Helen has been singing since early childhood, when her father Syd Gubbay (a trumpet player working professionally in Sydney), played music every day in the family home. Listening primarily to swing music, she developed a love of this style of music and rarely listened or had a liking for popular music of the day. Her father taught her the trumpet, how to sing and harmonise. After leaving school she pursued a teaching career, but soon realised it was not for her. She quickly left and tried singing full time, with gigs in restaurants and private functions but more importantly studio work singing backing vocals for major popular singers of the day and also television and radio jingles. She also toured with a variety of travelling shows as a back up singer and feature performer.

She left singing for several years while she married and started a family, but when her father invited her to join his Big Band in 1990 she felt that this was where she was meant to be. 15 years later, The Sydney Sound Big Band is still going strong, now under her direction since her fathers’ sad passing in 2003. The band plays at Rockdale RSL every second Thursday night almost becoming an institution after 5 ˝ years.