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The
musical background to Bob Campbell stretches to his maternal
grandmother, Madeline McHugh, whose family came from Co Fermanagh,
Ireland, and all played the fiddle. This musical tradition passed
on to Magdalene’s children who became the Harmony Boys
Old Time Band. They played throughout the Great Depression in
the Sandy Hollow Hall, built by Bob’s paternal grandfather,
George Ham, to cater for the hundreds of families working on
the Sandy Hollow Railway line. Bob’s father, Bull Campbell,
as well as being a renowned boxer and rugby league player, entertained
at parties playing the gum leaf. Bob’s uncle, Jim Ham,
now in his nineties, has played in dance bands his entire life
and still plays music with his family at home near Brisbane. Bob’s
first public performance was at the age of four when his father
stood him on the bar of the Windsor Castle Hotel, East Maitland,
where he recited the Ten Commandments to the gathered company.
His first instrument was the button accordion and, when in his
teens, he learned the guitar, for one year studying under jazz
guitarist, Jimmy Charles. Tiring of playing the guitar and singing
in the usual pub rock and roll bands, Bob and friends formed
the Maitland Bush Band in 1968, and he took up the five string
banjo and fiddle. When legendary box player, the late Jacko
Kevans, joined the band in the early seventies, he encouraged
Bob to concentrate on Irish traditional music. That began a
love affair with the music that took him to Ireland and many
other parts of the world in pursuit of the musical spirit, but
his music has continued to be distinctively and essentially
Australian. He has lived and played music for long periods of
time in Germany and Ireland but in recent years, has lived in
the bush in the Mudgee-Gulgong area.
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 Bob
spent much of the nineties based in Berlin from where he toured
solo, as well as with Australian and German musicians until
1998 when he returned to Gulgong. In recent years, he has
concentrated on guitar which he has played since childhood,
on song-writing and solo performing, as well as regular performances
with Home Rule, and with concertina player Sharon Frost. As
well as recording with Home Rule in the past decade, he has
made a number of solo recordings. He has recently written
and performed a radio and stage play on the theme of Aboriginal
bushranger, Jimmy Governor, who actually killed the owner
of Bob’s current home, ‘Sportsman’s Hollow’
near Ulan. This show had its stage debut at the Prince Of
Wales Opera House for the Henry Lawson Festival in June 2008.
The show is currently being recorded for radio. In 2008,
Bob played regularly for kids and tourists in his own area
as well as playing at concerts, dances and festivals as far
apart as Newcastle, Grafton, Nimbin, Bourke, Lightning Ridge
and many places in between. His last festival appearances
were at the Gulgong New Year Festival and the John O’Brien
festival at Narrandera in March 2009. See
Bob's gigs.
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