Beasts’ Brian Hooper loses cancer battle a week after final appearance

Brian Hooper passed away last Friday (April 20) in Melbourne, a week after he appeared onstage playing bass with Beasts of Bourbon at his own fund-raiser I Get Up Again on Friday April 13 at the Prince Bandroom.

Another benefit concert, this one in Perth, was to have been held in Perth on the night of his passing.

Hooper had been battling incurable lung cancer, and was out for a few hours from Peter MacCallum Hospital, arriving onstage in a wheelchair to a resounding welcome.

The Beasts went on early so that he could return quickly to the hospital.

On Friday morning, his partner Ninevah Hooper posted, “Brian’s ship peacefully sailed this morning.

“I was with him during that departure. It’s the hardest thing a partner could ever do but to say good bye.”

He was 55.

Brian Henry Hooper emerged in Perth’s punk scene, meeting up with Kim Salmon and drummer Brian Polo (Salmons/Surrealists) after putting an ad looking for a drummer, which specified, “Must be absolute moron”.

He had three stints with the Beasts of Bourbon, between 1990–93, 1996–97 and 2003–08.

He played on four of their albums, including the 2007 reunion record Little Animals, and re-joined them for a series of 40th anniversary dates.

He also worked with Rowland S. Howard, Penny Ikinger, Spencer P. Jones and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

He released a number of solo albums, the first which came after a 2005 balcony fall, which left him with a broken back, and which he said having to learn to walk again helped his singing and playing.

The fall followed a bad patch when “a raging amphetamines habit” (his words) saw his marriage collapse, his computer services business going under, and he found his elder brother dead in a house.

The I Get Up Again show was totally mesmerising and emotional, with the likes of Mick Harvey, Hugo Race, Adalita, JP Shilo and Gareth Liddiard throwing in intense performances that was bettered only by the finale from Kim Salmon & The New Scientists.

His record label Bang Records described him as “besides of an inspiration and deeply admired artist, a personal friend. A true friend.”

The Fly By Night club told its patrons, “He battled long and hard with true tenacity. A gentleman much loved by many.”