The Transplants

Ahead of DonateLife week, a national awareness week dedicated to promoting organ and tissue donation, Paulie Stewart reflects on this band The Transplants – a rock band in which all members have undergone organ transplants. The band regularly performs to promote organ donation.

It might seem an unusual place to form a band…the liver unit at the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg. Unlikely as it seems, that is indeed where Melbourne outfit The Transplants was born.

Made up of musicians who have received organ donations – caused by natural means or by the excessive playing of rock and roll – this combo formed with the aim of raising awareness of organ donation.

“I first got involved [with the band] when I read the article about you [Paulie] having a transplant in the Sunday Herald Sun. The story inspired me to sign up then and there as a donor. After reading the article I wrote a letter to the editor, Alan Howe, telling him what I had done,” said Bob Carey, drummer of The Transplants.

“You got in touch with me and we decided to put our heads together to get an ‘Awareness Gig’ going. That’s when we got in touch with long-time musician Shane Laffy who had also had a liver transplant. The rest is history!” he continued.

The Transplants grew with the help of sympathetic musicians and adoring health care officials.

“With the help of veteran drummer Bob Carey, Les Stacpool on guitar, Dan Robinson on bass and keyboard whiz John Grant, we originally formed for a one-off show,” said Laffy.

“We all sort of had a similar rock and roll background, so we did our first little gig at a pub in Brunswick which got a really good crowd. Then we started getting other offers to do stuff,” he continued. “In our early days of The Transplants it wasn’t chords, bass lines or sound checks we talked of but more so blood transfusions, medicines and favourite nurses.”

I had my own liver transplant in 2009 and counted my blessings. Other musicians like Spencer P. Jones and Rowland S. Howard weren’t so lucky. I had no idea of the complex medical procedures involved when informed that I needed a transplant. I just thought I’d rock up to a room and a doctor would say: “Here you go mate. I’ll put a new one in, swap it over, then, off you go!” and I’d be doing a gig in a week’s time. I actually spent 18 months in and out of the Austin Hospital.

You have to get real sick before getting access to a preciously donated organ. This meant waiting my turn for a compatible liver to be donated and in Australia – where organ donation is still very low – this meant waiting and waiting and waiting. I got sick and tired of being sick and tired.

When they put you on “the list” you are regularly given blood tests and any sign of alcohol consumption removes you from it immediately. I was definitely one of the lucky ones to find a match and along with other musicians I met at the liver clinic who received a donation, we felt the need to try and do something to help increase awareness about the issue.

These musicians included veteran rock singer and guitarist Shane Laffy, singer Jo Fraser who made Suzie Quatro seem tame, saxophone player Steve Dagg and indigenous rapper Little G, who was at the time still waiting for a kidney transplant.

“Many of us just hung out at the Austin,” remembers Laffy. “We were all waiting and when we got our transplants we were just so grateful to be alive. The band is our way of promoting the cause and saying thank you to the families of people who have donated their organs.”

The Transplants continued performing to help raise awareness but unfortunately one of our earlier members, young Shaun Miller, died waiting for a transplant.

I always think it’s amazing the connection you feel with other people who have undergone organ transplants. The first time I met noted Australian film director Paul Cox, who had also just had a liver transplant, was when he walked into the ABC studios in Southbank, kissed me fully on the lips and said “Hello my liver brother!”

Vital to The Transplants was the input of Frankston-based Nurse Donation Specialist and music fan Jodi Vuat. She helped organise a massive gig at the famed Caravan Music Club which ended up hosting the biggest crowd the venue ever had. Along with The Transplants this event featured African rappers FLYBZ and Elvis impersonator Paul Eugene Greene. Vuat saw the value in the band from the get-go.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing, working and dancing with you and The Transplants over the past eight or nine years, when the band supported and headlined several awareness events for Organ and Tissue Donation,” she said recently.

“The band is a great example of those who have been touched by organ and tissue donation, as all members in some way have either received a transplant or know someone who has been saved by a donation,” she continued. “The Transplants celebrate lives that have had a second chance and is a great example to the public of how organ donation can help people.’’

“Organ Donation saves lives, but there are always around 1,800 people on a wait list hoping for another chance at life. The inaugural gig at the Caravan Music Club was a huge success with the ‘Human Headline – Derryn Hinch’ (himself an organ recipient) garnering much attention when he joined the band for a rendition of ‘You’re Going Home in the Back of a Divy Van!’”

There have also been occasional special guest appearances by other well-known organ donor recipients and supporters. The legendary Judith Durham from The Seekers join in honour of her friend Mandawuy Yunupingu from indigenous rock band Yothu Yindi, who died waiting for a kidney transplant, and also pioneering American rocker Bobby Rydell, who had a liver transplant.

COVID-19 has had a direct impact on organ and tissue donation. Compared to 2019, in 2020 there was a 12% decrease in people receiving a transplant, a 16% decrease in donors and a 16% decrease in Australians registering as donors. That’s why it’s never been more important to register as an organ and tissue donor and to encourage others to join you. We were all keen to spread the word on organ donation and despite it being a slightly uncomfortable topic, it seems that in this country, awareness about organ donation could certainly do with a boost.

Australians wishing to donate their organs should contact Donate Life on 1300 133 050 or at donatelife.gov.au.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paulie Stewart
Born and bred in the inner-Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, Paulie Stewart was the inaugural winner of the Essence of St Kilda essay prize – as well as an original member of infamous Melbourne punk band Painters and Dockers. Inducted into The Age Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, the group released seven albums and performed more than 1500 live shows throughout Australia, New Zealand and North America.

Stewart is also a founding member of East Timorese/Australian band The Dili Allstars, awarded a 2009 ARIA award for Best Soundtrack (Balibo). The band has toured extensively in Australia, East Timor, Portugal and Brazil, releasing three albums, two EPs and an ABC Music 'Best of' retrospective, raising large sums of money for various East Timorese charities.

He is a founder of The PRICS (Performers Releasing Information about Clean Syringes/Careful Sex), a musical troupe who delivered safe health messages in juvenile detention centres, jails and women’s refuges – and who released two albums in conjunction with leading radio youth network Triple J. He now manages and mentors leading African hiphop act The Flybz.

Biography courtesy of The Wheeler Centre.