From humble beginnings as a boy, listening to the top 40 on a small transistor radio and dreaming of having his own number one hit one day, moving on to playing with one of the top Rock bands in the world ZZ Top. It has been a long but wonderful journey for Brooke Banderas! He started singing at age 7. Performing on stage at primary school at age 15 he went to his first live concert and heard “Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs” play. From then on, he was hooked!

 

At 19 Brooke joined forces with Greg Champion (famous for writing AFL footy songs and winner of the Tamworth Golden Guitar Award) whilst studying at Adelaide University. About then, he started a folk duo with Greg, both on acoustic guitars. They soon  formed their first band called “Tidewater” and wrote and recorded a Country rock album entitled “Wild Horse Plains”. Graham Davidge on lead guitar/vocal (L.R.B. and Goanna Band), James Black on piano/guitar (Rockwiz and Mondo Rock),  J.J. Hackett on drums (Mondo Rock) and Paul Zeising on bass. A star-studded line-up to say the least! Other bands followed… ”Redeye” and “The Loops”.

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In 1994 Brooke moved to the Gold Coast and further honed his craft as a solo guitar/vocalist at the major venues around East Coast playing Rock, Country, Latin and Blues classics. He became good friends with Lee Kernaghan (who often praised his original music) whist doing residencies at Sanctuary Cove (Q.L.D). Brooke’s guitar playing was heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Gary Moore, Vince Gill, Eric Clapton and The Eagles. It is evident in his album tracks that he has convincingly joined the ranks of great players. Now a very accomplished lead and slide guitar player, made a formidable complimenting  match to his unique vocals style (smooth and warm with a slight rock edge when needed and tough and heavy for the hard stuff.

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The great floods hit Queensland in 2011 when he was approached by Brian Doyle (Channel 9 cameraman for Mike Willesee) to write and record a song which had airplay right across Queensland. Channel 9 put the footage of the floods with Brooke’s song “Rise Again” which is now showcased in the Queensland State Library Flood Lines Displaying memory of those who died.

 

Brooke Banderas’ “Boundary Rider” brings all that he is to the listener!

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