Kat Bailey
Founding member, lead singer and songwriter for the band. Kat writes to our realities and saturates her songs with passionate lyrics wrapped up in original acoustic riffs before our amazing band family, inject their combined talents to generate true rock songs in our Gathering Hearts signature style.
Kat started singing in cover bands in Bunbury, teaming up with Michael Cambrea in 1986 as lead singer of Kathys Crystal then Red House.
In 1990, Kat and Steve Hill formed Rondo Forte then in 1997, Kat teamed up with Simon Long and David Reichardt to form Gathering Storm. Kat sang in all three bands simultaneously through to January 2000.
Rondo Forte performed at Public Festivals, private events, wineries, and resorts in the South West and Great Southern.
Gathering Storm was an acoustic trio performing at Caves House in Yallingup and Settlers Tavern in Margaret River, and the Lord Forrest Hotel in Bunbury.
Touring extensively in Perth, the South West, Great Southern and the Wheatbelt. Kat averaged four gigs per week for 12 years, often performing midday then again in the evening of the same day. Kats gigs soon exceeded 2,000 and she stopped counting, with her reputation firmly established as being talented and reliable.
Kat was so well known throughout much of the state she was invited to perform live on a rare GWN live show in 1991, then appeared on Chanel 7’s Jenny Seton Show in 1992, followed by performances on Chanel 7’s Telethon in 1993 and 1994.
Kat welcomed in the new millennium on stage as lead singer for Red House with Michael Cambrea in the main street of Margaret River and with a few thousand people in the audience, she counted down the final seconds to celebrate the magic transition into the year 2000.
On 10 January 2000, Kat relocated 760 kms inland to live in Kalgoorlie and work in the mining industry. In 2016 Kat returned to the West Coast, moving to Perth to be closer to her family. It wasn’t long before the pull of the Perth music scene lured Kat back into singing, reconnecting and meeting new muso freinds, her network grew.
Kats life was never easy. She had faced many hurdles from a young age and sustained many hand injuries along the way. In late 2018, Kat picked up her old nemesis the acoustic guitar, dusted it off and surprisingly with damaged hands, started playing and writing in her own style. Kat wrote 38 original songs in two years that have now become part of the rich history of Gathering Heart.
Adrian Strk
Adrian our drummer, is a founding member of Gathering Heart. A true powerhouse on the skins Adrian’s energy drives the rock in our Gathering Heart shows.
Adrian studied music early, learning and playing trombone at CBC Fremantle at the age of 11. Gravitating to everything music, Adrian would eat lunch in the music room at school with his mates who were playing guitar.
One day they asked Adrian to sit at the drum kit and keep time for them. As it turned out, Adrian was a natural drummer and the four friends started their first band at 11 years of age.
Adrian wanted drum lessons in the late 1980’s and for a year he studied with an older guy, his tutor was a 17 year old who charged a whole $5.00 for a half hour drumming session.
Performing in talent contests at school, the young band took out a second place and Adrian was asked to join the CBC Fremantle Jazz Orchestra. The orchestra performed at WA’s premier York Jazz Festivals and toured Singapore in 1993 appearing at the famous Raffles Hotel and on stage at Sentosa Island.
Adrian developed his jazz rock style as founding member of cover band “The Rumours” from 1998-2007, teaming up with Bob Young on bass. The two played rock and roll in many of Perth’s pubs, including the Ocean View and Woodbridge Taverns, the Lookout in Scarborough, and various other pubs and bars around Fremantle. From 2014 – 2019 Adrian was drummer for The Ronny Brown Band, playing rock and roll covers around Fremantle hotels, bars and Football Clubs.
Co-founder of Gathering Heart, this is Adrians first and current original music endeavor and his drum tracks drive and colour our signature rock & roll style.
Bob Young
Bob Young is Gathering Heart’s metal, rock, punk bass player who also sings backing vocals. Bob works with Adrian to generate our rhythm and drive your feet to dance because “it is all about the bass”.
Bob started playing in bands in the late 1980s, where he enjoyed performing in heavy metal bands Covenant and Purgatory at his favorite live Perth venues, the Old Melbourne, The Raffles and the Herdsman. By 1993, the metal scene started to decline and although he was a dedicated metalhead, Bob was soon picked up by commercial cover band The Search. The Search played private gigs and had a successful run as the house band at the Chelsea Tavern in 1994.
“The Search” disbanded in the late 90’s and Bob soon teamed up with Adrian Strk in the popular cover band, “The Rhumors” performing regular gigs at the Ocean View and Woodbridge Taverns until 2008. Relocating to the regions for work in 2008, Bob dropped out of the music scene for more than 10 years.
Then in 2020, when he had all but resigned himself to not playing again, a phone call from former bandmate Adrian lured Bob to Gathering Heart. Committing to the band in late July 2020, Bob is now an integral part of the bands emerging success, composing metal melodic bass lines into the unmistakable signature sound that is Gathering Heart.
Past and treasured
Members of the Gathering Heart Band Family
Andy Rolfe
(Member April 2019-September 2023)
Joined Gathering Heart April 2019 bringing a wealth of production knowledge, power riffs, sultry slide and acoustic prowess. Andy a true showman and pumped energetic rock and roll into every performance. During his time with Gathering Heart, Andy revitalized his passion for recording, revamped his suite of studio equipment and eventually left the band to run his recording studio in September 2023.
Andy started playing guitar at 16, when a High School mate taught him how to play “Proud Mary”. Working in the Perth live music scene as a live Sound Engineer for 10 years mixing live bands, Andy decided it was time to get serious with his own guitar. Performing in successful cover bands: Fully Loaded, Fully Reloaded, The Kelvinator’s, Pulse Rock Band and The Dr Charlie Blues Band at venues and events including the 2006 Bridgetown Blues Festival.
Andy now runs Sharp Sounds Audio recording studio and guitar and guitar Amp repairs.
Trev Geiles
(Member June 2019-Febrary 2023)
The master of arpeggio & blues, Trev’s lead style captured our senses and dances in our memories. He brought a level of professionalism that inspired all of us to be and do more.
In February 2023 Trev was lured away to to become the lead guitarist for Perth Band, The Time Doctors.
Playing guitar since the age of 10, Trev played in vairous garage bands in his early teenage years and played as a session guitarist in the 1990’s. He moved around out state living and working in country towns for 22 years and played in various pub bands including the Shots and Blue Bone. He also played in a Jazz Swing Band, Lookin Back. Trev returned to Perth in 2013 and joined 4 Below Zero before heading to Gathering Heart.
Weaving his magic, Trev accompanied harmony leads lines to Andy Rolfe, creating a special one-off partnership that was captured in the recording of the bands first single “I choose to Live”.
Giovanni Fusco
(Member January 2019 – June 2020)
A truly melodic rock bass player and all-round rock party animal, Gio has a passion for original music and has formed more project bands than he can remember. Classically trained in latin guitar he has an ear for talent and a natural talent for getting people together. In July 2018 he met and invited Kat to tryout for a project band with a couple of his best buds. Kat was welcomed into the project band and her song writing flourished. By August that year, Kat had named the band “The Ninth Life” and all seemed grand, until it wasn’t. Kat was devistated when the best buds parted company in October 2018.
Determined to keep songwriting Kat put her buiness and promotional skills to work by registering the name Gathering Heart in November 2018 in preparation for another original band. True to his nature, Gio had already started looking for new band members by early December 2018 and together Gio, Kat and drummer Adrian Strk formed the trio that became the foundation of Gathering Heart in January 2019.
Gio regretfully left the band in June 2020, boarding a plane to fly in and fly out of the North of WA and work in the mining industry. Leaving behind a truely remarkable legacy that Kat continues to manage today with co-founder Adrian on drums.