Baby Animals Keepin it together for Rock n Roll.
Ah, the 90’s. Some would say it was the most diverse decade in popular music since recorded music began. Some would argue. That is the nature of music. It is subjective.
What cannot be argued is the fact that we saw some truly great artists rise to fame and glory, and we saw a dramatic shift in the way musicians and bands presented themselves, and how they delivered their product.
So, where does a fairly traditional female fronted Rock band fit in this landscape?
For a time, it seemed for the Baby Animals, they fit right at the top.
Amidst the onslaught of grunge, with international acts rocketing up the charts, Baby Animals just did what they did, and what they did was truly great. The music was not your typical, straight forward pub rock, although their sound had roots deep in that soil, but their music was articulate, intelligent and complex in a digestible way.
This coupled with a front woman with a voice that was powerful, and a stage presence that screamed confidence, and a look and style that commanded attention quickly earned them a place high in the Australian music pecking order. Their debut self-titled offering wasted no time in making its way to No1 on the album charts.
It was my good fortune to be granted the opportunity to have a conversation with guitarist and extremely likeable gent, Mr Dave Leslie.
I inquired when he first knew he wanted to be a guitarist.
“I think the penny might have dropped when I saw Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs perform at Sunbury in the early 70’s. I can still see it now. Thorpie with his Les Paul and his hair blowing around, ripping out a solo, and I just thought ‘Yeah, that’s what I want to do.”
“I did have the usual habit of ‘playing a tennis racket’ in front of the T.V. and jumping around and watching the ‘Eagle Rock’ clip, with all the goofing around. It just looked like so much fun being in a band…and it is, I realised. I started pretty much as soon as I left school, so it was about ten years on when B.A.’s started.”
“I never had a plan B. I think if I had, I would have deferred to it. Man, when I first moved to Sydney, I starved. I got really sick, I ate tomato sauce sandwiches, I lived in a share house… it was dreadful. You know, that situation where you have to decide between food and a six pack of beer..”
“It’s funny, but some of the best gigs we have ever done have been when it’s pouring rain at an outdoor gig, or when something goes wrong and you have to dig deep and push through. You play from a different place. I remember one gig where we had about five minutes to set up, then we played the set and finished, packed up and were back in the van in like 10 minutes. It was so much fun.”
The self titled debut that launched them into orbit was something to behold. It won them 3 Aria awards at the 1992 awards. They won trophies for Album of the year and Breakthrough artist. the single for “Early Warning” went high in the charts , as well as a host of other charting singles, they also snagged a support slot with Van Halen on their ‘For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’ tour.
“Yeah, we were pretty fortunate to be placed in that team, with Kevin Shirley and Mike Chapman. We are extremely grateful to have had that experience. To have Mike producing was a win. His track record as a writer and a producer speaks for itself.
When we got with him, he had a vision for every track. The tag line for ‘Too young to know, too old to listen’ at the start of Early Warning’ was his idea. We used it as an intro to the chorus, but he said “Do the drum thing then put it at the beginning. That’s the premise for the song”. We never would have thought of that.”
“We had good material too. That helped.“
I asked about the ‘Big finish’ at the beginning of ‘Rush you’, which , to me , was a brilliant touch.
“When we started, we were getting slaughtered by audiences. We opened for The Angels and Jimmy Barnes, and their audiences were tough. Having a female lead singer in a relatively unknown band as support back then was brutal, so we figured we had to do something to just grab them and shut them up. That’s what we came up with, and it worked.”
That grind is what people don’t always appreciate. From the perspective of the radio audience, The Baby Animals took to the stratosphere almost overnight. One minute, they are on the radio, the next, they are touring with Van Halen, and then receiving accolades from all corners, but they earned their stripes playing pubs and clubs well before any of that happened.
“Thats the thing with the Aussie pub rock circuit back then. The crowd kind of demanded to be entertained, and you had to hit ‘em hard. Doing gigs with the (Screaming) Jets , The Angels, it kinda rubs off on you. You have to be tough. Your attitude, your repertoire, it all changes to reflect the scene. You could do the pop songs, but they had to have a hard edge, or you just get slaughtered.”
“We did a lot of pub gigs before we went overseas. We had to develop the songs. We had to look at what worked with the crowd and what didn’t. We find that even now. You do a song in the studio, but it’s not until you play it live that you pick really quickly whether it’s working.”
I saw the Baby Animals in Cairns in the early 90s, and again in 2018 at The Airlie Beach festival of music, and they had lost none of their edge.
The Cairns show promises to be more of the same, but with all your favourites,some new material and the same hard working Rock n Roll attitude that we have come to expect.
The Baby Animals will be appearing at The Tanks on Friday , May 8 2026. Doors open at 6;30 pm, show starts at 7:15
Tickets are available from TicketLink.
© Copyright 2026 | NQ Music Press