The Swamp Stompers to play final show in the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla on farewell tour after 10 years

Even though band members Corey Legge and Mitch Broadhead both grew up in the Bega Valley, they didn't meet until they were over 1200km away from home in Lismore, North Eastern NSW.

The Bega Valley boys met while studying contemporary music at Southern Cross University.

Their first proper conversation happened at Blues Fest in Byron Bay where they decided "we wanted to met up and have a jam," Corey told Australian Community Media.

From there, the guys entered the National Campus Band competition where they came in third place.

"It was a pretty encouraging start," said Corey who took on lead vocals, lap steel, and electric guitar.

A fellow classmate, Luke Ligtenberg, was in the audience during the contest and decided he wanted to join as their bass player.

"It all just fell into place and we started rehearsing every week at uni and we went onto play probably about 50 shows a year from then on," said Corey.

As a trio some of their first shows were in the Northern Rivers, but they quickly decided they wanted to branch out and start touring. They hit up Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.

Corey said coming back to the Bega Valley "to play to our home crowd" was an awesome experience.

"It was a really sweet moment to come home.

"I think we played gigs in Tilba Merimbula, and Bega - it was great fun doing that," said Corey.

Unfortunately in 2016, Mitch (on drums and backing vocals) was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, which left him unable to continue on with the band.

Either Oli Morley-Sattler or Ben Lambert stepped in on drums after Mitch's health complications.

Corey said Mitch hadn't been able to play more than three shows since then, but he would be making a special appearance playing with the band in farewell tours shows at Merimbula and Moruya.

"For the Merimbula show we're going to have two drummers, Mitch is going to come back in and play half the show and there will be a few surprises with who's playing drums on what song," said Corey.

"This is going to be a huge moment for him and his family to get to see him play with us one last time."

Throughout the years touring together, the band has refined their sound and come to identify under the banner of funky rock and blues with heavy grooves.

Corey said the band's sound was a combination of various musical influences.

"I'm a fan of ACDC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and all the 70s rock bands, but you can also hear a lot of the blues influence and bands we all love listening to like Albert King, Freddie King, and Johnny Winter."

The band released its debut album in 2021, which featured a collection of songs written together over the last 10 years.

"It's all culminated in the new album and how it sounds and who we are as a band," said Corey.

Corey admitted while it was "quite a strange thing" to release a debut album and break up shortly, band members had "pretty much ticked all the goals we want to achieve".

"Now we've been together for 10 years, we all feel ready to move onto to a new phase in our lives and we want to attempt a new challenge each and push ourselves to push into the solo career," said Corey.

Corey and Luke have produced solo recordings and albums "and we're just moving into different genres and different phases of our lives".

While Matt has still been dealing with health issues, Corey said he has also been playing solo gigs

The farewell tour consists of 23 shows.

After Merimbula the band heads north to the Eurobodalla to play Moruya and onto Wollongong. Then they'll head to the Northern Rivers, Queensland, and Western Australia.

"The thing we'll do as a band is tour Europe in 2023", said Corey who explained Germany and the Netherlands were locked in.

"It's super exciting to be back on the road after basically three years of just getting smashed in the music industry with gig cancellations due to COVID, bushfires, floods - you name it.

"We're looking forward to getting back on the road and farewelling our fans and doing it for ourselves as well, I guess it will be a really nice way for us to part ways.

"Personally I'm really looking forward to playing to a home crowd at Club Sapphire, Merimbula and playing in front of family and friends," said Corey.

The band will play at Club Sapphire Merimbula on October 21, and at the Waterfront Hotel Moruya on October 22. Fellow South Coast band The Spindrift Saga will be opening the show.

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