Nextshow is the Greyhound-St Kilda- Dec 4th-sunday- 6pm

The Camelot Lounge is quite a great venue. Surprised us in its size and the care and attention in the decor. Right in Marrickville, tucked away in an industrial cul-de-sac around that sharp corner coming away from the station and towards the Inner west.
We did two sets, continuing to play in a lot of new tracks.Sounding tougher and sharper. I was wearing some black satin shit I've had in the wardobe for a while. All black and white. White t shirt and hat. I've embraced the white t shirt. In the 80s it was so naff. Guys like Eric Clapton and the kind of fellow he would influence style wise would wear a suit with the sleeves rolled up and a white t shirt. With high waisted jeans. I kind of like that look now. But like I'm sure I've said, I like outmoded forms in clothes as well as music. I like to wear and fly shit that people have tried on before. Recognizable forms and feels. I don't have the stamina to invent my own shit, I like to throw incongruous stuff into relief. Things that still have a charge.
I guess thats why I play the headless bass in Harry Howards NDE. people are scared of those futuristic bats with strings!
The gig the night before the Camelot lounge was a solo set above a small Italian restaurant in Drummoyne. Playing with an acoustic is a bit of a novelty for me but I got into it. I can access a lot more of my older stuff with that wooden box. People asked for obscure numbers which I was happy to play. "Anchors aweigh" and "listen to her lovers sing".

Got back to Melbourne and did BLB, the radio show I do with Elizabeth McCarthy everyTuesday from 12-2pm on RRRfm.Elizabeth loves to drive me nuts playing shit like Guns and Roses and the appalling Stevie Nicks. I'm sad to say it works every time. I can't stand that jive ass rubbish! We had Robyn Hitchcock in as a guest . He was in town as part of the "way to blue" Nick Drake tribute shows. Elizabeth wasn't interested in any of it but did the studio panelling and kept it running smoothly. Robyn is one of my favourite songwriters and singers. One of the greatest contemporaries we have. A one off. He had done an interview in the Melbourne Age where he had cconfessed he didn't like Nick Drake at all until REMs Peter Buck and the producer Joe Boyd had tuned him into it in the 80s. Nick had only ever done a dozen gigs and recorded 3 albums. Robyn says that you develop a "beak" in your voice by playing gigs through bad pa systems and Nick never got a beak. He said in the paper that his voice just sat there "like a luxurious poached egg". I congratulated Robyn on this flight of wit and said that if I was the editor of the paper they would have been breakout quotes. "Nick Drake had no beak!" and "his voice sat there like a luxurious poached egg!"
Had some lunch with Robyn and he bumped into an old Cambridge friend . Jerry Hale , who runs a guitar store in Johnston street.
The actual show was deluxe. In the beautiful Recital hall.
Joe Boyd - Producer/Curator
Kate St John - Musical Director
Lisa Hannigan - vocals
Krystle Warren - vocals
Robyn Hitchcock - vocals
Vashti Bunyan - vocals
Green Gartside - vocals
Scott Matthews - vocals
Danny Thompson - bass
Neill MacColl - guitars
Zoe Rahman - piano
Martyn Barker - drums
Luluc - vocals
Shane Nicholson – vocals

Zoe and Steve from Luluc were my favourite singers. Neill MacColl on guitar -and singing on one song- was superb. He was Kirstys brother and Ewans son.Ewan wroite "dirty old town" and "the first time ever I saw your face". I had just bought a vinyl folk album of his in Sydney at a junk shop. "the Manchester Angel and other songs- with accompaniment by Peggy Seeger".
Scott Mathews was a brilliant young singer and guitar player. Robyn intruded at the start and finish with his magnificent beak. Closing the show with his own "I saw Nick Drake". He is a bit of an adept at writing old fashioned broadside type topical songs such as "NY DOLL" from a recent album which he wrote after seeing the film of the same name about Arthur KIller Kane. He also wrote one about Steve Jobs. "I saw Nick Drake" is an elusive, poetic flight. He has mad skills in vocals, words and guitar playing.

Then I took a train to the station and then a bus to the airport and a plane to Hobart where I had a room above the stage I was to play in.

The gig itself was underattended. Hobart is unpredictable. I did two sets. Enjoyed it. Playing anything people asked for.
I also did, for myself, "alabama bound" as originally arranged by the Amazing Charlatans and also the two LOVE songs aI know. "alone again or" and "you set the scene".

Flew back to Melbourne and trained and bussed it back to Upwey where I then walked for twenty minutes uphill to our compound. Had a bath and ate some cookie. Clare was working in the studio with Jane Dust on a 2012 scheduled album.


The next day I sat and worked on my pedals and amps and power supplies and electric guitars to try to get a handle on volume and gains and polarities . Settled on the Roland amp for the 12 string and the Fender M80 with a Sansamp in front of it for the 6 string.
Then I went to see the Dames doing a gig as part of a female musician dominated night at the Greyhound in St Kilda. The north / South divide in Melbourne music could not have been so starkly drawn. Not a sign of any indie rock and all this anachronistic semi goth, tattooed Dave Navarro type attitudinal rock stuff. Actually, if some of the players and people in attendance walked around in Brunswick or Fitzroy, they would be seen as being ironic or wilful/playful SUPERSTARS! Collectively, it was not so impressive. I have always felt myself to be a "south of the river" type , even though its years since I lived there. I still like to be around that part of Melbourne. Something about the lack of hipsters makes it seem more "adult". Maybe it'll change if more gigs happen there and its not so much of a "dress ups" type scene. It'll be a bit more natural.

So, come and see us there St Kilda peeps! We'll be doing two sets from 6pm. Sunday Dec 4th.The Greyhound Hotel. Directly across from St Kilda town Hall.

Actually, it was cool night there as we ran into Alsy and Jill from the Triffids P/L who were in town to do some rehearsing ahead of a show at Queenscliff soon. The'll also be doing tehir own show at the Tote on Wednesday 30th November.

Sydney Camelot Lounge Nov 11th Newcastle Great Northern Nov 12th

Well I caught some great shows recently. Steve Winwood AND Steely Dan at a big arena show. Only been to that place in Melbourne 4 times. The Highwaymen, Cindy Lauper,Willie Nelson and Johnny Paycheck ( or was it Bobby Bare?) and now these two. Loved both sets. Steve Winwood played mainly Traffic stuff which suited me. I would have listened to him do anything. same with Steely Dan. I find it pretty silly how people can whinge as to how artists dont do what they did 20 or 30 years ago. I'm happy to see them rise to the challenges of life and a performing life. How they negotiate the moment with people who know them. Like a hyper kind of relationship.
Bon Dylan cops it a lot but hes out there playing HIS SONGS . Imagine if the Rolling sTones played as much as him. I think they'd be a pretty interesting act to see if they did. They'd have to pull out a lot of material to keep interested and try a lot of arrangements. Wouldn't have all the drama . Maybe thats just as important too?
Went to a great show by Go Go Sapien. One of my favourite bands trying to cut through the scene at the moment. They have an album out called "this bodies wrong for us". It comes with a MOVIE they made to accompany it.
Go see 'em. they're great! All dressed in silver.Or white.
Also saw Laura Jean launch her album. Stellar album she has and the night was great. Slow burning dynamics. Great lyrics. Folk rock I guess. Laura is over six foot with a Gibson SG set to a great clean tone.

Funny thing with a lot of indie types is they put out an album and then go away and hide! I don't understand. They don't try to get to a level of playing with a lineup where you play so much that the players relax and its not so traumatic. Maybe they like the trauma and the drama? What if they never get to experience the joys of walking on to a stage and its a situation you're in control of. Maybe the only one?

On BLB recently we've talked to football icon Tommy Hafey, Aboriginal activist Gary Foley and writer of "the street sweeper" Elliott Pearlman. Top shelf stuff!
Tomorrow (Tuesday 8th) we talk to Graham Bond. Most noted for creating AUNTIE JACK and probably NORMAN GUNSTON. the following week we will be talking to Robyn Hitchcock. When I say 'we" I mean myself and Elizabeth McCarthy , midday-2pm on RRR in melbourne.

Looking forward to playing more dates. I was a little down in my feel for the idea of the immediate future of recorded music. I am still unsure of what will happen. i was talking to an engineer friend at one of these gigs. He was going to email me a link to where I could download some music software. I marvelled at the age we are in . He said "yes, the best of times and the worst of times..." I could not have expressed it better.

Playing a solo show (no pa !) upstairs at La casa in Drummoyne- Thursday Nov 10th

Dave Graney and the Lurid Yellow Mist - the Camelot Lounge - Marrickville Friday 11th Nov

Dave Graney and the Lurid Yellow Mist - the Great Northern Hotel - Newcastle- Saturday Nov 12th

The Alley cat- Elizabeth st Hobart- (solo show) Friday Nov 18th

Dave Graney and the Lurid Yellow Mist- two sets at the GREYHOUND - St Kilda - from six pm - Dec 4th

The Sherriff Of Hell by dave graney L.Y.M.

be a patron! buy an album!

Our second or third show in melbourne for the year was a delight. Northcote Social Club is on high street and you could always pull right up to the door of the venue and take your stuff in. Some town planning has been going on however and the footpath has been widened and the road narrowed and the parking forbidden. Dont know who its goona benefit as the traffic is treacley slow at teh best of times. The hipsters are around but its still a great area for ethnic food and there are tons of petrol heads about. Could be the end of the strip as we knew it already!
The Ocean Party are very young and open faced and personable. Instrumentation is two clean sounding guitars into a Fender valve and a Mesa Boogie combo with bass, drums and keys. Looking so much like early Orange Juice. they use sweet major seventh chords and the lyrics are timeless in style and content. Delivered faultlessly. If I said they are a pop band I am not being at all dismissive or negative. Songs with hooks and charm.
The Sand Pebbles were playing without Tor C who is a great singer and guitar player. They do have two other guitar players though and the sound was full of clarity and excitement. Must be a great feeling for them to be able to step up like that. They played some songs from earlier albums as well as from their latest. Not saying they don't need Tor as he usually stands front and centre and the mix of his voice with Andrews is spectacular. Just saying that they were able to play using other feels and dynamics, without him.

We came on and played a set we had been honing in Adelaide for those two nights a few weeks ago. New songs like "cop this-sweetly", "flash in the pantz", "playin' chicken", "lifes a dream", " field record me", "don't wanna know myself" were mixed in with songs from our current album. we could do a whole set of new songs at the moment but that would be cruel. Very keen to get into the studio. Perhaps before the end of the year. Have to work out some way to release recorded music in the current clime, which is sometimes very worrying. The next album will be our first of new material since 2007. In some ways we have been very cautious in introducing new material. People have to be ready to accept it. Ready to hear it. Otherwise, it just doesn't leave the room. As all musicians know, that can be a very hollow and maddening feeling. To do your best and things just don't happen. Be good if there were people or powers to blame but sometimes its all just luck and timing.
The times are funny though, people are beguiled and distracted by technology itself. I could go on....but I won't.

Playing a solo show upstairs at La Casa in Drummyone on Thursday 10th Nov.
Playing with the Lurid Yellow Mist at the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville on Friday 11th November.
Playing with the Lurid Yellow Mist at the Great Northern on Saturday 12th November.

Playing a solo show at the Alleycat , Elizabeth st Hobart on Friday 18th November.
Playing with the Lurid Yellow Mist at the Greyhound in St Kilda at 6pm on Sunday Dec 4th. A very rare show south of the river!

northcote social club- cup eve mon 31st oct

So we're playing cup eve at the northcote social club. A monday night but its the day before the melbourne Cup and has become a traditional party / going out night. Melbourne Cup stops melbourne for the day. Nobody works. Eventually they made it an actual holiday I think.
We are playing a rock n roll show, previewing some new material as we did in Adelaide. Songs like "flash in the pantz", "we need a champion", "cop this,sweetly" and "playin' chicken". Sounding great. Somebody said it had a harder edge. Don't know when they last saw us though.
Playing with our friends the sand Pebbles who have a new album out called Dark magic. Also the Ocean party who all came from Wagga but are living the dream in Fitzroy. Very young band who I caught playing at a Ron peno gig. Quite post punk in the ringing guitars and vocals. very good songs.

The two nights in Adelaide at the Wheaty were very enjoyable. Also a session I did at an event called the Festival of Unpopular culture." Gas bagging about shit with people like Matt Banham.Db mag called me "the fashionably unhip Dave Graney". I quite like that. Double negative? Edgey!

Went to a cafe attached to a bakery which is in an industrial area and is open 24 hours. Full of night life types and a table of deaf people talking with their hands "loudly" next to us. Reminded me of the old Silver Top taxi cafe in Sth Melbourne. Times ARE good when only a few are experiencing them. Snob! Yes!

A new guitar pedal a "tonerider" has been added , after the micro amp (for clean boost) and the Janglebox. Playing 12 string electric pretty much exclusively. Used to use a multi effects but it died. Back with the Roland GC408 amp. Solid state- four 8" speakers.

Can't help but notice the last chain cd store is stocking less music and more iphone accessories. Don't know where all that is going to end up.

Bought more vinyl jackets and tight pants. Lace ups. Why not?

upcoming dates
Mon Oct 31st- Northcote Social Club
Thursday 10th Nov - solo show at La Casa, Drummoyne- Sydney
Friday 11th Nov - dave graney and the lurid yellow mist at the Camelot Lounge Marrickville
Saturday 12th Nov - great northern hotel newcastle nsw

friday 18th november - solo show at the alleycat bar hobart


http://www.thedavegraneyshow.com

my fave sounds in rock music

Doing an interview type thing / Q&A for our upcoming dates I got to thinking about what rock music I actually liked. Growing up in the 70s I KNEW all the classic rock when it was modern and happening. teen parties with Black sabbath and Quo and Deep Purple (who I liked the most out of those three) . The Stones being quite distant with their "goats head soup" and "its only rock'n'roll " albums. Huge hit pop singles as well, like "angie" and "fool to cry" and others like the title track to "its only rock'n'roll" really being touched by contemporaries like Slade.

Steely Dan were on the pop radio and pumping out the impenetrably great album like "pretzel logic" and " Katy lied". Freaks like Tim Buckley, Leon Russel , the Blue Oyster Cult, Rory Gallagher and Joe Walsh. Led Zeppelin as distant yet as omnipresent as the Stones. For some reason, the most closest to our experience, in the country, was southern rock. Thats Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allmans. There were a bunch of others too but these were the main acts. So, anyway, I heard all that then. I have the vinyl and play it every now and again. A lot you still hear all the time on classic rock radio. I was lucky to grow up in such a wild and forward moving time.

LYNYRD SKYNYRD IN THEIR POMP


A lot of it was blown out of the water by punk rock. Well most of it. For a bunch of us. For a while. Just made it redundant.

I still love that classic rock.

I also love the sounds from the post punk period that re aligned and re tuned my sensibilities so much.I love it just as much.

ORANGE JUICE

By that I mean the sounds of those early Postcard records by Orange Juice, especially "simply thrilled honey" and Josef K with "sorry for laughing". The Fire engines had their incredible moments with "get up and use me" and " candyskin".
The Pop Group with "she is beyond good and evil". The Birthday Party/ Boys next door with the hee haw ep and their first album. All the stuff they did before they left Australia. I also loved Panther Burns, the Cramps and Vic Godards Subway Sect.


There was also Pere Ubu with their first two albums, especially "dub housing" and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Johnny Thunders Heartbreakers and the Contortions or James White and the Blacks.


Recording was hard then. Expensive and usually a fight against the entrenched attitudes of the kind of guys who worked in studios. It was tough! Even though, all the above somehow made sounds that will live forever and people still try to copy today. The Contortions or James White and the Blacks sound as fresh and as vital as if they were recorded yesterday. I bet all the people in that act wish they knew how they made those sounds!

When young people go on about AC/DC or Chisel I know they're talking about a sensibility which is all about the classic rock period. They must have either heard it from their parents or just hear it all the time on raadio. Still . They're being very obedient either way. I was there as a kid. I don't need to hear it all reproduced again and again. It wasn't perfect or anything. Just goofy and innocent really. Stupid, at its best The post punk period was what was supposed to happen next, and it did. Even if the mass didn't notice.

They're my favourite kinds of rock music.The classic and the revolutionary. Nothing much in between. A lot of modern indie rock is in between. Its small in ambition and intent. Fuck it then.



Look out for shows NATIONALLY to coincide with the release of the book "1001 australian nights" through Affirm Press and the new album "rock'n'roll is where I hide" which is out on Liberation.

Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October- Wheatsheaf Hotel -Thebarton - Adelaide.

Monday 31st October- CUP EVE SHOW
Northcote Social Club in Melbourne w/ the Sand Pebbles and the Ocean Party

Friday Nov 11th Camelot Lounge - 19 Marrickville Rd,(Cnr Railway Pde) Marrickville, Sydney,


Saturday Nov 12th the Great Northern Hotel 83-89 Scott Street, Newcastle,
NSW
http://www.thegreatnorthern.com.au/

further woodshedding in the Hall

Worked out on some more of the new tunes last night. We rehearse at this place in Yarraville.

YARRAVILLE MOUTH ORGAN BAND HALL


It is empty , of course, when we are doing our rehearsals. A cute ambience though. A little stage at the end where Clare sets up and we all gather round on the floor. Our bass player Stu Thomas organized it as he lives nearby. I walked to the hall from the train station and saw Stu fly by on his electric pushbike to get the key. Clare Moore came from the other side of Melbourne with the drums and my guitar and amp. Stu Perera came from Keysborough, also way out east with his guitar and amp. Stu P has been living at home with his folks. He quit his job to take care of them as they had been battling a few chronic illnesses and frailties of ageing. he has been incredible. Organizing hospital visits and negotiating all the bureauocracy and both are in much better shapes and outlook. What a guy!


STU PERERA AND CLARE MOORE

We spent most of the first hour stretching out on an instrumental groove I have cooked up and called "mistral". By the end I was singing something along with it as I kept having to call out the chords.Stu Perera thinks it sounds like John Abercrombie. I am happy if my songs sound like something else. Preloved!

We then went over a few other tunes we have been working on. "blues negative", "midnight cats", "I don't wanna know myself", "flash in the pantz", "cop this,sweetly", " we need a champion", "playin' chicken" , "lifes a dream", "mt gambier night" , "field record me" and some others. Some we have played live a few times and some we will be taking out for a canter at these shows we have coming up.

Mostly me on 12 string electric, stu on electric guitar, Stu Thomas on bass and Clare on drums.

We talked vaguely of how to record things. I would love, one day, to do a session straight to two track.I mean no mixing, just micing everything up and balancing the sounds and it all goes down to a stereo mix. Otherwise just two mics hanging in the room. With this band, we could do it. Its the best band I've ever had really. Probably meaning that its best for me to express myself within. Playing the guitar and moving the songs. Got my tone together with the electric 12 and the janglebox. These songs are pretty toned and arranged too. Been sitting on some of them for a long time. 11 or 12 songs, all top shelf is what I'm after. Its the first "band" recording of new songs since " we wuz curious" in 2007. Thats my favourite album I've ever done so far. That and "the devil drives" from 1997.
Yes, we could do a live to 2 track with tis band but I think the songs should probably be put down with a bit more attention to a few different sounds. Won't be a lot of overdubs, just a couple of different sounds.

Stu Thomas and Clare Moore have also been rehearsing intensely with Jane Dust and the Giant Hoopoes for a recording which will probably go down in November. Stu is also doing the odd show with Kim Salmon and the Surrealists. Their last, just last week involved no rehearsal and three sets of songs Kim would either just start of call out. Stu also does his own shows with the Stu Thomas Paradox.

STU THOMAS IN THE STUDIO

Clare Moore has also been working with the Ukeladies (playing vibes) and the Hired Guns (drums)



As we packed up we started talking about Captain Beefheart and everybody was trading lines from his songs. Amazing how much of his stuff is so stuck fast in our brains and how fresh it all is. "tropical hot dog night! Like two flamingoes in a fruit fight! every colour of day running around at night. I'm playin this music so all the young girls can come out and meet the monster tonight!"

On the drive home we listened to Australian poet (favourite of mine) Robert Gray talk about a new anthology he has put together with Geoffrey Lehman. Phillp Adams asked him if any song lyrics were in it. He didn't even need to think and said "no". I agree. Poetry is another discipline. A few lines from great singers are worthy .
All of Bo Diddleys "who do you love ". ( I walk 47 miles of barbed wire/cobra snake for a necktie/brand new house by the roadside/made from ratatlesnake hide/ brand new chimney made on top/ made outta human skulls/come on take a walk with me- tell me who do you love". Anything he did really!
Muddy Waters lines in "I can't be satisfied " such as "I be in my sleep/hear my doorbell ring/I'm looking for my woman I dont see a goddam thing/ you know I'm troubled ! I'm all worried in mind/ you know I just can't be satisfied- I just can't keep from cryin'!". 1947! Cop that pop world!
Howlin Wolf , "I shoulda followed my first mind! Then I wouldn't be here down on the killin floor!".
Hohn Lee Hooker, "I'ma crawlin king snake in a room of death!"
JIm Morrison "the cars hiss by my window like the waves down on the beach/ I got this girl beside me but shes out of reach...windows start a tremblin with a sonic boom - BOOM- a call girl will kill you in a darkened room!""

The rest? Toss their skinny white asses in the river!


Actually it is an area where musical gifts are in the picture as well. JImmy Webb is unparalleled in my humble ears for his imagery and melodic powers.
Not looking to argue or saying one is higher or lower, both fields are powerful. Byron will live forever and so will Rimbaud, Verlaine and Apollinaire. So will Hoagy Carmichael and August Darnell.


We have young Melbourne band (originally from Wagga ), the OCEAN PARTY joining us and the Sand Pebbles at the Northcote Social Club on 31st October.

Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October- Wheatsheaf Hotel -Thebarton - Adelaide.

Monday 31st October- CUP EVE SHOW
Northcote Social Club in Melbourne w/ the Sand Pebbles and the OCEAN PARTY )

Friday Nov 11th Camelot Lounge - 19 Marrickville Rd,(Cnr Railway Pde) Marrickville, Sydney,


Saturday Nov 12th the Great Northern Hotel 83-89 Scott Street, Newcastle,
NSW
http://www.thegreatnorthern.com.au/

oct dates-radio shows-etc

The beginning of this blog I was questioning what the point of it was. Still haven't really felt much different. Recent book panel thing with a Yank and a Canadian the talk was of writers performing. I said I loved Michael Ondaatje and people poo pooed him for not being a showman. i said "yeah, he's a feckin' writer!" or somethin' like that. People you have the most respect for are teh ones not shootin' their mouths off all the time. Sports players especially.
Anyway, here I am taking up some digital space. Though that is limitless isn't it? Up in the clouds someshwere?

Here are some random places I have been.

Saw a film called "the singularity" about a US inventor called Ray Kurzweill. He made these great keyboards and things that allowed blind people to scan and hear whats in a book. Obsessed with living forever. Makes a lot of dough with vitamins etc. Takes 2 - 300 pills a day. "reprogramming my hardware". Has identified a moment when man and digital technology will come together and teat will come soon. "THE SINGULARITY". Has a shed with his fathers lifes work in it. Wants to bring his dads brian and ideas back. Wants to upload himself. Was an interesting film. three scientists were at the screening, all working on robotics. Some are for the SINGULAITY and most against it. the robots will kill us. One looked like a Grateful Dead fan, another like Ray Manzarek. (a dork). I asked a question, "aren't you afraid that there might be an agent from the future here in the audience to kill you?". I'm afraid the singularity is already happening. We are done for.

Talked with gary Foley, aboriginal political activist on the radio show I do (Banana Lounge Broadcasting midday-2pm Tuesdays on RRR fm http://www.rrr.org.au). The podcast is available on the RRR "audio archives" section of their site. Gary is doinga show at the Melbourne Festival. A great talker.

Also interviewed football legend Tommy Hafey. Coached Richmond and Collingwood, geelong and Sydney. 80 years old, does 200 pushups, 700 situps, a run along the beach and a swim EVERY morning of his life and has never drank booze or smoked. Amazingly focussed 80 year old. Sharp as a tack.

Gonna talk to Graham Bon in November.Also Robin Hitchcock and Fiona Oloughlin.

Read a great book by Delia Falconer . "the lost thoughts of soldiers". Its a great book if you know the characters in the George Armstroing Custers regiment that was at Little Big Horn. I had a cat for 20 years called AUGHTIE,.the name that Custer was called, when a boy, by his younger brother Tom. So yes, I was up to speed on the 7th cavalry.

Also read William Blighs "mutiny on the bounty" . Six months in Tahiti and the crew mutinied when they left. Bligh cast adrift in a long boat with 18 men. Took them 3,600 miles to Java . One crew member was killed by natives on an island they stopped at. Navigating by sextant , telescope and time piece.

Caught up with series 3 of "Breaking bad". What an arsehole the main character is. Quite addictive though. poor Jesse.

Saw two series of "justified". Awesome characters and milieu. Kentucky meth cooking dope dealing dixie mafia bastards.

Started watching "curb your enthusiasm" from series one.

Still catch "neighbours" most nights.

Loved the new album by PJ Harvey, "let england shake" and teh new one by TINIWAREN. the desert dwelling guitar boogie meisters. This is more of an acoustic hitout.


Doing a lot of writing. Looking forward to some playing...



Wheatsheaf Hotel- Adelaide. Oct 14th and 15th. This gig is run by a group of women in a quiet street just off the main squares of the city. Thebarton. No poker machines or sports tvs. A band room out the back. We do two sets, stretching out into new and old tunes.

Northcote Social Club Oct 31st. A monday night, before the melbourne Cup. With our friends, the Sand Pebbles. A great room with a great sound.


Camelot Lounge, Marrickville, Sydney -Nov 11th.
Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle with teh SINS. Nov 12th.

time on the blocks-creative dig - oct dates

I've been doing a lot of writing and rehearsing with the Lurid Yellow Mist. Songs I've worked on for a couple of years. Using my 12 string electric , mostly. Its a Chinese knockoff of a Music Man. I love it. Especially when its put through a pedal called a Janglebox which is a handmade unit from the USA made specifically for the electric 12. To get that Roger McGuinn, classic Byrds sound. Involves a lot of compression is all I know. ActuallyI've been looking into it a fair bit. People have been chasing that sound for years so theres a lot of talk about it. Basically Roger recorded through two high end studio compressors on the early Byrds sides. At the time , guitarists mostly used flat wound strings. these are nowadays mostly favoured by jazz players. Everybody else uses round wound strings. Roger also used a 12 string Rickenbacker which had the octave (high) strings sitting behind the normal string so the latter would be struck first. All other 12 strings have the octave string first and you get a much "chimier" sound.
The compression gives you a clean sound with a lot of sustain. Its an addictive sound. Roger also played through a Vox AC30.
I'm still flying my Roland GC408. Solid state with 4 little speakers in the slant-back cabinet.
The music world is full of people who try to recreate sounds like museum piece projects. I'm not looking to go back to 65-67. Just getting a sound which I like and which sits great next to Stu Pereras more classic rock tones.
So I've been rehearsing a lot with this setup and we'll head into the studio some time towards the end of the year to start throwing some songs down. They're all vert much fully formed in the arrangements. Short and sharp tunes. Very happy with the whole sound.
I did a writers festival panel appearance up in Brisbane. In their incredibly swish Gallery of Modern Art building. Next door was the Surrealist exhibition. As good as the one they had there in 1994. It was a 4 person panel talking about "what the written word means". We all had little Madonna mics around our faces and an ipad in front of us to catch tweets from people who were watching online. I told them a normal mic would look more authoritative and be easier to use. Also look less stoopid. I don't want to be the iconoclast in these proceedings. Much too mature really.But I can't help it sometimes. Things went on and I tried to be a good team player. A woman on the panel wrote erotic fiction. Sounds good but I thought teres far too much tits and ass around nowadays. Its hardly a hidden, forbidden area. A music writer and a young fellow who did some group writing online rounded out the team. Towards the end I cracked the shits and said I didn't give a damn what people were tweeting or what the audience thought. "They're there to watch and listen!" I cried. Probably more of the tweeting vogue that upset me. I said I didn't feel the need to talk up the technology (itunes,youtube,ipads etc) as it would smash us all to pieces anyway. Dont ask me to cheer it on!
Also did a panel at the Melbourne writers festival. This was four writers who were or are musicians who had wandered into the world of writing books. Jane Clifton and I were the Australians, Simone Felice from the USA and Dave Bidini from Canada. I had loved Janes book about every house she had lived in and Simones novel called "Black Jesus". Daves book was about the HOmeless World Cup. It was called "Home and away". All the publicity mentioned his book title with no reference to the australian long running tv soap of the same name. I am sure most people reading the pr would have thought he was from the tv show.
Proceedings at this were funny and instructive. Jane was the wrangler. The leader of the talk. We all read a bit. It struck me how much the Canadian and I , the Australian male, put out. As if we had to justify ourselves in any context. the Yankee just WAS. He was easy in his skin and in his role and people listened to his voice as if he had natural authority. Americans have their culture working for them all over the world constantly. preparing the ground. Me and the Canadian were sweating it. I liked Simones book.
Part of the talk was about how writers nowadays have to be performers too. I didn't like that. Of course.
They filmed it and it might be online at some point.

Looking forward to more shows in the coming months....


Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October- Wheatsheaf Hotel -Thebarton - Adelaide.

Monday 31st October- CUP EVE SHOW
Northcote Social Club in Melbourne w/ the Sand Pebbles and the SINS (NSW)

Friday Nov 11th Camelot Lounge - 19 Marrickville Rd,(Cnr Railway Pde) Marrickville, Sydney,

Saturday Nov 12th the Great Northern Hotel 83-89 Scott Street, Newcastle,
NSW - with the SINS
http://www.thegreatnorthern.com.au/

a speech I gave at the Wheeler centre in July

This was part of a night of speeches at the Wheeler centre. I chose to read a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky from a book called "my discovery of america".
The poem is called "Brooklyn Bridge

http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/unaccustomed-as-i-am/?t=30m59s


6.30-7.30pm on Thursday 1 September 2011
Brisbane GoMA
GoMA Talks Novel Worlds, exploring the question ‘What does the written word have to say?’.
This session will look at writing as a means to unlock inner worlds, and will involve a range of writers and other creative people working with language and ideas.
- Anthony Mullins, BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, and Creative Director, Hoodlum, Brisbane
- Krissy Kneen, author and owner, Avid Reader, Brisbane
- Noel Mengel, music writer and author of RPM (2010), Brisbane
- Dave Graney
Sept 4th Melbourne Writers Festival event
5:30 pm ACMI cinema 2
Dave Graney appearing at Books that go up to 11

Dave Bidini (Home and Away), Dave Graney, (1001 Australian Nights) and Simone Felice (Black Jesus) talk to Jane Clifton about the differences in the creative processes behind their music and books, and in their interactions with audiences.

Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October- Wheatsheaf Hotel -Thebarton - Adelaide.

Friday 28th October- rare Dave Graney solo show at Bar Pizza -Waurn Ponds Victoria


31st October - Northcote Social Club with the Sand Pebbles and the Sins.

Friday Nov 11th Camelot Lounge - 19 Marrickville Rd,(Cnr Railway Pde) Marrickville, Sydney,
book tix for Camelot here

Saturday Nov 12th the Great Northern Hotel 83-89 Scott Street, Newcastle,
NSW
http://www.thegreatnorthern.com.au/

a speech I gave at the WHEELER CENTRE earlier in April

CLICK THE TITLE OF THIS PIECE AND YOU GO THERE...


The topic of this speech was to be " will the social networks inspire an interest in the future/the unknown". I was going to answer my rhetorical question with a resounding "NO!".
I had found most social networks to be full of nostalgic sludge. I put the words "future" and "unknown" in to twitter and actually came into contact with a character who identified himself as "man from the future". For a few weeks he thrilled a hardy few of us with his pronouncements upon life on earth and our civilization. Then he flamed out and disappeared. I'm afraid I'm all too ready to believe in these sorts of characters. Some of his epigrammatic missives made up a part of my speech. Like most art or theatre events, the wheeler centre lunchtime talk was supported and attended by a lot of women. One elderly lady approached me at the end and asked what the internet was like and should she botehr to gte involved in it. I'm afraid I was jealous of her and said she was better off where she was. Off line.

http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/dave-graney-social-networks-and-the-unknown/


6.30-7.30pm on Thursday 1 September 2011
Brisbane GoMA
GoMA Talks Novel Worlds, exploring the question ‘What does the written word have to say?’.
This session will look at writing as a means to unlock inner worlds, and will involve a range of writers and other creative people working with language and ideas.
- Anthony Mullins, BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, and Creative Director, Hoodlum, Brisbane
- Krissy Kneen, author and owner, Avid Reader, Brisbane
- Noel Mengel, music writer and author of RPM (2010), Brisbane
- Dave Graney

Sept 4th Melbourne Writers Festival event
5:30 pm ACMI cinema 2
Dave Graney appearing at Books that go up to 11

Dave Bidini (Home and Away), Dave Graney, (1001 Australian Nights) and Simone Felice (Black Jesus) talk to Jane Clifton about the differences in the creative processes behind their music and books, and in their interactions with audiences.

Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October- Wheatsheaf Hotel -Thebarton - Adelaide.

Friday 28th October- rare Dave Graney solo show at Bar Pizza -Waurn Ponds Victoria

Friday Nov 11th Camelot Lounge - 19 Marrickville Rd,(Cnr Railway Pde) Marrickville, Sydney,
book tix for Camelot here

Saturday Nov 12th the Great Northern Hotel 83-89 Scott Street, Newcastle,
NSW
http://www.thegreatnorthern.com.au/

melbourne winter stop- waiting to go again

I've been writing and playing my guitar. The acoustic and electric. Madly playing and rolling over some licks. Started to rehearse with the band to get some new material together. Haven't really recorded an album of new material with the Lurid Yellow Mist since we did "we wuz curious". that was done in 2007 and came out in 2008. After that it was the studio r&b solo album which was pretty much all Clare Moore and myself on the instruments and desk. Then it was the remix/remaster/replayed "supermodified" and then the current vintage re-recordings set. We've been playing in about six new tracks over the last year or so and I have been getting the rest together. I've changed my mind about the instrumentation and approach a few times over the last year. At the moment I'm thinking of short, snappy songs with two guitars,bass and drums. Lots of vocals. Minimal overdubbing and few keys. Very happy playing the electric 12 string and keeping the sound as limited as possible to that template. Very happy with the songs. I don't know if they're upbeat in a Norman Wisdom way but upbeat in the tempos.

People have often called out for a song called "rock n roll is where I hide" at our shows but they don't know the name of it. At the end of the song it says " the best dressed chicken in town" People have yelled out for "the Chicken song". One of the new songs is called "Playin' Chicken".
Others include "I don't wanna know myself", Mt Gambier night", "field record me", "midnight cats" and "Lifes a dream"

Doing some writers festival events. Appearing with the Sand Pebbles at their album launch in September and doing shows with Harry Howard. Clare Moore and Stu Thomas are rehearsing with Jane Dust and the Giant Hoopoes. Stu is also doing shows with Kim Salmon and the Surrealists. Stu Perera plays every weekend with his dance band "Ja makin it funky".

Did some music earlier in the year for a film by Donna Macrae called "Johnny ghost" which should be getting a screening soon. Looking forward to working on another film soon. A Surrealist art feature about a Smoking Dog who is looking for Rimbaud. "Le Chien qui Fume".

Doing Banana Lounge Broadcasting with Elizabeth McCarthy every Tuesday from midday to 2pm on RRR fm. 102.7fm
http://www.rrr.org.au
Sophie Cunningham coming up as a guest. Looking forward to talking to Gary Foley ahead of his show at the Arts Festival.

6.30-7.30pm on Thursday 1 September 2011
Brisbane GoMA
GoMA Talks Novel Worlds, exploring the question ‘What does the written word have to say?’.
This session will look at writing as a means to unlock inner worlds, and will involve a range of writers and other creative people working with language and ideas.
- Anthony Mullins, BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, and Creative Director, Hoodlum, Brisbane
- Krissy Kneen, author and owner, Avid Reader, Brisbane
- Noel Mengel, music writer and author of RPM (2010), Brisbane
- Dave Graney

Sept 4th Melbourne Writers Festival event
5:30 pm ACMI cinema 2
Dave Graney appearing at Books that go up to 11

Dave Bidini (Home and Away), Dave Graney, (1001 Australian Nights) and Simone Felice (Black Jesus) talk to Jane Clifton about the differences in the creative processes behind their music and books, and in their interactions with audiences.

Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October- Wheatsheaf Hotel -Thebarton - Adelaide.

Friday 28th October- rare Dave Graney solo show at Bar Pizza -Waurn Ponds Victoria

Friday Nov 11th Camelot Lounge - 19 Marrickville Rd,(Cnr Railway Pde) Marrickville, Sydney,


Saturday Nov 12th the Great Northern Hotel 83-89 Scott Street, Newcastle,
NSW
http://www.thegreatnorthern.com.au/

three south melbourne nights

We did three nights in the old council chambers of the South Melbourne town hall. A beautiful, old and grand building on Bank street, off of Clarendon street. the area used to be called Emerald Hill. Lovely wide streets in this part of Melbourne. The council, along with port Melbourne, was amalgamated( swallowed up) by St Kilda in the Jeff Kennett era. Since then it seems to have been used by the "National music school" and as a rehearsal place for orchestras and small chamber groups. Not a real bohemian hot spot. all that trailing crew having their fun across the river in the northern suburbs.
The shows were a part of the cabaret Festival.This festival is run by two fellow who used to operate the Butterfly Club which is just next door. Very capable and inventive people.
The word cabaret is a problem in Melbourne. I made the point at teh start of each of our shows that the term is a great insult in rock music, which is our world- and we had just strayed into this one.Something about the word- full of connotations and assumptions. there is a small audience that gravitates to it and they are up for new ideas and approaches and performers. A larger part of it is up for the tried and true cabaret-circus-campery . The larger audience outside has difficulty approaching it at all.
To that end we played three nights in a lovely room all standing around a grand piano, two electric guitars, bass and drums , bringing the sound down in volume and power.
Thats how music used to be played - at some point, nothing louder than the bass drum. Only the vocals were mic'd up. We had a great time experiencing that and recorded the nights and filmed some of it. Audiences were small but appreciative.
Part of our aesthetic in playing music is that we like to play in different situations and find different audiences. Its a bit of a bummer that so much of music is played out or only looked for on the main travelled roads.

We'll be doing some more dates in September.

upon reflection- tour scoreboard

WA was not really such a bust. Had a shocking bug that coloured my mood for the flight over and the dates. Coughed for 4 hours during the flight and couldn't do much more than the shows. Met some lovely people. Including a fellow I went to catholic primary school with a thousand years ago on the south eastern side of Mt Gambier. Just across the road from the Badlands. We talked so easily of street names and characters from that pre teen world. Amazing how much of your persona is formed before you become conscious of it. You're already finished and published pretty early on in the game!
Both of us had so few options and faced the same confusing,barren, desolate streets. He went into the army . I travelled into Bohemia I guess.A footloose area of the mind.
Unusual to engage with someone who knows exactly where you are coming from. At least.

So we started this run of dates in early May and it kind of ends at the Sth Melbourne Town hall next week.

We will have done 27 shows in that time. Mostly doing TWO ONE HOUR SETS. Each set having about 13 songs. the first set concentrating on the "rock n roll is where I hide" album and also having a reading from "1001 Australian nights". We were also doing a half dozen new songs which we are intending to record some time this year.

rock'n'roll is where I hide
night of the wolverine 4
feelin' kinda sporty
I'm not afraid to be heavy
man on the make
-----------------------------------------------
mt gambier night
apollo 69
birds 'n' goats
I'm gonna release your soul
the sheriff of hell
three dead passengers in a stolen secondhand ford
let kill god again

my schtick weighs a tonne
we dont belong to anybody
I don’t wanna know myself
the stars
field records me
I will have always been here before
youre just too hip baby
sometimes you can see yourself
what if she comes?
sellout
bodysnatcher

midnight to dawn
all our friends were stars
sign o' the times
parchman farm
a lot to drink about
alphonsus will get you
field record me
midnight cats

I also did about 10 readings at Libraries and Bookshops during the tour.


Clare Moore and myself drove about 5,000 ks and we all flew about 13,100 around the rest of the country.
I broke one string and changed the whole set on my 6 string Ibanez Talman ONCE. I busted 3 guitar pedals. No acoustic guitars were used on the tour.
We were caught up by a cloud of Volcanic ash . A flood came through northern NSW a week after we left. Tiger airlines fell to pieces as soon as we booked three flights to perth. We had two bouts of Flu/cold go through the ranks at various times.

Clare Moore also completed several gigs with the Hired Guns and the Ukeladies during that time as did Stu Perera with his other regular band.

I thought the best run gig was at the Sol Bar in Maroochydore.
The worst was the Clarendon Guesthouse.
The rest were all kinds of shapes and sizes and I enjoyed all of them.
I love it when young people find their way to our shows, I also love playing to people who have come in and out of our sphere going back three decades. Thats rich.


South Melbourne Town Hall .
Old Council Chambers.
Friday 22nd to Sun 24th July 7:45 to 8:45 pm.

victorian RSLs and over to the real economy

Caravan Music Club is a very cute room in Oakleigh. Oakleigh RSL .I have always loved the name of that suburb. Deeply suburban. A venue opened by a fellow who originally had people playing in his house. A reaction to lack of venues in the area and also people who disliked the ones that were operating. Its become a thing/ a place for older people to go. We play anywhere however and this was our first visit .We'd been travelling so long and so intensely that we had no time to scope it out before hand. Stu Perera and mark Fitzgibbon couldn't make the gig. It was a power trio. Me, Mooresy and Thommo.
A beautiful room in a long quiet street.Excellent hospitality. A good crowd of people came along. The older audience is very direct and demanding. They know what they want. I know that they know what they want. They tell me what they want. I know what I want. We were playing at a highly tuned level. I can't know what they mean- know what I mean?
Excellent job for the man who created the club to get off his ass and do something for the local people.

The very next day we play at 2pm at the Williamstown RSL across the bay. While we set up I hear the strangest music over the PA. "Julia" by Pavlovs Dog. A music club called the "WILD WEST" takes over the RSL every week. The fellow who runs the club has read my book and has his ipod selection tuned to every band or song I mention in it!
We play two sets, again to a mature audience. Different socio-economic bracket I guess. Pez is with us for this one. We are packed up and driving home at 6pm. A fellow talks to us who is straight out of a Henry Lawson story. Long flowing (dyed) brown hair under a big stockmans hat with knee length riding boots and the most proper manners I have ever encountered in years. Very well spoken but so diplomatic and erudite. A country gent. The man who runs the club ( who mixed the ipod) runs a local bank and played for the local footy team and went to the local primary and high schools. A local hero. Made the weekend to meet and talk with the people there.

The next weekend we flew to WA for two gigs. Had booked tickets on Tiger which fell over immediately. Scrambled to get some other flights and got there on the Friday. Stayed at a hotel across from the city rail and bus station. They have been constructing something in this area since 1993. Its always had shit all over the street. Nowhere to eat except at the hotel after 5pm. What a sad situation for a city! Billboards for mining everywhere. Talking over the heads of the people to investors. Real people.
No evidence of a poster in the Freo gig.
People turn up. Must be due to Facebook and Twitter. The promoter doesn't. Sends a girl to work the door who is on her phone all night.
At the end of the gig a security guard throws everybody out immediately. I hate security. Not needed for the most part. Not at any gig I ever do. Superfluous insurance bullshit. Making trouble and tension all night.
Next day we walk through the city. in the shops they all moan that nobody is spending. This is the boom town!
Northbridge gig has no posters. The local promoter arrives.
I think he needs JJJ airplay and a large festival situation to get out of bed.
People are there.We make show like no others.

Fly back the next day. Bumped to Business Class. This is living!

Our next shows are at the Old Council Chambers in the South Melbourne Town Hall from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th July. 7:45 - 8:45 each night. 90 people fit in the room. We'll be doing it as a 5 piece and making it a deluxe show.

http://www.melbournecabaret.com/davegraney.htm

warrnambool to Radelaide

Warrnambool.Played as a power trio.Me on electric guitar, Clare on drums and Stu D on bass. People seem to be able tor elate to trio setups more easily. They can see what everybodys doin'. Add another guitar and it gets diffused. Add a further keyboard and its all a blur.
Played two sets ina lovely room called the LOFT. People pay to get in so they act better than people who drift in and out of free venues. A bunch of young heads light up the room. Dancing and yelling. Older, mad women dancing as well. Met and talked with a lot of people. A girl made me write "something beautiful"across the back of her calico dress.She was a voluptuous , country siren. Straws of hay in her hair. I jest a little. I wrote "dave graney tryna write somethin' bewdiful" .

A band of young players asking about guitars and amps. I love that kinda talk.!

The next day we drove to Adelaide and played another two sets at the Woidy. (Wheatsheaf) An older, more demanding, static, sit down audience. Though having said that-people kept launching themselves onto the stage. The first was a woman anxious to ask Clare as to which Adelaide Catholic school she was talking about in her song "Alphonsus will get you". Another couple of younger, posher women leaped onto my part of the stage demanding a photo as the last chord of the first set still rang in the air. Many photo opps ensued.
The reading happened without incident and also seemed to up the energy in the room (as it had in Warrnambool too). At the end of the show a young woman rushed the stage , demanding we played "my stick".She artfully informed us that she had never really heard of us but a friend had said it was funny. She kept coming back and yelling again and again, well after the pa had been turned off.

The next afternoon we played at the Semaphore Workers Club. A Communist/ Union stronghold down by the old Port area. Both of these venues have no security. And despite the irritating behaviour of some people. I really like that. Its tough and you meet a lot of dicks but anything is better than bored muscle hovering around every situation and pushing people out before the gig is hardly over. Again, there was a bunch of young heads up the front, lifting us higher. A lot of mad dancers too. This was the only place in the whole country where the reading went flat. Partly due to a couple of people yelling and complaining, mostly to do with the foldback not being strongand present enough to pump the plosives into my flow. One of the hecklers was a ships captain of Indian origin who soon left. He told Pez he was into smuggling. "drugs and people"- whatever pays- though that was when I was younger..."
A mad woman in a hat and shades started to dance with her older, skull headed beau. Another woman danced in a totally arty and suggestive , dramatic, Isadora Duncan style all across the front of the stage.
The woman in the hat was demonic. She danced for so long I thought she was going to explode. She yelled incomprehensible, drunken guff in between songs. Then she lunged at a passing woman and they both fell onto my mic stand and pedals. We finished the set. I had already ahaken hands with an old aquaintance who I knew had been involved in a double killing. Hed done some time and was now living his life. I was still disturbed about that. How should I act to him? I had been friendly.

A young fellow requested 'death by a thousand sucks" which suited my distracted mood.
As I was talking to people afterwards the drunken woman in the hat and shades came up to talk. She had a harsh Liverpool accent and bad breath. She wanted me to sign a poster shed ripped off the wall. She went off to bother the others. A man came to talk, so stoned he uttered unconnected, isolated words, having thought the rest of the sentences . Holding my hand and eyes for several minutes .
The drunk woman came back for more. I begged off. She threw a pen at me and called me a "sad , miserable bastard!" She repeated this as she left. To paraphrase Lord Rochester "her belly was a bag of turds and her cunt was a common shore". Scrag.
She ahd some stamina though. A normal drunk would have just conked out on the lawn hours before that.
She must have been powering on something else too. We sat around with the club operator for a while . He had an idea to take a few bands to play in Cuba. Flying via Canada. Using his COP connections, we said yes, of course. He also wants to take a bunch of acts to the Antarctic to play at all the stations there. The acts have to be old though.And they mightn't be coming back. We said yes to that as well and then went to a posh Chines noodle house.
On Monday I did a reading in a bookshop. No mic,just standing on a step and talking to about 30 people. Afterwards. I was signing books and chatting when a very recognizable voice from my past said "you dont know me do you?" It took me a good olfashioned double take to realize it was a certain aristocratic, country squire stoner from back in the days. He figures for a moment in the drug and booze fogged body count pages for Mt gambier in 1001 Australian nights. Three kinds of crystal meth. A Viet Vet who had been in the regular army (not conscripted) due to a family tradition.He talked of how crap the RSL had been to his kind back then. Not bitter or carrying any grudges. You just never hear of how those older guys treated the Viet / Australian soldiers. Its all about the commie peaceniks ruining it for everybody. He went to an RSL once and never went back.He said that we were winning that war when him and a mate were still there anyway.

He said he would be visiting the country soon.For a party.Out of curiosity I asked what he would be taking to teh shindig, pharmaceutically. "Oh - five of us so we'll have plenty of weed, some googs (eccys) and some decent whizz. No point in slowing down at this stage..."
Tall and straight backed, wearing a jacket and jeans with a black leather shoulder bag and snakeskin boots-he could have stepped out of the streets of 1975.

He gave me hope for the nation.

I drove to Mt Gambier and checked into a motel . When I filled out the card, the woman said, "Dave Graney- are you Sean Graneys brother?"



Saturday July 2nd -Caravan Music Club- Oakleigh

Sunday July 3rd - 2pm at the Williamstown RSL

Friday July 8th Norfolk Basement Fremantle

Saturday July 9th the Bakery Northbridge WA

winter seaside idylls-real people and desal working aristocrats

Got back from Darwin and barely adjusted to the bodily freeze when we were once again in the van and heading to a couple of seaside joints. Different sides of the bay/puddle that are the reason for melbourne being a settlement.
First stop was San Remo which is down near port Phillip. Its a big, old style pub by the beach and the bridge leading over to Phillip Island. French island can be seen also. Wonthaggi and the proposed Desalination plant is nearby as well. The hotel rooms are fouled up by desal workers who are living the dream. High wages a la western and northern mines and bunking out during the week before heading home. No lunch boxes here- counter meals all the way.
We play two sets. I have gone back to my Roland GC408 solid state amp and am loving it again. Four little 8" speakers . A tone machine.
This is the hardest place to do a reading. Big room and disinterested barflies shouting from the other room where big screens show the football.
We sleep all four of us in bunks in the same room! That is a tight unit!
Have a lousy meal slung at us by a bored , sulking teen in a cafe the next morning and walk it off along the jetty. Cold wind in our faces. Overcoats, hats and gloves. Seabirds everywhere. We then drive to Rye, across the other side of the Peninsula. Thommo cracks a beer with the sun over the yard arm. is that midday?
The show in San Remo is in a much smaller space. A Taco restaurant for 80 people, run by a group of 20-30 somethings. The show is one long set and we don't turn down the performance from any other place we have been. We flame the front tables. I am standing off the stage and am feeling like Muddy waters. Have a great time.
WE drive back to town at about midnight, listening to bad classic rock radio. Drop Pez off in Springvale and Thommo by the side of the road in Elsternwick as he feels like kicking on.
We continue another 30m minutes to the hills.The next day, Clare does two sets playing drums for the Hired Guns. What a pro! I stay for the first set and then head to Bennetts Lane where Fitz (Mark Fitzgibbon) is launching is new cd, "Closer". with his quintet.

This Friday 24th we are at the Loft in Warrnambool. Sat 25th at the Wheatsheaf.
Sun 26th at the Semaphore Workers Club.
Saturday 2nd July at the Caravan Music Club in Oakleigh.
Fiday 8th July at Norfolk Basement in Fremantle.
Saturday 9th July at the Bakery in Northbridge in Perth.
Then July 22-24th at the Old Council Room Chambers of the SOUTH MELBOURNE TOWN HALL as part of the cabaret festival.

Darwin- ashen holiday

Stayed in Melboune for a night and a day then caught a midnight plane to Darwin.On the ground at 6 am , though my timing may be off. Maybe it was a 2am flight. Met by our man in the Tropics who has kindly organized the gig and a car (his) and a house (his) and also presents us with a definitive itinerary to the top end. Melbourne had demanded an overcoat, a scarf and gloves on the way to the airport. Here it is t shirt weather. 25 degrees at the least . I do an interview at the ABC radio and we eat some noodles in a mall. Late in the afternoon I do a reading at the Happy Yess which is an arts venue in town. I read from my book and answer a few questions. Things start out a bit wonky as there is a local interpreter involved who feels the need to punctuate my readings with crowd revving cheers and faux showbiz kindling and the like. After a while I get things moving at my own tempo. (This is helpful as I only have one and a half gears).
Things go quite well.
The next day we do two sets at the Happy Yess. The opening act is a young trio from Darwin. Very bright young people who play music that is quite dark and grungey. Downtuned and Yarling (vocal style). Doesn't really feel like its coming from them. They put out though.They could get better.
We use most of their gear and play two sets . Its a pretty hyped up Saturday night crowd, in a beer garden type setting. We give it the full front loaded , teasing it out blow to the face type feinting move we've worked out over the last month and then settle in for an unwinding down over the next couple of hours. I do a reading and that drives people crazier again, as it seems to do. The wrong place and time thing I guess.Challenging the room.
We meet a lot of people who haven't seen us for a decade or so and have travelled a long way for the gig. Feels great to have that connection over time with people.

The next day we while away the day with a barbecue at our hosts pad and then say our goodbyes and line up at the airport. A voice over the speaker informs us that all flights to Melbourne are cancelled due to volcanic ash from Chile coming around the world to sit there in the Victorian capitals bay for a while. Chaos ensues. Passengers yell and scream and stamp their feet. Some scramble other airline tickets on the one other carrier. No hope though.

Virgin pays for a night at the hotel. The next day we go back to the airport, as like in a war zone (!) communication is best coming from the source rather than the tv news. The word is that there is no flight until the Wednesday night. (It is Monday night now) I have a gig in Sydney on the Tuesday night. That is impossible. We sit and have a coffee and wind down again. A woman is sitting near us. Her husband paces the baggage area, trying to will the clouds to roll by down in Victoria I guess. She has been on the phone until 4am that morning. She has paid a fortune for a flight to Adelaide,, in the hope they can get to Melbourne that way. I dont know what is so important . We are settling in for the duration. We go back to the hotel (which is still being paid for) and unpack and go sit by the pool . Getting used to hell. Its a bit like a sudden holiday thats been dropped on your head. We go out for the count. Another day in Darwin, a sunset meal by the beach at the ski club.
Then we make a call to our man in the tropics and another gig is organized . On the next night we set up, again with gear being supplied, at the Railway club, and do anotehr couple of sets. A great place- a bit like the Semaphore Workers Club - with a couple of big snooker tables and a highceiling. Traces of a recent fire in the room leave a real devilish tinge to the ambience.
The next day we take another lap around the town and then take a flight to Melbourne at 7pm. We get off the plane and get to our van and don the coat, the scarf and the gloves and drive to home base.


Friday 17th June Westernport Hotel - San Remo Victoria
Saturday 18th June- Baha Tacos - Rye Victoria
Friday 24th June the Loft Warrnambool Vic
Sat 25th June- the Wheatsheaf Hotel - Adelaide
Sunday 26th June- Semaphore Workers Club- SA
Sunday 3rd July- Williamstown RSL

Friday July 8th- Norfolk Basement - Fremantle WA
Saturday July 9th - The Bakery - Northbridge WA


Friday 22nd-Sat 23rd Sun 24th July-special shows in the Old Council Chambers of the South Melbourne Town Hall as part of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival.

sunshine coast-byron and rolling down to melbourne

The Sol bar at Maroochydore was the total opposite of the Brisbane gig. So well run and organized. Great equipment and total pros running the joint. the night before had been absolutely saved by the Brisbane people who came to the gig. they somehow found out where we were playing and what time and turned up in a big mob. All kinds of ages and sizes and gender. Had a great night- despite the venue making it so hard to "make show". Thanks to everybody who came!
My voice was still shot in the upper register and I could barely talk during the day. Arrived in Brisbane early to do a lengthy interview for the ABC conversation hour with Richard Fidler. i must have sounded like Darth Vader or Davros. (Dalek leader)
Then croaked through an interview on the phone with ZZZ and then a book reading at Avid Books in the West End.Been amazed and energized by the book readings at shops and libraries, people really turn out for these events.

Rocked the house in Brisbane and drove to the Sunshine coast. Soundchecked at 3pm and then had a rest. The gig was at 9pm and we did two sets. the venue was packed with young and older people and it was impossible not to be psyched. The venue also provided a great backline of a kit and a bass rig and a brand new fender Deluxe Reverb which I plugged into. I have never experienced playing through one of these. Absolute genius sound. I never swallowed all that jive about Valve amps but now I am a believer. You can just dig in and the amp takes it. the clean sound is a dream. Lifted me for the show.
People were yelling and screaming and dancing. Wild! I did a reading which upped the energy level too.Myself and the room.
Drove on to Byron bay and set up and did another two sets. A smaller crowd but we were enjoying playing . Another great venue. The band is at such an intense level of power and intuition. The best ever.Cruising at a high altitude.
sat on the beach at Byron and ate some healthy food and then got into the car and rolled on to Melbourne. Stopped in the towns of Sawtell and then Goulbourn on the way down.

On Friday 10th I am doing a reading at the HAPPY YESS in Darwin and then playing with the Lurid yellow Mist on saturday 11th.

Friday 17th June Westernport Hotel - San Remo Victoria
Saturday 18th June- Baha Tacos - Rye Victoria
Friday 24th June the Loft Warrnambool Vic
Sat 25th June- the Wheatsheaf Hotel - Adelaide
Sunday 26th June- Semaphore Workers Club- SA
Sunday 3rd July- Williamstown RSL
8th July Norfolk Basement Fremantle.
9th July the Bakery- Northbridge- PERTH.

Then 3 nights at the Old Council Chambers in South Melbourne as part of the cabaret festival July 22-23-24.

LisVegas-BrisneyLand

Lismore is freaky and downright full of dread for most of the day as we pass time until the gig. Damp and humid, semi tropical and recently flooded. The soundcheck has a lot of barflies yelling directions and sneezing and dancing. The gig is a trio - sand Pez who is back in Melbourne. The whole town comes. I have to turn my amp up ore than its ever been as we need fire power for these hostiles. We turn on the juice and slay- its what we do.
Am surprised at the respect and good feeling there is for our stuff around tehse parts. people who've been into our shit for decades. In this kind of town, all types have to rub shoulders- young and old- hippies and black feller. A car salesman and his incredibly blonde, pneumatic girl ask for photos with me. They love "hashish and Liquor". We leave early the next morning for a three hour drive to make a recording of an interview at the abc with Richard Fidler. Exhausted.
Thena reading at a bookshop. Very well attended. My voice is so shot I can barely talk.Croak out some text and a few gags.
The gig at the Jubilee has all the makings of an absolute shemozzle. Brisbane style. Nobody at the pub knows anything about anything. Its been sold in the last week. People in control are security types . musicians are annoying.PA is bad. people start to turn up at 6:30 as thats when they've been told we are playing. We play the first set at 9:30.Surprised when we walk on to see a packed room with lots of young and old people in the house. They help us make a show- with the office style downlights over the stage being on rather than the proper cans that lie unused all night. Too hard for anyone to flick the switch!
Davo,Thommo,Mooresy and Pez rock the house!

Soundchecked at Maroochydore this afternoon- the situation is totally teh opposite. Total pros- a grat room and amazing sound system. A backline provided. A Fender Deluxe for me. I NEED ONE OF THESE . Though that will involve hiring someone to carry the goddam thing. Too heavy.
Tonight - June 4th at the Sol Bar in Maroochydore. Tomorrow at the Great Northern in Byron Bay. Saturday June 12th at the Happy Yess in Darwin.

drivin' north-kempsey-taree-grafton-casino-lismore

so we headed towards our next gig which is to be in Lismore.A change of tense there. On a dime. Constant but intermittent , super heavy downpours of rain all through the night continue as we drive. Heading into the northern river country, we expect things to get weirder. Crossing rivers all the time. Strange old bridges.Metallic and crooked. Coming from South Australia, which has one river, which is sick and busted and has been hardly able to reach the sea at the end, its positively riddled with wide, swollen waterways up here.
We stay for the night in a motel in Kemspey.Next day we load up and drive again.
We stop for lunch in Taree. It has a large war memorial I see. Six rectangular black monoliths with names all over them. At the bottom of on I see three small enamel aboriginal flags on stretched canvas bases. Just laid there, sitting against a monolith. Each has a name and which war they died in. Someone must have put them there that day.
On a more silly note, Thommo went to the can. In the public khazi there was a condom machine upon which a scribe has written , "save yourself the drama-have a wank instead!".
We drove on to Grafton and casino and finally Lismore.

We play at the Gollan Hotel tonight- Thursday 2nd.
On Friday 3rd we are at the Jubilee Hotel in Lismore.
On Saturday 4th we are at teh Sol Bar in maroochydore.
On Sunday 5th we are at the Great Northern in Byron bay.
On Saturday 11th we are at the Happy Yess in Darwin.

maitland-mateland-mateys!

I have been trapped in Maitland before. Its in my book. Mock horror!
Newcastle show was a blast. We drove through the lovely old party of Newcastle where a food fair was happening on our way out. People pay so much to live in Sydney, Newcastle is waiting to be discovered! Same as Geelong and Ballarat are for those paying through the nose for inner city ambience in melbourne. PEZ left to drive to the airport, Moorsey,Thommo and I drove to maitland, arguing with the GPS all the way. We changed the voice from Teabag Dominatrix to Metrosexual Smooth and back again, still its off key with our sense of direction. Mooresy is usually unflappable with her radar but the king st incident has us shaken. (She does not have any internal compass on that street in Newtown).
Maitland gig is at 5pm in a rock'n'roll shack in an old part of an olde towne. A real folk feel to this joint. They call it the Junkyard. We play a power trio set and then watch a band who have driven from teh Gold Coast called " a french butler called smith".
Then kebabs and tv in our motel room.
Maitland is alternately cute, threatening, lovely , poor and layabout. Changes at every corner.
Tonight (Monday 30th May) I am reading at the Art Gallery - 230 High st Maitland 6-8 pm.
Thursday we are at the Gollan Hotel in lismore.
Friday we are at the Jubilee Hotel in Brisbane.
Saturday 4th we are at the Sol Bar in Maroochydore.
Sunday 5th we are at the Great Northern in Byron Bay.

central coast- newcastle-firefights-triumphs!

jeez its in close fighting the further out you go. We ain't in Fitzroy anymore! Drove to Kincumber and set up to play. Two sets. My pipes (voice) are playing up due to excessive squawking. Having to find a new, more economical way of delivery. Lost the falsetto. Brian at Lizottes has tipped me to Lemon Myrtle tea with licorice and honey. I am buying into it. Very soothing. Getting a new , clipped style. Kind of country. The notes cut off quicker than usual. Doing two sets and a reading and so many shows is the cause of this situation. Lizottes at Kincumber is close in fighting. Squeezed onto the stage , right in peoples faces, with the spoons and forks being shoved into their mushes!
Met up with Martin who told me to write a book a couple of years ago. i slanderd him on tv, saying he was a dyslexic Postman. he said he was not on the beat, more an office type of guy. like Vic Godard.
I apologized.
After the show, a woman told me shed looked me up on the computer and ,seeing me with a top hatr and tails etc (!!!!) didn't know what to expect. I dont kow who she was looking up but she wouldn'tbe told otherwise. She yelled at me to remember her name as she is a writer too. Another woman breathed fire into my face and told me she'd written five chapters of a book but her computer crashed and her daughter stole the plot for her own book. Fierce!Another dame told me that my cd cover was just like Tim Rogers and that the same artist must have done them. Wouldn't be told any different.
Actually, everybody is asking if its my body on the cover. I never stopped to think of that. Tony Mahony did another cover in the 90s for the original single of "rock n roll is where I hide". Had a picture of a fat, drunk cover band singer. I never stopped to think then that people would think it was me. Tony didn't either. Record companies in the UK looked at it in horror. "I" looked like that fat, dirty guy from that UK comedy with Hyacinth Bouquet. Very nice people in general at the Central Coast.
Next show was in Newcastle. A lovely old cinema made into a venue. the crowd was hyped and so were we!Killed it!
Met many cool people after the gig.
My Fender M80 is on a volume setting of "1" and is deafening. Experimenting with rocking it back at an upward angle. A monsterously loud, clean sound.
Stu "Pez" Perera is back in melbourne for a few days.

We play as a trio this afternoon at the Grand Junction in maitland- me, Thommo and Mooresy - ahead of a reading I am doing at the art gallery 230 high st Maitland tomorrow (Monday 30th May) night.6pm.

Look out for us in Lismore at the Gollan Hotel Thursday 2nd June.
The Jubilee Hotel in Brisbane Friday 3rdJune.
The Sol Bar in Maroochydore Saturday 4th June.
The Great Northern in Byron Bay Sunday 5th June.

Dee Why- eat the book !

Across the bridge for the first time.(Went under it the night before). Sydneys topography still astounds a hayseed from the flat plain of Melbourne. A long drive through posh looking malls and ALDI stores in towering blocks. The first of three shows at LIZOTTES venues.There are very few gigs on this side of the city. The North Shore. I can remember playing many. The Mosman Hotel, Narrabeen Sands. Probably 1/2 dozen others but I haven't heard of them again.
Two sets and a reading. Taking its toll on my pipes. Lost the falsetto last night. I think I need to drink more tea before a gig and between sets. Honey maybe. Singers always get antsy about their potions. That PROPOLIS stuff! Thats what I need. Spoof from bees in a lolly! Of course!
Food swell, crowd very nice. These gigs are without Fitz on keys so its down to me and Pez to bring some fire and magic. Oh Mooresy and Thommo set the foundations true- but you know, guitars are the glory beeees of the trade.
Got an email today. A lady had bought a book for a friend for a gift but her dog had chewed it up during the night. She needs to buy another... Perhaps theres an angle I can work here. Must learn how to talk directly to the pooches. Beyond the owners to their canine friends. "eat the book!" Dog whistling. Might mean I have to read John Howards autobiography. I couldn't!

Playing at Lizottes Central Coast tonight (May 27th) and Lizottes Newcastle saturday (28th may).
An acoustic show at the Grand Junction in Maitland on Sunday and a reading at an art gallery at 230 high st Maitland on Monday, organized by the Maitland City Library.


Look out Jubilee Hotel Brisbane June 3rd!

Manly ferry-swells and rain

What an amazing trip to work it must be to ride a ferry across the harbour every day. Lucky people! It had been drizzling a fine mist all day in Sydney. I took the train to Circular Quay and got the regular ( as opposed to the fast one) ferry across the harbour. I stood out on the front deck with half a dozen others, ignoring the recorded messages not to do so as the swell through the heads was so strong. I wanted some sea air in my lungs anyway.
Got to Manly an hour early for my library talk. People rushing across the Corso through the horizontal rain. The rugby state of origin was on that night too. So I was surprised and gladdened that 30 hardy souls turned up to have a few glasses of wine and hear me speak. I love this scene. Read from my book and answered some questions about anything and everything. Thanks to Anne for organizing the event! Had a great time. Took the ferry back. manly streets were deserted at 8:30 pm . A stabbing fight at Bankstown threw the trains into chaos. Got back to the inner west quite late.

Putting the expensive ( kind of) pendant around my neck again and plugging into my Fender M-80 red knob (it had a furry pelt but I got it taken off and replaced with Marshall Tolex) at LIZOTTES in DEE WHY tonight .
Tomorrow, (Friday 27th) we are at Lizottes in Kincumber (Central Coast) and on Saturday 28th we are at Lizottes in Newcastle. Another Libray reading via Maitland Library at a gallery - 230 High st Maitland on Monday 30th May.

Here is a link to a youtube clip of us playing "you're just too hip,baby" at Braidwood in NSW in march.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUkTxm92f3M

further into sydney

Visited some old friends, Ken and Caitlin, who are running a beaut caff near Newtown called petty cash. Enjoyed their hospitality and caught up with news from fellow travellers and comrades we have lost sight of or touch with for mainly geographical reasons.Dropped into a bookshop in King st called Better read than dead to say hello.Went over to Redfern to see Leanne , who play drums with Kim Salmon on occasion. Then went to an art show bu Susie ODoherty in Chippendale. Old Sydney art crew. Extended fingers reaching to the Mentals and their various art wings. Mambo,Phantom,Brendan Gallagher. Had an altogether excellent day.
Chris and Pete O'Doherty tell me they are down in Melbourne for a week at a print shop in Carlton and to doa Dog Trumpet show at the Caravan Music Club. I strongly urge anyone to get a taste of their humanity and freakiness.
Tonight at 6pm I'm doing a reading at the Manly Library.

Tomorrow , Thursday May 26th, we rejoin Pez and Thommo and play at Lizottes in Dee Why. Then Lizottes in Kincumber and Newcastle.

On Sunday I'll be doing a solo gig at the Grand Junction in Maitland and then a reading at the art gallery 230 high st Maitland, organized by the Maitland Library.

On June 2nd we are playing at the Gollam Hotel in Lismore then June 3rd at the Jubilee Hotel in Brisbane. June 4th Sol Bar Maroochydore aqnd June 5th at the Great Norethern in Byron Bay.

why are australian people so grudgeful?

No book event tonight. Someone , somewhere, in some line of work had to decamp to Jakarta on account of some dreadful threat to existence etc. This book world is full of drama and intrigue!
Wednesday night at the Many Library of course.

Sun is out again this morning, Walked along the Cooks River. Formerly an industrial sewer, reclaimed as an inner western sydney idyll. Quite lovely. Old factory stacks and Victorian era mills set against grass rolling down to the banks. Saw a large flock of black cockatoos hanging about like a gang of bikers. A large Pelican sitting on a convenient pole in the water. Lots of garbage in the river though. Not for swimming just yet.

A man is building a two storey Victorian style house. From scratch. He knocked down the Federation era one and is going back to an earlier style. Why? Because he wants to I guess.

It is striking how good life is in Sydney. Australia in general really. Yet the screeching of the talkback radio and the anti Labour Government , pro big business newspapers make it seem as if we are in a movie such as "escape from New York". marauding "illegals" with knives in their mouths climbing into our tiny (!) country, business being squeezed by green fantasists etc. Alan Jones on the radio in the morning. he feasts on public anguish which he creates and fans the flames of even higher . Every day! Shouldn't such a rich and powerful man be happy? He carrys on like an old woman with bitterness in her veins. Horrible tone and style. This morning it was all about "the corruption of this labour government!" relentless. there is a younger generation of jocks on air now. Supposedly warmer and more caring. Paul Murray and Chris Smith ( Who led the anti carbon tax marches in every city last month) WE drove into town listening to Paul Murray going on about Sharia Law in Australia and health care being given to "illegals". The whinge of the week is about people who have invested in solar panels not being able to profit from them. The Jocks are wagging the tail of the state government they cheered into power.
Asylum seekers are everywhere on people mouths of course. That an issue can be so dominant is ridiculous.

But the trains in Sydney are great. They have people working at the stations. Yesterday I drove into the heart of the city at 4:30 , parked, did some shopping and drove out at 5:30. Parked on the street! Then i drove down george street and out Parramatta road to Canterbury road and the traffic flowed all the way. I mean the city works.
The Sydney Morning Herald had stories about climate change today. Their opinion pages consisted of a story by Gerard Henderson from the right wing Sydney Institute and a fellow called Ted from the equally right wing Institute of Public Affairs. All these think tanks do is trade in anxiety.

Television is full of adverts by the mining companies telling us how good we have it because of them. Getting truckers to pimp for them. A rugged working face. Tobacco companies are spending just as much to tell us how precious their brand names are and what a civil liberty it is to infringe on their rights. Jeez. What times we live in! What overt bullshitters are bullshittting us so severely!

rest days

Clarendon Guesthouse in Katoomba has always had POTENTIAL to be such a good gig. A place to put on a show. Lovely little boutique theatre setting in an old B'n'B type ambience in a mountain resort/health spa type area. A cute little town off the main road with an art deco feel about many of the cafes. One day...
Tonight I joust with Tony Delroy! ABC late night radio character beloved of insomniacs and kitchen table boozers across the country! the quiz! the Clue Free zone! I will be pre recording an interview as they are aware I may have other demands on my time. Would have done it in real time though. I love late night radio. The type of person who calls up a station then is from a different universe to the cat callers on the daylight hours. More intelligent I reckon. More lubricated sure, but definitely smarter. I mean, they've turned the tv off for a start. Sitting there in the shed or the kitchen or at work on night shift or in bed with the radio on. What an intimate audience! I would love to be an all night dj. I've been to a few late sessions at ABC radio stations. People padding about the carpeted corridors of the otherwise empty buildings. All to themselves. No pressure to engage with the people in the office. No agitated producers or eager work experience types fussing about. Just the room with blinking lights, a mic, a feint hum of the whole combine moving waves through the night and that audience...
Doing a few more book related things in Sydney this week. Ariel bookshop opening in Oxford st tomorrow night and then a reading at Manly Library on Wednesday. I posted a note to that effect on twitter and a person responded, asking if I was doing it because I didn't have my own copy? Tres droll, non?
Then we are to do three shows at venues called Lizottes. On Thursday at Dee Why, Friday in Kincumber on the Central Coast and Saturday at Newcatle.Lambton in newcastle. I am doing a little reading at all of these shows.

On Sunday I am to do a solo show somewhere in maitland. I'll get that up sometime this week. On Monday I'm doinga reading at an art gallery in Maitland. 230 High street in Maitland. Organized by the Maitland City Library.

Then next week we begin a slow drive north with a show in lizmore at the Gollam Hotel on Thursday June 2nd, The Jubilee Hotel in Brisbane on Friday June 3rd , The Sol Bar in Maroochydore and The Great Northern in Byron Bay .