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March
 
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Chants R&B in B&W 1965 (Cope-Williams)

Mike Rudd profile - an historical perspective
30.3.14 - When I was in NZ recently, my brother Jeremy made me aware of an historical tract written about me and my various bands over the years, starting off with the Christchurch-based band The Chants (pic) in the mid-sixties and ending up with the present day version of Spectrum. More recently still I was asked by the writer, Teneti Ririnui, to cast a critical eye over his article with a view to being published on a (NZ) site called Audio Culture (the noisy library of NZ music).
I was happy to oblige as it was well-written and for the most part accurate and I was able to interpolate the odd helpful comment as a bonus. It's a detailed and comprehensive history and frankly you'll be lucky to make it through without taking time out for a snooze, but I can recommend it to students of the era. There are pics and videos to break the monotony.
Anyway, you can read it at Audio Culture - let me know what you think.

 
     
 

1) Dean Haitana struts his stuff 2) Mike plays I'll Be Gone (Tim Petts) 3) Mike and Danny Phegan after the show
gig report

Sat. 15.3.14 Spectrum in Gerogery
Spectrum in Gerogery
16.3.14 -
I didn't even know how to pronounce Gerogery (jerojerry) till somebody told me at the Trevor Young tribute, but it was Dean Haitana (pic 1) via Daryl who initially recommended that I get in touch with the Gerogery pub's Danny Phegan (pic 2) a couple of months ago and last night's date was set up. Since then Danny's been very pro-active on the publicity front - he texted me the TV ad they'd been running and I did an interview for the Border Mail for instance - and it all paid off with a very good crowd in attendance and the bar and kitchen running red hot. We were playing al fresco but the rain that had been threatening all night mercifully held off, apart from a distant lightning display and a couple of light showers during the show, but it came down hard after we'd packed up. All in all a good result for the gig and for the surrounding countryside, which was looking pretty parched.
The crowd was pretty good-natured, despite being unfamiliar with most of out stuff. We had time for a run-through during the sound check and pulled off good versions of Stash and Brunswick St as a result.
I didn't sleep that well - a goods train ran right through my room at about 2.30am and scared the daylights out of me - but the drive home was uneventful, apart from an unfortunate encounter in Glenrowen with a breakfast McMuffin (which tastes like every bad breakfast you've ever had condensed into one evil-looking burger).


4) The band fires up with Bill's instrumental, Little By Little (Tim Petts) 5) Mike and Robbo in I Play My Guitar (Tim Petts)
 
     
 
Wrokdown's Trevor Young benefit

1) Wrokdown's Anita Monk introduces the show 2) Dennis Millar 3) Dennis checks Mick Rohotas' on the same page

4) Mike on stage left makes life uncomfortable for Broc in Spectrum's set (Hood) 5) Even Chopped Liver gets a pic! (Hood)

6) The girls who make the show run enjoy a moment in the audience for I'll Be Gone (Hood) 7) Brenden Mason delivers

8) Daz and Robbo join Blackfeather for a stellar performance at Musicland Fawkner

gig report
Tues. 11.3.14 Musicland Fawkner Wrokdown Trevor Young benefit show
Trevor Young's last gig
13.3.14 - I barely knew Trevor Young but he popped up tellingly in my life a couple of times so I was happy to recount those moments to Wendy Stapleton on the Wrokdown couch with Gavan Anderson and Dennis Millar, both of whom had long associations with Trevor and consequently knew him far better than I did.

I ordered a pizza in from over the road as the interviews rambled on and then Terry Dean and Peter Robinson, followed by Dennis Millar and the Rohotas brothers with Gavin Carroll and even Anita Monk took to the stage as we waited for Robbo to arrive.
To give Robbo his due he'd had an enormous few days at home followed by a very long day teaching and yet he still managed to retain his good humour and enough energy to play a short set with us (pic 4) followed by a quite demanding set with Blackfeather (pic 8) who, probably not coincidentally, sounded the best I've heard them
Anyway, Wrokdown producer Anita Monk (pic 1) summed up the evening with the following messsage on FB
Everybody from Wrokdown would like to thank everyone who turned up at Musicland Melbourne last night for the tribute for legendary drummer Trevor Young. Wendy interviewed Mike Rudd, Gavan Anderson, Dennis Millar, Neale Johns, Gavin Carroll..., Brenden Mason and Kerry Ian McKenna for the TV show. Then afterwards we all got up and danced to assorted bands with all these wonderful musicians, also including Peter Robinson, Terry Dean, Aaron Schembri, George Rohotas, Mick Rohotas, Daryl Roberts, Broc O'Connor, and Peter Robertson. All of these wonderful people donated their time for Trevor, who was a most intelligent and thoughtful man, and I spent many hours discussing the industry with him among other things. I'm sure Trev was impressed with the turnout. I'm sure at this very moment he'll be pushing Bonham off the drum stool!

 
     
 
Peace, love & sandals..

1) A couple of the Russos' drag racers - Peter fired one up and deafened everyone 2) Princess Helen gets a tiara!

3) Robbo and Daz with Lyn and Di
(Newman) 4) The talking point on FB - Mike's Kelly
(Newman)

5) Mike's world's worst pack for Bill 'packman' Putt (Gravias) 6) The alleged Hammond allegedly out of the box (Roberts)
gig report
Sat. 8. 3.14 Helen 'Proc' Russo's 60th Sun. 9.3.14 St Andrews pub
Two gigs in two days and the world hasn't ended
10.3.14 - I arrived at the Russos' just after 5.00 and decanted my gear onto the home-made stage in the marquee set up in their generous back yard - and then had to readjust because I'd forgotten that Daryl was playing with us for a change. While I can hardly claim all the credit, Daz is also playing with us at Gerogery next week which means a sequence of three whole four-piece line-up gigs in a row - and in more quasi-miraculous news, Daryl rang me the other day to tell me he's gone and done it and bought the latest model Hammond SK2 (pic 6) which I'll take as a positive response to my previously ignored pleas to the universe at large.
Anyway, we dagged around the marquee for a couple of hours until the party got going with Helen (or 'Proc' as she's better known) being told to sit down in front of all the guests to be presented with long-lost friends and various gifts - including a tiara! (pic 2) One of the Russos' drag racers got fired up, which made us realise that noise is relative - and then we were up and playing. We got to play some songs that we hadn't played with Broc before, like Make Your Stash and Bill's instrumental Little By Little, but I squibbed on Brunswick St. Maybe in Gerogery..
Anyway, the evening was all very civilised - I even played a solo version of And if it Wasn't For You at Helen's request on George Martin - despite the inevitable arcing-up of the crowd when we attempted to play I'll Be Gone as the final number. Incidentally, I hadn't come across jelly shooters before, but they're bloody delicious!

Sunday - as we passed the dead big red 'roo at Kangaroo Ground on the way to the St Andrews pub we wondered if was an omen - but thankfully it wasn't. I didn't have George Martin to set up this time, but setting up just one extra guitar takes time and I didn't have time to change into my fetching blue shoes and made do with my sandals for the arvo.
The bottom end, absolutely missing in the Marquee the night before, was there in abundance at St Andrews as usual and I was able to relax and enjoy my return to lighter guauge strings and the fret-dressing Brenden gave the Strat last week.
The Kelly was even more fun than the night before and Stash went pretty well too. The gig was like a home-coming with Rosemary and Georgina and three of the Scallops on hand, (pic 3) (Mick Newman was taking shots left right and centre), with the McClatchys and Rolfes and Barry and Claire amongst many other old friends in the room.
I realised early in the load-out the pack was going bad - and so I went out of my way to make it the worst ever (pic 5) and dedicated it to the memory of Bill, who was the band's packmeister. I imagine he's still laughing..
 
     
 
Introducing Larry Hoofs
7.3.13 - Following on Larry's introduction in this month's P&W and the samples of his unique interpretations of some of my material, I thought I might give you the opportunity to get in touch with Larry himself (pic) and perhaps negotiate the purchase your own copy of the CD. It has a whole 13 tracks, including I'll Be Gone, Jamaican Farewell, Rock & Roll Scars, And I'm Blue, Love's My Bag, Launching Place Part 2, We Are Indelible, What the World Needs is a New Pair of Socks, Red Hot Momma, Medicine Man, I Can't Say What I Mean, I Am the Laughing Man and And if it Wasn't for You. You can email Larry on [email protected] and he'll be pleased to have a chat I'm sure. BTW, he was slightly aggrieved that I didn't give mention to his playing a Salvation Army Tambourine - so I've mentioned it.
 
     
 
The Hard Yards Music Festival

1) Interested parties look on with interest as the gloriously unaffected Biddlewoods strut their stuff

2) Mike chimes in on harp with the Holden Brothers Travelling Circus 3) Two old blokes having big fun - seriously! (Maria)
gig report
The Hard Yards Music Festival somewhere near Chum Creek Sat. 1.3.14
No rain, no fuss and hooray for us at The Hard Yards Music Festival
2.3.14 -
I'm not complaining, but if this is the only festival I'll be playing this year, I'm glad it was a lovely one. Of course, I created a pressure bubble for myself and didn't truly settle down till my spot was over, but I needn't have worried because the audience was in a relaxed frame of mind and paid attention all the way through.
The big plus for the festival was the spectacular location (on a hill top not far from Chum Creek) and the weather, which, while overcast for the most part, remained fine and warm till the sun went down. Mind you, in true festival tradition things were running considerably behind, but this meant I got to see and hear more of the bill than I would've otherwise - and I got the benefit of the evening light during my set.
Mark Holden was premiering his Holden Brothers Travelling Circus band and had requested I join them on guitar for his haunting song, This Old Guitar. (pic 3) We had a run through in the caravan beforehand and he asked if I'd mind joining them for another song as well, so I volunteered some tootling on blues harp. (pic 2) My guitar (George Martin) got another guernsey when Mark borrowed it after his Gibson went irretrievably wayward in its tuning.
Anyway, it was all good fun and I think the brothers will have benefitted from a live run through in front of a partisan crowd. The Holdens' set was filmed too, so you never know when that might show up on YouTube.
 
     
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