music with mates
Five years ago, The Finz didn’t exist, and its foundation members weren’t even musicians. Now, they are selling out venues and breaking pub records for beer sales.
Words Emily Perkins
Images Chris Frape
A six-piece covers band from the Illawarra made up of Tony Pattman on drums, Rob Reynolds strumming the rhythm guitar, Chris Bate on vocals, Clinton Venaglia playing the keyboard, Glenn Corby plucking the bass guitar, Stu McKechnie driving the lead guitar, and Daniel Gonzalo as the sound engineer, The Finz is, at its core, a bunch of friends who have tried their hand at something new later in life to great applause.
Tony, Rob, Chris, and Clinton grew up together, surfing Towradgi Beach, witnessing the early days of bands like Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, and Australian Crawl at local clubs, and sharing a love of music.
“The four of us went through everything together,” Tony says. “We’ve been to each other’s 21sts, weddings, marriages, divorces.”
The four of us went through everything together.
However, the boys didn’t realise that one another dabbled in music until later in life. It was 2017 and Tony was organising his 60th birthday party. He thought it’d be funny if he, Rob, and Chris learnt some songs and performed at the party.
After roping muso Glenn in too, 200 people showed up. “After a few beers, and a bit of Dutch courage, we belted out six songs and everyone was pretty stoked! ‘Can you play anymore?’ people asked. But we had to say, ‘No, we can play those six again if you like? That’s all we know,” Tony laughs.
“We just put the guitars down, picked up our beer and kept drinking,” Rob adds.
The moment was surreal and all four of them succumbed to the crowd’s reaction, “We had such a good response – it was intoxicating,” Rob admits.
That performance was the catalyst for their new project, proving that it’s never too late to follow a dream. With the inclusion of two more members, The Finz band was formed – named after one band member’s obsession with surfboard fins.
“The music of our teen years is the backbone of what we play now,” Rob says.
Since the decision was made to become a performing band, the guys have collected countless instruments from Facebook Marketplace, learnt 80 plus songs, played 45 gigs, including two sell-out New Year’s Eve shows at Towradgi Bowlo, and the Noosa Surf Festival, which they’ll be returning to next year, as well as fundraisers, weddings, and birthday parties.
“A highlight is when someone asks, ‘When are guys playing because I only ever go out to see you’,” Rob says. “And nothing beats pulling off a song you love on stage.”
For Chris, his favourite part about being involved in The Finz, apart from the camaraderie, is learning a song that he thought was too difficult. “We unleashed our first Midnight Oil song, Beds Are Burning, a few months ago and the reaction was the best we’ve ever seen from a song. It was a milestone as far as crowd reaction goes,” he says. “Our next benchmark is to build our own song – that’s the bucket list tick for me.”
The band members all agree that they still look at each other in disbelief when they are up on stage experiencing the magic moments of when a song comes together, and all individual parts fall into place.
“People dancing is our thing, if they aren’t dancing, we are doing something wrong,” Tony laughs. “We do it for the love and fun of it – it’s still a novelty to us.”
To perfect their self-taught skills, The Finz meet for a weekly jam to practise for gigs that occur regularly these days – the guys have played lots of local haunts, including Balgownie Hotel, Figtree Sports, The Vault in Port Kembla and The Shellharbour Club. “It’s very good for your mental health,” Chris says. “There’s a lot of brain power in learning and remembering a song, and the attention to detail. All that is good for your mind.”
When they aren’t grooving on stage, the group are either working or enjoying retirement, surfing, travelling, appreciating family time, or being coffee nerds.
“The band has a real family feel,” Robs says. “It’s a whole new family group that we didn’t have.”
Built on a strong friendship and a love for music, The Finz operate as one in all in, and are grabbing this opportunity to be musos and mates with both hands. As Tony says, “You’re never too old to have a crack at something.”