At a loss, Rob went on holidays, driving around Northern NSW for a few weeks to come back home to Brisbane to messages from drummer Pat Robbins and bassist Peter Blowes (ex Brisbane and Gold Coast respectively) who were working in Melbourne and wanted to come back to Queensland to form a band. By the early 1979 Witzend had been born, straight into touring Queensland and Northern NSW with the Drifters who had just arrived in Australia.

 

Witzend stayed together until 1991 ( with member changes over the years) and performed all over Australia becoming especially popular with Brisbane audiences due to many appearances at the Brisbane FREEPS which were concerts sponsored by the then Brisbane Council. Over 40 free concerts a year for several years and Witzend played at around 80% of the concerts. They were the backing band of choice for many touring artists and as a result Witzend performed at seven Gympie Musters during the 80's, toured extensively (at times as much as six months of a year) and were voted by their peers "Most Popular Backing Band of the Year" eight times.

 

When Witzend disbanded in1991 Rob started freelancing with many different bands, became a MD (Musical Director) for a few touring artists, started a career in Stand Up comedy (which lasted about five years), won an award for "Best Instrumentalis/Vocalist" and produced the "Queensland Variety Awards" in 1995. By the end of the 90's Rob was asked to join a tribute band as lead singer. The tribute was to Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Chicago. This was to test Rob's vocals. He was unsure but was recommended by many of his peers at the time, who knew Rob's ability and knew he was the right man for the job.

 

By the 2000's a slump had hit the music scene. Clubs started to downgrade bands from five and six piece to just solos and duos. Things were really changing and Rob had to change with them. So he started to record backings for his songs, as was the case with many musicians at the time. There were less gigs and more musicians than previous to fill those gigs. Rob did ok but not great. Hard times had hit and many were feeling the tightness of the industry. Then in 2008 Rob was asked to tour with "Herman's Hermits" from England. He had to warm up the audience before the group went on stage. Armed with just an acoustic guitar and a repertoire of 60's songs he hit the road with the international band and instantly became popular with audiences and the band themselves. When one local agent at a show put on his own warm up act the members of "Herman's Hermits" complained to the touring company and insisted that Rob do the warm ups.

 

On the strength of that tour another tour came in with the US group "the Platters". Again the group loved what Rob was doing and without really knowing it the next phase of Rob's career was born. "that60sguy". More tours with the Drifters and gigs and tours headlining as "that60sguy". In 2014 Rob scored another tour with British heavyweights "the Animals". As before the band was impressed. The tour went to South Australia and Western Australia and enquiries from those states for Rob's show have been coming in since.