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Liz Pommer (nee Kalkipsakis) has not only had a remarkable, ground-breaking career but managed to raise two musical prodigies, her sons Stacey and Lewi.
When her Athenian-born papou fled the island of Agios Efstratios, due to some mysterious happenings, to emigrate to the Greek Quarter of Cairo he set off a chain of events that would inspire a profound love of music amongst his descendants. After re-settling, marrying and raising his son, the eponymously-named Efstrathios then waved farewell to his parents and also took the Odyssean plunge to thereby emigrate to the “Greek colony of Melbourne”.
Liz Pommer (nee Kalkipsakis) with one of the members of the 70s and 80s band Dragon. Photo: Supplied
From Cairo to Melbourne: A musical legacy begins
Arriving at that most propitious of years – when the 1956 Melbourne Olympics were turning the entire country Hellenic – he moved to St Kilda and quickly met his future wife, the Methodist-raised Lynette, at a local dance.Liz describes her father as quite a remarkable role model.
“Dad was highly motivated, very entrepreneurial and could speak seven languages.”
While dad was busy making ends meet for his young family, it was Lynette who instilled a great love of music and dance in her daughter.
Liz jokingly recalls that she was “raised by a third parent, Molly Meldrum, and Countdown”.
Liz then launched, during her formative years, into seeing, “Every single international act that played in Melbourne, especially in St Kilda, that I could.”
She also quickly got to know the thriving local music scene and came to befriend the already-famed Ian Rilen.
Rilen had moved on from his days in Rose Tattoo, through a number of punk and alternative bands, and had formed Sardine V with his wife, Stephanie.
Liz and Billy Pommer in other times. Photo: Supplied
Rock and Roll roots: Liz Pommer’s journey through the music industry
Liz became such fast friends with the gifted couple that she actually lived with them for a while, while getting her first industry break as a roadie and then tour manager for Sardine V. Luck and hard work provided Liz with her next break. She met the Hunter brothers, who had formed one of Australasia’s most successful outfits, Dragon, and Liz worked as their operations and tour manager for some three-and-a-half years.
After her frenetic stint with these rockstars, Liz moved onto managing a number of smaller bands. Her time with The Cry’ proved most fortuitous, as she met her future husband, Billy, who was the percussionist. Billy still plays with ‘The Johnny’s’ to this day, but once the responsibilities of parenting settled upon the couple, they moved to far west Queensland where Billy worked as a schoolteacher within a community of barely 1,000 people.
It was here that Stacey, the eldest, was raised and he distinctly remembers a number of key things, “I promised myself I’d leave on the day I turned 18. But while I was growing up, I couldn’t stop learning how to play music: dad’s drums in the garage, a didgeridoo, and any number of other instruments that I could lay my hands on.”
True to his promise, Stacey moved to the Gold Coast first – where he played in punk outfits like Cloak’ and Russian Roulette – and then drifted south to his mother’s hometown, Melbourne’s St Kilda. And here he was gobsmacked – everyone in the music scene seemed to know his parents.
“We hardly ever spoke about mum and dad’s rock and roll days while I was growing up, so I had no idea that they’d had such an impact upon the Australian music scene.”
Stacey has now established himself across Melbourne as the funkiest-dressed impresario, MC and talent promoter, after he ticked off his bucket list of touring the world playing live music.
He still plays live with bands like Burn in Hell and The Vice-Grip P*****s, where his brother Lewi also joins him on stage. Remarkably, Stacey also possesses a deep-seated love of the water. He’s been a compulsive sailor and fisherman for as long as he can remember.
“This must be the Greek in me. I owned my first boat at just 14. I’ve had my current boat, Dirty Deeds, for years now and I’ve even started a boat repair business, I’m that obsessed with the water.”
Nico channeling George Michael. Photo: Supplied
Next generation talent: Stacey, Lewi, and the evolution of a musical family
The other thing that Stacey is very, very good at (with his easy-going charm) is making friends and his close mate Nick Soldatos, stage-named ‘Nick Nico’, is a beneficiary of Stacey’s vast experience in the music game. The two musicians met at one of Stacey’s ‘open mic’ nights, where Nick’s signature tune – ‘Wise Guys’ – really caught Stacey’s attention and with his support Nick’s career has flourished.
Nick has had a more conventional upbringing than Stacey, qualifying as a civil engineer (which is his day job), but his fascination with music had very early beginnings.
Convinced that the lead singer of Michael Jackson’s early albums was actually several people, Nick declared to his parents (and anyone else who would listen) at the tender age of just five that, “I’m going to be the next Michael Jackson lead singer!”
While he hasn’t quite sold 500 million albums just yet, Nick has played as a session musician in the U.K., regularly gigs around St Kilda hotspots like The Espy, The Dog’s Bar and The Vineyard and is currently recording.
One of the musical sons Stacey. Photo: Supplied
While one of Nick’s older brothers played flamenco guitar for a number of years and Nick has absorbed some of this influence into his own, originals song-writing, he traces quite a bit more of his influences from his father’s years of joy listening to fellow Patra-born composers and song-writers.
“Dad was always spinning the discs of Fotis Polymeris, Rena Dor and Thanos Mikroutsikos and singing along to their tunes” Nick said.
Nick’s time in London also provided him with another significant influence. After bumping into George Michael in a local park – yes, that Georgios Panayiotou – Nick decided to pay homage to this famed Greek by adopting a slick suit look and inviting a few supermodels to the next gig.
While the models appear to have not understood the venue’s GPS coordinates, Nick certainly pulled off one of the best Cypriot super-singer gigs of his career. In line with his great love of soccer (and ‘South Melbourne Hellas’), Nick is kicking goals all over the place.
Dr. John A. Martino, is a historian with a PhD in Classical History, his debut novel, Olympia: The Birth of the Games, marks his transition to fiction and is a rusted on rock’n’roller and bar king.
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