Wayne Green & The Phantoms 50th Anniversary Show
WAYNE GREEN AND THE PHANTOMS — FIFTY YEARS OF ROCK AND ROLL
Evolving from a Freo garage jam that started around 1975, Wayne Green and the Phantoms played their first pub gig at Perth’s legendary Raffles Hotel in September 1979. The blood and sweat that was sluiced from the stage that night immediately cemented Green and his band as legends.
Now, Wayne Green and the Phantoms return for one final show!
Saturday 20 December, Rosemount Hotel.
With specials guests RATSALAD., The Shakeys and Abbe May (Solo), giving it their all to heat up the stage for Wayne Green and the revamped Phantoms, this is a lineup that spans the generations of maximum rock and roll in Perth.
“This will be my last time with the Phantoms,” Green said, “No more comebacks, this is it. So, I wanted to play with artists that I love, whose music I listen to and who are the future of rock and roll in Western Australia. After this night, I’ll be the past, so I want to show people what the future looks like, pass the baton if you will, and I’m so happy with who answered the call.”
Green is known for his life-threatening performances. If it’s not his own life in danger, it’s someone else in the band or the audience. Green and the Phantoms quickly became known for causing mayhem as well as their incendiary brand of garage rock. The man thrived on living on the edge and performed every show like it would be his last. Which was prescient, because the first incarnation of the Phantoms lasted only three years, playing their farewell show at Blazes nightclub in July 1982.
At the time Green said, “Three years of self-destructive rock and rolling, lack of finance and lack of foresight…has at last worn the Phantoms’ resistance down.”
In three short years, Wayne Green and the Phantoms packed every venue of any repute and size Perth had to offer. They played to heaving rooms of loyal fans who came for the band’s pummelling brand of rock and hoped they would be there the night it all kicked off.
“Sometimes, it was like people were coming to see if tonight would be the night I’d go that one step too far,” Green said reflecting on those heady years. “What we gave the fans was the greatest rock and roll show they’d ever witnessed, but what they were really there for was to see if I would survive one more show. Who knew? Certainly not me.”
Like all the best rock and roll legends, Green didn’t die, but he is making a comeback, for one last show at the Rosemount Hotel on 20 December 2025.
“Do you think people want to see us play one more time?” Green asked on the porch of the South Fremantle brick and tile he currently calls home.
He’s dressed in a pair of jeans and that is all. He may be wearing underpants, but you don’t really want to know, do you? He looks every one of his 70-something years, but the hunger’s still there in his eyes and he’s ready for one more go around with the Phantoms.
With special guests…
RATSALAD.
Formed in 2019, RS got busy writing and recording before finally releasing their debut track ‘Dead Rat’ in the same year, a simple ode to the mouse that died behind the oven unit stinking out the kitchen in which RATSALAD write and rehearse. This track went onto to win the 2020 WA Music Song of the Year award under the Heavy/Metal category, which marked the start of RATSALADs prolific run of WA music award domination, as the inspired trio went on to win the WA Music Song of the Year award for the next three years running under the Punk/Hardcore category (2021, 2022, 2023). RATSALAD have moved from strength to strength, playing sold-out shows everywhere while supporting everyone, be it the likes of Aussie punk icons such as Bodyjar and Frenzal Rhomb (2023), to Aria winning prog-metal world beaters Karnivool (2020), or with straight up rock royatly Eskimo Joe (2023), to indie up and comers Old Mervs (2024), hell, they even got the call up from their favourite AFL footy team the Fremantle Dockers to open up their AFLW pride round clash last season! 2024 saw the release of RATSALAD’s best-selling debut album, Bent Trees & Swanny Deez, and 2025 saw them storm Europe with a series of shows in iconic venues and on the northern hemisphere summer festival circuit.
The Shakeys
Formed in 2011, The Shakeys are named in tribute to legendary Perth roadie and sound engineer Dave 'Shakey' Brodie (RIP), who worked behind the desk for countless punk and rock’n’roll bands across WA and Australia from the ’80s to the early 2000s. Since their debut, The Shakeys have gigged extensively, sharing stages with international and national heavyweights including Guitar Wolf (JPN), Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg (US), Brant Bjork (US), The Meat Puppets (US), Cockney Rejects (UK), The Victims (AU), You Got a Radio (JPN), The Hard-Ons (AU), Warped (MELB), Spiderbait (AU), among many others. Their live résumé also includes appearances at RTRFM's In The Pines, City Limits Festival, Hidden Treasures, Distant Murmurs, WAM Festival, Westdale Rock, Not So Silent Night, and other fundraising shows for local tastemaker station RTRFM.
Abbe May (Solo)
Abbe May spent her late teens and early twenties performing in Australia’s most notorious rock venues and busted up studios, touring relentlessly in unreliable tour vans in various solo and band incarnations. With sly humour, Abbe graduated from her critically acclaimed early explorations of rock and blues to become a guitar-slinging, beat-driven, iconic performer with an atmospheric cocktail of fat-fuzz laden alt-rock and blues. A champion of the LGBTQIA+ community, Abbe is a multi-award-winning artist, having been nominated for over 40 ARIA, WAM, AIR, AMP awards and so far winning 27. She is one of the strong women of the Australian music industry with much respect across radio, blogs and venues around the country. Abbe’s impressive career as an independent, original artist boasts many highlights including touring extensively as the hand-picked guitarist for Peter Garrett’s Alter Egos in 2016/17. A constantly evolving artist, Abbe has written and recorded five studio albums and she has performed at myriad summer music festivals including Big Day Out, Meredith, and Pyramid, and supported Neneh Cherry, The Preatures, The Black Keys, Midnight Oil, The Motels, Art V’s Science, Tim Rogers, Adalita, Spiderbait, Magic Dirt, Emiliana Torrini, Killing Heidi, You Am I, Peter Garrett, Bob Log III, Kim Salmon, Dave Graney and Claire Moore.