Bones Hillman

aka Wayne Stevens


When Bones Hillman died in early November 2020, it was reported globally, with obituaries in the Guardian, Billboard, the Age, the Australian, Rolling Stone and even the Daily Mail documenting the life of the bassist from Midnight Oil. New Zealand, too, remembered Bones. Social media was filled with personal and private tributes to a man who was not only a respected musician but often a personal friend or acquaintance. He was one of ours, one of us.

At home the dominant musical memory was not that of the Australian band, but overwhelmingly featured images or videos of two songs that had extra resonance for us, from an earlier band. In New Zealand, both ‘Counting The Beat’ and ‘One Good Reason’ by The Swingers, a band that had a life of a short three years, dominated the tributes on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

The Swingers, 1980: Buster Stiggs, Phil Judd, Bones Hillman
Looking down from upstairs at Zwines - l to r: Bones Hillman, Wayne Hunter, Ezra, Spike Nasty, unknown, unknown.
Photo credit: Photo by Fiona Clark
The Swingers - Practical Jokers Tour
Photo credit: Martin Phillipps collection
The Swingers - Counting the Beat (1981)
Suburban Reptiles - Megaton
The Swingers at Mainstreet, Auckland, late 1979.
Photo credit: Photo by Peter Tocher.
Midnight Oil - Forgotten Years
Coconut Rough, 1984: clockwise from left - Mark Bell, Eddie Olsen, Stuart Pearce, Bones Hillman and Andrew McLennan.
Swingers - 'Counting The Beat' (Ripper, 1981)
Jimmy Joy, Zero, Buster Stiggs, Billy Planet, Bones Hillman. Taken for a fashion shoot by an Auckland Star photographer, October 1977.
The Hillmans: A Tribute To Bones (2021)
Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mine
Buster Stiggs, Bones Hillman, Phil Judd
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Bones Hillman and Jimmy Joy, Classic Cinema, Queen Street, Auckland, December 3rd, 1977
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Midnight Oil - King of the Mountain
Bones Hillman, left, with Brian Ritchie, the Violent Femmes' bass player. 
Photo credit: Phillip Schultz
The Assassins outside Zwines, Auckland 1978. Dave Burgess, Spike Bastard, Geoff Fiebig, Jimmy Sex, Bones Hillman.
Photo credit: Publicity photo
Bones Hillman with The Swingers at The Windsor Castle, Parnell, Auckland, late 1979.
Photo credit: Peter Tocher
Phil Judd, Buster Stiggs, Bones Hillman in early 1981
Bones Hillman performing in Nashville, Tennessee, October 2011.
Photo credit: John Mason II / Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
The Swingers - One Good Reason (1981)
The Swingers 1982: Phil Judd, Andrew "Snoid" McLennan, Bones Hillman, Ian Gilroy
The Swingers in 1979: Bones Hillman, Phil Judd, Buster Stiggs
The October 1981 Swingers album Practical Jokers was released in New Zealand on Bryan Staff's Ripper label and in the rest of the world via Mushroom Records. With a cover designed by Phil Judd (as "Bud") it featured a re-recorded take of Counting The Beat with new drummer Ian Gilroy.
Spike Nasty and Bones Hillman from The Assassins. Both were former members of The Masochists who had played Auckland's first major punk gig in June 1977 with the The Suburban Reptiles and The Scavengers. Bones was also a member the Reptiles briefly. The Assassins would mutate into The Rednecks and Bones would later be a member of The Swingers, then Midnight Oil, and he became a leading session player in Nashville.
Photo credit: Photo by Fiona Clark
The final Swingers line-up, 1982: Andrew "Snoid" McLennan, Ian Gilroy, Phil Judd and Bones Hillman. 
Suburban Reptiles in Auckland's Jean Batten Place, October 1977. L to r: Jimmy Joy, Bones Hillman, Buster Stiggs, Zero, Billy Planet.
Terence Hogan's artwork for the 1980 debut Swingers single
Midnight Oil - Power and the Passion (Live in Sydney)
The Swingers in 1980: Phil Judd, Bones Hillman, Buster Stiggs
Trivia:

In addition to The Swingers' hit 'Counting the Beat', Bones Hillman played bass on one of NZ's unofficial NZ national anthems – Dave Dobbyn's much-loved hit 'Welcome Home'.

Labels:

Ripper


Mushroom Records


CBS


Columbia

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