Bios
Glen Gearing - Vocals & Bass Guitar
Walking past the music room at his high school, at just 16 years of age, Glen heard a sound. It was a sound like no other. It resonated through the floor and sounded like an enormous demonic beast, stomping and growling, making the windows rattle and the walls shake. The unusual sound guided young Glen towards the door and he curiously peered in. Inside the room was an older kid, sitting on a chair, playing what Glen originally thought was just a guitar, but this one was different - it only had four strings, four FAT strings! It was BIGGER, it was FATTER, and it was definitely FUNKIER than your average guitar. It was also producing the most amazingly deep, powerful sound he had ever heard. Glen had just discovered the bass guitar. Little did he know it was the instrument that would change his life forever.
It wasn't long before Glen got his very own bass by pestering his parents. It has been like a conjoined twin ever since. From the get go, Glen has played in a band - there has never been a time when he wasn't. You could say he has devoted his entire life to playing music, something he's very passionate about and way beyond the scope of a short bio like this one. You'll just have to purchase his book when it comes out. Other than music, Glen is a semi-professional artist, radio presenter, extreme water sports enthusiast, archer & 80's pop-culture historian. He also enjoys sipping fine wine by the fireside and long walks on the beach.
Jenny Smith - Vocals & Multi-Instrumentalist
Jenny had the choice between gymnastics or guitar lessons when she was in year 6. She chose the guitar because the Arnold twins (by Jenny's account, pretty damn hot classmates) played music, so naturally she wanted to be part of that.
Jenny's first public performance happened to be with the Arnold twins, the song was Peggy Sue and was in front of the entire school. In Year 9 she started taking part in the local Country Music Talent Contest, despite believing it was social suicide to even admit she liked country music let alone participate in talent quests. She kept it pretty low key until the local paper covered her third placing with a massive spread. We are still unsure as to how many contestants there were - possibly only three.
We fast forward 20 years, two kids and an apparent messy divorce, Jenny decided to try and find herself and once again picked up her guitar. Starting out as a duo with a friend, they soon caught wind that the super talented Glen Gearing (our very own super talented Glen Gearing) was on the market and the acoustic trio Sound Attraction was born. A young 16 year old named Toby Johnson tried to join the group, but as they didn’t want to baby sit anyone they turned him down - poor little kid, what a brutal world the entertainment business is. Little did they know he was a super talent and they totally missed out.
Eventually fate would bring Toby into the fold a few years short later and GenX became a thing. With Lurch's arrival at GenX, and not satisfied just playing guitar and singing, you can find Jenny belting out numbers on the harmonica and rapping like Eminem. She is certainly happiest on stage belting out a few 90s numbers, and feeling as young as Toby.
Toby Johnson - Dr. Ums
Growing up in Port Pirie, and bringing the average age down by 5.25 years, Toby started playing drums in 2007 at the age of 10.
By age 14, and despite having to vacate venues before midnight, Toby found himself gigging every few weekends at pubs, clubs and the trotting track with One Day Weekend - the youngest cover band the likes of Port Pirie had ever seen.
In light of Toby being one of the only drummers in Port Pirie, by 2014 Toby joined local celebrities, Sector Twelve in their comeback, playing Nu Metal / Rap Rock originals. This eventually led to S-Club-12 scoring a spot on the bill supporting Wolfmother at Port Pirie's Memorial Oval that same year.
In 2016, Toby made the move to Adelaide to study a degree in Performing Arts and English, where he learnt the fine art of writing bios in third person. While living at Lincoln College, Toby became heavily involved in the music culture at the college and led the Lincoln band to third and second respectively in the battle of the bands competitions (it is alleged they were completely robbed in both competitions). Toby later became the Sound and Technical Officer for college events. By the end of 2016 Toby was asked to join GenX, (which at this point was Jenny and Glen’s duo) to add some loud banging noises to their bigger shows.
Upon completion of university, Toby has since transitioned into the corporate audio visual industry, working in venues such as the Adelaide Oval and Adelaide Convention Centre. Shortly after graduating, Toby joined his first two Adelaide bands: Baby Mo and The Dee Major Mystery Band, playing original shows around the city.
Toby currently plays and records with GenX, The Sundials, Big Seventies Bush, Teddy Mars, Ethan Davis, Dieter Horvat and Baby Mo. In his spare time, Toby is a recording and mixing engineer and production assistant, and after a 5 year hiatus from the game, now has a cricket bowling average larger than a GenX set list. Since joining GenX Toby has enjoyed to no end: traveling; performing; and mixing all over the state, and is as keen as you should be about everything GenX has in the pipeline.
Anthony (Lurch) Underwood - Keyboards
Born and bred in Port Pirie, Lurch as we’ve become to know him started out learning the organ at the tender age of 9. Building a solid repertoire of Ode To Joy and Aura Lee, it was some time before he developed an actual interest in music.
During the mid 80s, 1986 to be precise, Lurch tagged along to a rehearsal for local band UXB, and it was here that he first took notice of the synthesizer - a Roland JX8P. The organ didn't look this good, neither did it have a pitch bender. Not being able to afford one of those beasts himself, he learned to play many of the necessary 80s tunes (although crudely) on a trusty Yamaha Portasound PSR-11 and soon found himself playing a short stint with local teen sensations - Horizon, just in time for two performances at the 1988 Bicentennial Exhibition.
Proficient in Axel F, Funky Town and Jump, and resembling a human ironing board, Lurch joined Battery (playing Metallica covers), which later became Violations (playing Julian Lennon covers). There were lots of rehearsals, not many gigs though. Sport and what should have been schooling eventually got in the way, and keyboards took a hiatus for a while.
Now into the 90s, Lurch had found himself a job and moved on down to Adelaide. With a very basic income at his disposal he began his synthesizer collection and learned early 90s techno tunes. Returning to Port Pirie briefly in 1992, Lurch played accompaniment for the musical stylings of our very own Jenny Smith, playing crowd favourites such as Take Me Home Country Roads in her living room.
Returning to Adelaide in 1993, Lurch followed the latest musical trends. Firstly the alternative scene before discovering the rave scene head-on…a scene built for synthesizers, samplers and drum machines. His spare bedroom was converted into an electronic music studio, with groove boxes, samplers, synths and Amigas. Going nowhere with that he flogged off all his unnecessary gear, a decision every keyboard player later regrets. Now well into the 2000s, and equipped with a new synth, Lurch joined Beatles cover band 325 Blonde, playing everything but the Beatles. Despite a good following and plenty of great gigs including the Adelaide Casino, carving his career as a tradesman and breaking into the world’s top 200 million break-dancers put an end to this stint with 325 Blonde.
Living under a rock, pretty much enjoying family life, travel, beer and building a collection of vintage synthesizers, Lurch joined the band Countdown Rewind in 2019. Planning on going places, COVID hit and put a premature end to Countdown Rewind. However, Lurch was asked to join forces with GenX and the rest is history, so they say.
Lurch’s free time these days is spent sweating. You can see Lurch sweat after a 5km jog (don’t let looks fool you, he can still bang out a 5km run in under 25 minutes); watching Glen eat; and being asked to play a difficult song on piano. You can also see Lurch honing his fine break-dancing skills at carefully selected locations, with asphalt and gravel being amongst his favourite surfaces for busting out a windmill.
Why the name Lurch? Unsurprisingly nothing to do with height. His voice broke before most others at school, and his unwavering ability to just linger around the group and being able to bleat out a deep “YOU RANG?” saw the name Lurch stick. Speaking of school, Jenny and Lurch both share the distinction of holding the Leon Mayes 1500m sash for their sports day endeavours.