How the LIVING LEGENDS SHOW went. Amazing night in Melbourne.

So yesterday, Sunday July 12th 2015, Clare and I were feted at the Gasometer Hotel in Melbourne by a line up of great musicians playing our songs back to us.
It was organised by Mary Mihelakos as part of the LEAPS AND BOUNDS Festival, which occurs every year in early July. They began these LIVING LEGENDS shows last year with nights for Kim Salmon, Charlie Owen  and Spencer P Jones at the Tote. This year Steve Lucas was also subject to this giving of tribute.

Kim had said he loved the experience last year. Clare Moore and myself approached it with a bit of trepidation in the months then weeks then days leading up to it and then as we drove in. There is  a mezzanine area at the gasometer and we imagined standing up there, being a bit remote. Upon arrival we were shown to a table in the middle of the floor complete with champagne bottle in a  bucket (for Clare) and a bottle of ginger beer for me. A classic round saloon bar table with a white linen cloth over it.

Proceedings began at 5pm. I will list the songs and the artists here and let me say I was absolutely thrilled by all the care and feeling that went into the performances- all of them. If I comment on any particularly it's not to lessen the enjoyment I got from experiencing any of the others. I loved the whole night.

Special mention to comrade MALCOLM HILL who mc'd the whole night (at an afternoons notice) and kept proceedings coherent and fizzing. It was tough crowd- US!

The Ancients had the difficult job of starting the night off and powered through "I'm gonna release your soul" (1994) and "rock'n'roll is where I hide" (1995). The latter sung by the angelic Sophie at the keyboards. Spectacular. We love the Ancients!

Henry Manetta then got up with Adam Rudegeair and his band of jazzers and did an amazing version of "the second hand man" from Clares "the third woman" album (2001). Adam pulled on his KEYTAR and whomped his way through "I'm in the future now" (2007). We really began to relax now, seeing and hearing people do songs from all different periods.

The Ocean Party got up and did "night of the wolverine" (1993) and "All Mine" from the DAMES album of 2014. It was like a real pop beat band taking our songs for a spin. So stoked to hear people in their early 20s playing our stuff.

Elizabeth McCarthy, a dear friend and comrade from RRR read out a three page sentence from my book "1001 Australian nights". The story was "I who know the others".

Jane Dust then got back on the stage for the first time in 18 months or so and did extremely poised introductions and solo electric guitar and voice versions of Clares "Out of Where?" and my "there he goes with his eye out". These were both from  HASHISH AND LIQUOR (2005).

The SAND PEBBLES also reconstituted themselves for the first time in a  couple of years and did "Natalie", which I co-wrote with them and "twilight of a villain" (2003). Chris Hollow on bass spoke hilariously about their dealings with us and did the first of several impersonations of my speaking voice. Their sound was huge and so were the dynamics. They stayed on stage and backed Jeff Williams on a  version of "Morning Dew" which we recorded on LURE OF THE TROPICS.

Kaye Louise Patterson sat at the piano and accompanied by our great comrades Stuart Perera and Stu Thomas did a great version of "a lot to drink about" from Clare's LIQUOR (2005) album.

Go Go Sapien then turned up in dusty bearded , hatted and bewigged costumery and did an amazing version of "my schtick weighs a ton" (2005), complete with mock masturbatory moves and then turned their madness to "junk time" (The DAMES 2014) . I love those guys!

Zayd Thring from Pets with Pets wandered in from the street and gave us a wonderful reworking of "Double Life" from the Moodists which he played on electric guitar and jammed along on a  loop he'd put onto his iPhone. Really great. Such a pop star! (Zayd also did a good impression of me as I apparently spoke when we first met. He'd told me his mother liked my stuff and I'd said "your mother has good taste". I seem to speak a bit like Humphrey Bogart....Zayd had then gone to the school library and gotten a Moodists album out as he didn't know my stuff at all.)

Edwina Preston sang a Moodists song with Harry Howard as well. It was "Some Kinda Jones" and she sang it so commandingly. Lots of words and she pinged them all off so hard! Harry then played "New Face in Hell" by the Fall which we'd covered in our narrative show "Live in Hell".

Jarrod Quarrelle from LOST ANIMAL got up, impossibly thin and hairy and sang a song from one of my favourite bands, LOVE. He did " a Message to Pretty" and then did two songs from the band we first saw him playing in in the early 2000's, NEW SEASON. Tons of charisma.

Sean Simmons came on with THE SPOILS and they did an EPIC version of "lure of the tropics" from the album of the same name (1990). Degree of difficulty - very high!

Tony Martin got up and read three excerpts from "1001 Australian Nights". these were the "I had a dream" parts where I dream of intruding into current pop moments.

Stu Thomas brought his PARADOX to the stage (Phil Collings , Stu Perera and ....  sorry - I forgot to note who ....on bass) and did a superbad and evil version of "death by a  thousand sucks" (2000) with Stu just making dank, squelchy sound from a mini moog he held in his hand. He was also manipulating his vocals from a  processor on a stand. Outstanding! He gave a wonderful talk about us and then they did a Moodists song called "Bad Cabin" which veered into jazz and dub. I loved this stuff!

Kim Salmon got up with Mick Harvey on drums and Stu Thomas on bass and Mike Stranges on guitar to play "a million dollars in a red velvet suit", "I got myself a beautiful nightmare" and "everybody does what they want to" from I WAS THE HUNTER AND I WAS THE PREY (1992). Sounded so great! I love the songs on that album!

Mick Harvey then came out front to sing and Mikey went to the drums and they did "you wanna be there but you don't wanna travel" (1994) which segued into "double life" (1985) and then an incredible lunge at "2068 babe" (2008) complete with loops , bird noises and screaming white noise synth sounds! (We've never attempted that song. It's only one note for ten minutes but it's got layers of dark and white squelching and fizzing noises spinning out of it.)

Malcolm Hill got up with Helen Smart on drums and Penny Ikinger on electric guitar and they played great versions of "am I wearing something of yours?" (1998) and "are we going' too fast for love?" (2001) . Malcolm was wearing a "Moodists wig" which looked very convincing. Chris Walsh joined them on bass and they did "Machine Machine" from the Moodists (1984)

Malcolm moved to electric guitar while Penny Ikinger gave a  wonderful speech about us and then they played Clares "Tomorrow Inc" (2005)

Caroline Kennedy got up with Mick Turner on guitar and Ian Wadley on bass and they played "gone dead" (the Moodists 1981) , "I held the cool breeze" (1993) and "out there in the night of time" (1993) .

Then the Moodists did a version of RUNAWAY with Kim Salmon guesting on guitar in Steve Millers absence.

Had such a great time, like  a wonderful party. It finished well after 11pm. Thats five or so hours of our songs......

So much of your life as a musician you feel that you've done something terribly wrong. Hearing our songs back from people we admire, love and respect really touched me. I choked up on occasion and just had a ball in general. I had the feeling that actually, I'd been right to get mixed up in all this foolishness.