Peter Wells

Peter Wells earned renown as a legendary slide guitarist through his work with Australian rock bands such as Buffalo, Rose Tattoo, and Romeo Dog, while also issuing multiple solo albums rooted in blues and country. He launched his musical path as a bass player in the Brisbane group Head before joining Sydney’s Buffalo as a core member, where he played bass on the releases Dead Forever..., Volcanic Rock, Only Want You for Your Body, and Mother’s Choice. After exiting that band in 1976, he switched to slide guitar and co-founded the storied Australian rock act Rose Tattoo. For the next seven years he toured the world with the group and appeared on the albums Rose Tattoo, Assault & Battery, and Scarred for Life. In 1983 he assembled Scattered Aces, whose Six Pack emerged in April 1984. That November he launched Illustrated Men alongside former Rose Tattoo member Ian Rilen, yet by 1985 he had joined the blues outfit Lucy DeSoto Band. The pair of albums Three Girls and a Sailor and Help Me Rhonda, My Boyfriend’s Back followed. After performing only sporadically with DeSoto over the next three years, they formed Heart Attack. Wells’s debut solo album Everything You Like Tries to Kill You arrived in late 1990, and the following year he toured with the Peter Wells Band in support of Marianne Faithfull, Jeff Healey, the Stray Cats, and Bob Dylan. His second solo album The Meaning of Life was issued in July 1992. Early in 1993 he rejoined a re-formed Rose Tattoo for a tour opening for Guns N’ Roses. His third solo album No Hard Feelings appeared in June 1993 and was succeeded in August by the EP Hard Done by You. Into early 1994 Wells and DeSoto resumed pub-circuit work as Heart Attack until the 1995 release of his fourth solo album Orphans. He then journeyed to Germany, where he contributed to the hard rock and blues debut by Romeo Dog, a recording that recalled his Rose Tattoo period. Wells and DeSoto also became members of Melbourne R&B outfit Blues Hangover, whose self-titled debut album surfaced in 1995 and Roadrunner in 1996. Another solo album, Go Ahead, Call the Cops, arrived in 1996, and he performed as well with Sydney R&B band Black Smith Hopkins. Prostate cancer ended his life in March 2006.