Bart Willoughby

• Name — Bart Willoughby • Birth Name — Bartholemew Edwin Willoughby • Birthplace — Koonibba Mission, near Ceduna, South Australia, Australia • Born — 1960 • Instrument — Drums, guitar, bass, piano, pipe organ • Genre — Aboriginal rock, reggae rock • Occupation — Musician • Years Active — 1978–present • Past Member Of — No Fixed Address Coloured Stone Mixed Relations Yothu Yindi Jimmy Chi & Kuckles Goanna Shane Howard & The Great Heart Band

Bartholomew Edwin Willoughby was born in 1960 at Koonibba Mission, near Ceduna in South Australia. He is Pitjantjatjara and Mirning on his mother's side (Southern right whale dreaming) and Kokatha on his father's side (wedge-tailed eagle dreaming). His father is from the Simpson Desert, and was raised traditionally, with Warlpiri as his first language, and artist Clifford Possum his best friend. His mother's family connections go as far as Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. He was removed from his family at Koonibba when he was three and placed in a children's home, making him one of the Stolen Generations. He contracted bone marrow disease when he was six years old, and was encased in plaster for two and a half years. However he discovered music at a young age in the children's home, as there were pianos and organs available. When he was 16, Willoughby found his way to the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at the University of Adelaide, where he was introduced to music and met the members of his future band, who are all related. Among other teachers, he was impressed by opera singer Howard Bellaire. Leila Rankine, a founding member of CASM, helped to care for him and guide him during this time. His first professional performance was with a Salvation Army band.

Willoughby's musical career commenced in 1978, and in this period he developed as a distinctive Indigenous Australian musician notable for his pioneering fusion of reggae music with Aboriginal musical influences. He formed his first band, also Australia's first Indigenous rock band, No Fixed Address, in 1978, with Ricky Harrison, Leslie Lovegrove Freeman (aka Les Graham), John John Miller, and Veronica Rankine (daughter of Leila Rankine), who played saxophone. All of the members are related. He also played with Jimmy Chi's newly-formed band Kuckles. In 1979, No Fixed Address played its first large concert at the National Aboriginal Day event held in Taperoo, South Australia, and over the years played at numerous concerts for Aboriginal causes, including Rock Against Racism, the Artists Newsletter Association, the Campaign Against Racial Exploitation, and the National Aboriginal Country Music Festival. They toured with Cold Chisel (December 1980), Ian Dury and the Blockheads (November 1981), The Clash (February 1982), Their 1982 single "We Have Survived", written by Willoughby when he was just 18, became an instant classic of protest music. Willoughby and his band toured Australia in support of Peter Tosh in 1982, and a documentary of this tour was screened by SBS TV entitled Peter Tosh in Concert, featuring Willoughby and No Fixed Address. During 1982, Willoughby also played drums with Shane Howard and Goanna. After the success of the Peter Tosh tour, Willoughby and his band became the first Aboriginal band to travel overseas in 1983, and played at Madison Square Gardens. The band toured the UK in 1984, playing at nine cities including London, Bristol, Leeds, Plymouth, and Manchester. They played at the Elephant Fayre rock festival. and appeared at a concert for striking miners. A documentary of this tour No Fixed Address on Tour UK 1984 was produced and screened on SBS TV and is available on YouTube. Returning to Australia, Willoughby joined his cousin Bunna Lawrie, and his band Coloured Stone, founded in 1977. He played drums for them between 1985 and 1986, including on their Scottish tour where they appeared with k.d. lang at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival. Coloured Stone then returned to Australia, where Coloured Stone were awarded Best Indigenous Album at the 1986 Australian Music Awards for their debut album Human Love. Willoughby reformed No Fixed Address in 1987, and in 1988, the band toured Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall, on a tour initiated by the Soviet Union. Late in 1988, Willoughby was asked to play drums for Yothu Yindi and native American author and activist John Trudell, supporting Midnight Oil on their 1989 US and Canada Diesel & Dust tour. In 1989, Willoughby left Yothu Yindi to form a new band, Mixed Relations. From its inception, Mixed Relations toured extensively throughout the Aboriginal communities, Australian cities, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Following work in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and Surfers Paradise, Queensland, on the film Until the End of the World, Willoughby toured Australia with Shane Howard and his band. He then continued working with Mixed Relations, representing Australia at the 1990 and 1992 South Pacific Music Festival and the 1990 and 1992 Asian Music Festival. He also played as a member of the musical theatre organisation Black Arm Band. In 1993, the International Year of Indigenous Peoples, Willoughby and Mixed Relations were guests at indigenous festivals in Los Angeles, London, and the Wanchai Music Festival in Hong Kong. In 2007 he formed the Bart Willoughby Band. He was the first Indigenous artist to do play the pipe organ, and played the Grand Organ in Melbourne Town Hall for a concert "We Still Live On", as part of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival in 2014. In 2017, he released his second album of organ music, called Resonance. After an hiatus of 20 years, No Fixed Address re-formed in 2008, and played at the Dreaming Festival in Woodford, Queensland, where they released a limited edition CD copy of From My Eyes. In November 2008, Willoughby played with the band at the Tarerer Festival at Killarney, and a week later at the Australasian World Music Expo in Melbourne. From October 2013 through 2014 Willoughby was bandleader for the Malthouse Theatre production of The Shadow King, an Australian play based on King Lear, starring Jada Alberts and Jimi Bani. touring Australia at the Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, and Brisbane arts festivals. In 2016, Willoughby headlined the Yabun Festival at Victoria Park, Camperdown, Sydney. As of 2024 he continues to front the Bart Willoughby Band. He has said that the aim of his music is to impart love, hope, and unity. He plays drums, guitar, bass, and piano.