Sydney and surrounds start tonight and Perth-Fremantle next week

We came to Sydney to play shows as part of Harry Howard and the NDE. We drove up with Harry in our van with all the gear and merch. It was a heavy load. Clare and I had turned flexitarian whilst in Mt Gambier. (Flexitarian is a word from the internet- it means you can enjoy all the high minded attitudes of vegetarianism but not necessarily sticking to it. You try - and when you achieve a meat free meal you tell everybody) . I had gone to my favourite bakery in my home town and whilst standing in line, started to notice the size of the customers and also the size of the cakes and pies. I had left something in the van and while walking back to it, noticed quite chubby couples sitting in cars all around the bakery, absent mindedly sucking on pastries and pies. The thought came to me that the towns folk were being killed by flour and sugar and cream. Country Australia was being murdered by bakers. We collected a small cake for our friend and left with nothing else, vowing to also stay off of bread as well.

Did I mention I was happy when I heard that the genre PITCHFOLK had been pronounced dead? Then a friend altered me to this blog where BONIVERs girlfriend writes erotic stories....

A favourite moment form our 2017 Euro tour, playing guitar with one of my heroes, Tav Falco/PANTHER BURNS.


As we arrived in the Sydney area after a long, twelve hour drive, Harry asked us where we were playing and I must admit I went awful quiet for a while. People who have been in bands must know that unexplained silences can be dangerous and all sorts of thoughts and meanings rush in to fill the void but I was stuck there for a while. Lets call it fatigue or inertia in my case. The next day, the sun came up.

The first show was at a pub on a busy intersection called the Bald Faced Stag, one of two gigs opening for Ed Kueppers band, THE AINTS. We had already played shows with THE AINTS in Adelaide and Melbourne over preceding weeks. It was a real old school black box, like there had been dozens of similar sizes and feels around Sydney in the 80s. I had my ultra short scale Kawai 60s bass due to the amount of gear we had to carry in the van. I had changed the strings and it seemed to be ok but tuning was something you had to look at after each song.

I had my Roland cube amp and we borrowed an amp for Harry from the Holy Soul. We set up in tight formation in front of the AINTS gear. Edwina was to arrive late as she had work commitments and was flying TIGER. So she arrived just as we walked onto the stage after the flight was delayed etc.

Before the gig we had eaten a vegetarian schnitzel with mushroom sauce, sauerkraut  and steamed vegetables. It was everything bad I'd thought about vegetarian food that tried to approximate the fleshed fare.

The place was full and the show was tight.

The next day we played at a great venue in Marrickville called the Factory. We played a really great set. Things are always on edge with the NDE as Harry and Edwina seem to like it that way and we just play as the rhythm section. They never have set lists and often discuss what song is next between every song. We don't want to ruin their vibe but I have suggested a set list might help with having a moment before the show to collect thoughts and also to know how long the set has been going and has to go. Sometimes we end the set early as Harry and Edwina suddenly get the idea we've been playing a  long time. As we seemed to be ending this gig too early I said to Harry that we should just play until somebody tells us to stop. Harry turned to the mic and said into it "Dave says we should just keep playing until we are told to stop....". Never a dull moment with NDE shows.

The AINTS were just magnificent at every gig but this was pretty stellar. These were all bigger rooms for Ed and the material was all familiar to the audience from records , even if it had songs he had never ever played before. he had Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys) on bass who was a beast of a player and Paul Larsen (Celibate Rifles) on drums, with pianist Alister Spence. there was also a three piece horn section on all dates, sax, trumpet and trombone. They played songs from all three original SAINTS albums as well as songs that didn't make those records for various reasons. All stellar material. When Ed would launch into "I'm Stranded" the room would lift off and when it was "know Your Product" with that driving horn line the roof was raised. Other highlights for me were "the Prisoner" , "the Chameleon" and the absolutely monumental guitar rave up that was "Nights In Venice". Ed had pedals on a table next to him which he used to shape his sound for each song but none at his feet as he blazed away at his Gibson SG. It was hard to figure how he kept getting more gain as that song blew up and around the room but it must have been just his hands hitting the strings. Amazing.

The band were super nice and relaxed. I saw Ed going back to talk to the drummer Paul after one song and asked him later if Ed was admonishing him for playing slow or loose but Paul said he was just saying to him that he'd liked how he'd kept the song going and that he should do that again. Ed focused on the drummer a lot.

We talked with Ed after the last gig. He was very happy and wished there were more gigs. He compared the scene to the 80s and 90s where he would play two weeks of rooms in South Sydney alone and then two weeks north side.

A few days later there were online news items of more AINTS gigs in 2018 and perhaps an album which would contain versions of those hitherto unreleased album out takes.

There were some great photos and videos taken at the show . Thanks to Emmy Etie for this clip of Harry Howard and the NDE playing LET ME GO from the Marrickville Factory .

The next day Harry Howard and the NDE played at the UNION hotel in King St Newtown. It was a really mad show. The audience was closer and the QLD election was happening up north with the One Nation Party being kicked fantastically to the curb. Goodbye Malcolm Roberts!

The WORKSHY book launch was at a house in Sydney which a very great couple throw open once a month for events, inviting strangers into their home to hear experimental jazz and free music. Its called The Peoples Republic Of Australasia and has no website or any kind of online presence. Its all word of mouth. I'd heard of it from my friend Peter Milton Walsh (The Apartments) who had done a performance there. (Peter is a very old friend I write about in WORKSHY who also played bass in Ed Kueppers post Saints band THE LAUGHING CLOWNS in the early 80s.

The book was launched by Jaimie Leonarder who gave a fantastic, free wheeling - and very complimentary speech. What a champion! Then he started to go on about Sasquatch.....

I read from the book and played some songs on my guitar. I forgot to have a QandA. Sorry about that.
Was great to see Greedy Smith there as well as Jamie Hutchings, Ken Gormley, Bleddyn Butcher, Peter Milton Walsh and Jeannie Lewis.

Thanks to everybody who came along.

We did nothing for a few days but took a trip into Sydney to visit Red Eye Records and dropped off some of our latest CD LETS GET TIGHT as well as some back catalogue items. What a  great institution right there in the heart of Sydney! You can get these CDS there.

Shows start tonight in Sydney at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla and then Petersham Bowls, Hardys Bay and the Co-Op Club in Church Point before we move onto a weekend in Perth and Fremantle. The Sunday show in Perth is a WORKSHY book launch.

Yes, we have fallen from the Vegetarian wagon whilst here, but not too badly. Christmas will be tough too but I am happy to have a new avenue down which I can stroll and be annoying.

 

Dec 26th Dave Graney and Clare Moore annual Boxing Day show at the Hotel Metro in Adelaide, SA.

2017 Dave Graney memoir - WORKSHY out on Affirm press in .Order it here.

Feb 7th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Smiths Alternative in Canberra, ACT
Feb 8th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Jane's, North Wollongong, NSW.
Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grover, Orange, NSW

Feb 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Metropole in Katoomba, NSW

Feb 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Dangar island Bowling Club, NSW,

Feb 16th - Dave Graney an the mistLY at the Grand Hotel, 124 Main st - Mornington, Victoria

Friday Feb 23rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Bison Bar in Nambour, Qld
Saturday Feb 24th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove , Qld
Sunday Feb 25th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove, Qld.(4pm)

March 11th Dave Graney and the mistLY at SOUNDS IN THE SECRET GARDEN - the Events Foundry,74 Brougham st, Geelong.

"the Serge Gainsbourg/Lee Hazelwood/Jim Morrison/Scott Walker/Skip Spence/Ern Malley/ Lenny Bruce of Australian music. A genius songwriter with effortless presence and command, and yet also an invisible chameleon,  a reflecting surface, an anonymous conduit. Anyone who saw his and Clare Moore’s ATP sets last year will not want to miss these. Dave is one of the all time greats. I learned much of what I know from him. Rock and Roll is  where he hides”. Stewart Lee "Last nights Dave Graney gig at Leith Cricket Club was seriously one of the best gigs I've  been to in a while. Imagine Robert Forster channelling Frank Zappa whilst dressed as a cowboy  John Waters. So much charisma" @blasts_of_static c/o instagram Oct 2017. davegraney.com

This Fly By Night show in Fremantle is the only one with the mistLY. The others are solo or Book oriented. 

WORKSHY Book Launches and South Australian trip

WORKSHY was launched a couple of days after we returned from our European tour at Magnet Photographic gallery in Bourke st. Tony Martin gave a great speech in that explosive voice of his. He is such a great speaker.

He was very complimentary about the book and did a little bit while waving an autobiography of actor Michael Douglas about. It was very funny, mainly the very piss weak puff quotes on the Douglas book by fellow actors and writers. They phoned their fluff in....

Many old friends were in attendance  and it was quite a nice, small, personal occasion.

 with Henry Wagons.

The next day Clare, Stu Thomas and I did a couple of sets at the Burrinja cafe in Upwey.

Somewhere in there I also had to stay over at my sister Julies place so as to make a 7:30 interview with the Breakfast Team at Triple R.

A couple of days later I did a Q and A session about the book with Gerard Elson at Readings in St Kilda. This was a Sunday afternnon event and again was pretty local and personal. Gerard is a champion at this sort of thing and an excellent writer. It's quite an exciting shop to go to as a Miles Franklin award winning author works there. Its a rare thing to buy a book from the author at a shop. (I don't know whether he finds it weird or not but I found it to be quite a Privelege).

Then there was a Harry Howard and the NDE show with our good friends from Brisbane, the Stress Of Leisure. Their 2017 album, Eruption Bounce,  is a  standout.  Here is a clip for I Wanna be Adult.

Three weeks after we had played our last Euro show at Leith Cricket Club we reconvened with the mistLY and did a set at the launch of Go Go Sapiens album on a Sunday afternoon at the Tote. First on was the absoloute pop genius that is Alex McRae of Sons Of Rico who did a solo set incorporating some quite arranged backing tracks. He has such highly developed skills in singing, arranging, guitar playing and composition. Oustanding! You can hear some of their tracks here. And here is a clip from a classic 2011 track, This Madness.

Then the Ancients did a fantastic set of indie funked rock. Can't wait to hear their new album too.

Go Go Sapien rocked the house with several costume changes and a full house of people and musical tricks. Their album is called Love In Other Dimensions. A clip for the lead track , Imaginary Man. They are a  great band, a great unit.Lovely people and full of lifeand mad sparks.

Barry Douglas took this shot of me watching Alex playing.

The next week I did my show - BLB - at Triple R and then drove to Mt Gambier. The drive was quite nice , we left Brunswick at 2:30 pm and arrived at about 9pm to check into a  motel. There were no foodshops open in the town so we ate some fruit we'd brought across the state lines. While I was out looking for food along the deserted,empty and closed main street I was tooted at by an old friend, Buggo King, out driving his mum around

At 8 in the morning I was talking on air to the local ABC people for about half an hour. Very nice people, it was a lovely morning. While walking to the station I was tooted at by a  cousin, Daffy Dowdell who was off fishing for eels at lake Bolac.

We spent some time sight seeing. I sat on this bench seat I'd walked past a thousand times in my youth out on the east side of Mt Gambier.

 

The Blue Lake is always just a lovely place to stop for a spell and try and catch a breath. 

I set up my gear at the Library.

 

About 60 people turned up. Two aunties, from my mothers and fathers side. old neighbours,old junior football team mates, people who knew my parents. I read some pages and there was a Q and A. This turned into quite a  personal session, more a case of people making statements at times. "Your parents were very loving - were they like that at home?" . "Where are your brothers and sisters now?"

 Here I am with Charlie, 94 year old father of Steve Miller (The Moodists)

After the event we again tried to find some food but everything was closed and we drove for twenty minutes to my cousin Garrys farm out by the sea. It took that long because its a drive through a dark forest with many roaming kangaroos.

 

 With my cousin Garry Graney. He's a stock and station agent, surfer and budding guitar player. 

The next day we drove to Adelaide, stopping in Naracoorte for a rest. the town where my mother grew up. 

 

In  Adelaide the next night there was a book event at Imprints in Hindley street.

Straight after the event I caught a tram to the gig where I was playing bass with Harry Howard and the NDE opening for the Aints (Ed Kueppers band playing songs from the SAINTS first three albums).

That show was a blast. Ed's playing on those old tracks like Nights in Venice and Stranded itself were amazing. He had a rhythm section and three horn players and a guy on keys.

The next two nights we (Dave Graney and the mistLY) played two sold out shows at the Wheatsheaf. Had a fantastic time of it. 

 

We get such great suport from people in Adelaide. Thanks!

 (I'm just holding the photographers beer here...) 

 A long drive back to Melbourne where I did BLB, including an interview with Greg Walker from Machine Translations (You can listen back to this show - like any others , here...)

That night I did another book launch at a shop in Richmond, an iner city suburb of Melbourne. Avenue Books, I highly recommend it. the Q and A was great.

 

The next night I launched Tony Martins fantastic new novel, A DEADLY KERFUFFLE, at Affirm press in South melbourne.  A really great book written by a  master. A very Melbourne story. Older , retired people stuck in the suburbs and being manipulated by radio shick-jocks. A neo nazi group and a non plussed Maori family being treated as certain terrorists. A GREAT BOOK! (And how many comedy-thriller novels are even attempted?) 

My speech consisted of quoting first lines from about a  dozen pulp crime booksfrom my collection and comparing their power to that of Tony's.

We did another show with Harry Howard and the NDE opening for the AINTS and teh next morning, drove two hours to a wide spot in the road near Daylesford, where we played in a delightful old church called SCRUB HILL. There was no PA and I just stuck a mic into my acoustic amp and off we went.

 

Soemwhere in tehre I had to doa  duet with Calre Bowditch on ABC radio. It was supposed to be a  "guilty pleasure" but I have none as far as music goes. It also had to be popular and not one of mine. I chose the Doors, LIGHT MY FIRE. You can hear it here. 

I took the train in and practiced a bit at Upwey Station....

Sunday Nov 26th Sydney Book Launch for WORKSHY
VENUE: The People’s Republic of Australasia, Camperdown NSW
7pm email HERE to get details

Dave Graney and Clare Moore
Thurs 30-Nov Brass Monkey - 115A Cronulla St, Cronulla NSW
(02) 9544 3844

Dave Graney and the mistLY
Fri 1-DecPetersham Bowls Club
77 Brighton Street
Petersham NSW 2049
T (02) 9569 4639

Sat 2-DecHardys Bay Club 14 Heath Road - Hardys Bay,NSW 2257
Sun 3-Dec - afternoon show at Co-op Club 1860 Pittwater Road
Church Point, N.S.W. Australia
bookings (02) 9979 6633

 

Friday 8 December - Backlot Studios - solo acoustic session PERTH, WA

Dave Graney and the mistLY
Saturday 9 December - Fly By Night -Fremantle WA

Sunday 10 December - Bar 459 - Rosemount Hotel - PERTH
WORKSHY - Book launch - in conversation with Bob Gordon.

 

Dec 26th Dave Graney and Clare Moore annual Boxing Day show at the Hotel Metro in Adelaide, SA.

2017 Dave Graney memoir - WORKSHY out on Affirm press in .Order it here.

Feb 7th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Smiths Alternative in Canberra, ACT Feb 8th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Jane's, North Wollongong, NSW. Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grover, Orange, NSW

Feb 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Metropole in Katoomba, NSW

Feb 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Dangar island Bowling Club, NSW,

Feb 16th - Dave Graney an the mistLY at the Grand Hotel, 124 Main st - Mornington, Victoria

Friday Feb 23rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Bison Bar in Nambour, Qld Saturday Feb 24th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove , Qld Sunday Feb 25th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove, Qld.(4pm)

March 11th Dave Graney and the mistLY at SOUNDS IN THE SECRET GARDEN - the Events Foundry,74 Brougham st, Geelong. 

davegraney.com

WORKSHY-LETS GET TIGHT Adelaide-Sydney-Perth.

-->

“Rock Music does not usually accommodate the likes of Dave Graney. Few Australian performers have been as resilient, and few have presented as many ideas in song form. ….Graneys tactic is to bring a  highly developed context to his audience – his “velvet fog”, his “lurid yellow mist” – in opposition to the sentimentality of “rock’s wasteland of howling dopes”

Mark Gomes… Australian Book Review

My second memoir , WORKSHY is out on Affirm Press. You can source a copy here. It's a book focused on work and all the little jobs I did to try and be a player, an artist. It's about me and about the times. What I did while I was trying to do what I wanted to do. More personal, more about country childhood, the options that were open to me, more on 80s London....MORE

art by Tony Mahony.

"Just finished Dave Graney's concept autobiography WORKSHY and hereby proclaim this book REQUIRED READING for anyone interested in Australian music specifically or the craft/trade/vocation in general".

Georgio "the dove" Valentino

"Just finished Workshy - I enjoyed it the most of your three books - only started reading it yesterday morning! The last 50-100 pages are the most compelling. Great work."

David Nicholls

"Dave Graney is a genuine hipster bohemian street intellectual.  A committed rock'n'roll theoretician and a contrarian outsider of he first order. 
This second memoir is as entertaining, funny and well written as his previous book '1000 Australian Nights".  He has a terse and semi-abstract approach to writing about the absurd reality of being a non-mainstream musical artist in Australia and Europe,  and also of the succession of dispiriting and occasionally quite tolerable day jobs he has had.
The book is liberally spattered with hilarious observations of the art and culture of the recent past and many amusing personal anecdotes.  There are also some arcane metaphysical ruminations on the technical minutiae of writing recording and performing his excellent songs.
Dave is the unchallengeable King of Australian rock memoirists.  Buy this book now! "

Reg Mombassa

"Meandering humanity and honest music never follow guidelines. Neither does Dave Graney. Society didn't get fussy and uptight after he was born, it got fussy and uptight after it made being born Dave Graney illegal. The antidote: read this and remember what's real; better still, read it at work. This is a book that should come in a brown paper bag." DBC PIERRE

Dave Graney interviewed about WORKSHY on Melbournes ABC radio with Clare Bowditch. Includes  a duet on the Doors "Light My Fire".


Music writer and lifer Stuart Coupe wrote casually on Facebook recently....

"It's a fine, fine read and I think I enjoyed it more than his previous 1001 Australian Nights (and I enjoyed that a lot) ... This is birth-till now memoir with cameos from lots of people I know - he's nice to virtually all of them, gently blunt (if you can be gently blunt) about a few and doesn't mention a couple I thought he would. It works well as a juxtaposition of the world of the working songwriter and musician intertwined with tales of the day-to-day other work that these people often find themselves doing to sustain the dreams'n'reality of the former. And Graney has done more than his fair share of clock on, clock off day jobs. At one point he lists all the books he read in the years 1986, 1987 and 1988. This I found fascinating as I read about 93 % of the same books in the same years. ... In what is a crowded year for Australian song and dance people writing their memoirs this is right up there amongst the best."

The cover art is by Tony Mahony who has worked with all things Graney and Moore for many years.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore (Moodists-Coral Snakes - mistLY) also have an accidental/ serendipitous CD happening. LET'S GET TIGHT.






In Melbourne you can source it at Basement Discs and Rocksteady Records , Greville Records and Readings and in Sydney there is some stock at Redeye Records. In Adelaide you can find it at STREETLIGHT.

Last physical album from Dave Graney was Fearful Wiggings in 2014. Last album from Clare Moore was The Dames in 2015.
In the meantime they released two digital albums of 90’s demos (Night Of the Wolverine and Songwriter Demos and Once I loved the Torn Ocean’s Roar – 90’s Demos Volume Two), a live digital album (Play mistLY For Me) and also three albums as members of Harry Howard and the NDE.

Upcoming shows

Dave Graney and Clare Moore spent the time working on music for a ghost/horror film by Donna McRae called LOST GULLY ROAD which is to have its premiere at Lido Cinemas in Hawthorn Nov 25th .

Sunday Nov 26th Sydney WORKSHY Book Launch at SECRET LOCATION.

VENUE: The People’s Republic of Australasia, Camperdown, NSW

Please email nickshimmin@zoho.com to get details of where the event is.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore

Thurs 30-Nov Brass Monkey - 115A Cronulla St, Cronulla NSW

02) 9544 3844

Dave Graney and the mistLY

Fri 1-Dec Petersham Bowls Club

77 Brighton Street Petersham NSW 2049  T (02) 9569 4639

Sat 2-Dec Hardys Bay Club 14 Heath Road - Hardys Bay, NSW 2257

Sun 3-Dec - afternoon show at Co-op Club 1860 Pittwater Road

Church Point, N.S.W. Australia 2105

Friday 8 December - Backlot Studios Perth.

Dave Graney solo acoustic session

Saturday 9 December - Fly By Night , Fremantle

Dave Graney and the mistLY

Sunday 10 December - Bar 459  Rosemount hotel

Dave Graney - WORKSHY Book launch - in conversation with Bob Gordon. Boffins Books will be involved in this event and will have copies of WORKSHY  for sale.

-->

"That’s from the song Night Of The Wolverine, a character is talking to someone who thinks that’s what an artist should be, poor, dirty, and ugly. No, I think artists should be sometimes lucky, as well [laughs] You know, rewarded for the hell of it occasionally. I don’t like artists, rock and roll people going on about how miserable they are most of the time, and talking about how stoned they are, and how hungover they are. I find all that stuff pretty boring, and always have.

I mean, I used to be a big drinker. I was a great drinker. I was one of the best! [laughs] But it got a bit boring and I moved to a place where I had to do lots of driving so I just got out of the habit. But there’s some people who write about music are always cheering on rock and roll types. I call them rock and roll dopes really; rock and roll chumps. I’m not really interested. I love the company of musicians, but I don’t like those types that are very unfocused, the kind who need to be standing on the table, shouting, and dancing all the time. I’m not that type. I feel like they’re a bit boring to hang around.

Sometimes I say when I’m writing I’m performing, when I’m performing I’m writing. Some of my songs I just kind of make up really quickly when I’m on stage gasbagging. So generally music is a constant search for authenticity. In an Australian context, any Australian performer in rock music is wearing a mask: American accent, American music. And wearing a mask is f*cking great ’cause it allows you to say things you can’t normally. But [the downside of that is] people are always saying ‘You’re a fake!’ They’re looking for that. That’s how low the discourse is in rock music generally!"

More details - archival stories at our website
davegraneycom

"Last nights Dave Graney gig at Leith Cricket Club was seriously one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. Imagine Robert Forster channelling Frank ZappLast nights Dave Graney gig at Leith Cricket Club was seriously one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. Imagine Robert Forster channelling Frank Zappa whilst dressed as a cowboy John Waters. So much charisma. They were joined onstage by Malcolm Ross, Scottish guitar legend from Josef K/Orange Juice, who got to play a few of his own tunes. What a treat to happen right on my doorstep!  @blasts_of_static c/o instagram