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Barbershop in Tasmania

Where does barbershop come from?

All About Barbershop The style in its modern form began in the USA.
It is believed the precursor came from Europe and cross fertilised with black music of the US South.
Why Barbershop? The Barbershop was the pool hall and video Gaming centre of its day. Men would hang out there and some experimented with free close harmony, nowadays called Woodshedding.

In Australia

The first organised barbershop started up in the middle 1980's.
There had been barbershop quartets performing in Tasmania in the early 1960's. At least one of those quartets was registered with the international organisation, in those days given the impressive acronym - SPEBSQSA, from the rather long winded name for the movement in the US in the early days.
The show The Music Man of the early 1960's started up many a quartet.
Dream World on Australia's Gold Coast featured a wandering quartet in much the same way as Disney World in the USA.

The greater Hobart Area

The Eltones in Launceston and the Devon Barbershop Quartet in Devonport were early adopters of the style. They were performing in the early 1960’s.
In the late 1980's Close Shave quartet formed and became well known around Hobart. They helped the Wellingtones Chorus get started in the early 1990's.
The Wellingtones joined the Australian organisation in about 1993 and has since spun off many quartets and the present Club with its two choruses and a varying number of quartets.