On a warm Thursday night the football commentator's T-shirt is drenched in sweat as he walks off the inner-city venue's stage.  Actually, walks off is not quite true. He's hurriedly lugging his drum-kit off as the next band on the bill swiftly takes over as the stage briefly becomes a blur of burly blokes, guitar cases and amps.

It doesn't matter how famous you are, no self-respecting rocker waits for a support act - even if it does feature on drums the man who unforgettably described John Aloisi's Uruguay penalty and Timmy Cahill's brace in Kaiserslautern to an audience of millions.

The audience tonight is slightly more modest. Around 100 mostly black t-shirted punters sinking cheap beers and playing pool gave Hill's band The Grown Ups  - a four-piece "power pop" combo - a warm reception. Some even danced.

Hill, back of stage, wasn't there to add some celebrity flourish to the line-up - he can play. His drumming was crisp, his fills were spot on as the band's rhythm section - which includes gorgeous bass player and teacher's assistant by day, Kylie Gass - locked in the band's grooves.

Lead vocals were delivered in style by a confident Mark Chester (that's the ESPN and former ABC TV reporter) with SBS TV director John Firth's jangling guitar riffs and backing vocals adding a sweet edge. It's an eclectic mix of musicians united in a common joy - playing live music.

With gig number eight over, Hill explains playing live rock music with friends is the perfect antidote for a gruelling schedule of football broadcasting.  In fact, he's missed a number of gigs due to Socceroos commitments abroad this year.

"It's my only - and best - diversion aside from Stephanie," Hill told au.fourfourtwo.com of the band. Stephanie is of course Stephanie Brantz, the love of his life, who jokingly scribbles on my notepad, "I'm going to try and pull the drummer!"

So, what's the band like? Well, they can play. And they can sing. Some songs have a cutting social message ("Something Rank" and "Vox Pop") while others are bawdy, cheeky fun with in-joke digs at "Gerard Rooney" and what it's like being an oldie at the "Big Day Out".

"It's sort of a cross between INXS and Billy Bragg," reckons Hill of the band's sound. Add a dash of 90s Brit pop and sprinkle some 12-bar blues and you've got the Grown Ups sound. They're a lot of fun, too (unlike the next band on the bill who looked like they'd been ground down by the rock circuit).

"It's the most fun you can have standing up," says Chester, who along with Firth wrote the band's set of original songs.

For Hill, playing the drums has been a lifelong passion. For him, it's enervating. The Englishman played in local bands back home such as Tabasco Cat, Eye2Eye and Vital Signs ("we once supported a band who had the bass player from Thin Lizzy" he explains with a self-deprecating laugh) and once played a music festival in Northampton, but broadcasting was always going to be his career.  

Once in Australia, a chance meeting at SBS TV (where he worked before moving to Fox) with Firth got the rock ball rolling a few years ago. A studio at SBS smoothed the rehearsal way and this year, they've clocked up three gigs at the Lansdowne and even a couple in Wollongong ("we've been on tour" jokes Kylie).

For her, just playing in a band on a Thursday night for free beer is like playing Knebworth in front of 75,000. Barely 18 months ago she couldn't play bass. It was just a dream. But she was determined to learn and fulfil her lifelong dream of playing in a band.

She knew Firth, practised every day for over a year, was given an audition and voila, she's now a bona fide bass player on the pub circuit - with rock fringe to match. She looks like she's been playing all her life.

"She really can play, she just sits back, doesn't hog the stage and plays ... and doesn't miss a note. She's incredibly good," gushes Hill as the beers start to flow and the next band tunes up.

Hill and Gass share a love of heavy rock (Rush and AC-DC to name just two). The pair wouldn't mind covering Motorhead's seminal "Ace of Spades" with The Grown Ups, but that will have to wait. In fact, the next gig as a four-piece could be some time as Hill's footy commitments over a coming busy season of football are set to cut into his rock moves.

But there is one gig you can see him perform. It's tonight on Fox Sports as he dons a sharp suit, picks up a mike and hosts live coverage of the A-League clash between the Reds and Fury at Hindmarsh stadium, Adelaide.

Hill has been blown away by season five of the competition, but you'd sense he'd prefer to be playing Hindmarsh in T-shirt and jeans pounding the beats for a Brit-pop inspired rock combo.  

"It's just fun," agrees Hill of his second life as a rock drummer. "And I can tell you, I get a hundred times more nervous going on stage here than I do on TV."