Easybeats drummer who surfed the crest of the ’60s beat boom

He walked away from their not-inconsiderable international fame – they had toured Europe with the Stones and had a top 20 American hit – and moved to Perth, where he became a builder.

The young Fleet was an apprentice bricklayer who’d played in bands around Liverpool, often in the same venues as the beloved Fab Four. He was part of a number of blues-based Merseyside rock groups, including the Four Musketeers, the Nomads and the Mojos, before he emigrated to Australia.

Once here, word spread about his percussive prowess. He was staying at an East Hills hostel when he found a note on his door: “I believe you’re from Liverpool and play the drums – would you like to play with us?” He duly set up his kit in the laundry of the Villawood Migrant Hostel, along with a scattering of other kids who were lost and a long way from home.

This story was duplicated all over the country as young men used amateur bands to feel a sense of belonging in their adopted land. The advantage they had over Australian-born players was that they were not in awe of the new British pop heroes, who were often people who’d once lived down the street from them.

The Villawood crew eventually gelled around two Dutchmen (Harry Vanda and Dick Diamonde), a fiercely talented Glaswegian (George Young) and an energetic, impish English singer (Stevie Wright). One of the Dutchmen had been a member of a semi-professional instrumental (that is, Shadows-inspired) outfit called the Starfighters. For a time, that name was adapted for this rough ensemble. Their new drummer, Fleet, older than the others and with a natural authority, suggested the Easybeats as the band’s name. He also contributed dress ideas and took over necessary organisational tasks, which effectively cast him as their first manager.

The first formal manager, Mike Vaughn, had a connection to Ted Albert, the ambitious great-grandson of the founder of the music publishing company J. Albert & Son. This resident of Elizabeth Bay came from an entirely different social set. He saw a future in this new realm of teenage beat groups, and having dipped his toe in the water with Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs and their promising songwriter Tony Barber, he wanted more.

It was in the old 2UW Theatrette on George Street that Ted listened to this fairly ragged but unmistakably determined beat group. It helped that they had more than 20 complete songs, which they’d cooked up on an old piano at the Young family’s Burwood residence. One of these, For My Woman, was their debut release on the Parlophone imprint, the same label as The Beatles.

By the beginning of 1965, the Easybeats had a manager, regular work in Sydney clubs and a publishing and recording contract with a venerable company. Then the hits came.

The output of these musical newcomers was reaching another level of eager ears, even before Friday On My Mind. Jimmy Barnes, soon to form Cold Chisel, was besotted by both Lil’ Stevie and Billy Thorpe. The Easybeats laid out a possible path for this scruffy migrant kid from the working-class Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth. It was a TV experience he’s never forgotten:

“The shock of realising that they came from this country, with those quality songs and the production and the confidence”. It was not so much a case of thinking ‘I could do that’ but wishing I could do that,” Barnes recalls

After stepping down and being replaced after extensive auditions by Tony Cahill, Fleet moved to Perth, where he took over his family’s construction business, later running it with his son Adam, who played in the local band Kaos. He kept his hand in musically, running a rehearsal studio in Jandakot. And like Hank Marvin of the Shadows was happy to dine with visiting performers (such as AC/DC’s Angus Young, the kid brother of his bandmate George).

I got to know Snowy when I went out on the road with the Easybeats on their 1986 reunion tour. Then I caught up with him at the wake following the funeral of Stevie Wright in January 2016 (he was the only Easybeat who attended). On both occasions, I encountered a warm, witty, companionable man – one happy to share his tales. Fleet, with the group, was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2005. He, Wright, and Vanda attended the ceremony. That year Fleet and his son Adam renovated an 1800s house in Fremantle which features Snowy’s signature in the limestone.

In 2017, the Easybeats’ story was told in a two-part ABC miniseries, Friday On My Mind, with Snowy portrayed by Arthur McBain.

Fleet died on February 19, aged 85. He was married for more than 60 years to Maureen, and they had three children.

Glenn A. Baker