Paul Hester - The Early Years

The Early Years

Hester was the older of two children (his younger sister is Carolyn) from Melbourne, Australia. At an early age, he was encouraged by his mother, Anne, to learn to play drums, as she was a jazz drummer. Hester attempted various jobs before starting a musical career. He spent most of his teen years living in the Dandenong Ranges, with the family home on the edge of Sherbrooke Forest at the Sherbrooke/Kallista boundary. Some of his early bands in the late 1970s, which gigged around the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, included: Thunder (possibly his first performance band) 1976–1977 and then Edges 1977–1978. In 1980 he co-founded a Melbourne-based band called Cheks (renamed Deckchairs Overboard when they moved to Sydney in 1982), which also had Cathy McQuade, Ken Campbell and John Clifforth. Hester was living with Deborah Conway of Do-Ré-Mi during the early 1980s, while also playing regularly in Love Party. Hester later worked with Conway in Rose Amongst Thorns (1990–1991) and Ultrasound (1995).