THE PENETRATORS
Biography
By Mark Robinson

After tasting a bit of success with 'Salt Lake City' drummer Mark Robinson and guitarist Larry Shone decided to move on and form their own band. They recruited 'Sky's' old bass player Roger Koller and went about trying to find a singer. Mark had been talking to his friend Steve Mac, who spoke of this singer who they had been jamming with in 'Barracuda', his name was Bob Hanley. I said, "yeah that guy from 'Katch', he's got a big voice, I wonder if he can sing 'AC/DC' ?"
Larry, being a Maitland boy, knew where he drank on a Thursday night, so we bailed him up in an East Maitland hotel. He sounded pretty keen, and I was amazed he was even interested because he had a single out with 'Katch'. Where as we were almost nobody's.
We started rehearsals at N S W's Music store in east Maitland, I think Bob had a half share in the business. Our repertoire consisted of songs by 'The Angles', 'AC/DC', 'Thin Lizzy', 'Foreigner', 'Bad Company', 'The Knack' etc. I remember one night at practice Larry stepped from the gutter and tripped while carrying my 16 channel 'Jands' mixer, and crashed through the stores plate glass window. He was the luckiest man alive hardly even a scratch. We gaffed it up with cardboard and started rehearsal.
Another incident was when Bob was running late, he came screaming down the highway, his brakes locked up on the Falcon, and he just stopped short of running in the back of my car. I still remember his comments when he got out of the vehicle.
He said, "I'm a firm believer of not drinking and driving"!
Bob was known to like a drink or two.
Roger came up with the name 'Buster Hyman and the Penetrators', we liked it but eventually it was shortened to 'The Penetrators'.
Our first gig was at the Critereon Hotel at Islington next door to the local brothel. We were told quick smart to move our cars from the driveway, because it was holding up business. We were around about twenty two at the time and the madam of the night certainly intimidated us. The gig went well and we collected our $40. (that was the band fee) We played a couple more times, then put the fee up to $100 bucks, and then they sacked us!
We needed a new name, I came up with 'The Globes' and then we started getting regular gig's at the Commonwealth Hotel Cooks Hill, Catherine Hill Bay Hotel, Hunter River Hotel, Ambassador Nite Club and Swansea Workers Club. We supported touring acts like 'The Reel's', 'The Radiator's' etc. After a couple of months Bob decided to leave and move to Melbourne seeking fortune and fame. He got on national television with Bert Newton's New Faces and won his first heat. He performed around the traps there for twelve months.
We recruited Michael Armitt and later Ross 'Rex' Melville but that's another story!
Thanks for visiting this site, if you want to learn more about 'The Globes' go to the 80's page and follow their success story.

Mark Robinson