About Brent Dehn

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All about Brent Dehn……….. 

Born 23rd June, 1963 in London, England to Australian parents who happened to be living in London at the time. 

Travelled to Australia late 1967 with his parents who were returning to Australia to settle permanently. 

Settled in Epping, NSW and spent that time attending Epping public school (primary) and thence Epping boys high school, leaving halfway through 5th form (Year 11). “I really didn’t enjoy school; I would spend any time I could wagging class and playing guitar in the music rooms”. “I left school as soon as I turned 16 (the earliest time that you could legally cease the schooling process)”. Interesting historic note, Brent was able to see some of the best Aussie bands at this high school. These included “The LaDeDa’s”, Renee Geyer, “Cloud nine” (who later became “Taste”), “Air Supply”, “Finch”, and “Geeza”. “AC/DC” had played at the school one year before Brent started at the high school. 

The first gig Brent saw at high school was the LaDeDa’s which featured a wonderful and long-lasting influence, Kevin Borich. Brent even has a awful cassette recording of this, his first rock and roll gig, which he has since shared with Kevin. 

Joined his first band at around 13 years of age with school friends. By this time he’d bought his first Fender Stratocaster, a 1975 model bought brand new on 11th July 1976 from Smitts music shop in Eastwood, NSW. BD still has that guitar to this day! 

The first band was called “Widow Quin”, which was a character from a play titled “Playboy of the western world”. This band had a rotating cast of local budding musos which proved to be a fertile learning chapter for Brent at this formative stage. Widow Quin played a bunch of local dances and back yard parties around the Epping/Beecroft/Eastwood area whenever possible. The local dances would be held in local school of arts halls mostly which were basically big wooden barn-style places where any local theatre type productions were performed. Big, wooden and terribly ambient (echoey!!!!). 

During this period Brent (whom we’ll refer to as BD from here on) met a bunch of local budding bands, all performing in and around the same area and venues. One of these bands was named “Spitfire”. Spitfire were a raucous bunch of Beecroft locals who were whipping up a bit of interest because of their “enthusiastic” shows. This included the bass player doing his fire spitting act toward the end of the show. A real spectacle!!! It certainly grabbed BD’s attention! Spitfire were a three-piece band, guitar, bass, and drums. The bass player was the main vocalist. 

The birth of Dee Minor and the Dischords; 1978 

Towards the end of 1978 Widow Quin was finding it hard to maintain a steady line-up so was adrift for the most part. As fate would have it BD got a phone call from the singer/bass player from Spitfire. The phone call was for Widow Quins bass player, Scott Leece, who was always at BD’s place. Anyone looking for Scott knew that to get hold of him it was likely he’d be at BD’s place. That phone call was from John Stuart, the lead singer/bass player from Spitfire. Spitfire had been offered a gig at Beecroft school of arts around xmas time, 1978. John and Paul Arnott, the drummer from Spitfire, decided that they didn’t want to do the gig as Spitfire, they wanted to try something completely different. The thought was to try something really outrageous along the lines of Jimmy and the boys, and Rrats Bander (a wonderful eclectic, sexually provocative band from Sydney in the late ‘70’s). “We were all starting to go to pubs around this time and were able to catch some of the best acts you could imagine. There were bands like Midnight oil, Cold chisel, The Radiators, Dallimore, The Angels….and on and on”. Truly the golden age of the Sydney/Australian rock music scene! 

Back to that phone call. Scott got on the phone with John and John asked Scott if he would like to play in this impromptu band for the upcoming gig as John wanted to dress up outrageously and not be tied to the bass. Scott told John that he would only do the gig if BD was also going to do the gig. John immediately agreed to those terms as he didn’t want to use the guitarist from Spitfire anyway and this immediately solved that conundrum. 

The next step was to get the four together and decide on material. John and Paul had already formulated a lot of plans and ideas so the setlist was pretty much in place. Now all they had to do was get together and rehearse said setlist. As it turns out Scott decided, after the first rehearsal, that he didn’t want to put the obvious effort in so bowed out. John and Paul knew another bass player, Greg Dawes, who happened to be the brother of Johns girlfriend at the time. Now the line-up consisted of John Stuart, Paul Arnott, Greg Dawes, and Brent Dehn. 

There was to be a slew of “show” type pieces. One such piece was called “Disco ka ka” which would involve a couple of local spunks as dancing girls. Welcome Kim and Lea Dawes, Gregs sisters (both spunks).  The girls would be wearing leotard type outfits dancing around singing “Disco, disco, disco ka ka”.  Another idea John and Paul had was to make a cutout “Gibson Explorer” guitar. John would bring on the Explorer whilst BD hid in the wings ripping out a zany guitar solo and John would pretend to be doing the playing on the obviously fake guitar pulling funny faces and jumping around like a loon. The setlist included songs like “These boots are made for walking” done in the style of The Birthday party” (if memory serves). A couple of Sex Pistols songs (Pretty vacant, and God save the queen), as well as some other oddities. Overall, the gig went exceptionally well. So well, in fact, that the quartet decided this should become a permanent band. And so “Dee Minor and the chord structures” was born. Paul Arnott was an art student and quite a good lyricist as it turns out. He came up with a list of potential band names. There were about 30 odd names on the list, but the standout was “Dee Minor and the Dischords”. That name stuck! 

Dee Minor and the Dischords did their first “official” gig at the Local Inn, West Ryde sometime late 1978 or early 1979. The exact date is lost to time. That line-up lasted until sometime in 1981. There’s far more to this story which can be expanded upon at a later date. 

The Shots/Just Die Young; 1982 

After Brent left Dee Minor for the first time, he joined a band called “The Shots” who had released an album called “Arf’an’album’for’a’couple’of’bucks”. Soon after joining they changed their name to “Just Die Young”. Got a new bass player (Greg Dawes from Dee Minor) and wrote a slew of new material for the newly renamed band. A great learning curve for BD as he was writing the bulk of original material for this new band. 

The birth of The Dischords; 1984 

A couple of years later and the then current lineup of Dee Minor and the Dischords were breaking up. This led to the formation of “The Dischords” which was mostly the same band, including BD, minus Dee Minor. The Dischords came up with mostly new material and was another great learning curve for BD’s writing skills. 

Dee Minor and the Dischords……again; 1985 

Another year or two down the track and BD was approached by John Stuart who wanted to get Dee Minor and the Dischords back together but didn’t want any of the guys from the last incarnation. That band had broken up with a great deal of animosity at the time. BD was back in Dee Minor and the Dischords. 

Wrecking Crew; 1986 

Another couple of years later and BD leaves Dee Minor again, this time advertising for an entirely new batch of muso’s to complete his new band. That new band became Wrecking Crew! Enter Dave Wilkins, Ken Wheeler, and Greg Dawes (from Dee Minor- again!). Greg decided he wanted a change of musical scenery so was soon replaced by Mick Vawdon on bass. This then became the first official line-up of Wrecking Crew. This was about 1986. Some material was brought forward from Dee Minor and Just Die Young but most was newly written for Wrecking Crew. 

Wrecking Crew went through a few line-up changes. The one constant member throughout all of the line-ups was BD! By the time Wrecking Crew signed with Trafalgar records in 1992 and recorded their one and only album, “Fun in the doghouse” Wrecking Crew consisted of Dave Wilkins (vocals), Dave Reynolds (bass), Gary Synerdahl (drums) and BD (guitar). Wrecking Crew toured until the wheels literally fell off (but that’s another story) late November 1993. 

Utopian babies; 1994 

Music life did not end after Wrecking Crew folded! Dave Wilkins immediately took up his next project. It didn’t have a name yet, but he took all the boys from Wrecking Crew to start recording his new project by January 1994. No rest for the wicked! There was a lot of material recorded, with an ever-expanding group of musos. Eventually the album “Nothing in moderation”, by “Utopian babies” was released in 1999. Dave Wilkins and BD continue to work together in various projects to this day. 

The Radiators; 2012 

BD got a phone call from Mark Lucas (drummer for the Radiators) late 2012 and asked if he was interested in joining the Rads as Fess (original guitarist) had decided he’d had enough of touring after 30 odd years of service to the band. BD said yes! BD played with the Rads until the covid crap struck the world so in 2021 BD was told that he wouldn’t be playing with the Rads anymore as he refused to take the covid jabs. Management terminated his services at that point. 

BD loved playing with the Rads and fully expected to still be playing with them for far longer than the 9 years that he served with them. 

After the Rads?  

The musical journeys continue……watch this space…….