Their musical style was hard edged blues, rock and boogie defined by no barriers. They played covers by people like Robert Johnson, Cream, Johnny Winter, The Stones, Dylan, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Sonny Terry and Brownie Magee etc. touching every song with a little Rat Salad magic to make it their own. They only released one self-titled EP on the Angelwood label, 'Live At The Charmhaven Hotel', a Central Coast stronghold for the band. This EP showcased the song writing talents of Hammond and Russell with four original tracks. A further live album was recorded at a far south coast NSW venue called The Tathra Hotel which was overseen by their then manager, TV personality Richard Wilkins; sadly, it was never released. Rat Salad also recorded a four song EP for Warner Brothers Music with Clive Shakespeare from Sherbet fame as producer; sadly, this also was never released.
Success awaited the band on every stage they stood upon yet, despite Rat Salad's huge popularity and fan base, record companies continually overlooked them for unproven slipper wearing Flock of Seagulls' haircut bands from Sydney and Melbourne. This became a contentious issue within the band, and they were determined that their long hair, surf, hippie, 60's, 70's look and musical style would stay regardless. In 1981 Rat Salad's life would change forever when they were asked by Richard Wilkins to become the band for international blues Legend Bo Diddley. They would play with Bo through 1981,'82,'83 and remain close personal friends with him for 27 years until he died in 2008. Bo Diddley loved Rat Salad! Their infectious attitude to playing music would regularly reinvigorate him and Bo Diddley would often make claims in the media such as "I will not walk on stage without my band Rat Salad" and "Rat Salad is the greatest band that I have played with since a little group in the 60's called The Rolling Stones". Diddley offered to take Rat Salad to America with him as his permanent band. To set up base their and record an album with Bo on one side and Rat Salad on the other. He tried to convince them by saying "I would do that for you boys because I love you guys". Rat Salad declined the offer, something the band more than regrets all these years later.
The Rat Salad band members are extremely experienced players in all blues musical formats. After a gig in which Rat Salad played with the Legendary George Thorogood, in a post gig conversation with George, Leeroy claimed that Steve Russell was one of Australia's finest electric blues guitarists. George replied "Damn right!" and testimony to his reply was earlier in the gig how George play-acted trying to stand on Steve's fingers and mouthed the words "too damn good". Three years into a life of relentless touring and two weeks before the band was due to embark on an extensive tour of Queensland (which included a five-week stint at Ceasar`s Palace in Cairns) drummer Alan Dews announced that he would not be available. His replacement was Tasmanian Toni Fehldberg. "Chopper" would sit behind the kit for the remainder of the bands life and would be involved in the bands deepened desire to write, record and perform original material.
This has been an abbreviated and condensed look at the life of the Rat Salad Band. Obviously, the days on the road touring with the likes of Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, George Thorogood, the who's who of the Australian music industry and their own path trodden has supplied the band with a million stories to be told. Rat Salad was not a commercial band, and their my-way-or-the-highway attitude was not attractive to record companies. Their attention was focused on the live performance and having and delivering a good time, perhaps their lack of detailed attention to business was their downfall. OR, perhaps in the big scheme of things the Rat Salad Band was not meant to be anything more than they had become, one of the finest live blues rock acts ever to have toured the East Coast of Australia.
Members
Steve Russell (guitar, vocals violin), Lee "Leeroy" Hammond (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Grahame "Baby Face" Perkins (bass) Alan "Grub" Dews (drums) Toni Fehldberg (drums)
EPs
'Live At The Charmhaven Hotel' 1981 Anglewood
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