Jan de Zwaan

Black Cat Circle at their rehearsal room — *Black Cat Circle (left to right) Dan Gillespie, Jan de Zwaan, Peter Miles, Lance Scott*

During the height of popularity of the 1960s folk music scene, wandering minstrel, guitarist and singer Jan de Zwaan occasionally appeared in Brisbane, playing a broad repertoire of folk songs from around the world.

During 1966, he formed a four-piece band called ‘Black Cat Circle’, which ventured into rhythm and blues territory. With Dan Gillespie (harp/vocals), Lance Scott (bass), and Peter Miles (drums), Jan played up a storm, becoming very popular at venues such as The Red Orb.

I shot these pictures while they were rehearsing at a tiny cottage which was down at the base of a twenty-five metre sheer cliff at Kangaroo Point, right on the edge of the beautiful Brisbane River. Getting down to the cottage was precarious going, getting back up was most arduous. I didn’t ask about how they shifted their instruments, particularly the drum kit!

By April 1967, the band had a new line-up composed of Jan (guitar/vocals), Terry Hannagan (guitar/vocals), Bob Dames, of Purple Hearts fame (bass), and Peter Miles (drums).

N.B. Limited editions of archival quality prints of these images are available, see Shop

Australian, MusicianFrank Neilsen14 December 2019Jan de Zwaan, minstrel, wandering minstrel, Brisbane, folk, rhythm and blues, Black Cat Circle, Dan Gillespie, Lance Scott, Peter Miles, Terry Hannagan, Bob Dames, 1960sComment