At the age of 11, Tim Gaze was “borrowing” his older brother’s guitar from its hiding place in the wardrobe and learning to play a few chords.
Shortly after his 16th birthday, Tim became lead guitarist for a bluesy innovative band from Newcastle called Tamam Shud.
An amazing start to an amazing career.
The music journalists of the time made much of the potential and obvious talent of this young guitar wizard. They were right and, almost four decades on, Tim’s latest CD is the proof.
On the Bombora label, Tim Gaze has just released “Reckless Love: The Tim Gaze Anthology” - thirty one original recordings on two CDs that trace the six-string journey of one of Australia’s greatest ever guitarists.
Have a listen to some snippets of music from the album:
14. Freshwater - Tim Gaze & Pete Howe (Delightful Rain)
Through the years Tim has been an influential member of several highly regarded Australian bands – Tamam Shud, Kahvas Jute, Ariel, Rose Tattoo, The Aussie Rebles and The Hoochie Koochie Men – as well as several bands featuring his own name. And then some.
“Reckless Love” features landmark tracks from all these groups including the 1973 Australian Single Of The Year – Jamaican Farewell by Ariel – and Suddenly by Rose Tattoo’s Angry Anderson, the song that featured behind Scott and Charlene’s wedding on Neighbours and was aired around the world.
From the very beginning, Tim has had a strong association with surf music and the surf community. It began with Tamam Shud. The band was a significant contributor to the soundtrack of the early 70s Australian surf film Morning Of The Earth.
This lead to a number of other soundtracks including Band On The Run and the Hot Buttered Soul series. Tim and the Shud also performed on the acclaimed “Delightful Rain: a celebration of Australian surf music” in 2006.
A mixture of surf, blues and rock, “Reckless Love: The Tim Gaze Antholgy”is an enjoyable track by track journey of one man’s contribution to Australian music history. Throughout, Tim’s electrifying guitar work shines through.
Today Tim is 54, a quiet, unassuming man who down plays his talent but is also quick to point out that his career is “still a work in progress”.
Jimmy Barnes comments on his mate, Tim Gaze "Tim Gaze is and always has been one of the best guitarists that Australia has ever produced. I remember seeing him in the early days with the boys from Cold Chisel and we were all blown away with his taste and feel. Years later I was lucky enough to get to play with him in John Lord's band. We became friends again and I immediately asked him to join my band. We have worked together on and off ever since.
He is a great player and a great friend of mine. I cannot speak highly enough of him, he is one of nature's true gentlemen. But not only that he can make his guitar sing like an angel and scream like the devil. He is truly gifted." Jimmy Barnes
Tim Gaze - "Band on the Run"
A 2CD set of material that was written on the Sydney Northern Beaches peninsula during '78 and '79 for the 1980 surf film "Band On The Run" by photographer and director Harry Hodge a voyage not unlike 'Endless Summer', in that a group of top pro-surfers, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, Brian Cregan, Bruce Raymond and Paul Neilsen, go around the world in search of great surfing experiences.
The original soundtrack included songs by Paul McCartney, J.J.Cale, Van Morrison etc., but owing to legal problems, at the time of the supposed album release, the companies controlling these artists would not agree to the release of the music on a soundtrack album, thereby effectively vetoing any chance the Tim Gaze Band had of getting their music released.
Originally there were 10 tracks used for the soundtrack, but a lot of other tracks were recorded. In this new release, there are the original demos, (1st Wave), that were done to get the approval and go-ahead from the interested parties, and then the final recordings, or the "real" ones (2nd Wave), that were done and used for the final soundtrack on the movie release.
From Tim:
In those days, you usually had to do ‘demo’ recordings first, so as all and sundry could get an idea of what it was you were proposing to do. I remember now, thinking back, that it was all a bit weird doing a whole lot of recording, only to get the nod from those in power, to ‘go ahead with the actual recording...’, and then do it all again, with the same people, in the same studio!
Sure, it was a process, and you did uncover some different angles, but in a lot of cases, we found that the original demo recordings had more excitement and spontaneity due the fact that it was the first draught, and therefore had more of a newness and spark to the whole project. It’s like the old thing of, the more you dick with it, the more it loses it’s original character and intent..Anyway, that was how it was done then, and Peter Bolton and I figure that those original ideas deserve to be heard as well as the final recorded versions. Also there are some things in the demo recordings that didn’t make it to the final soundtrack, so that’s a bonus, while some tracks have two versions.
Hope you enjoy this chapter of recorded Australian surf music history.
Highly recommended to anyone who likes Kahvas Jute, Tamam Shud or OZ surf soundtracks from the era. Thanks to Tim Gaze, this fabulous music finally gets a release.
"Tim Gaze is and always has been one of the best guitarists that Australia has ever produced. I remember seeing him in the early days with the boys from Cold Chisel and we were all blown away with his taste and feel. Years later I was lucky enough to get to play with him in John Lord's band. We became friends again and I immediately asked him to join my band. We have worked together on and off ever since.
He is a great player and a great friend of mine. I cannot speak highly enough of him, he is one of nature's true gentlemen. But not only that he can make his guitar sing like an angel and scream like the devil. He is truly gifted."
A 2CD set of material that was written on the Sydney Northern Beaches peninsula during '78 and '79 for the 1980 surf film "Band On The Run" by photographer and director Harry Hodge a voyage not unlike 'Endless Summer', in that a group of top pro-surfers, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, Brian Cregan, Bruce Raymond and Paul Neilsen, go around the world in search of great surfing experiences. 
