Ross Holloway
Singer, songriter, guitarist and frontman for Room 11 (1980-1981), Two White Eyes (1984-1987), Alchemist (1988-1990) and Pregnant Hippies (1991-1993); one half of the acoustic duos Sour Grapes (1990-1991) and Stephanie Five (1992-1993), Ross Holloway has also performed as a solo singer/songwriter at various times in Hamilton, Melbourne and Christchurch up to the present day.
Mr. Holloway's body of work as a songwriter and frontman between 1981 and 1991 is showcased in the compilation A Decade on the Hamilton Underground which features predominantly his most successful projects Two White Eyes and Pregnant Hippies, whilst Two White Eyes also feature on the 1986 Student Radio/Jayrem Records compilation Weird Culture, Weird Custom, and Alchemist appear on 1989's Hamilton compilation Surf Music coordinated by Orange Recordings.
The following article (culled from an interview with a Ghost Writer) discusses Holloway's musical history in more detail, as do individual entries for each band/project within this wiki.
Ross Holloway Article, October 2006
One-time notorious Hamilton singer, songwriter, guitar-player and frontman Ross Holloway was interviewed on subjects spanning well over a Decade on the Hamilton Underground on Saturday, October 14th, 2006 - some 20 years since the peak of his most successful band Two White Eyes.
Digging back a little further, Holloway reveals that his first band between 1980 and 1981 was Room 11. While the band showed early signs of promise it was not until the formation of Two White Eyes in 1984 that he began to make his mark on the local music scene, and he says that he did not play in any other projects in between the two bands. He did, however, develop his skills as a songwriter, which evidently paid off with his re-emergence at the helm of Two White Eyes. It is this period in his musical career that Holloway is best remembered for, and it is the era that he himself recalls most fondly also. Words like "fun" and "fabulous" occur often during Mr Holloway's retelling of these times. The band were to produce some of the most popular student radio songs to emerge from any Hamilton act during the 1980s, leading to live appearances on bills with such New Zealand music luminaries as The Chills, The Mockers, Double Happies, Peking Man and Skeptics.
It is also evident from Two White Eyes' track record that the band had an ability to appeal to both "alternative" and "mainstream pop" music fans; a crossover appeal that Holloway is quick to attribute to the addition of bassist Chris Worthington in 1985.
In a bid to capitalise on their escalating popularity, Two White Eyes relocated to Christchurch in 1986, which he says went well at first, but notes that ideally they should have probably gone on to Melbourne. Due to other commitments at home, however, the band never took the opportunity to move on to the next level, and split up in 1987. Ross Holloway returned to Hamilton.
Holloway recalls major shifts in the economy during the late '80s and early '90s (such as the stock market crash of 1987, the subsequent advent of the 'user pays' system and major benefit cuts) all having made things much more difficult for independent musicians than they had been during the heady heydays of the early-mid '80s. The steeply increasing expense of a career in music was matched by the sharply decreasing income amongst those most likely to take well to the vocation; while a target audience made up predominantly of students now had far less expendable income for going out and having fun.
The resultant social changes also led to what has been observed by many in retrospect as an increasingly jaded, cynical, disaffected attitude within popular culture. Music with an emphasis on having fun was to become seen by many as out of step with these times. Holloway in turn observed growing trends of "conformity" within so-called "alternative" circles as a result. Where once he and his peers had actively challenged the "bland" and "boring" status quo, by the close of the decade he believed that many around him had betrayed their once non-conformist ideals; conforming instead to a new, uniformly boring pretentiousness. On his perception of these social attitudes, however, he has strongly emphasised that it was "my interpretation though, no-one else's". Mr. Holloway has no pretentions of speaking on behalf of a generation.
While challenging boorish attitudes may have paid off in the mid '80s, it was not such a popular move now that being "alternative" was the "norm". The attitude clashes Holloway experienced at this time were to also dominate his next attempt at fronting a band in the form of The Alchemist. While he is happy to talk openly about the nature of the conflicts and readily acknowledges his own part in fuelling them, he adds "I probably shouldn't name any names", and admits to having been a very outspoken and at times controversial character. While it is clear that he still believes in what he was trying to say, he is by no means devoid of any beneficial hindsight: "looking back it was stupid, really. There were so many other things we could've done, like pushing our music further, getting it overseas. It (the music scene) can become very inward looking within any city; it's the same in Hamilton as it is in Christchurch, Melbourne... people lose their way, fighting between themselves instead of looking outwards and progressing."
Beneath reminiscent laughter, former Alchemist guitarist Stan Jagger also describes Holloway as someone who "probably did tend to rub a few people the wrong way" but adds "I actually really liked that about him"; a quality that Jagger saw on the whole as a constructive motivating force within an oftentimes complacent and insular local music scene. Stan more than happily continued to perform with Holloway after the otherwise messy decay of The Alchemist. - Conversation with Stan Jagger, October 16th 2006
Sour Grapes Holloway describes as the result of a joke that he "probably took a little too far", a post-Alchemist song-title which became an acoustic duo featuring Gillian Woods; formed in 1990 as the very antithesis of what had been attempted with the ill-fated alternative rock band. Playing "folk" music was in some ways perhaps a more subtle, understated vehicle for Holloway to offer his social commentaries on popular culture at this time, going comparatively 'under the radar' with low-key performances in cafés and acoustic clubs. Following Gillian Woods' departure for Wellington he continued with the format of an acoustic duo, this time with one Stephanie Vosper in the Stephanie Five. When asked if there was some intended irony in naming a duo Five he replied "No. No, it was just a name, it didn't mean anything."
In 1991 Holloway had also recruited players from both Stan Jagger and Gillian Woods' other band at the time Jam Sandwich; creating the live lineup for Pregnant Hippies as the primary outlet for his songs. Pregnant Hippies picked up from where the Alchemist had left off, but without the same personality issues. Holloway speaks of the Pregnant Hippies with a much fonder recollection – almost akin to that of Two White Eyes, and with an abundant enthusiasm for the talents and personalities concerned.
As the frontman and songwriter for Room 11, Two White Eyes, Alchemist and now the Pregnant Hippies, Holloway has always been acknowledged as the principal creative force driving nearly every project he has had a hand in, but it is very noticeable when speaking with him how eager he himself is to give credit where he believes it is due to many others throughout. He cites, for example, the "creative ideas" of Two White Eyes bassist Chris Worthington (who joined in '85) as having made the band's typically "anti-conformist" music and ideals "more acceptable to a wider audience", and remarks a number of times on what a great drummer the other mainstay of the group Peter Corby was. He is no less forthcoming in asserting his acknowledgement of others such as Paul Donnelly and Gary Northcote, whose involvement was comparatively fleeting. He is also eager to ensure that a guy called John Marshall who worked at Contact is acknowledged for the part he played in the band's inclusion on the Weird Culture, Weird Custom compilation, and that a sound engineer called Kevin Oliver who recorded Two White Eyes live at the Hillcrest Tavern rated a special mention - Kevin Oliver later went on to work with Herbs, he says, and the recording from The Hilly is where several of the Two White Eyes tracks on A Decade on the Hamilton Underground came from.
While Holloway may gloss over the membership of Alchemist somewhat, it is done moreso out of tact and diplomacy than any apparent desire to underrate the creative contributions of others. When talking about Sour Grapes and Stephanie Five, he is quick to correct the assumption that Stephanie Vosper was Gillian Woods' "replacement", stressing that Stephanie's unique talents gave the project an identity that was very much distinct from that of Sour Grapes. Likewise, in spite of Pregnant Hippies having been formed to take the place of Alchemist as the live band for Ross Holloway songs, the very mention of the names of Stan Jagger and Adrian Scott, in particular, but also Chris Paki and Adam Hyde all solicit a palpable sentiment of tremendously high regard both as musicians and as individuals, coupled with an earnest humility at having been fortunate to work with so many of Hamilton's finest musicians.
Holloway went to Melbourne in about 1993, where he says he performed as a solo artist for a while, mostly using the acoustic singer-songwriter format in cafés and other more intimate venues. He says "it was alright" and hasn't much else to say about it, other than to comment briefly on the same insular social politics that can inhibit the growth of any music scene. In more recent years he returned to live in Christchurch. He did very well financially from property investment which has in turn enabled him to set up Creative Strings Guitar School; the latest musical project dear to his heart which has reportedly been very successful and fulfilling. He says he still performs around Christchurch from time to time as a solo singer-songwriter, "but more so as an enthusiast. I don't want to change the world anymore!" When asked if there was anything else that he felt should be noted about his musical history, he simply wanted to emphasise how much fun his time as a musician in Hamilton had been, and especially Two White Eyes.
