Peter De Jong Interview - Lead Singer of Heroes (Newcastle Series Ep #7)

In this episode of Vinyl Vibes, Jack talks with Peter De Jong, founding member of Heroes. This is the seventh episode in an eight-part Newcastle Vinyl Vibes series. Over the course of this series, Jack has spoken with a range of local rockers important to the Newcastle music story. 

Pete started playing in bands during the late ‘60s, but his first professional band was Armageddon, which took shape in 1970. Armageddon initially played around Toronto, performing blues covers by the likes of The Kinks and John Mayall. The band would rise in popularity and in 1971, would enter the Newcastle heat of the Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds, at the time the biggest music competition in Australia. The band played two original songs and won the Newcastle heat of the competition securing Armageddon as Newcastle's top group of the early ‘70s. Armageddon came to an end in 1975. 

In 1976, Heroes was formed with Pete on lead guitar and co-lead vocals. For the first year of their existence, the band had a residency at the Clinkers Tavern in Belmont before starting to play at other Newcastle venues. The band began by playing covers of songs by 10cc and Thin Lizzy, but they also started writing original music. In 1978, the band's bass player at the time, Allan Cook, presented a song to the band called Star and the Slaughter. It was a country-pop sounding song at first, but after fellow Heroes member Mark Tinson worked on the song, it became the punchy rock track it is known as today. The song brought the band notoriety after Heroes played it as their encore at the Star Hotel riot gig in September 1979. 

After their Star Hotel riot gig, Heroes were soon signed to Albert Productions by George Young and Harry Vanda. The band released their first single, Baby Got a Taste, in August 1980. The single reached number 2 locally in Newcastle and number 76 nationally on the Kent Music charts. Their self-titled album followed in October 1980, and their second single, The Star and the Slaughter, came out in January 1981. The band continued playing until they disbanded in 1982. 

In 2015, Heroes released their second studio album, So Far. The album was made up of songs both written in the ‘80s for the second Alberts album that never happened, as well as newer songs penned by Peter and Mark Tinson. The band played their final gig at Lizottes in 2019 on the anniversary of the Star Riot, closing the page on one of Newcastle's greatest bands. 

Jack phoned Pete to talk about his early musical memories, how Armageddon came to be, his memories of playing and winning the 1971 Newcastle heat of the Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds, the formation of Heroes, the band's residency at the Clinkers Tavern, Pete's memories of the Star Hotel Riot, how the band was discovered by Harry Vanda and George Young, recording for Alberts, what it was like playing on Countdown, the disbandment of Heroes in 1982, and the band's 2015 album So Far. 

"A whole bunch of things came together to make that song have a power that it was never really intended to have... but even the lyrics matched what was going on, you know? 'I want action, I want fighting in the streets, going to take this town by storm' – haha, it was almost like a narrative to what was going on outside, even though we weren’t aware of it." - Peter De Jong on the song Star and the Slaughter being played during the Star Hotel Riot 

Episode Hosted and Produced by Jack Hodgins. 

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