Simon Lambert's friends are raising funds for a tribute CD of his songs

Lambert died early on the morning of Sunday, March 22, 2009, in a tragic accident, falling from the balcony of his Sydney terrace while sleepwalking.

Yet, the power of Newcastle-born and raised Lambert’s songs and his unforgettable charisma has stayed with his many friends. His cousin, Stephen Askew, of Newcastle has led a crowfunding drive that kicked off this week to get 10 of Lambert’s songs mixed and mastered for album.

As of Thursday evening, almost $3400 had been raised towards target of $8500 to get the album, titled Day After Midnight, mixed and mastered by Jordan Power and 1000 CDs pressed.

The songs on the CD will be played in a “Concert for Jimmy” tentatively scheduled for August in Newcastle. It is anticipated that former Dirty Pink Jeans lead singer James Drinkwater will be among the several local musicians participating in the concert.

“If offers some closure for us,” Askew says. “It is more just to get his songs heard. They just have to be heard.”

Lambert was due to record his songs in a Sydney studio the week after he died, Askew says.

“It’s definitely a labor of love,” Askew says. “Simon would have been very much involved. He would have been saying ‘what’s happening?.’ It is very, very hard to do this without the guy that was the singer, the main songwriter. Simon was a bit of a perfectionist. It had to be certain notes. He could hear it all.”

Adam Schilli, of Newcastle, a friend and frequent music collaborator with Lambert, has been pulling together various recordings by Lambert for the seven years. He has brought them back to life by recording musical accompaniments, with Askew, Ben Russell and others who played with Lambert, in  preparation for the day when it could be mixed into an album.

Lambert was a Novocastrian all the way, attending St Mary’s at Gateshead and St Francis Xavier high schools. He had sun-bleached “surfie” hair, a rock’n’roll attitude and heaps of friends who knew him as a fun-loving extrovert who was constantly performing and jamming, mostly playing his own music.

Known as “Jimmy the chicken” to his family, “Bolzy” to his mates, and performing under various names,  Lambert was a character who made an impression on people that was hard to forget.

He was a prolific songwriter, with a special talent for penning heart-felt pop songs. His cadre of music mates added layers of catchy riffs and his songs became signposts in many lives.

Lambert was involved in various music projects, including Bola, Bolzy, Red Drink, Old Sound Central, Jimmy Nolan and Day After Midnight, the band he started just prior to his death.

There were many signs his talent was recognised. Red Drink, a band he started when attending St Mary’s, won the Mattara Rockfest competition and supported the Screaming Jets. Under the band name Jimmy Nolan (Nolan was his middle name), he won a Salvation Army songwriting competition on 2001. It was also the year he released his first EP, Loose Tobacco.

Lambert had two brothers, Craig and Gavin. One of his favourite guitars, a Maton semi acoustic, was purchased for him by his brother Craig. 

Lambert paid respect to his parents, Paul and Denise, through song. His father died when Simon was 14. Lambert wrote a song called Find Someone for his mum that was about his dad. He recorded it on a flatmate’s tape deck and gave the recording to his mum.

In another of his songs, The Free Mind, he references his family. He relates to his late father’s advice in the song: Open up the gates to the free mind, look at both sides, listen. 

About six months before his death, Lambert wrote a song, Still Around. “You could say it was one of his new favourites,” Schilli says.

Schilli made a trip from Perth to visit Lambert in his Camperdown terrace where they recorded two songs, Still Around and Empty Boxes.

“I have fond memories of us doing back-up vocals together, sharing one set of headphones that had been separated. You can hear him whisper to me on one of the tracks ‘it sounds so good’.”

The chorus in part says: “the older we get we just seem to forget what's around, trying to reach you with words that connect with the sound”.

The song was about Simon’s concern for his mum living by herself with all of her boys living away from home, Schilli says.

“I think Still Around has taken on kind of a different meaning with him gone,” Schilli says. “I suppose with his music he is still around us in a way.”

Every year since his death, Lambert’s mates have gathered round to celebrate him on his birthday, June 7. Usually it’s a barbecue in Centennial Park. Others gather in a holiday house for a day of celebration.

Make no mistake, Lambert could party. Schilli recalls one night in 2006 when Schilli was living in a loft on the second floor of a terrace house in Dawson Street, Cooks Hill, when Lambert got so caught up playing an impromptu concert with mates that he threw his Stratocaster guitar out the window at the end of a song. “Straight off his shoulders and out of my window, taking out a power line on the way down and crashing to the ground between two parked cars on the side of the road,” Schilli recalls.

Lambert’s cousin Stephen Askew played music with Lambert many times, including in bands. On one occasion, Askew’s band was playing to a full house at The Basement in Sydney when the band’s drummer had to leave the stage due to an asthma attack. The band kept playing, anticipating the drummer would recover, as they were only half-way through the show. “We were jamming,” Askew recalls, “and Simon came out of the crowd and jumped on the mic and busted out this rap. Everyone thought it was part of the show … they still talk about it. He was singing the lyrics from one of his songs, Swagger Jagger. He saved the day.”

Lambert was prolific when it came to recording his own songs, even in rough form. From 2007 he set out recording demos on his own Pro Tools set-up, and often sent multitrack recording sessions to Schilli via Skype, who would then add drums, bass, guitars and back-up vocals and send them back as complete songs.

Those demos formed the basis for the album project.

Lambert’s song Comin’ Home, under the name Jimmy Nolan (with Schilli) is still on JJJ’s unearthed website.

On facebook there is a Simon Lambert Music group with pictures and tributes.

“Simon was the glue which held a lot of different people together,” Schilli says. “He was a very social person and had many friends who called him their best mate. He packed so much into a short life. He loved surfing, playing music and hanging with his friends. He has left a huge hole in many people’s lives and he will never be replaced. 

“I hope that this album will let him live on through his music and make his dream be realised of releasing an album of songs.”