By Phil Jarratt
Now that the Rolling Stones are into their 80s and still playing stadiums, it’s a bit of a reach to say that Noosa is the global home of old bloke rock, but jeez, we’d have to give the national title a nudge!
For starters we’ve had the legendary Barry Charles (currently playing as the Charles Camilleri Connection) rocking our socks for half a century, plus world class instrumentalists and vocalists Andy Cowan and Doc Span still drawing gasps whenever and wherever they play, and over the past decade we’ve seen the emergence of Aido Spelt and The SandFlys, which more recently begat The Freddies, led by the multi-talented Chris Lofven. None of these blokes gets any change out of 70, and they all rock their butts off.
And now, ladeez and gentlemen, back for a second round of rocking Noosa, please put your hands together for Booka Table and the Maitre D’s! Gotta love that name, and in case you’re under 50 or completely musically illiterate, it’s a play on words of Booker T and the MGs, one of the greatest soul/funk instrumental bands to come out of Memphis in the ‘60s. (If you’re interested pull up Green Onions on Spotify, particularly the 2022 remaster.)
Melbourne drummer and chef Peter Roussos rocked into Noosa in 1988, got a cooking gig at the old beachfront Eduardo’s where he kept running into regular customer Rod Watts, another former Melburnian who had played bass guitar and sung around the traps before moving north to set up an audio production business. What else, they put a party band together and started to make a name for themselves, playing at La Sabbia on Hastings Street and at the Sunday sesh at the Reef Hotel. And that name, Pete’s invention, was Booka Table and the Maitre D’s. Fun, food and funk – what a combo!
Roll on the years, Peter buggers off to create Pasta Pronto and numerous subsequent restaurants and market food carts around the country, usually in tribute to his Greek/Cypriot heritage, while Rod builds cats and tris in his spare time and heads off on sailing adventures, taking time out to manage the Gove yacht club and Couran Cove Resort along the way. Eventually they collide again in Noosa, where Rod has built a reputation as musician and sound guru, and Peter opens another restaurant on the river, this one called Eclipse, a feel-good family-run place where the Greek/Med-influenced tucker is world class.
Playing at The Apollonian Hotel open mic night, the boys meet pom Dave Williams, a red-hot guitarist and singer/songwriter who has escaped Canberra and an IT career for greener (or maybe bluesier fields).
What next? Well, we’re getting old, no time to waste, let’s put the band back together! And Booka Table Mk 2 is something else, even if the name’s nod to the culinary arts applies to drummer Pete more so than Rod or Dave, who make up the regular tight trio, although Rod lays claim to having set tables at the yacht club once in a while and Dave was once a dish pig at the National Press Club.
I caught their act on a showery Easter Sunday out at Mrs Brown’s Diner in Belli Park. The light rain didn’t bother any of the fans and the shabby chic 1950s milk bar ambience was the perfect complement to the mellow sounds of a musical trip down memory lane, which over a succession of short, sharp sets gave way to some spot-on covers of the great rock anthems of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Tight is the operative word for the Maitre D’s. Rod’s driving bass sets up the riffs while powerhouse Pete backs him up on the skins, never missing a beat, and Dave’s soaring guitar solos are a highlight, including the best White Room Clapton cover I’ve heard in a long time.
Asked to sum up the ethos of the band, Rod says: “It’s old blokes having fun playing great music that gets people out of their chairs. How’s that?”
I run into Peter the following night, scampering around the kitchen at Eclipse, producing to-die-for Greek share plates for an appreciative full house. He pokes his nose through the servery and says: “Sheesh, I’m knackered! Being a rock star sure takes it out of you!”
Son Aaron (who actually is the maitre d’) cracks up laughing in the background.
Interested in booking Booka Table and the Maitre D’s? Email magicsailing@gmail.com
