Phil Golotta

Phil Golotta is a highly successful singer/song writer and businessman who has spent 61 years entertaining people all over Australia. He moved to North Altona in 1974 when he was lead singer with the Blue Echoes and his career was starting to flourish. Phil was born in 1939 at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton to Sebastiano (Sam) and Eileen Golotta. Sam was from Calabria in Italy and Eileen was of Australian /Irish heritage.

“I was born in 1939 and lived in Carlton where there was a thriving Italian community. Dad was a fantastic cook and he worked at Mario’s Hotel and The Oriental Hotel but during an outbreak of polio, my parents decided to move to Wonthaggi because they thought it would be safer there. Infantile paralysis (now called polio) was rife and there was no cure at that time. In 1940, my parents, older brother John and I moved to Wonthaggi, which was a booming mining town with a population of 6000 people.

My father went to work in the coalmines which were a far more physical and dangerous type of job than he had previously. His job was to lay on his stomach and use a shovel to get the coal out from inside tunnels that had been created by the engineers’ explosive blasts. I remember being interested in music at about 5 years of age and listening to my mother singing around the house. I listened to all the famous singers from the Second World War on the radio. Singers such as Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, the Glenn Miller Band and many more while I was at St Joseph’s Primary School.

During that time the town had a magnificent movie theatre and I remember watching a newsreel which were always shown on the screen before the feature movie, and being captivated by a young Louis Armstrong, with his black face and huge toothy smile. He was appearing at a concert in Germany about 5 years after the war. I was amazed that an Afro-American singer/musician drew such a big crowd – a crowd that wouldn’t understand a word he was singing. I was inspired and I decided there and then I would become a singer.

In 1954 my family returned to Melbourne because coal mining ceased to be viable. At 15 years of age, I saw the movie ‘Blackboard Jungle’ and became fascinated by a new music called Rock and Roll. I started listening to artists like Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and many more. At 16, I decided to go in an Elvis Presley competition at the Metro Theatre in Melbourne. I won one of the heats with hundreds of young girls screaming my name and I thought ‘This is exactly what I want to pursue,’ so for the next 2 years I sang at a lot of functions, free of charge, and won a lot of talent quests.

In 1956, I went to have a haircut at a barber shop in Union Road in Ascot Vale and met a barber called Joe Paparone. Joe was playing a guitar in between customers and I told him I was a singer and Joe asked me if I would join his band – The Blue Echoes. I joined them and we played at dinner dances and weddings for the next couple of years with great success.

One night in the early 60s, all the members of the band went to the Whisky A-Go-Go in St Kilda. We were fascinated to see a show band from New Zealand called the Maori Volcanics.

They were a six-piece band with a famous lead singer called Prince Tui Tu, a keyboard player, bass player, guitarist, a sax player and trumpet player. I had never seen anything like it. This band were all singers and comedians and could swap instruments. They were totally entertaining and I decided that would be the direction that our band should go in the future.

This was a good decision as in 1965, 10 o’clock closing came in and hotels could stay open until 10pm. This allowed me to leave my job as an A-grade electrician to pursue my first love – music. Our big break came when we auditioned and got the job at the newly opened Tottenham Hotel where we played for 5 years honing our act and backing every major act in Australia. We gained a huge following before leaving to tour around Australia.

In 1973, we were poached by the Tarmac Hotel in Laverton (now called the Westside Hotel) where we continued drawing massive crowds while alternating with our county and interstate gigs. We had a huge following from the Maltese community in particular and we would get all the kids up on stage and give them a bag of potato chips each and the kids loved it.

1973 was massive for me as I married my wife, Pauline, released a solo single called ‘Please Daddy’ and the Blue Echoes had a single called ‘Going to a Party’ in the charts. I also won the Australian Popular Song Festival with a song I wrote called ‘Hitch a Ride on a Smile’ that was performed by Jamie Redfern.

We had some great memories from the Tarmac Hotel. One night we were doing one of our shows and performing a mime act of Stan Freberg’s version of ‘Sh-boom’, when out of the audience came a bloke with a Russian Cossack’s hat on. He joined in and the crowd loved it thinking it was part of the act. He vanished off the stage before we could get our hands on him.

Another time a girl was refused admittance for being drunk so she climbed on to the roof of the building, and, in the middle of our floorshow, we could hear her stomping on the roof tiles in protest.

We were superbly dressed and a lot of our suits were made by a guy called Richard Tyler who lived in a commission house in Sunshine with his mum. When Rod Stewart saw us on Countdown with one of Richard’s suits on, he wanted to know who made the clothes. He then took Richard to England with him to be his personal costume designer. When American artists went to the UK, they got Richard to go to the USA where he is now one of the most famous designers in the world.

We made several costume changes during our shows and one night our keyboard player, who was very forgetful, came out wearing a different outfit. I was to sing a very serious song that was a huge hit at the time called ‘Love Story’ and I couldn’t find my suit. I realised Ray had put on my suit and when I looked at him the coat sleeves were hanging over his hands and the pants were over his feet, so how he didn’t know astounded me. I was 6ft 2 and Ray was 5ft 7, so when I walked on to the stage wearing his suit the arms and the legs were so short and I looked like (cartoon character) Lil Abner! I was ropeable but the audience thought it was a comedy act and laughed their heads off.

In 1975 and 1979, we had two massive albums which were of Gold and Platinum status – ‘Dancing in the Streets’ and the later ‘Clap Your Hand and Shout’. To this day we are the only Australian show group that has managed to attain this feat.

Pauline and I lived in North Altona near the Circle. It was a great community. I was close to the Tarmac, and the people were just great. We lived not far from Teddy Whitten’s house (Legendary Footscray footballer) – I learned not to let him get a good hold on your hand then he shook hands because he would crush your fingers. I was a big fan of Teddy’s and “Screamy” (drummer Ray Eames) was a keen Bulldogs’ supporter.

The Blue Echoes sponsored players at the Footscray (Bulldogs) Football Club – the famous Bernie Quinlan and Robert McGhie who played for a few years at Footscray before he went to Richmond and got two premierships. He used to have a beer and a smoke at half time at Footscray.

We got a good deal as a sponsor in those days. We really got a lot for our money. We got a car park at the ground, and we were allowed into the rooms before and after the games when the coach was talking to the players. You could never do that now. Teddy Whitten was a fan of the Echoes and, when he retired, we played at his testimonial at The Orama Ballroom in Footscray. I was present on that day as he made his emotional car ride around the MCG with his son, Ted Junior, when he was seriously ill with prostate cancer.

Living in North Altona was the best time in my life. I am working class and I loved mixing with all the workers particularly those associated with the Central Altona Football Club where my eldest son, Phillip, played for a number of years. I created a tradition that when a player had a milestone game I’d present him with a framed certificate, make a speech about the player and give him a bottle of whisky from me to commemorate the occasion. It’s amazing to me that I’ve run into players who appreciated the gesture long after their careers had finished.

The Blue Echoes finished in 1983, and I continued being an agent for a company I had formed in 1979 ‘Westside Talent’. We began with two bands in my garage in Altona North and when I left in 2012, we had 3000 acts on our books, Australia wide, employed six staff and had an office based in Werribee.

I’m very grateful to the people of the Western Suburbs as they put the Blue Echoes on the map and have stuck with me over the years. My career as a solo artist has been reignited after a fantastic audition on X Factor in 2013 and I’m so excited that I will be featured in a new talent show on Channel 7 called ‘All Together Now’, compered by Helen Zemiro and Ronan Keating – just another milestone in a great career which is still continuing.”

Note: The Blue Echoes are considered to be one of the longest surviving Australian groups, having stayed together in various line-ups for twenty years spanning early 1964 to late 1983. The original line up consisted of Ray Eames, Ray Quon, Ron Chapman, Phil Golotta & Chris Stoddard. Although the Laverton Tarmac Hotel hosted many bands during their history, The Blue Echoes became synonymous with family entertainment there. The Blue Echoes regularly drew a crowd on Sunday nights for a Smorgasbord and show and became an icon of entertainment in the area.