WORKSHY - notes 2 - the Music Work

When I wrote 1001 Australian Nights I was trying to talk about the tone I had in my songwriting and where I snatched it from. It was pretty abstract and dreamy. I mainly concentrated on the period of my music that got most public exposure in Australia, the early to late 90s with Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes. The albums that were released on Id/Universal.

Night Of The Wolverine, You Wanna Be There But You Don't Wanna Travel, The Soft 'n Sexy Sound and The Devil Drives.

(The latter three albums were released as a 4 disc set - along with a rarities disc- by Universal in 2013)

 

art Tony Mahony

 For Workshy I felt more free to write about the period before this, in the Moodists and in the first version of Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes which began around 1987 in London. 

All this period was pretty much unknown in Australia.  We happened here in the 90s as a pretty new act in many ways, we weren't carrying any baggage from our previous lives and didn't really drag it out for anybody. But all the energy and imagery I was carrying and all the unfinished business Clare Moore and I just had to put right came from that period. My vocabulary and language and aesthetics all came from that period in the UK. Lots of temporary jobs and lots or reading and listening to music that was all up in me when we were playing out in the fields and pubs in 90s Australia. 

I had an agenda. I was on a kind of mission. Very free and ranging about but disciplined. Though in the clip below, filmed for SBS in early 1993 I remember being pretty hungover. (I gave up drinking for most of that year and into 1995/6.

The Moodists had distinct periods too and I wanted to write about the years after Chris Walsh left (1985) and when David MCClymont joined on bass and we also met Malcolm Ross.  Both had been in the Postcard records band Orange Juice whom I had been listening to years before in Melbourne. I had loved their single "Simply thrilled Honey" as well as Malcolms band Josef K's amazing "Sorry For Laughing". There was also the brilliant "Candyskin" by the Fire Engines. I got to know all these people. Heroes.

(WORKSHY was also edited by Janet Austin who was a presence in the early Melbourne post punk scene as well as a fellow traveller with the Birthday Party and friends to London and with whom we shared a house in 80s London and who now co-habits with David McClymont in outer Melbourne). 

That later period of the Moodists was a great time for taking in and learning a lot about songs and songwriting and arranging. Other peoples histories and mythologies. We were all being stewed in London. It was a furnace that burnt people up.

In WORKSHY I , of course, write about the 90s years in Australia as well. I thought it would be good to get down what it was like to come from so deep in the underworld to be working with a large record company (I loved it)  and also suddenly thinking of being played on radio and also how many people worked in the business then. So many record shops and driving around to visit them with the PR people. (And how they were always all female). The excitement of being in a combine like that. How important it was to have just ONE person in there on your side.

Then I wanted to write about the period after that, when  we continued to produce albums every year (and still do) but in a  much less pressurized atmosphere. So we had to bring our own weather.

In the beginning of the book it says , "...in 2007 it all bloomed..."




There was, of course, also the internet. Which in many ways stopped time......




Hey its Xmas, buy a friend a copy of WORKSHY from the publisher AFFIRM PRESS.  

We also have our 2017 CD LETS GET TIGHT available on CD. It costs $20 and is one of the best albums we have ever made. You can find copies of it - as well as many others - at this page on our website. 
In Sydney it's available at REDEYE RECORDS.
In Melbourne its available at Basement Discs, Rocksteady Records in the city and Greville Records in Prahran. 
In Adelaide it's at Streetlight records.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore CD Let's Get Tight available at iTunes and Bandcamp now.

We have our annual Boxing day blowout in Adelaide at the Hotel Metro 6pm December 26th.

January 27th - we do a DJ set at the National Gallery of Victoria. DJ's HASHISH AND LIQUOR. 6-8pm .

In February we journey to NSW regional venues and then to the Sunshine Coast and to Brisbane.

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 Book Here

Feb 8th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at DisGracelands, Wollongong, NSW.Also appearing, Justin Frew. Bookings here. SOLD OUT!

Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grocer, Orange, NSW Book here.
426 Molong Rd , Orange NSW

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

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

Feb 16th - Dave Graney and the mistLY at the Grand Hotel, 124 Main st - Mornington, Victoria
Feb 17th - Dave Graney solo at the Gem bar , Wellington st Collingwood. 

Feb 18th , I'm part of a talk about the art of Jenny Watson and the music that inspired her in the late 70s- early 80's  at the Museum of Modern Art- Heide Gallery at 2pm. 

Feb 21st I am doing a WORKSHY reading / event at Geelong Library - 7-8:30 pm.

Thursday Feb 22nd - A WORKSHY event at Avid Readers in Brisbane. 6-8pm. 

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

4pm matinee show now added! 

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.

Australian Music Vault and King Gizzard

The Party season continued with a night at the Victorian Arts Centre for the opening of the Australian Music Vault. We'd done an exhaustive interview for this with Jane Gazzo a few months ago. A very worthy and interesting project.
They had some items of ours at the Performing Arts Museum and these had been subsumed , or included, in this exhibition. Clare Moore had been involved a few years ago in an exhibition which had been given the terrible name Rock Chicks but had also been a great, and long overdue focus on female musicians in Australia. This VAULT was to be a more general exhibition.

 

 Clare Moore's boots and handbag

We arrived at about 6pm and hung about outside with Barry C Douglas, it being far too early to arrive at the actual function - ON TIME.

There were about 500 people in the room. I ran into Ross Wilson, Margret Roadknight and Jeannie Lewis, Bruce and Peter Milne, Mike Rudd, Jeff Duff, Neville and Linda from Maton guitars, Angie Hart, Ian McFarlane and many other people.

Michael Gudinski gave  a speech which was a lot like many other speeches I'd heard him give. Yelling into a crowded room about Mushroom records and successful recent tours. Spoke also of the jacket he was wearing and how he'd worn it to the Mushroom 25 celebration many years ago. He talked of Melbourne and its great venues "like Rod Laver Arena and - whats that one you like Matt? Used to be HiSense?Margaret Court...."

Victorian Arts Minister Martin Foley also spoke, as did the head of the Arts Centre, Claire Spencer.

Its a great exhibition and a very worthy exercise.

Tina Arena also spoke, with all the gravitas that she brings to such occasions. As well as talking of her art and the general struggles of Australian performers, she reminded us she should have been at a school function for her son.

Ian "Molly" Meldrum also gave a speech. Always a cheerleader for Australian pop. He shared a couple of stories about his comings and goings with the British Royal family and Charles and Di in particular.

Kylie Minogue was somewhere in the room. I didn't look but Michael Gudinski, Ian "Molly" Meldrum, Martin Foley and Claire Spencer all gestured and referred to an area of the room where she must have been situated. Tina Arena did not defer. Hierarchy and deference were important here, as well as people giving up their valuable time.

My Red Velvet Suit made by my mum in 1985 next to a dress belonging to Lindy Morrison (Not really noted for spangly dresses) and Deniz Tek's ripped jeans and denim jacket....cool!

Billy Miller and Rebecca Barnard got up to sing some notable Australian songs for the occasion and did a fantastic job. Needless to say - it was a tough crowd!

We hung around far too late in the bar with Janine Barrand from the arts centre and her mate Lorenzo, Penny Ikinger and Vincent Hanon and then took an hour long train ride home.

The next day I did the final Banana Lounge Broadcast of the year.
I drove in as I was a bit late getting started.
The previous week I'd gotten in touch with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard to see if they could come in to get the NARNIE award for best album 2017. Eric, the co-drummer who also does all the logistics, said that he could come in.
The show goes from 12-2pm. At about 12:45 I told Sam Cummins at Triple R that I hadn't heard and he called them. Eric was surprised as it hadn't been confirmed but said they'd "jump in the car".

They were getting the award for  the FOUR albums they'd already released in 2018 and they are still talking of getting their FIFTH out. So they were still actually working on that last one. I mean, their time was actually being impinged upon. I HAD TO ACTUALLY THANK THEM FOR GIVING US THEIR VALUABLE TIME!. ( an actual first in showbusiness?)

So I was honoured and surprised when Eric came in with Stu McKenzie, and drummer Michael Cavanagh to talk for an hour. You can listen back here. The interview starts at about one hour in.

The Fourth King Gizzard album for 2017, POLLYGONDWANALAND is available completely for free to download. In mp3, WAV forms with artwork and all. Stu explains in the interview why they did this. Its as good as all the others and in some ways continues the prog/jazz stylings and textures of SKETCHES OF EAST BRUNSWICK.

Such a great unit.






Hey its Xmas, buy a friend a copy of WORKSHY from the publisher AFFIRM PRESS.  

We also have our 2017 CD LETS GET TIGHT available on CD. It costs $20 and is one of the best albums we have ever made. You can find copies of it - as well as many others - at this page on our website. 
In Sydney it's available at REDEYE RECORDS.
In Melbourne its available at Basement Discs, Rocksteady Records in the city and Greville Records in Prahran. 
In Adelaide it's at Streetlight records.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore CD Let's Get Tight available at iTunes and Bandcamp now.

We have our annual Boxing day blowout in Adelaide at the Hotel Metro 6pm December 26th.

January 27th - we do a DJ set at the National Gallery of Victoria. DJ's HASHISH AND LIQUOR. 6-8pm .

In February we journey to NSW regional venues and then to the Sunshine Coast and to Brisbane.

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 TBA -  Wollongong, NSW.
Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grocer, Orange, NSW

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

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

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

Feb 18th , I'm part of a talk about the art of Jenny Watson and the music that inspired her in the late 70s- early 80's  at the Museum of Modern Art- Heide Gallery at 2pm. 

Feb 21st I am doing a WORKSHY reading / event at Geelong Library - 7-8:30 pm.

Thursday Feb 22nd - A WORKSHY event at Avid Readers in Brisbane. 6-8pm.

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.

Makin the Scene.

December is a time for socializing and parties. Ain't it just? A mad rush and crush of a time.

I'm reading a thick book by Len Deighton called "Blood, Folly and Tears- an objective history of World War 2."

Len wrote those great Harry Palmer books, the filmed versions of which starred Michael Caine. Len is still alive and still writing. The Harry Palmer character was working class but a spy (amongst all the public school MI5 boys) in the cold war. He was aspirational in that he loved to cook fine food and talked about champignons and spices in the films- in Caine's broad Cockney accent. Len even put out some cook books for LADS in the sixties.

The book is a history text all about the lead up to WW2.  The ways the armies and navies were organized in the European countries after WW1 and the codes and radar, how broke England was. How Churchill was disliked and just shaded Lord Halifax to replace Chamberlain and how Halifax was thought to be certain to deal with Hitler because- well - he quite agreed with him....

I never knew Czechoslovakia made all the weapons and the best steel. Or that the trenches in WW1 just happened and that the cavalry was waiting behind the lines for an opening to charge out of- for the entire war....

 

I think Barry Adamson made this? That's how he addresses me anyways...

Also watching the fifth season of Ray Donovan.  Another American story of violent thugs who do it all FOR THE FAMILY! I got tired of that trope in Sons Of Anarchy but have stuck with this one. Mainly because the father is Jon Voigt and he is the most destructive and wilful thug of all.




This fifth season is heavy though. Very tense. And the story is told in an amazing flashbacked and whip turned style. Really great.

I have a stack of books to read over the summer. Looking forward to that. Of course, finding time to read in the party season is difficult.

In 2007 I sat on a rock by a beautiful bay on Cocos Islands looking out to 2500 k's of the Indian Ocean and read a book.

Lord Byron knew what I meant to say there....

I. Personal, Lyric, and Elegiac

Solitude

(Childe Harold, Canto ii. Stanzas 25, 26.)   TO sit on rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen.	5
With the wild flock that never needs a fold:
Alone o’er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude; ’tis but to hold
Converse with Nature’s charms, and view her stores unroll’d
But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,	10
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world’s tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,	15
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all that flatter’d, follow’d, sought, and sued;
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude.

So I went along to the annual party organized by APRA. Every December. It used to be open to songwriters only and was a great occasion where we could talk loosely and in very dark and careless ways. One time I just sat with Greg McAinsh from Skyhooks for about an hour and had such a great time. Our paths occasionally cross, in the streets here and there.
For a few years now- or maybe more- it's become a get together with all the other people who think they are the Melbourne music scene. Bookers and agents and pr people. I'd say writers too but I really don't know how many of them there are any more. Publishers and record company people.  All very nice and that but I would prefer it if they had their own arrangements.
The party is held at different venues around the town too. Wholly from some misguided idea that a music scene is about the rooms and not the players. Some rooms are better than others and this years was too small and hot and people spilled out onto the street. I had done my show at Triple R during the day and hung around in town to make the scene, killing a few hours shopping and then reading at the library. (see you gotta take it where you can...)
Clare Moore was rehearsing elsewhere on her secret project with jane Dust and Emily Jarrett (The ROUTINES) so I had to represent the org at this shindig.

Of the musicians and songwriters there it was very much the current crop of people of course.  It would be nice to see people from different generations. I had a cool time talking with Penny Ikinger and Kate from It Records, Dan and Chops Brodie, Richard Stanley, Maz and Robbie, Kaye Louise Patterson, Stew Farrell, Ron Peno, Lisa McKinney and Matt from Taipan Tiger Girls, Kim Salmon  and many others.

Then this fellow who I vaguely knew of from the 000's music scene started yacking at me about a regional venue he'd played at and how "nice" it was and not at all rough and unpleasant and how the man who ran it was hard to get along with but was good if he liked you. "Well fuck him then" was my response. This fellow kept throwing the hi hatting tones. He mentioned some other joint in an outer suburban suburb that "didn't make you feel like kiling yourself". I just said I play in regional areas all the time and every outer suburban place I can and generally have a great time. Then Boris from the Scientists , Dubrovniks and the Beasts sauntered up and it was nice to chat with someone from a galaxy close to my world. We did have a lot of shared experiences but have probably only really stopped to talk with each other in recent years. We were laughing at how we both first got to London in the early 80s and would buy cheap beer in exotic Euro cans and find ourselves drinking gallons of it - to no effect except to visit the pissoir more often. it took time to read the alcohol content on the tins because they varied so much. In Melbourne and in Perth there had been only one brand of beer available so the idea of choice was not really a thing.

Anyway, that 000's generation of indie" music. Wow, what a sexless, pointless dead end all that shit was and is! Muted, middle class, private school , neat and tidy, tasteful, beige bullshit, Who's to blame? Is there any emblematic artist? Not really, just a general pall over the scenes. They all loved Leonard Cohen and Tom waits I guess. A gated community. Kind of acoustic, kind of electronic. Indie orthodox, I guess you'd call it. Rootless and futureless. No arcadia, no utopia. No licks. Not enough reverb or bass, just too much flat (and white) PRESENCE. So I avoided most of it.

I shouldn't go on too much. Spirit of the season and all that. wot! Anyway, one day I must tell you about the worst year EVER in popular music, which I locate somewhere around 1998 - which might start somewhere in mid 1997 and end somewhere in mid 2002. It's hard to write about music and periods without picking on individual bands and artists because - ITS NOT ALWAYS ALL THEIR FAULT! So why should they have to carry the can?

The party was very enjoyable anyway. I'm really not a grouch! Just that the world can put a grip on you sometimes. I was there for five hours, sitting around at the end with Glenn Bennie from the Underground Lovers and Lisa Gibbs, two of my favourite people. Glenn was arranging his funeral service which involved a lot of songs from the first Split Enz album.





Then Clare and Jane Dust slid their van onto the kerb, knocking over some tables and chairs and I got in the back and we drove off.

I debriefed with them on the night they'd avoided . So many people at this party spoke of Paul McCartney too. Weird.

Hey its Xmas, buy a friend a copy of WORKSHY from the publisher AFFIRM PRESS.  

We also have our 2017 CD LETS GET TIGHT available on CD. It costs $20 and is one of the best albums we have ever made. You can find copies of it - as well as many others - at this page on our website. 
In Sydney it's available at REDEYE RECORDS.
In Melbourne its available at Basement Discs, Rocksteady Records in the city and Greville Records in Prahran. 
In Adelaide it's at Streetlight records.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore CD Let's Get Tight available at iTunes and Bandcamp now.

We have our annual Boxing day blowout in Adelaide at the Hotel Metro 6pm December 26th.

January 27th - we do a DJ set at the National Gallery of Victoria. DJ's HASHISH AND LIQUOR. 6-8pm .

In February we journey to NSW regional venues and then to the Sunshine Coast and to Brisbane.

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 TBA -  Wollongong, NSW.
Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grocer, Orange, NSW

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

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

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

Feb 18th , I'm part of a talk about the art of Jenny Watson and the music that inspired her in the late 70s- early 80's  at the Museum of Modern Art- Heide Gallery at 2pm. 

Feb 21st I am doing a WORKSHY reading / event at Geelong Library - 7-8:30 pm.

Thursday Feb 22nd - A WORKSHY event at Avid Readers in Brisbane. 6-8pm.

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

PERTH daylight spending capital of the world

We had to get an early flight to Perth so that saw us heading out of our front door at 6am for the 75 minute drive to the airport. (If you leave any later its a 120minute drive).

We ate some fruit along the way and then talked our way onto the plane with three bags each. The flight takes three hours or so - depending on the wind. I took the opportunity to catch up on some back issues of the London Review of Books. There was a great story about the writer Stendhal. I love this bit....

"Beyle (Stendhal) had to be free. Free from his father and family, free from his own name, free from his birthplace, Grenoble, and from France and the French, free from responsibilities, money worries, people and places that bored him, free above all from the anxieties that have us seeking the approval of our peers, which is to say, from vanity, the great scourge, as Beyle saw it, of modern society. ‘The more I advance,’ he writes in 1812, ‘the more ambition disgusts me. It is simply putting one’s happiness in the hands of others.’

They gave us breakfast. I had the yoghurt and muesli but it also came with a miniature muffin type thing so my low carbs regime went out the window pretty quick.

We arrived in Perth to find it quite blindingly hot. Shade was at a minimum.

Clare and I were staying at a small hotel in Northbridge and Stu went to his ancestral pile elsewhere.

We had flown out at 11 and arrived at 11am. We went for some lunch near the hotel and found a Vietnamese restaurant. I had some stir fried vegetables and a rice paper roll. It was really great.

A couple of hours later I went to do an interview at the local ABC. That week had seen local presenters all over Australia get chopped as the National Broadcaster was being diligently destroyed by  a Murdoch schooled Managing director, Michell Guthrie.  She was also taking the final parts of Radio National apart and fashioning them into more of a twitter/clickbait style of afairs. She was questioning whether the broadcaster should really think of itself as a broadcaster anymore. She set all this chaos in motion and then refused to talk to anyone. She preferred to empower middle managers to go out and spruik the new media content generator to the world. Though they had to explain what she was making them do. Have you ever seen that John Carpenter movie, They Live?




Anyway, I ended up in the Perth (the state capital) ABC studio with a  couple of tech guys helping me to talk with the presenter who was in Albany, a provincial city hundreds of kilometers away. Nobody died! One of the tech guys was also filming me with an iphone attached to a miniature motion dolly to use of their web site - I guess. The rest of the large building seemed to be empty. (There was not even a receptionist)

That night I did a career long perspective Q and A interview type show with breaks where I would play songs to illustrate points we touched on at a boutique theatrette not far from the hotel. Well, not walking distance anyway. It was a place where film productions could show their finished work to prospective buyers to the cast and crew. A great venue. The Backlot Studios.

Before the show I went to an IGA supermarket to get some nuts and dried fruit and a banana for dinner. 

The capacity was about 50 people all sitting in deluxe Gold Class Cinema chairs and I did the talk with writer Bob Gordon. He mentioned that we'd talked many times over the years (decades) but this was the first time we'd actually met. A local book shop called BOFFINS was selling copies of WORKSHY.

An indigenous woman was very amusing before the show. She was with her brother and after a while she confessed she'd just wanted a beer and bought a book by mistake so she thought she should stay for the proceedings.

The talk/interview was really cool and Bob did a wonderful job. There were lots of really interesting people there. A fellow called John who had formerly been Ross who gave me an envelope filled with matchbooks from places like the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. A funny character, full of mad energy with darting eyes and always covering his mouth and moving in to whisper some dark conspiratorial line of investigation that I should go down. After the event I went back to the hotel and ate a few more handfulls of telegraph pole lettuce and chocolate with Clare Moore, (who had not attended the show due to a date with a friendly tv set).

The next day we had a  mild panic about backline gear  but soon sorted that. We visited a cool second hand vinyl shop run by Maurice Flavel who had been in early Perth bands with Gareth Liddiard from the Drones . The shop was vcalled Noise Pollution and I almost bought an Incredible String Band double but couldn't hack the idea of carrying vinyl back on the plane.

Perth was blindingly hot. They don't have daylight saving here- BECAUSE THEY HAVE ENOUGH SUNLIGHT THANKS....

We went for some lunch and, dazed by the light and heat, ended up in another Vietnamese joint in Northbridge.  Still avoiding meat, Clare went for an omelette type affair and I had a salad. Clare's omelette was quite large and was a bit like a Calzone pizza, rolled over on itself. It didn't take long to discover it had great chunks of pineappple in it (half a large tin), which the waitress even found to be weird. I also had some rice paper rolls and these fell apart in my hands. I think the work experience staff was on in the kitchen.

We were to play as a trio at the Fly By Night Musicians Club in Fremantle, a short drive from Perth. Clare had a Gretsch kit, Stu had  a big bass cabinet and I was to play through a Vox. ( I never feel Voxish but I got some good tones after a while) We had a long sound check and then took care of some admin and waited for the show.

The first band was a mostly all female setup led by  a keys player - singer songwriter called Em Burrows. Quite madly prog - jazz. Not as mad or hot and bothered as Melbourne's  MANGELWURZEL but just as enjoyable. More composed and arranged. Great textures from the keys and guitar and an excellent sax player.

Tomas Ford then tore the joint up for a solid hour with his Craptastic Dance Party show.  A Fremantle based international fellow of comedy and cabaret, his show is big on audience capitulation. He gets people up and bothered.

We then played a long set of songs from across the years. A beautiful old room and a pretty full house. We started with "I'm Not Afraid to Be Heavy" and ended with "Rock 'n' Roll Is Where I Hide", stopping at a lot of songs from Lets Get Tight and doing "Robert Ford On The Stage" because somebody asked me to.

Was great chatting with people who'd come to see us play at many different stages of our career and especially cool to hook up with old comrades Alsy McDonald and Jil Birt from the Triffids. Alsy took the photo of us playing at the club.

A woman asks me to sign her vagina, then says she's only joking. Thank christ. I rolled my sleeves back down. Another says "give me a hug you big beautiful hunk of a man!". Another is more demure and  chats while buying a book and then strides around to my side of the table, saying "now I must kiss you..."

The next day i was to do a  WORKSHY launch at a hotel and then we'd fly out. So we had to check out of our hotel and kill some time . Hotter and brighter than ever, our promoter Andrew kindly lent us his BMW and we drove down to Scarborough beach. Honestly, Albert Camus would have loved Perth in this kind of weather. It is existential. I think of nothing but doomsday scenarios as we walk about. The locals don't. They are cool with their tattoos and their short shorts and shades. And their LOOMING CERTAIN DEATH!

Clare is adamant that she's going to eat "something normal - like a crushed avocado on rye!". So two minutes later we are the only two customers in a Nepalese restaurant and I am ordering a Mushroom and pea curry and Clare is asking for some Dahl. The waitress is a goddess from a mountain tea plantation with long hair and smiling, almond shaped eyes. The food is pretty ordinary and I keep asking Clare why are we not enjoying a smashed avo. She is not amused and blames me for going along with her when she didn't know where she was going.

I find a nice book shop and buy something by the poet John Kinsella, who I learn comes from Perth. the older gent runing the shop tells me the poet came and sold all his books and then "came back when he was off the drugs and wanted them back...." I ask if he sold them back and he says of course so. I also get a volume of Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry. I only wanted the Walter Raleigh stuff.

WHAT is our life? The play of passion.
Our mirth? The music of division:
Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for life’s short comedy.
The earth the stage; Heaven the spectator is,
Who sits and views whosoe’er doth act amiss.
The graves which hide us from the scorching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus playing post we to our latest rest,
And then we die in earnest, not in jest.

The event at the hotel is again chaired by Bob Gordon but more focussed on WORKSHY. Not as well attended but still very enjoyable. Livened up by the presence of John who I mentioned earlier and also our friends from out West, Dennis Commetti and his girlfriend Velia.

We had a cool time and then found ourselves at the airport sitting in a cafe staring at some overpriced air commuter food. I got an egg salad and Clare made show with some sort of sandwich. Nobody died. The plane left at 11:25 pm and landed in Melbourne at 6am.

My book WORKSHY was well displayed in the aiport... I'm actually reading the one about Robert Stigwood, "Mr Showbiz", which is displayed next to mine.

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 Grocer, Orange, NSW

Feb 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Cafe 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.

Gear-Kit-Big Bottoms and Warp.

 The second weekend we were in Sydney was experienced with an impending sense of doom due to reports of an immense storm that was to hit melbourne at the same time. Our studio had been flooded in late December 2016 due to a freak weather event and we'd only just got the place fixed. Still, we could fret in Sydney or fret at home, nothing can stop water when it falls like that. The reports were of "a 10/10 storm- a catastrophic event".

I should mention that when Clare Moore and I played at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla last Thursday they gave us some flat bread and dips, pan-fried cauliflower with coriander and other herbs and some pasta with some sort of sea food in a shell. Still nothing with eyes or legs! (in reference to last blog and our Flexitarian turn)

Also, we did fall into a few meat dishes where we stayed but that was just having to be polite...

As we were loading the amp  and guitars outside the venue a brushtail possum (NSW variation with a skinny black tail) walked up the main street of Cronulla, off to itsbreakfast at a bin somewhere I guess. 
We drove back to the inner west from Cronulla after midnight playing the best of Hermans Hermits in the van, Hardly any traffic and the cd was still playing when we arrived at our destination.

We looked up "Melbourne storm" on twitter, people were mocking it.
Where we were staying, there were two West Highland Terriers which we had to walk. Tex and Archie. The latter was a visitor to the house.

Tex- Archie and Clare Moore

The show at Petersham Bowls was our trio set-up. Stu Thomas on bass and vocals, Clare Moore on drums, keys and vocals and me on acoustic and electric guitars.
I've had my Maton EGB808 since 1997 and bought my Crate 125 acoustic amplifier around the same time. probably the most expensive gear I've ever bought - and - stangely - the best. The acoustic goes through a further Aphex exciter pedal to shape the bottom end as well as the highs and gets a tremendously dynamic sound. The low end knob is actually called "Big Bottom". So much better than going direct into the PA. The sound gets to move through the air a lot more. To get some variation I play an electric through the same amp but put it through a Sansamp Classic pedal (which I'd also bought in 1997). I also use an MXR  Micro amp pedal for clean bost on both guitars and a Boss Super distorton for a bit of a grittier sound and a Tech21 XXL pedal for super boost. A little Danelectro BLT slap delay as well.
I sit the amp on the ground and rock it back as I don't like it to be blaring straight at me. A little off to the side of me and down at my knees.

The electric guitar I was using was my Ibanez Talman TM71 metallic/gold flecked semi acoustic. I had two Gretcsh filtertron pickups put on it a few years ago and it has a lot of variation in the tone and a lot of bite. During the show I have to take care of a few pedals in between acoustic and electric songs but its all working really well. The Tech21 XXL pedal is like a lot of their stuff, full of tonal nuance that takes  a few years to get used to. The distortion on this dries up completely if you wind your volume pot off on your guitar. It has a gain level which I never have on at all, and a volume level and a tone knob, It has another setting called "warp" which I had to trawl a few online sites to work out what it was for. Someone said it was QUEEN one way and THE STOOGES the other. So, of course, I wound it totally away from QUEEN for a few years but have allowed it to slip back as I need a bit of clarity in the squall.

The Petersham Bowling Club is a place that people have found and love to go to in Sydney's inner west so I hope it continues. It was a full room and the PA had no mics on the drums or amps. In that situation the band has to keep a tight formation and listen to each other.  Really, they should hang some mics on the kit and make the situation a bit better as it would help everybody out. We could handle it but we play in lots of different situations. There were moments where the PA was making inappropriate noise and other times the foldback just stopped and I was half wrecking my pipes. Hopefully they can fine tune it. We played two sets of music from across the last two decades, lots of songs from the last two albums, FEARFUL WIGGINGS and LETS GET TIGHT.

For dinner I had a vegetarian pizza. No meat but my plans to lay off the bread were being thwarted.
On the way home we listened to The Best Of The Hollies on CD in the van and yes, it was still playing when we arrived.

We looked up Twitter and the rest. Rain was falling but.....

Hardys Bay Club  was a 90 minute drive through Sydneys North, across the bridge toward the Central Coast. We stayed at an Air BnB and dropped our stuff off before the gig.
We arrived at the gig and Clare and I walked inside, then realized it was actually somebodys house - right next door to the venue. Would have been amazing if we'd gone to the fridge and gotten a snack out or used the can.... A sign outside seemed to be advertising me doing a  "blues jam". Clare shuddered and texted Matt walker for some charts.

A beautiful room with more than a few hundred people in it. People who seemed to have all been sea/tree changers from Sydney. Economic refugees. We played one long set here, 75-80 minutes, and they made us come back on stage twice.

I ate a salad with boconcini and tomatoes and drank a lot of mineral water.

We drove back to our accom in Ettalong listening to a beats/techno comp I had bought in an op shop called "Dope On Plastic 5". Clare and Stu were mocking it.

"Melbourne Storm" was still being mocked but also really actually happening in Northern Victoria and the highway back to Melbourne had been closed at Euroa. 

The next day was a Sunday and we cleaned the house and had lunch at a  cafe in Ettalong. I had some raw nuts and fruit and Clare and Stu had some eggs. The next show was 10 minutres away by boat or 90 minutes by car. We drove back to Sydney and out through another inlet to Church Point where we were to play at 3pm. This turned out to be a delightful restaurant type of show with us setup in a roofed area looking into the dining area with the sea and a host of sails out to our right side.

 photo https://www.instagram.com/t1_photo/ 

Quite a lovely day. It was "North Shore" in Sydney terms but also close to this Gilligans Island/boaty beachcomber side of things as well. A great family run room. The matriarch came and welcomed us as we arrived and put us at ease. The sound man was great. It worked. We'd been brought there by our agent Steve Griffiths and noted Sydney musician/ singer Tina Harrod who booked the place and had heard of it through photographer Chuck Bradley.

We spoiled the crowd for other bands, as usual. They'll expect this level of flash from everybody now. We played two sets. Three alpha brothers shouted and screamed through the whole day in joyful abandon. I learned some new tricks. A seven foot man told me embarassedly that he loved me. The  weather was amazingly beatific.

 

photo https://www.instagram.com/t1_photo/

As we packed up a man poked his head through a window of the stage (which had rails like a porch ina  tv sitcom set) and, leaning on the rails, said "thats a real tasty crash cymbal you've got there, Clare. is it a Sabian?"

I ate a fig salad which had a lot of rocket and big dobs of soft blue cheese.

We drove back to Sydney in the early evening. Stu had hidden Dope on Plastic 5 so we had to listen to Clares double cd of British tv theme music. This was great, stuff like Pentangles Light Flights and tracks from Roy Budds GET CARTER soundtrack and John Barrys theme to THE PERSUADERS.

The next day we drove back to Melbourne, Before we left we visited a shop in the inner west where Clare was looking for a dress. Rain was pelting down. I got some coffees, some apricots and bananas.

We arrived home at about 9pm, having eaten no bread or meat. And the house had not been flooded by the much threatened deluge.

We are in Perth and Fremantle this week

and then its just our annual Boxing day gig at the Hotel Metro in Adelaide...

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 Grocer, Orange, NSW

Feb 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Cafe 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.

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.