After the Moodists came to a slow halt in 1987 I sat around for a while, just enjoying life - working and living in London. Listening to music again and getting tips to sounds from people like Epic Soundtracks, I got an idea together about how to be a singer songwriter. Lou Reed and Fred Neil were my north stars. East Coast , electric guitar types. Kind of jazzy. I also loved the west coast pyschedelic sounds and images of the CHARLATANS and QUICKSILVER. Kind of a buckskin feel.
Clare kept playing with different people, meeting different people. Including a hilarious sounding audition for the Jesus and Mary Chain when they were putting out their second album, DARKLANDS.
Gordy Blair was in one of the bands Clare played in. They included Adam Sanderson who had been in early Creation records band the JASMINE MINKS. We had been involved with CREATION as well. It was a small kind of scene. Adam had a great David Crosby kind of look going.
This was the fist 4 track ep we put out on Fire Records. Art by Dave Western. Photo by Bleddyn Butcher.
Produced by Barry Adamson. I had written the liner notes for his MOSS SIDE STORY the previous year.
We did a lot of shows in London. Louis Vause on keys who we had met at one of our jobs. he played in a great band called the HACKNEY 5-0. Gordy Blair on bass.
Malcolm Ross had played in the last era of the Moodists (along with David McClymont - also from Orange Juice).
Just as the EP came out Clare Moore and I were asked to leave the UK and return to Australia. A real trauma for us but we planned to return and play with this great band again.
In Melbourne we formed a band called the WHITE BUFFALOES in 1989 and recorded this album for Fire Records. I didn't want to record all the songs I had already worked up with teh London band so we cooked up some new stuff. Art by Dave Western. We played a lot in Melbourne and Sydney. Then Conway Savage left to join the Bad Seeds. (He had brought in Rod Hayward on guitar)
We did a live recording which came out on a 5 track ep. Art by Dave Western. (Illustration from a photo by Tony Mahony)
In 1990 we returned to London , Clare Moore, myself and Rod Hayward and hooked up with Gordy, Rod , Malcolm, Louis and Phil Vinall to record the album of my schemes and dreams. I WAS THE HUNTER AND I WAS THE PREY.
It was done in a studio in Croydon owned by Mathew Fisher who played the organ on A Whiter Shade of Pale.Thanks again to Phil Vinall for pulling it together.
We stayed in the UK for about 6 months and did some acoustic dates in Europe.
Just as the album was done a big indie distributor crashed and a lot of labels like FIRE were badly affected. The album plans were put on hold. Clare and I returned to Melbourne. i was quite devastated. Totally bummed out. The total blues. To the core. Wasted. Melbourne and its live music scene kind of revived me. I ran into Robin Casinader on a bus and he said he'd like to join the band. Clare, Rod, Robin and then Andrew Picouleau on bass until Gordy Blair came out from the UK. We were a fearless unit. Coming back from the dead.
The album came out in 1992, a few months before Lure of the Tropics and less than a year before NIGHT OF THE WOLVERINE came out.
I have always loved "I was the hunter and I was the prey" the most. I put so much into it.
It included the CODINE ep on the cd. Art By Dave Western. Photo by Anthony Clare.
Dec 26th - annual dave graney
solo show BOXING DAY AT THE METRO in Adelaide
Jan 10th - one
off show with MALCOLM ROSS (Josef K/Orange Juice/Azrec Camera/Coral
Snakes) at Handsome Steves bar in Melbourne. Steve Miller Band,
Dave Graney, Clare Moore and Stu Thomas all having a squawk.6pm
Friday Feb 5th and Saturday
6th dave graney solo at the Junk Bar in Brisbane
Friday Feb 6th tickets here
Saturday Feb 7th tickets here
Friday Feb 6th tickets here
Saturday Feb 7th tickets here
1 comment:
Hey Dave, can you tell us more about Clare's audition for JAMC, one of my fave ever bands? Cheers Andrew
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