songs by other artists I have approached and manhandled to the ground

These are the songs I have covered over the years, in live shows and on records. After the Moodists, when Clare and I started playing as Dave Graney with the Coral Snakes in London in 1987, I had an idea to be a performer in a singer songwriter style. Only I wanted to be more of a singer than a songwriter and do a lot of songs by other artists. In those days we would do Gene Clark and Gram parsons and Fred Neil and Lou Reed and a few of my songs. In general I wanted to get a feel going that was more wide ranging and less claustrophobic than when you see a performer struggling with stuff he's bringing out from the inner pocket of the same old filthy coat. "Here's another one I thought up!"
Often when you try to do a song you really love you find yourself pulling it all apart like a car and examining it and then you don't know how to put it back together again and you can't listen to it in the same way anymore. The most mysterious song out of all of these for me is Mike Nesmith's "Joanne". Whenever I hear this on radio I try to listen to it objectively for a moment and note the verses and the lyrics but then the whole flow of the song with its beautiful melody and instrumentation takes me away and I seem to wake up later on and think, "damn, what happened with that song! It got me again!". Its lovely to sing as well, its got real power. At the moment, when we pull out "shame,shame,shame" or "boogie oogie oogie" or "coz I luv you" they have unfailing power and groove and can really lift a room off.



Boogie Oogie Oogie (a taste of honey)...every now and again
Whos that lady (the Isley Brothers) ..every now and again
1-2-3 (the Len Barry Combo) ..every now and again
feel like makin love (Roberta Flack) ..
codine (the Charlatans)...88-91
32-20 blues (Robert Johnson) recorded 1994
morning dew (Tim Rose) ...88-91
the lady came from baltimore...88-91
reason to believe (Tim Hardin)..night of covers songs 2001
pillowtalk (Sylvia Robison)..recorded 1994
money changes everything (Cindy Lauper)..1992
joanne (Mike Nesmith)..2000-2002
I've got a secret (Fred Neil)...88-91
it didn't even bring me down ( sir douglas quintet) ...87-89
everybodys talkin' (Fred Neil)...87-91
a gift...every now and again
stupid man (Lou Reed)...87
the dolphins Fred Neil)...87-90
shiloh town (Tim Hardin)...87-90
In a misty morning (Gene Clark)...87 92...recorded 1989
I've got to have you ((Kris Kristofferson)...87-92
touch me...2004
the crystal ship (the Doors).....every now and again
alabama bound (the Charlatans)...1995
penetration (iggy and the Stooges)...1995
arnold layne (Pink Floyd)...2004
coz I luv you (Slade)...2005
the bogus man (Roxy Music) ..currently
in a silent way (Miles davis)..currently
goin down south ...unknown instrumental ..currently
it never rains in southern california (Albert Hammond)...every now and again
Luther the anthropoid (the Jimmy Castor Bunch)...every now and again
Crawfish
I feel so bad
I'm a stranger in my own home town
one night of sin
return to sender
thats alright mama
mystery train (Elvis Presley)..special Elvis gig 2007
the lowdown (Boz Scaggs)...2005
Heavens in the backseat of my cadillac (Hot Chocolate)...2005
shame shame shame ( Shirley and Company)..currently
Serpent at the gates of wisdom (Robyn Hitchcock)...2002
who of us two? (M)...recorded 2006
sorrow (David Bowie)..every now and again
eight miles high (the byrds)...2006
lets stick together (wilbert harrison. bryan ferry)...2005
seattle (Perry Como)...2001-2004
ooh child (Stairsteps)..currently
auntie aviator (Beveryley Martyn ...sung by Clare Moore)...2002
make it easy on yourself (Walker Brothers)...special covers gig 2001
she's a rainbow (Rolling Stones)....special covers gig 2001
who knows where (Fairport Convention...sung by Clare Moore)...2002-2003
you wear it well (Rod Stewart)
I'm 5 years ahead of my time (the Third Bardo)...2001
jesse james( Trad)..currently
rider in the rain (Randy newman)...1993...performed on tv with kim salmon 1994
white rabbit. Jefferson airplane...sung by Clare Moore) ....special covers gig 2001
you're gonna miss me...(thirteenth floor elevators)....special covers gig 2001
New face in hell...the Fall
Lament ...the Doors
Alone again or...
Live and let live...LOVE
Alex Chilton..The Replacements
Sweet surrender
Move with me...Tim Buckley

brooklyn-home of the piss weak beard

Brooklyn, the way I saw it through the television. (And the way I preferred it).

Saturday Night Fever
She's Gotta Have It
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Warriors
Do the Right Thing
Dog Day Afternoon
The French Connection
Goodfellas
Mo ' Better Blues
Once Upon a Time in America
Saturday Night Fever
The Honeymooners
Welcome back Kotter
The Life of Reilly

The latter starred the incrdible William Bendix who also featured in Hitchcocks “Lifeboat” with Tallulah Bankhead. Bendix is in the boat and his legs have been cut off. he is in her arms, reminiscing about dancing back in the states. It must have been Brooklyn! He is close to death or in such physical pain he is in another delirious realm of existence. he asks her, “will I still be able to dance?”


This is Brooklyn!

Contrast this to the steady stream of effette, though bearded, old young (or young old) farts playing tediously correct indie rock that profess to come from that borough. Whats happened to this world that it is so crude and brutal yet the art that springs from the streets is so weak and timid and content to be hugged by recognized peers only?

show at the paris cat- jazz- niiiiiiiiiiccccccceeeeeee!!!!

The Paris Cat is a small jazz cellar in Goldies Place in the city of Melbourne. Between Little Bourke and Lonsdale street. Its an alley with several clubs in it. Near Hardware Lane. The room has a high ceiling and paintings hanging on the brick walls. It might fit 75 people. The round tables and wooden chairs go right up to the edge of the stage. Well, playing area. There is a bar at the back of the room. The pa is for the vocals. There is a large piano taking up a quarter of the stage and the house drum kit is there for whoever wants to play it. No lugging your own kit down the stairs. Nothing else is mic'd up, everything is set to the volume of the kit. People are right up to you when you play.
We start to play at 9:30 pm. I am playing my borrowed Ibanez 70s Artists series 12 string (A friend dug it out from his barn in Mt Gambier where it had been sitting for a couple of decades and told me to take it for a ride) which has a monstrously fat sound but which also goes out of tune on a couple of strings at will. Both sharply and flatly. Its a wyld stallion!
We've been rehearsing some new material and the sound of the Ibanez just meshes with Stu Pereras Rickenbacker so sweetly I am hot to play and record the sound.
I tell the people we are happy to be invited into a jazz bar and feel guilty that we are depriving a jazz unit of a gig as there are only two jazz joints in melbourne for all the musicians. I try to plead that we have the occasional voicing in the chords that approaches jazz anyway. I also mention that my thoughts , voice and words are jazz. They allow us through and we begin.
We play for an hour. A great venue and an excellent time of the night to be playing music. (9:30). The club has an owner who stands at the door and works the room. It works, why can't all the rooms be so sweet?
We'll be coming back to do a show here in may.

the American Song Poem Anthology

The American Song Poem anthology is a cd that was released here in Australia on Reverberation in 2005. You might be able to score it in any bargain bins going around at the stores as its a very weird disc. There was also a documentary made around the same time which may be available on dvd.

It’s a collection of songs from a music business that was bursting with creativity and the source of dreams of great wealth for many common people. Basically they are recordings made by small recording studios, with their attendant songwriters and players , setting other peoples words to songs. Often the people who wrote the words asked for their words to be done in a particular style. The studios and demo makers advertised in cheap comics and supermarket trash magazines. They charged people for this service and pressed up the results on 45 singles. They asked people to send in their "song poems" as the people they were targeting were not expected to be familiar with fancy words like "lyrics". Song poems was it.
So what you have on this disc is a labour of love and obsession. Songs found by collectors in record shops and second hand markets and garage sales. Real ephemera.
What you also have is a whole collection of songs where the people are giving it everything, they are putting their whole lives into these tracks. (Its what indie music is supposed to be but never is. Music imagined by people with no careers behind them or in front of them, stuff coming off of the street still kicking) . There are big thoughts in these tracks, starting off with the unwieldy but very heavy "do you know the difference between big wood and brush?". The first three songs sent me reeling. There is that title track, followed by a country treatise on masturbation called "all you need is a fertile mind" and then a woman singing :" I like yellow things" which is about just what it says.
The music must have been done awful quickly but it gets a lot of crazy energy for being so anxious. These guys are quick with their hands and feet and brains. Masters. I won’t try to describe all the songs as there is a lot here and I like people to be able to come to music from their own direction. I will tell you of what some of my favourites said to me. The track "convertibles and headbands" is the sound of a country dude who collected and lived by Hefners Playboy philosophy. He reads it like a mantra and knows he doesn’t measure up, its tough to be hip. Along the same lines is the desperate "how long are you staying?" which is a disco inspired classic. It reminds me of the films of Martin Scorcese, specifically "taxi driver", "the king of comedy" and "mean streets". This guy is going to either dance all night or kill a whole lot of people. Incredible, grinding desperation. " Listen Mister Hat" is a towering work of great and strange charm. It obviously inspired the whole world that is the tv series "South Park". It is the voice and feel of Mr Hanky and it is about Mr Hat! I rest my case! The 28 song album ends with a song that was sent in by a spotty teenager as a prank to amuse generations. The song poem was called "the blind mans penis" and he must have asked for it to be done in the style of Roger Miller. It is so incredibly catchy and I found myself in the queue at the supermarket singing "the blind mans penis is erect because he’s blind…". That evil little shit and the pro studio cat had sucked me into their dark web. This disc has many dimensions to it. We live in such a smart world that nobody expects much of music anymore. This shit is inspiring. The hustlers with their trashy fast money licks and the trailer park wordsmiths with their crazed, hungry minds

http://www.songpoemmusic.com/comps/bigwood.htm

My Maton Mastersound advertising pitch (1998)

In 1998 was asked to write some copy for the relaunch of a classic Australian electric guitar. This is what I came up with. I don't know whether it was ever used too much. I thought it was cool.I waited for the advertising companies to call me asking for help but the phone remained silent. Still , the mastersound is a cool guitar. Josh Homme plays 'em too! ....

The return of the Mastersound.
In 1969 the last rocket was sent off from the Woomera rocket range in remote South Australia.This was the first and only government and private enterprise space mission and the payload was most intriguing.Maton Guitar technician,Garth Stringer, after six days exhaustive training at Puckapunyal,was on board with a top secret brief which was to revolutionise the electric guitar as the then world knew it.
Working from a hunch that the zero gravity environment of deep space and the strong possibility of encountering strange astral energies he was on a mission to produce an electric guitar pickup of unearthly power and breadth of tone.Having developed the MAGNAMETAL core of the pickup at the Maton Hangar 61 Bayswater he wanted to energise the ANISOTROPIC FERRITE MAGNETS( or flankers) by passing them between two enormous metal pillars he had spotted on the surface of the moon just around the bend from the SEA OF TRANQUILLITY which he had heard from a bloke at NASA were definitely positive and negative.The weightless atmosphere on the moon would enable him to pass the magnets between the pillars in a smooth under and overarm movement at an extremely slow speed that would be impossible here on EARTH.The power transferred to each pickup would be comparable to that of the atomic bombs then being tested by the Poms at Maralinga in remote South Australia.It was Garths hope that an AUSTRALIAN guitarist with this REVOLUTIONARY PICK UP SYSTEM would be able to RULE THE WORLD yet not have to get TOO UP HIMSELF in the process.This pick up was to be used on a STRIKINGLY MODERN guitar design the maton brains trust had cooked up which was to be called THE MASTERSOUND.
By all accounts from the survivors,Stringer achieved his goal on his first pass through the LUNAR PILLARS,achieving an unheard of GAUSS READING on the 2nd QUADRANT of the HYSTERESIS CURVE.Mission was accomplished however at an incredible cost as Stringer was never seen again.The command module,apparently believing Garth had scrambled aboard,left him on the surface and flew back to Woomera.A subsequent inquiry found that the pilot ,KEN CHEESEY’ CRAFTER had followed all the correct procedures in asking for a head count before take off but unfortunately,in the dim lunar light,had mistaken a spare space suit slumped in the corner for the living figure of Stringer.
Fast forward to 1998.
That would be the rather tragic end to the story of one more AUSSIE VISIONARY in the line of LOGIE BAIRD and LUDWIG LEICHARDT were it not for the strange turn of events that led to an American unmanned lunar exploration module coming across Stringers haversack full of pickups lying on the rocky bed of the moon between two pillars somewhere in the SEA OF TRANQUILLITY in late 1997.Having laid in the enormous magnetic field for two decades has given the FERRITE MAGNETS such an unearthly powerful charge that they are now used to polarise and power the mass produced pickups at MATONS BAYSWATER FACTORY.These are the MOST POWERFUL PICKUPS KNOWN TO MANKIND.They provide hero Aussie guitarists with THE FATTEST TONE POSSIBLE THIS SIDE OF THE SEA OF TRANQUILLITY.
With respect to Garth Stringers late sixties sensibility,all maton guitars are made only from regrowth trees.For the MASTERSOUND,there is however only one kind of wood that is acceptable.Whilst on his fateful trip to the moon,Stringer radioed back that he could identify a hitherto “LOST VALLEY OF TREES” in a certain part of highland NSW.This ARAUCARIA wood (regrowth only) is used exclusively for THE MASTERSOUND and provides that famed WARM,FUZZY TONE so beloved of guitar players the world over.
Boogie on,Space Cowboys

Full retard

This was published on the Scriveners Fancy website a couple of weeks ago. Thought I'd post it here too. i wrote it in that weird early January period when all entertainers get the Heebs . Staring at their new, empty diarys and wondering whether the jig is finally up this year...

The movie Tropic Thunder was somehow arranged/written/directed or edited in a way that all the actors in it were doing cameos. No one had to really carry the whole thing and so they could all chew the scenery and be as stoopid as they wanted. Suited Jack Black perfectly as thats how he got his whole thing going. Its got an elaborate plot and an exotic setting and is in some ways a movie about acting. There is a great scene where Robert Downey Jnr (who is playing Russell Crowe in blackface) lectures Ben Stiller as to where he went wrong in his movie “Simple Jack”. He tells him that he went wrong by going “full retard” and that the audience could not identify with the chracter. He mentions other, more successful films and performances where the actors only went “half retard” and so the audience was allowed to empathize. These films being “Rainman” and “Forrest Gump”. The characters were damaged but had gifts. They weren’t ’full retard”.
I wonder if this applies to musicians too? For me , Green Day are full retard, and so is Robbie Williams. I know they are very successfull but perhaps the audience is full retard as well? And the entire business. Wolfmother are full retard. Still , I’m talking about my faulty perception. IMH(hr)O. So too for so many of the people on whatever kind of charts are being pimped around by whatever kind of flophouse media has the advertising numbers to back itself into existence. I mean it’d be easy to just take potshots at people wouldn’t it? Basically , to be half retard is the best you can hope for and that means you cant get into the vibe of the full retards. You can’t hear what they’re sayin’. Somebody’s blocked.
There were some acts of course who , as Lil Wayne said, “started out hustlin’ an ended up ballin” . I mean, they wuz half an’ then they wuz full. Maybe even Lil Wayne hisself? Rod Steward might have gone either way. Depends if you like “Maggie May” or “do ya think I’m sexy”. Both pretty spiffy if you ask me. The critics have him as a loser though. He flies home one of his mansions on either coast of America every night whenever he tours there. On his private jet. Fool! I don’t like his recent albums of “ American classics” though. Definitely, artistically, FULL RETARD. I like people who trash themselves just because they can. Bryan Ferry is a bit like that, though I’ve never heard anything by him that wasn’t at the least intriguing or interesting. The early Roxy albums were definitely only half retard though. I love them to pieces.

The Ramones looked to be full retard but , perhaps, had that special , dazzingly rare gift to be able to appeal to the full retards in us all? The Cramps the same. They (we) wanted in to the house of the WIGS!

Then , at this time of year, which is really gloomy and slow, you start to question the whole shithouse. Turn on the radio. Well that is definitely full retard. Comercial radio and its pompous , shrill emptiness and the full house of comedy talent that they get to front it? FULL RETARD!

Thanks christ for SPORTS RADIO! Its not retarded at all, only when the sports people try to be funny. Otherwise , its grim and deathly serious. The only signal on that frequency in the country.

TV is the home of FULL RETARD I guess. I’m even looking forward to “the big bang theory” coming back onto the screen! This week they are having the kinds of ads during the six o’clock news that are usually only seen on the midnight to dawn shifts. I mean “Car City” and upcoming art film shows at ACMI!! This is a tough month for entertainers, the jig is up! They’re all entertaining themselves!
Rock Festivals are FULL RETARD. Really, nothing ever sounds any good and theres no drama in the performance. Its only there to test out big pas , temporary construction techniques and security company communication systems.
Basically Australia is full retard. Well, Sydney and Brisbane especially. Oh and Hobart! Perths so far away we don’t have to worry , Adelaide is cute - something interesting we left on the window sill to see what happens and Melbourne has been tested and is definitely , certifiably only half retard. We have a towering bridges over dank , stagnant puddles and a long tunnel for cars and trucks thats actually a tube floating in silt ! And Lord of the Fries!
Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are full retard. Alan Jones, Kyle Sandilands. Shit, where do you stop?
Harmonicas and didgeridoos are full retard. One note ponies those ones. And when they sit in with a rock band , they sit ON IT! Okay out in a paddock or at the far end of a country train platform though. Nice. Take it back to half in that case.
Rolling Stone Magazine is full retard. I mean the Australian one as well as the Yankee one. What did Everett True say? Someting about ours having added Silverchair? The mainstream media in general is totally full retard. Tryin’ to get the attention of people who don’t read it , listen to it or watch it. Golf is full retard. Thats obvious. Tiger Woods is also, obviously , only half retard. He was young, rich and horny. In a world full of tees, holes, birdies, clubs, greens, eagles and money that he got for just turning up. Full retard situation as far as the eye could see. Land Ho! Fore! May I invade your sacred space with my magic wand?
Facebook , Myspace and Twitter and whatever other social networks are full retard. People get to go nowhere all over again. Hollywood movies. The tv comedy “Friends” and anybody who ever even knew anybody who got a laugh out of it. Wanking is full retard. Especially with a belt around your neck thats tied to a door and a piece of orange peel in your mouth and you’re wearing high heels and suspenders. In a cupboard. Picking your nose and farting are only half retard of course. Very enjoyable explorations and expiations actually. Nobody dies! Find a paddock though. Perhaps something you could do it at a rock festval?
Having sex and sleeping are definitely only half retard. Waking up is , as almost everybody knows, extremely FULL RETARD.
Growing old is the most fully retarded of things. And dying? WTF! ROFL! LMAO! ERRRRKKKK! PLOP! FR!

a trip out west - 2010

Played in WA for the first time in a couple of years.
Did a show in Perth on a Thursday which was nice but light on for audients. Then did a show at Bunbury which was cool and rough. People yell and scream while you’re playing.
Actually, people out west are jarringly direct in their language when they talk to you. Kind of uncomfortable sometimes but everybody is also very generous and immediately familiar.
The promoters of gigs work their asses off and go around town with flyers and leaflets. they put in!
The Bunbury junk shops there are pretty amazing. I came away wearing a mint pair of AMCO BOGARTS. Wide legged , high waisted 70s dress jeans with a stitched seam down the front of each leg. Class. Great books, like all seaside spots in the road.
The show at Clancys in Fremantle was wild. I was playing through a Vox AC30. I never liked those things but I was getting a monster sound from it. The room is great there, a big high stage and ceiling. It was one of those warm Perth nights. Many old friends in attendance. The Honeys were on the bill as well.
The next day we did a couple of sets at a boutique brewery / restaurant at Margaret River. We played on a stage outdoors, (in the shade), to people laying on the grass. We had to keep the volume down which was a nice contrast to the night before. A Velvet Live 69 club level of playing. Its hard to keep it subdued like that.
Apparently the neighbours complain about the noise, though beyond the sun bathing punters all we could see was a flock of sheep and some grapevines.

Flew back on Tiger Airlines which is a goddam relief as opposed to the fantasy Island jive ass crew that run Bransons planes. Tiger is cute and real. In melbourne we walked across the tarmac for ages into a baggage area near the freight section of the airport. Like we were in a colonial outpost.

Doing a lot of music at the moment. Clare Moore and Stu Thomas are playing with Jane Dust as part of her band, the giant Hoopoes.
Clare and I are also rehearsing with Harry Howard to play some of his music live. Thats me on bass, Clare on drums, Harry on guitar and vocals and Edwina Preston on keys and vocals.
Clare is also almost finished recording and mixing her album project with Kaye Louise Patterson which will be coming out as THE DAMES.
Stu Thomas is also looking for a label to release his album, the STU THOMAS PARADOX- ESCAPE FROM ALGEBRA.

Then there are also intensive rehearsals underway for my new album. We have a set of songs and are going to start playing some of them soon. Starting at our gig at the Paris Cat (Goldies Place- Melbourne) on Feb 26th and then our shows at the Retreat on the 14th and 28th March.
Songs so far include "midnight cats", "mt gambier night", "playin' chicken", "field record me", "life's a dream", " I'm not the guy I tried to be", "to be and not to be", "I don't wanna know myself", "champion blues", "cop this, sweetly" , "I live far out" and "hey people".

We will also be visiting Launceston, Hobart and Adelaide in April and May.

meeting with the premier and ministers 10-2-10

This was a meeting in regard to recent threats to live venues in melbourne clubs.

Arrived at Treasury Place at 1:30 for the meeting at 2. What a pleasant garden it is too. I sat and read a book for a while. Then a crowd gathered, more people than I'd been expecting but what the hey? We all went in and got security tags and were led to a conference room. This is who was there.

John Brumby- Premier. Leader of the BRUMBY GOVERNMENT.
Brian Kearney- AHA head and former LL Commissioner.
Peter Chellew- Push.
Richard Moffatt- Corner Hotel, Northcote Social Club and east Brunswick.
Penny Armytage- Dept of Justice (she has to write the rules and legislation I guess).
Richard Wynne- member for Collingwood area.
Rob Spence- Municipal Association.
Terry Noone- Musicians Union.
Carl gardiner- Mushroom.
Kirsty Rivers- APRA
Wally Kempton- Bass player, Espy booker.
Tony Robinson- Minister for Local Government?
Michael Gudinski.
Quincy Maclean, Musician, SLAM march organizer.
Rob Hudson - parliamentary secretary.
Jon Perring- Old Bar, Bar Open, Yah Yahs, Pony .
Claire Bowditch- Musician
Dave McCluney- Atalantis studios.
Andrew Mghee- label owner.


We all introduced ourselves. I took the opportunity to say I was a musician of many decades and had done 22 albums and enjoyed the chaotic and dynamic nature of playing in clubs as opposed to theatre or recital type situations and they were messing it up and they should de-link live music venues from the "high risk" category .
(Wally and I had met the day before with Jon Perring and Anne from Liberty Victoria and Con from the Palace/Metro to talk of a strategy. We thought we'd simply ask for this as well as them being presented with a paper that had been prepared with other demands).

Quincy read a letter from Paul Kelly.

There was an hour allowed for the meeting.

John Brumby spoke of violence in the streets being the intent of the legislation and government focus on that problem.

Tony Robinson spoke of the licensing reform process being a fundamental thing and a work in progress.

There are apparently 611 high risk venues.

Brumby put out an idea to replace "high risk" with a new set of rules. No security demands if music is over by 10pm and not if there less than 50 people in a venue open until 1am.

Richard Moffat spoke of 3 venues he is involved in.Two close at 3am and one at 1am. the latter has the most problems.

Wally and I had interjected a few times to state that there is little evidence , in our experience, of violence at live music venues.
I also objected to them talking of "small venues" as if they were a marginal part of the scene, pointing out that most of the activity is at lots of "small venues" I also stated that these "small" venues entertain more people than the multi million dollar recital hall in the Southbank area.

2:45 pm, Brian kearney spoke . He said that the definition of "live and amplified music" became a "proxy" to determine "high risk" at some point in the 90s.

THIS BECAME A POINT OF AGREEMENT AT THE END OF THE DAY, THAT THIS "PROXY" IS NOT RIGHT AND OTHER THINGS WOULD BE MUCH BETTER STRESSED. For instance, a venue with live music is "high risk" automatically but a sports bar with a bunch of blokes and half a dozen giant tv screens is not.

2:50 pm, Carl Gardiner from Mushroom spoke, asking that whoever is making these decisions in government do more research and have someone from the music scene involved in any decisions.

2:52 pm Michael Gudisnki finally thundered into life, testifying that there is no violence at live music venues and that the problem is with all the pilled out douches at the King St discos. he thumped the table and waved his arms and had everybodys attention. It was pretty great.Like Kruschev thumping the desk with his shoe at the UN.

I meekly said that when I said "chaotic and dynamic" at the beginning I was talking of a sophisticated dialogue in the clubs between musicians and their audiences, not physical jousting.

2:55. Tony Robinson disagrees. Its not only on King Street, they have DATA. He and Penny Armytage also talk of problems with "amenities' .Parking and people loitering noisily etc. They believe that their DATA is right. This causes much groaning and disbelieving yells. The Premier has to whistle to get everybody to stop. he is enjoying it. "Better than a cabinet meeting" he says.

3pm. Penny Armytage says that violence increases every hour after 1am.

2:58, Carl Gardiner says the research is wrong.He compares a music crowd at the recent Soundwave festival to the number of arrests at a cricket match.

Tony Robinson spoke again.

Terry Noone from the Union spoke, asking everybody to agree to John Brumbys proposal as it was " a start".


John Brumby wanted to end on a note of "accord" . Saying things like "some merit in your points" and that more discussion was to happen. He asked if we were agreed and got a vocal no from Wally, to my left.Pretty much all of us disagreed. We felt they had created a problem and they had to fix it.

3:15- Jon Perring asked for a more sophisticated approach, especially from Liquor Licensing.

John Brumby - "The government will ask the LL Director to take a more common sense approach". He pointed out she is a statutory officer and that the government couldn't order her about. He suggested that she should be more accommodating to music venues.
Andrew Mghee interjected.
John Brumby wanted an "accord" at the end of the meeting that will "reflect a review that will happen and also the importance the government places on live music in melbourne". He also stressed the "intricacies " of liquor licensing.
He pointed to a statement of the state government plans for the year that he put out last week which talked of "getting the balance right in regard to victorias nightlife".

He also spoke of Music Victoria. And Victoria Rocks..Something about those , anyway. "Going Forward". My mind was wandering in regard to some language by now.

He restated that he was "keen to resolve this".

There was no arts minister (Peter Batchelor) or Liquor Licensing director (Sue Maclelland) present and no lunch was served. (Juices and soft rinks only).


Michael Gudinski thanked Mr Brumby for making himself available and asked everybody to "be positive" and that there were "more ways to skin a cat".

Someone referred to the current situation as an "unfortunate glitsch".

The meeting was over. Some of us retired to another room to "thrash things out" with Rob Hudson, the Parliamentary secretary, Penny Armytage , Richard Wynne, and about four other secretaries.

Anybody who could stay did so. 60% of us.

These secretaries were the "yes minister" types who spoke plainly. Rob Hudson is like a straight Nick Cave. Died black hair and a sharp suit and unable to keep the sardonic smile from his face. He was getting all the cats into a bag. Pretty impressive. Penny Armytage was also very good. She is not afraid to admit she doesn't know things when thats the case. She seems to listen.

It was agreed that the "proxy" or "trigger" for the determination of a venue being "high risk" needed to be looked at, researched and changed. "WE NEED A NEW PROXY!"

Other, more "nuanced" definitions such as day of the week of performance and time of day etc needed to be looked at.

It was also stated that any change by the Liquor Licensing people needed to be put to public discussion for 21 days.

It was agreed that there would be a further meeting next week by these people and 3 people from the crew who were there today. A lot of this talk is not in my area of expertise really. Liquor licensing and the like. More for the venue owners I think.

I also think the added pressure of the SLAM march (23rd february) would help to scare things along a little too. A real lot actually.

Better to be outside the tent, pissing in , sometimes,

Got back on the train and got a couple of Dimmies at Ringwood station when I changed lines. They were just as good as they looked, actually.

rock n roll movies

This article was published in Australian Musician Magazine in 2009.

If you’ve ever seen the movie “the girl can’t help it” you would know how great and kooky rock’n’roll can look on screen. Director Frank Tashlin came from Bugs Bunny cartoons to movies and brought all that slapstick, broad comedy with him. The opening scenes see the impossibly pneumatic Jayne Mansfield walk down the street , creating mayhem wherever she goes. A man delivering ice leaves his gloved hands on a large block as he ogles her and we see the ice melt comically as she glides by. A milkman has all the bottle tops in the crate he is holding pop at the sight of her.
There is a slim story to the movie but it basically allows us to the some of the great rock n roll acts of that era perform in studio lit situations, filmed in fully saturated wide screen Technicolor. Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Little Richard and the Upsetters,the Platters, Eddie Cochrane and the genre transcending Julie London.


Its one of the rare instances when Hollywood and popular music gelled and got it all right. It had the poise and the energy and the smarts and the dumbness. The flash. They complimented each other. There haven’t been many other such felicitous meetings. For the most part, in the era of rock n roll modernity, Hollywood was hopelessly behind the times. Well, music was actually moving along at quite a pace and a giant mob audience was going with the flow as well. Since the waves broke on the shore and the island dwellers have gathered on the beach , looking wistfully “back to the day” there have been a few great movies like “dazed and confused” where they got the tone right, but hindsight can always be perfect. Ever since that its been the art directors field and it gets awful boring to see things done so correctly. At least in “dazed and confused” they got the haircuts of 1976 right. That is to say, no young males actually had haircuts. it was all grown out in whatever awkward way the hair went . Kind of short and kind of long and all kinky and daft. The soundtrack to “dazed and confused” was perfect too. Am radio Hits and album tracks of the time. Impossibly right stuff like Foghat and Gary Wrights “dreamweaver”. A film that right about that era will never be made again. From now on, whoever has an idea to visit that p[lanet will be studying “That 70s show” it it will be all Ashton Kutchered.

My other favourite music films would be “Cadillac Records”, “Hustle and Flow” from 2005 , “Ray” , “Spinal Tap” “Wattstax” and the hilarious “walk hard - the Dewey Cox story” which is really a spoof on music bio pictures.

ps - nb- my fave bio pics would be the interminable “John Denver story” and the quite silly “Linda mccartney story” as well as "John and Yoko- a love story”. "The Liberace story", which stars Edward G Robinsons son,( one of the villains in the first Dirty Harry flick), is also great. In a bio flick first , Lee ( Liberace) appears from beyond the clouds at the end and hopes we enjoyed the film.

the glen-again-thought we wuz among friends!

yeah- still chewing at this turn of events- shocked I guess- into reality....

I got a late call to do an opening spot for Glen Campbell. I loved his songs and thought it’d be an experience so I said “yeah!”.
I was to do a 30-40 minute set , solo, with acoustic guitar.
I’d seen Glen play in London in the 80s , with a string section (apparently he always played with strings then) , on a double bill with Johnny Cash at the Royal Albert Hall. I loved the great songs he’d gotten from Jimmy Webb and I’d recently seen a film about the session players he’d been a part of in LA during the 60s. “Wrecking crew:” was the name of the film and it was about all the players like Hal Blaine (drums) and Carol Kaye (bass) who played on all the Phil Spector and Beach Boys and practically every hit coming out of LA throughout the 69s. Strangely, neither Glen or Leon Russell figured much in the movie. There was one story where they were all sitting around before a session and wondering who the singer was. Then Glen said that he was! He was crossing from being in the band to being the performer.

I got to the first date in Toowoomba and worked my way into the situation. Tried to do the right songs , of my own, for the room, as they say. the room being the audience and the occasion as well a s the physical dimensions. Its always great to play in large rooms with an acoustic, the sound gets to rise and swell. I went over okay.
Glen Campbells band was very interesting. They had bass player and his brother on guitar, drums, keys (the musical director) and Glens youngest daughter on banjo and more keys. there was not a single amplifier on the stage , everybody wearing in ear monitoring. Glen had an amp but it was way off stage next to the monitor mixer, who also worked a few of the pedals.

Like Brian Wilsons recent tours, it was great to see classy American players with all their little licks and tricks. The guitarist would sometimes play an acoustic strum that was so stiffly on the beat of the snare that it looked strange but the sound was crystal clear and the extra tang and swish it added to the rhythm was great. The harmonies were all superb , especially the two brothers.
They had such a set list of classics that have never rolled off the AM band . “Wichita Lineman”, “By the time I get to Phoenix”, “Galveston”, “southern nights” and many more, that each was almost a set closer for the audience. they leavened the set with some hardcore country like George Jones “she thinks I still care” and Hank Williams “ lovesick blues”. Glens daughters came on to break up the show as well. It really had a hardcore country feel to it. The audience was hip to the country songs as well as Glens hits. he also did some great moments like the one hit by Hamilton , Joe, Frank and Reynolds called “don’t throw your love out on me baby”. (You’d know it if you heard it) and “the Highway man” which he recorded before the Highwaymen.
Glen did a few guitar moments in the show, playing “classical gas” and also “the william tell overture” where he ended playing the 12 string electric behind his head, to the roars of the crowd.
Right from the start of the show Glen would be throwing out these cool jazz country octaving solos and continue to do it all through the set. he really came alive when he was playing that guitar. Outside the songs, when he spoke , he was sometimes unsure of “the room” and had some stock schtick to throw on the floor but when the songs kicked in he was THERE. I guess hes been a pop performer but his real thing has always been to be a musician and that showbiz persona stuff didn’t and doesn’t come easy. He was , like a lot of his songs keep saying, a country boy and a rhinestone cowboy. I said hello to him backstage and he just started talking about looking at the ass end of a mule in prescott North Carolina and taking off to be a player. It was all real and all part of the show as well. Thats country!

In Brisbane they yelled and abused me more than I’ve ever experienced in my life . They had their reasons. (They wanted to see Glen of course. It was like that Yosimite Sam cartoon where he pays to see the high divin’ act and wants it NOW!). The band and management were very supportive and I did the rest of the dates. Nowhere was as rough as Brisbane. I wasn’t scared though. I was relatively young and strong in that room and I had to dig hard to play my music. Its never easy and sometimes its healthy to see how much sand you’ve got in you.

Glen ended the set with a corny Beach Boys medley which wasn’t very country but hey, he was in them for a few years!
I rode in the big country music channel bus with the crew and did the shows in the Gold Coast ,Tamworth , Canberra and Sydney and we ended it in melbourne. The audience there was, really, up for the show and the iconic occasion. the “room” was different here. They rose and cheered from Glens entrance and stayed upo. the band lifted and played songs harder and punchier and with absolute delight, even though they’d done them all a thousand times before. It was a real experience.

adelaide-how to?

I write an irregular collumn for the Adelaide Review. Here is an early attempt to engage.....


I came to Adelaide to do a show. I love playing in Adelaide. I love the ambience and the kinkiness. Some rooms are for the kind of people a cab driver identified to my sister as “Jeremys from Adelaide” and the others are total tool blue collar style. I am a country fellow and blue collar junk. I enjoy all kinds of people.
When I say “kinky” perhaps “whimsical” is a better word. For instance, we always stay in a hotel in Hindley street near the remand centre. it is called “Break free”. Is that funny? Its built of the same brick as the remand centre. Was it built for family and friends? But surely you’re only supposed to be in remand for a short spell!
I went out for a contemplative walk in the morning . There are some cricket ovals fortuitously nearby nearby. I was bouncing a football, I find this makes walking or running a bit less dull. If I get the space I let loose with an attempt at a long droppy or a scorching stab or a try to get onto a decent screwy. I walked past four guys having some morning tea outside their place of work, a mechanic shop. They all gave me lip about the ball. I whatevered them. I took my exercise and walked back across South terrace. A carload of drunks all leaned out of their cab giving me bronx cheers about having a ball in my hand. A football! In November! It was about 10 am on a saturday. Later , I went to a deli, sorry, it was a providore. A table load of drunks outside a Hindley street pub asked me about the races. (I was wearing a hat) I did not engage with them. They offered that my sandals were gay and so were my trousers and so my shirt. I lived.
I recounted the mornings casual mockery to my father in law. He asked why I was carrying a bloody football and added that that was a bit weird! I admit, I am a feckin’ kook . Alright! Guilty! Leave off!
I think there should be perhaps a code of conduct published for visitors on how to behave appropriately in Adelaide. Some people are delicate, they do not thrive on conflict and rough discourse as South Australians seem to. How are we visitors to be able to be observers of the the local scene when everybody keeps lookin at us? How can you help us to blend into the background? A carton of Farmers Union Iced coffee in the right hand? Tattoos up to the neck line just above the collar? A stain from a late night AB box meal on the beige t shirt sleeve? Then a fellow asked me who I barracked for. I said Sturt. “No one barracks for Sturt” he said in a flat no nonsense , don’t be silly tone.
Perhaps some sort of an information guide that could be picked up from the old National Trust building on the nature strip as you come towards Glen Osmond Rd from the South Eastern Freeway.
On the other hand, perhaps an expensive public information series of tv adverts and buildboards and pamphlets advising locals not to yell at visitors?
Actually, to tell you the truth, I think its kinda cute. Thats what I’ll remember to say to the next bunch of Iced up , gurning, sunburned drunks coralled together outside the 24 hour bar on Hindley street as they stare at whatever I’m doing wrong as I walk past their flimsy compound at 9 am one morning. I’ll say “you people are cute!” Yeah, that’ll give some shape to a successful social exchange.