“We were fifth most popular for a long time but were delighted last year when we finally moved up to fourth place,” drummer Ferric Skerrick said.
“As most people know, the music scene in Tallarook is pretty competitive, particularly amongst bands with brothers in them.”
The Skerrick family has a long, rich history in the music industry, with records of Skerrick musicians dating back 400 years.
After watching the success of their father Berwick’s band in the ’60s, it seemed like fate for Merrick, Eric, Derek and Ferric Skerrick to form their own cover band in 2019.
“I’m the oldest in the family and began playing guitar at a very young age, mostly with Eric, who started off on kazoo,” Merrick said.
“Boy, did he love that kazoo. He spent the whole of fourth grade communicating via kazoo and refusing to talk normally that year, to the annoyance of his teachers.
“Anyway, we later got our two younger brothers Derek and Ferric involved, helping out in the rhythm section. Although we’d all been playing music for most of our lives, it wasn’t until 2019 that we decided to form a cover band and started performing professionally.”
In the six years since forming, The Skerricks have performed at a range of events, bringing their covers of classic rock to a number of the region’s hotspots.
“As an internationally acclaimed boy band, we’ve played hundreds of great gigs over the years including at local pubs, private parties, festivals, wineries, weddings, community events, markets and puppet shows,” Eric said.
“I think if I had to pick a favourite, it would be the Tooby Booby Festival. Tooby Booby was Tooborac Hotel’s annual fundraiser for cancer research, with proceeds going to the Love Your Sister charity and their mission to vanquish cancer.
“The Skerricks decided we needed to get in the spirit of things so Ferric, the artist in the family, created some special gazonga helmets for us to wear on stage. These helmets were later auctioned off for hundreds of dollars to the crowd.”
It’s only up from here for The Skerricks, who are now looking forward to potentially featuring “more cowbell” in their songs, and playing at The Seymour Show’s Big Night Out on Friday, October 3.
Their sound will echo throughout Kings Park from 5pm, followed by a spectacular fireworks display.
None of it would be possible without the strong show of local support, and even some antagonists.
“We do get a lot of local support and have a decent following, with fans often travelling across the region just to catch us,” Derek said.
“But, we can be a bit polarising for some who don’t know what we are on about. We’ve sometimes been at pubs, for example, and have been heckled from people who just want us to play the same old songs that every other cover band plays.
“This led to one of our fans describing us as the nemesis of mediocre cover bands everywhere.”
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