SINGER - SONGWRITER - GUITARIST

In a Nutshell

Neil started his singing career at the age of 15 in a band that played throughout country Victoria, covering music from Tom Jones and Roy Orbison through to the Rolling Stones and The Kinks.

His love and appreciation of country music started with listening to his father playing his Lap Steel guitar learning the songs of Hank Williams, Reg Lindsay and The Sons of the Pioneers.

One of Neil's older brothers was also in a band singing songs by the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison and The Beatles. This background of traditional country through to more popular styles spurred his interest onto other styles of music such as rhythm and blues and jazz which he played in various bands. (These bands included artists who would go on to some of the top bands in the coutry, such as as the Little River Band, Stylus, Tommy Emmanuel and Madder Lake). These bands toured from South Australia right around the Eastern states and up to Cooktown in Queensland.

Neil has toured with and supported most of Australia's top recording artists in the past 20 years or more, including AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Skyhooks, Sherbet, Australian Crawl and The Master Apprentices to name just a few.

During this time he has done a lot of session work for radio and TV advertising in Melbourne and Sydney. Some of these included lead vocals on ads for Coca Cola, McDonalds, Channel 7 and Prime TV.

Also session work for Bruce Woodley for Beaurepaires and Gillette Blue ads, plus Personal song demos for The Seekers

On the more musical front has also recorded with bands like Grand Slam from Melbourne, and The Devotions - in Sydney, which also featured The Moy Sisters, Mitch Farmer (Drums), and Phil Scorgey (ex Crossfire-Bass).

The Breed

The rock band The Breed was then formed by Neil Anderson and Jake Lardot in Sydney in 1990 in an incident that no one can doubt was preordained. It happened late one night when the subject of birthdays arose and it was discovered that not only were Neil (lead vocals and guitar) and Jake Lardot (lead guitar and vocals) born in the same year, but on the same day! Together they formed The Breed, with Michael Burn (drummer) and Mikey Johnson (bass) completing the band.

The Breed had a simple philosophy of creating power live performances, whilst adopting a polished edge in the studio.

The band played live and toured continuously for several years including many headline shows and major supports with artists such as Daryl Braithwaite, Ian Moss, The Angels, and Mental As Anything. The roots of their sound was a soul feel with a rock-n-roll kick.

The Breed signed to "Big Stars" label, a subsidiary of Mushroom Records. Their debut single Every Little Tear, produced and engineered by Kevin Shirley (Baby Animals, Aerosmith, Dubrovniks, HAND) at EMI's Studio 301, was released in June

Night Owls

After moving back to Sydney in 1989 (he was born in Cronulla) he teamed up again with Jake Lardot (legendary guitarist with Beccy Cole and Lee Kernagan, Mitchell Shadlow, Wayne Law and Carol Young), and they formed a duo called the Night Owls, playing many Sydney venues. Together they have written in excess of 80 songs.

Neil and Jake continue as the songwriting team of Anderson/Lardot, who perform as a duo on rare special occasions. See the Anderson/Lardot page for full details of this performing/recording duo.

Neil also had a duo with Brad Grimes called "The Busy Boys" doing 60's to current hits music ,and a trio, simply called the "The Busy Boys Trio" which has the addition of Andy Mclean on harmonica and backing vocals.

Neil has recently relocated to northern NSW to form a duo with Richard brent which goes by the name of Big Music Inc. See the Gig Guide for where you can catch them live.