university gigs. Playing the Bikie gigs. Just hanging with the guys. I look back now and they were the best days ever.

Jai Pearce (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

SHANE: The first major recording was intimidating because I knew if I stuffed up it was there forever. I remember on one recording there was one song that I had a bassline worked out that I thought would be great but it really didn't sound good. I wanted to re-record the part but time was running out so it had to be left in. It's always made me cringe when I listen to it again. But I do love the recording the process... I like to adlib a lot when I play live so the pressure is on in the studio and sometimes you play the wrong note but it turns out to be the right note that really takes the song to another level... it's a good feeling. 

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GEORGE: Our song 'Fade Away' was the title music for a surfing show on Fox. Jai was always pissed that it cut out before the singing came in. I suppose this also kicked us off playing original songs in better places. 

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JOSH: We had a gig at this dive pub in the back of Tempe somewhere. There was no one there except for the bar staff and one single guy. He later approached us and said he was a cinema photographer of sorts and he would like to film a music clip if we were keen. We were. And so we did a film clip at the Maroubra Beach military tunnels and bunkers. It was a crazy day. Then we never heard from the guy again and, sadly, we never got to see any footage. I often think about it.

 Joshua McHattan (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 

GEORGE: I think we were all a bit lost when Jai left to work in Melbourne. Gary and I had to relearn how to play the guitar because we weren't used to playing guitar and singing at the same time. Playing riffs and intricate bits is easier when someone else is singing. We could've changed the way we played guitar but it wasn't our style. We liked to be a bit more intricate. So around 2002-2003 we were working through all that.

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

SHANE: I suggested at one stage that we call our ourselves The Kumquats.

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JAI: When I came back from Melbourne they had found a different sound/style and from that the song 'Drive' was created. I remember a week after recording it just blasting the absolute fuck out of it in my car. When George's solo kicks in, I'm in Heaven.

Jai Pearce (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GEORGE: I remember us playing a headlining show at the Kelts Bar in 2004 on a Saturday night, playing all original songs. The main band, Persian Rugs (a Screaming Jets side project), didn't show up so we got to do a double-set and got all the cash too... about $2000. 

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GEORGE: A special memory for me is when Gary and I were jamming with Jeff Martin (The Tea Party) after he'd done a solo show in Windsor. I just used his guitar upside-down (since I'm left-handed) to play 'All Things Must Pass' (George Harrison) while he sung. 

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

 

JOSH: We never really broke up, at least from a formal perspective. I'm not sure actually what happened. We just never could get a time together with everyone's jobs, commitments, etc, and we gave up trying. But it's still alive as The Des-Men. We will always make an effort for Des, to come together as our way of celebrating and remembering him in our own way. 

 Joshua McHattan (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

SHANE: We don't play anymore unless it's for a special occasion but the band is still essentially together. Exile, Given, or whatever we were called... it was the time of my life. Mates before the band and brothers afterwards. I really think the band brought us all closer together. 

Shane Wallis (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GEORGE: We love each other too much to ever truly break up. I suppose to us if we left the band it would be like leaving a friendship.

George Fotakopoulos (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Watteva, The Shenanigans, The Bernie Lomax 5, Circle of Gin, The Windjammers, And Laments, Aurelius