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The
Last Hurrah
1)
The line on the red carpet 2) Mike, Jimmy Sloggett, Kevin Borich
and Mark Kennedy
3) Joe
Hiltz, Bones, Mal Logan and Roger McLaughlin 4) Ken Murdoch
gets a request
5) Brian
Cadd, Mike and Fleur Thiemeyer consider a ménage à
trois 6) The Last Hurrah commemorative badge |
The
Last Hurrah - a self-fulfilling prophecy?
26.6.06 - Ken Sparkes handed me
his mobile and said that somebody from a radio station I also
didn't hear was on the other end. At least, I think it was a
radio station, so I treated it like an interview. It was when
whoever it was asked me if The Last Hurrah was going to be an
annual event that it occurred to me that with a name like that
it was most unlikely, which caused a great deal of mirth on
the other end of the line.
Actually, the purpose of the night was a mystery to me - and
everybody else I asked for that matter, and I didn't hang around
long enough to see where it all might be leading. I asked Brenden
Mason this morning what happened after I left, and he said that
at a certain point everybody was herded downstairs to continue
talking/shouting to each other over Ron Charles' band, Normie
Rowe performing Shakin' All Over and a set from Marcie
and the Cookies with a backing track. I'm still none the wiser
- the evening's title portended something of more moment than
shoving everybody surviving from the specified decade of '64
- '74 ('It's like Madame Tussauds' waxworks' - Bobby Bright)
in a nightclub and simply leaving them to it.
Having said that, apart from those lucky enough to be working
(Ross Wilson) or unfortunate enough to find themselves hospitalised
(Lobby Lloyde), just about anybody who was once somebody was
there, and I did actually get to chat with some of them. Bill
said he was going to be there early, but bailed out when suddenly
assailed by a gastro bug and (literally) ran all the way home.
I got a message on my voice mail from Howard Gable (Spectrum's
first producer) who was wandering round Evolution at 12.15 this
morning looking for me, so I hope that we'll get to have have
a chat before he disappears up north again. There maybe more
fallout from this event yet.*
*Ross
Wilson just e-mailed me that an unnamed invitee said he would
rather set his hair on fire and beat it out with a hammer than
attend. |
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1) Spectrum's
Trinity show** |
Spectrum's
holy roller SA tour
21.6.06 - Bill stayed at my place overnight
on Thursday so we could leave early on the Friday morning -
sound check was set for six o'clock at the Music Warehouse (an
almost hip pseudonym for the Barossa Arts & Convention
Centre in Tanunda) and we didn't want to be late for the Lutherans.
It was quite a denominational weekend when you think of it -
on Friday night the Lutheran School in Tanunda, then on Sunday
evening the Uniting Church in Clarence Park, and not a pub in
sight. Very Adelaide.
Despite getting lost briefly in Mannum, we checked into the
motel in Tanunda with more than an hour to spare, and so arrived
at the Arts Centre with a cup of tea under our belts and sparkling
clean nethers. After sound check we had time to slip into town
and get quite an acceptable meal, while The Yearlings played
their set to an almost full house in a curious reprise of their
support role a couple of years back when we played the Adelaide
Folk Club. Despite getting no read more |
2)
The Yearlings 3) Bill and Robbo vie for dopiest expression with
pretty Miss Vicki
4) Leon
pays an outstanding debt to Mick 5) Spectrum's traditional pizza
oven challenge*
6 ) Robyn cradles the Wordley trophy teapot 7) Mick's daughter
Ginger with tweety Sparks |
sympathy whatsoever from the audience
for our early rise, we found they were very enthusiastic about
our music, some of them indulging in an activity that looked
a lot like dancing, which is apparently unheard of.
In a regrettable flashback to the fifties, we were asked to
leave our motel rooms at the bewitching hour of ten o'clock
the next morning by three sullen maids all in a row, despite
having used up all our powers of endurance watching the World
Cup till some unlikely hour, so we decamped grumpily to neighbouring
Angaston to breakfast at Blond Coffee, which had come highly
recommended. It wasn't bad either, and we spent a little time
afterwards wandering aimlessly around the town soaking up the
winter sun before heading out of the Barossa Valley and on to
Kent Town in Adelaide proper (which it always is, of
course).
I'd become acquainted with Mick Wordley over the various phases
of John Schumann's Lawson project, so when he invited us over
to sup with him and his family on our night off, I accepted
gratefully. The drive up to his place in Hawthorndene is spectacular
- it reminded me a bit of Laurel Canyon - and we had an equally
spectacular night of wine, music and food with the Wordleys.
Deserving of special mention were the Darwinian pizzas cooked
by Mick in his home-made pizza oven under the stars in the backyard
- my jacket still smells of redgum smoke - and the Sumatran
cigar I smoked, courtesy of Mick's neighbour Leon.
The Trinity Sessions is an established Sunday evening gig held,
unsurprisingly, at the Trinity Church, located in the inauspicious
suburb of Clarence Park. The room itself is pretty special though,
in both atmosphere and acoustics, and as we set up it was with
a gathering sense of anticipation. If only I'd slept the night
before I might've planned the evening's repertoire a little
more imaginatively - the room lent itself to the more reflective
material we have hidden in the set list - but I think the evening's
fare was appreciated nonetheless, that's if the happy faces
leaving the church were anything to go by. Or it could've been
that, as we finished about thirty minutes over the advertised
time, the people were simply relieved to be finally going home.
In another spooky flashback to the Adelaide Folk Club night,
Michael Hunter recorded the night for his Roots & Branches
show on Radio 3D - this time with ambient mics to supplement
the desk sound - and I'm currently awaiting the raw burns to
approve before they go to air. I'll let the SA chapter of the
e-mail list know if and when the finished mix might be broadcast.
In the meantime, it was lovely playing a couple of quality venues
in the fair state of South Australia, and catching up with friends
old and new. Can't wait till we do it again!
**photo courtesy of Steve Holmes *photo courtesy of Mick Wordley |
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Stovetop's
Simon Burke |
gig
report
Stovetop's 'Now, Now' CD launch
9.6.06 - I was nearly at the Corner when
I realised I'd left my wallet at home and it was too late to
go back and get it, so I gambled both on getting in for free
and Robbo being there if I needed a drink. (I'd told
Bill about it, but I'd forgotten to remind him that afternoon
when he called over, so I wasn't necessarily expecting to see
him). Luckily, as soon as I walked through the door I bumped
into Robbo, and he bought me a soda, lime and bitters right
away. We wandered up to the stage and waited for the band to
appear - everybody else had gathered at the back of the room,
as they do - so we had a great possie when the band started
playing. Simon Burke, the singer and songwriter for Stovetop,
is the focus of the band, but he's more than ably assisted by
the ubiquitous George Servanis on drums, Sim Martin on guitar
and vocals, and the added-extra-on-the-night multi-instrumentalist
Dorian West on keys, guitar and trumpet. |
'It’s in the Groove that Counts'
is the band's motto, and Stovetop has a very cool signature
2.00am groove thang that they started the set with, and which
kept on coming. I don't have their first album, so I can't speak
of musical evolution, but Stovetop's manager Linda Carroll tells
me that the emphasis is swinging round from the groove thang
alone to actual songs with a groove. To my ears there's probably
room for more structure yet - there seems to be a positive aversion
to the 'bridge' or 'release' element that might have separated
some of the songs from their immediate siblings.
You Don't Know Nothin' About It (you can listen to a track
or two from Now, Now at myspace)
marked a welcome change of mood late in the set, and was followed
by the only song of the night with a legitimate bridge and
segué, which also happened to be the only reggae
tune of the night, but which apparently isn't on the new album.
Not that I'm a reggae fan by any means, but the band handled
the variation in style with aplomb, with George's touches a
standout.
Simon has a terrific voice, quite reminiscent of Free's Paul
Rodgers, and is a fine musician, even when hampered as he was
by a broken thumb from a footy misadventure. Given the talent
on display last night at the Corner Hotel, it's hard not to
imagine that the third Stovetop album will see much more of
their obvious potential realised. |
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Technology
report
P2P break through
6.6.06 - Not having heard a lot about the
file-sharing issue lately, I wondered if it had died as an issue.
Of course it hasn't, with tremendous ructions going on in Sweden
right now, but there's also been a significant announcement
made in New York of a more positive nature, concerning a partnership
between New York based company Qtrax, an outfit that had its
origins here in Melbourne, and the giant international record
company, EMI. The EMI press release runs as follows:
Ad-supported P2P: EMI becomes the first major music company
to make its catalog available to Qtrax: the world's first ad-supported,
legitimate P2P service.
NEW YORK – JUNE 5, 2006 -- EMI Music, the world’s
largest independent music company, and e-commerce software developer
LTDnetwork Inc. today announced that EMI is the first major
music company to make its catalog of recordings available to
what will be the world’s first advertising-supported,
legal peer-to-peer music distribution service. The service,
called Qtrax, was developed by LTDnetwork, and at launch, will
provide fans with free, advertising-funded access to high-quality,
high-fidelity digital music files, as well as the option to
subscribe to a premium version of the service or to purchase
music tracks and albums on an a la carte basis.
Qtrax will offer two tiers of service: the first is a free,
advertising-supported tier designed to work with and filter
copyrighted content from existing peer-to-peer networks. The
second tier is a premium subscription service which will require
a monthly fee. The two-tiered business model is intended to
attract a broad base of consumers to try out the service, and
then graduate those consumers to purchase music permanently
or subscribe. read
more
*For background material about the file-sharing issue, check
Free
Downloads *Reuters
report |
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Solo
dancer Miss Molly seems a little distracted by Geoff's beer.. |
Huge
day at St Andrews
5.6.06 - There seemed to be an awful lot
of people when I arrived at the St Andrews pub at a fraction
after 2.00, and it just kept on building. Neil celebrating his
fiftieth and bringing a minibus load of revellers with him helped,
in-laws Kath and Geoff (pic) brought Melissa and Miss
Molly, and I think the weather contributed too, but at any rate
the hotel was struggling to keep up with the demand. The weekend
after next we head off to South Australia for a fun-filled weekend,
starting off in the Barossa Valley. Sounds like a winery tour
might be the go! |
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