{"id":292953,"date":"2025-07-26T09:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292953\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T09:35:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:35:26","slug":"tributes-pour-in-as-pioneering-australian-musician-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292953\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes pour in as pioneering Australian musician dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Tributes have flooded in for pioneering Australian musician Pete Carroll, who passed away earlier this week aged 82.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Victorian-born performer was a bass player for The Playboys, who were the backing band for 1960s Australian teen idol Normie Rowe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">It was Pete&#8217;s son Dan who broke the news on social media on Friday, revealing his dad died doing what he loved best \u2013 listening to music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It&#8217;s with great sadness I tell the world that my Dad passed away at 1:06pm today listening to The Shadows&#8217; Apache, surrounded by his family,&#8217; Dan revealed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He also urged Pete&#8217;s friends, family, and fans to &#8216;turn up&#8217; the tunes as a way to remember the beloved Aussie muso.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dailymail.substack.com\/subscribe\">DailyMail\u2019s new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-b9dd43fde97e486\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/100650727-14942449-image-a-20_1753505404115.jpg\" height=\"636\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Tributes have flooded in for pioneering Australian musician Pete Carroll, who passed away this week\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Tributes have flooded in for pioneering Australian musician Pete Carroll, who passed away this week<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;When there is a date and details for a service I will post it here. But please play some Buddy Holly for him today and turn it up,&#8217; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;And thank you for all the messages and support so far. It means the world.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">News of Pete&#8217;s passing elicited a flood of tributes from friends, former bandmates and fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Fellow musician Terry Dean, who played alongside Pete in the band The Mustangs, took to Facebook to share a sweet tribute to his mate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He posted a photo of The Mustangs on stage in the early 1960s, while offering a brief overview of Pete&#8217;s illustrious career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Vale Peter. This photo of us from about &#8217;63 just appeared recently. He was a mighty bass player and, as a proud Glenroy boy, he was always happy to tell anyone that he was taught by local legend Peter Robinson. Great days,&#8217; Terry remembered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Pete left our group to join Normie Rowe and the Playboys!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Melbourne musician Mick Hamilton also took to Facebook in the wake of Pete&#8217;s death to share a photo that showed him sitting next to the bass player on a stage next to another muso \u2013 Aaron Schembri.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-782cc0e4a5d243a8\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/100650731-14942449-image-a-21_1753505422279.jpg\" height=\"350\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Pete was a bass player for The Playboys who were the backing band for 1960s Australian teen idol Normie Rowe. Pete is pictured (second from left) with his first band The Mustangs\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Pete was a bass player for The Playboys who were the backing band for 1960s Australian teen idol Normie Rowe. Pete is pictured (second from left) with his first band The Mustangs<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-f3cce8893f23f24f\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/100650717-14942449-image-a-22_1753505468564.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"634\" alt=\"'It's with great sadness I tell the world that my Dad passed away at 1:06pm today listening to The Shadows' Apache, surrounded by his family,' Pete's son Dan revealed\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">&#8216;It&#8217;s with great sadness I tell the world that my Dad passed away at 1:06pm today listening to The Shadows&#8217; Apache, surrounded by his family,&#8217; Pete&#8217;s son Dan revealed<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Another good man down. Mick captioned the image.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Another post came from The Melbourne Debonairs \u2013\u00a0a group of music industry professionals who gather for lunches and social events.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">They shared a photo of a beaming Pete well and truly in his element &#8211; standing on stage with a Fender Precision bass slung over his shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I don&#8217;t know what is happening in this world, we&#8217;ve been losing so many of our old friends of late,&#8217; the post began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;ve just gotten back in the office and received the news that Pete has passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The post continued: &#8216;Pete used to love coming to the Debonairs and catching up with some of his old band mates from the &#8217;60s and early &#8217;70s. I&#8217;m so down about this. My sincere condolences go out to Pete&#8217;s family and\u00a0friends.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">After Pete parted ways with Normie Rowe and the Playboys, he continued to work as a freelance bass player before exiting the industry entirely.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-8d7a50e45e97e7d2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/100650725-14942449-image-a-28_1753505637115.jpg\" height=\"886\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Pete rejoined Normie (pictured) and the Playboys for an onstage reunion in 2014 - some 40 years since he picked up a bass guitar\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Pete rejoined Normie (pictured) and the Playboys for an onstage reunion in 2014 &#8211; some 40 years since he picked up a bass guitar<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, the music bug caught Pete again in 2014, when Normie phoned him to take part in a Playboys reunion &#8211; some forty years since he last picked up a bass guitar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;He said: &#8220;Oh, I&#8217;d love to but I haven&#8217;t got an instrument&#8221;,&#8217; Normie told the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/geelongindy.com.au\/indy\/24-01-2014\/finally-friday-normie-playboys-back\/\">Geelong Independent <\/a>at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;So he went out and bought himself a reissued 1963 Fender Jazzmaster bass and an amplifier. He made a damn good fist of it. Us old guys have got some energy left, I tell ya.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Pete is survived by his son Dan.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have flooded in for pioneering Australian musician Pete Carroll, who passed away earlier this week aged 82.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[186,108904,4080,108905,92,77,600,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-292953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-celeb-deaths","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-celebrity-deaths-and-obituaries","12":"tag-dailymail","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-facebook","15":"tag-tvshowbiz","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114918858725779428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}