Yellowbelly band is playing live at the Golfie this Friday night. Wilcannia News had a chat to Kobie from the band.
The story of the band begins 10 or so years ago when Stephen and Kobie were growing up together in Bourke.
Stephen is Ngemba and Kobie is Bundjalung. As young fellas they grew up listening to their parent’s music. In their teenage years they took up playing music. Fast forward to the end of 2024.
How the band started:
Fanny Lumsden came to town this year in April. They needed a band to play an hour set at the start. Father hit up the Council for the spot. So Yellowbelly opened for her. But we needed a drummer. We’d just met Dwayne who hadn’t played for 8 years. “Yeah nah”, he said. “We’ll wing it”, we said. We got up there with no practice. It sounded good so we started practising.
Their first gig, after practising, was at the Bourke Bowlo. The band practise 2 or 3 times a week for 2-3 hours. And the fellas put in time practising on their own too.
Dwayne puts his ear buds in and learns drum parts by tapping the beat out on the dash board of his car. He has the drum kit parts drawn on there.
Stephen and Kobie are 20 and 21 years old, Father and Dwayne are 50 and 51. (Happy Birthday Dwayne for the 25th) Despite the 30 year gap, they love the same music which is how they connected so well and have continued practising and gigging. In the last 4 months they have played a gig every weekend. Community events in Bourke but all the pub gigs have been elsewhere – Eulo, Cobar Lightning Ridge, Brewarrina.
They had 400 – 500 people at the recent Eulo gig. Don’t miss them:
- Friday 28th November
- 6pm – 10pm (with a break for the raffles)
- Wilcannia Golf Club
This article appeared in Wilcannia News, 25 November 2025.
