Woopi News Gig Guide - What's On

Slyder Trio

Slyder Band is a three-piece cover band that I really enjoy. Slyder as they are known locally are made up of members Glen Sweeney, Dave Varley and Kevin Few. Their primary mission is to get people up dancing and enjoying themselves, which is what these locals have pursued in their quest to become a staple in the local music scene.

Their popular covers of mainly rock and pop – 80s, 90s and noughties are so varied, they cater to most people’s taste in music, and after several years of playing together, they have become a very tight outfit.

The band has a wealth of experience playing up and down the coast of NSW and into Queensland.

They incorporate some iconic slide guitar riffs into their repertoire to instil the name Slyder into the minds of people attending their gigs.

They currently play the coastline strip between Casino and Port Macquarie, and are kept busy with return gigs, building good relationships with venues and punters.

Profile of members

Glen Sweeney is the bass guitarist and main vocalist (all three band members sing and do back up vocals). Glen is a resident of the northern beaches and cut his teeth in local venues like the Seaview Tavern and the Amble Inn (now Corindi Beach Hotel) and is still playing at these iconic venues.

Glen has played in many local bands including Store Dummies, Gunshy and The Stripes. In that time he has opened for major acts like Icehouse, The Screaming Jets, Mondo Rock, Kate Ceberano, Noiseworks, Divinyls, Hunters and Collectors, The Angels and Billy Thorpe.

In his days with Store Dummies Glen recorded an album at the legendary Troy Horse studios in Newtown, and received airplay on Triple J and other radio stations, and kept busy playing gigs from Sydney to Brisbane.

Dave Varley is a well known musician on the Coffs Coast, emigrating from Auckland, New Zealand as a teenager and is now also residing on the northern beaches.

Dave lead sings on a number of songs. He is a very competent guitarist and a master of the slide guitar, which he plays in quite a few songs. This was the catalyst in him coming up with the name Slyder.

Dave also cut his teeth in and around Coffs playing in Joint Effort, Happy Cannibals and Vanessa Lea & Roadtrain before they became a duo. He supported major bands like The Black Sorrows in that time.

Last but not least, Kevin Few is the drummer. Kevin has played drums for most of his life and was born and bred in Coffs Harbour and now resides in Sawtell. He also did a stint with Glen in Store Dummies, recording and touring with them and also played in many other popular bands in the area including Neutral Ground and Slipstream.

Kevin has supported many major acts including Noiseworks and Ian Moss in his time. He lead sings on a handful of songs as well as some backups.

Keep an eye out for one of my favourite cover bands, Slyder. They are playing at The Corindi Beach Hotel on Friday, February 28, and they are well worth checking out!

~ Brad Nelson

Alexie is a talented musician that was born on the Coffs Coast and grew up in Glenreagh. 

Although he is currently living in Sydney, he frequently travels back to this area to visit his family and do shows at local venues.

You may have seen him perform one of his unique ‘One-Man-Band’ acts at The Seaview Tavern or perhaps The Corindi Beach Hotel.

Alexie has been interested in music from an early age. He has always enjoyed singing, and would sing to entertain his family as a young child. 

He started to learn the guitar at around the age of 13, but he soon took to drumming when he realised that drumming came to him naturally. 

He then returned to hone his guitar skills once his drumming was perfected. Alexie received drumming lessons from the late Laurie Lowe, a local drummer. He also learnt to play bass guitar and now also dabbles a little with piano in his home studio.

He studied music at high school where he joined his first band, a three-piece punk band called ‘Loco Parentus’, drumming and singing backing vocals. His natural musical talent gained him a start doing gigs in the Coffs area.

He showed an interest in music production and taught himself the basics.

His early musical influences were ‘Red Hot Chilli Peppers’, ‘Pearl Jam’ and ‘Nirvana’. He enjoyed that kind of 90s grunge music.

Then his interests expanded to other genres, like heavy metal. He played drums in a metal band called ‘Narcissus’ for about four years. So his metal influences were ‘Lamb of God’, and ‘Gojira’.

More recently, Alexie has also become interested in Latin music and Jazz, so the drummer Dave Weckl is a more recent influence along with a band Malo Malo led by Danny G Felix.

Alexie is also a prolific songwriter, and has some of his originals available on mainstream platorms like Spotify, and even more available on Bandcamp and also another platform - BuyTunes.online

He also has some video clips available on YouTube and has quite a few ‘in the works’, so keep an eye out for those.

Because Alexie’s music career is multi-faceted, it keeps him quite busy, his songwriting process is simply to try to capture any ideas as inspiration strikes. 

He makes note of any ideas that come to him and holds onto the things that ‘flow’ naturally, unless he is inspired by some kind of song-worthy life event.

Alexie enjoys the freedom of being a musician and he feels blessed that he can experience the joy of doing what he loves every day. He is a self-employed freelance musician, so he has ultimate control of what he does. A perfectionist in his field, he strives to create the best possible sound and feel to portray to his audience.

He is also his own sound engineer and does his own mixing when he plays locally so that he can achieve the exact sound he desires.

I really enjoy watching Alexie in action, how he can sing, engage with the audience, play the guitar and create multiple percussion sounds all at the same time is an inspiration to me.

You can catch Alexie for free over the next few weeks at the following live venues:   • Friday Dec 20 – 8pm-11pm, The Corindi Beach Hotel;   • Saturday Dec 21 – 6pm-9pm, Hoey Moey Coffs Harbour;   • Sunday Dec 22 – Midday-3pm, Coramba Hotel;   • Boxing Day – 8pm-11pm, Seaview Tavern, Woolgoolga;   • Friday Dec 27 – 8.30pm -11.30pm, Sawtell Hotel;   • Saturday Dec 28 – 8pm -11pm, Village Green Hotel, Grafton.

He will also be on drums/backing vocals for ‘The Crowdies Show’ - Tribute to Crowded House and Split Enz at The Seaview Tavern, Woolgoolga, Saturday Jan 11 and at Hoey Moey on Sunday Jan 12.

~ Brad Nelson