The Hipshooters: Ten Years After.

The Hipshooters play The Winery, Souths Leagues Club on Sunday.

The Hipshooters have been tossing excellent rock driven blues around for the past decade, this professional milestone cemented in time as New Year’s Eve 2003 flew by.

Originally vocalist Anton Elkington and bass man Billy Williams formed the Hipshooters in their Homeland of New Zealand during 1993 then after two years on the road destiny drew them off shore to settle in Australia. The Hipshooters hit Brisbane City, added a drummer to their formation then set about working up a solid fan base. To their credit several album projects have been produced: Live At The Bomb Shelter (1995), Shadowlands (1997) and Voodoo Love (2001).

Before the next phase of the Hipshooters’ journey is able to really kick in, Billy Williams has decided to take a short break from the unit till mid-year. He explains the reason for time out, “I am going back to New Zealand for a few months to spend time with the Family and then hope to join Rob Tognoni in Europe for three months on the Festival circuit. I am from a big Family. I’m the youngest of six and my eldest Brother is fairly ill and one of my sisters has just had a big operation. The time I have spent with the family has sort of only been a few hours here and there cause we’re been touring and doing gigs so I really feel the pull to go back and spend some quality time with them.”

Williams is also about to release a personal album of historical significance. The project is titled Retrospect. It’s a terrific snapshot of Billy’s bass playing career and a tribute to the various bands and personnel he has been involved with since 1968: Classic Affair, Space Farm, Ticket, Band Of Light, Shazzam, Monsoon, Doc Savage, Steve Lott and of course the Hipshooters.

The Hipshooters have a promising future and Billy’s thoughts and feelings about the Hipshooters alone will grant them one: “It’s been a wonderful journey that’s for sure and what has been good is being able to develop our own original music. Anton and I have a wonderful relationship and shows obviously if you’d been in a band for 10 years. We’re never had a bad word between us in 10 years. We respect each other musically and as writers we co-write and I love just playing. We’re really happy with John Forbes (drummer) and personality wise you know he is a wonderful person and a very welcomed part of the Hipshooters. It’s been a wonderful development and it doesn’t look like finishing.”