Adelaide group the Hergs recorded one 45 before moving to Melbourne to try their luck. Members at the time of this recording were Eddy McPherson (Robin McPherson) on vocals, Mike Williams on guitar, Laurie Lehman guitar, Peter Luckins on bass, and Barry Sincock on drums. Peter Luckins and Eddy McPherson coined the band’s name, and if there’s a meaning to it, they kept it to themselves.
From 1967, “Style of Love” is a great early punk-meets-psychedelia track, written by Eddy McPherson. The explosive version of “Cadillac” on the flip is not the Bo Diddley song covered by the Kinks and myriad of others, but a cover of Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac”. To make matters more confusing, the label gives songwriting credit to Chuck Berry, who had no part in either of these songs.
Barry Sincock, the original drummer from The Hergs gave me some info about the group and sent me the great clippings and photos presented here:
The name The Hergs came from bass player Peter Luckins, who said it was a name for Trolls in Northern England. Not sure if this is true or not.
The words of the song “Style Of Love” were written by me, the words came from an article from Life Magazine about the hippies in San Francisco. The song was put together the night before we went into the studio by the whole band.
Hergs at #5 on 5KA’s Top 50, Dec. 15, 1967 Q. I suppose there weren’t too many psychedelic substances around Adelaide at that time?
It wasn’t until we got to Melbourne and lived in a rundown mansion with a group of prostitutes that everything changed. Lots of crazy nights thanks to the Masters Apprentices and those crazy girls.
The song “Cadillac” we got from watching Molly Meldrum, miming on Kommotion. We didn’t know who wrote it, so we decided Chuck Berry was a good candidate. Mike did the record. John Thorton joined about eight months before we packed up and moved to Melbourne.
The band went to Melbourne under the management of Darryl Sambell, but he was so busy with John Farnham that he passed us on to Geoff Edelsten.
We went into the studios and put down two tracks with John Farnham and Hans Poulson helping with back up. One of the songs was “Three Jolly Dwarfs” which the Zoot ended up recording due to our problems with Geoff. The songs were never released. The tape was left at Armstrong Studios along with a few other bands when Edelsten wouldn’t pay the studio and went off to make his fortune in medical practices.
I was drafted to Vietnam in 1969. Eddie McPherson went on to the musical Hair, and later moved to Melbourne.
Laurie Lehman played lead guitar, he passed away in December 2008.
Barry Sincock
After this record John Thornton replaced Mike Williams and David Potter replaced Barry Sincock. Adrian Russell replaced Eddy McPherson by the time of their last live appearance, at the Royal Melbourne Show in September, 1968.
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From 1967, “Style of Love” is a great early punk-meets-psychedelia track, written by Eddy McPherson. The explosive version of “Cadillac” on the flip is not the Bo Diddley song covered by the Kinks and myriad of others, but a cover of Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac”. To make matters more confusing, the label gives songwriting credit to Chuck Berry, who had no part in either of these songs.
