1. First concert - The Masters Apprentices Kings Theatre Mt Gambier 1970. (I was an actual kid)
2. Last concert - Unsure. Might have been a Tex Perkins and Matt Walker gig. Or Bob Downe. All were excellent. (I'm in the middleof a lot of touring - see below)
3. Worst concert – seen loads of bad shows. Probably something Jon Spencer was doing.
4. Loudest concert - The Other Side at the Marryatville in Adelaide 79 or 1980. But I liked them and everything Rob Younger does. A great guy. The Flaming Lips at the Palace were loud but they seemed to be all about distracting from their essential emptiness anyway. It didn't work. Probably the loudest I've experienced as a player is a couple of nights playing bass with Harry Howard and Edwina Preston and that was just their raw, powerful singing. It was like being in a fire one night on Smith street. I tried to lie down to get under the sound but there was no escape...
5. Best Concert - again - there have been many... I loved seeing Arthur Lee and Love at the Corner after he got out of gaol and I'd seen him at the Sir George Robey in London just before he went in. Johnny Cash and Glenn Campbell with orchestra at the Albert Hall ( and we were sitting and drinking in a private box a friend had for the night) , Mark Stewart and The Maffia wiping the floor with the Swans in London 1987. The Pop Group in Edinburgh 2016 or so. Every gig I saw of the Boys next Door and then the Birthday Party tours when they were back recording Prayers On Fire and Junkyard. Every gig I've seen Tav Falco do. One of my favourite nights was seeing The Mike Flowers Pops play two sets in a theatre club in London. They were like a crazy big band and did versions of film themes like Cool Hand Luke as well as tv themes and irrreverent swings through pompous hard rock classics. In 1996 we were in London and I saw The Divine Comedy on morning tv and they mentioned a gig they were doing that night so we went along to the then rarely used St Pancras Hall to see them launch their genius album CASANOVA. Neil Hannon was fearless, yet bookish and totally confident yet distant. Perfect.
I saw Jimi Tenor play solo a few years ago in Melbourne and he was great. Always is. One of my fave shows was at the Basement in Sydney in 1998. He had an all female band. Drums, bass and trumpet I think. He played organ and sax. Every A&R guy in Australia was there to see the opening act who were the Avalanches. They were still an instrumental trio ( I mean drums and bass and keys or guitars - no samples involved) and acted up for the occasion. Like an audition. Jimi was brilliant. Always love seeing Matt Walker play and hope to see Margret Roadknight again (even though she says she is retiring) . Greg Walker aka machine Translations was the first person I ever saw using a loop pedal and he did it best because he had such great songs. Always love to see what he is doing. In recent years it has been the venues that acts have chosen that has really inspired the occasion for me. the whole Eastmint Crew and their under the radar art factory with the brilliant On Diamond and Cold Hands Warm Heart. I also saw Leah Senior do a great show there. The Go Betweeens were great in the early 80s in Melbourne and when we all went down to Frankston to play in a hall, fully expecting to die- that was - as the late Chris Farley would have said - awesome! Loved seeing the Cruel Sea dozens of times at different stages in their career- always such a wonderful unit. The Beasts Of Bourbon I saw very early and very late and probably the most human glimpse of them was in London in 1987 or 88 and I'd been away from Australia for a few years. Theyd been in Europeand were doing a London gig for the hell of it at the Borderline in the West End . Black Milk was the album and I think Spencer and Kim both has plaster on their arms or wrists. It was amazing to see what a unit they had become (seeing as they started out as something like an accident or a bunch of opportunities- less than serious anyway) .
Always love seeing Jodi Phillis in whatever she does too.
Steely Dan at Rod Laver Arena with Steve Winwood opening (playing a lot of Traffic stuff) was superb.
In the early 2000s Melbourne we used to go see a band called ROOM 101 who were a jazz big band who only played Charles Mingus, that was also always great.
6. Seen the most – probably either Boys Next Door/Birthday Party/Cave/Bad Seeds or The Cruel Sea ( we did two long tours together)
7. Most surprising – Billy Bragg. I was just impressed by how good he was at playing, projecting and presenting and he held your interest for a whole concert. With just an elecctric guitar- no pedals (especially no loop pedal)
8. Happy I got to See – Roky Erikson who had been a strangely influential person on me. Just for his language in his songs more than anything. We were invited by Stewart Lee to play at the last All Tomorrows Parties event and it had a lot of underground heroes on it. Sun Ra Arkestra, Shirley Collins CTMF (!) Roky Erikson, The Raincoats, the Fall, The Nightingales, The Ex, (John Cale pulled out) .
Also glad I got to see James Chance play, and Tim Rose. And Alan Vega in Lausanne , Swizterland in 1990. And David Johansen and Syl Sylvain in Melbourne in 2011. ( Its not my thing but I had to go and say hi to both Alan and David as they'd both been such big influences).
9. Wish I could have seen - The Steve Miller Band, Allman Brothers Band, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Davey Graham, The Stones with Jones, Miles Davis at any period, Charlie Parker in a club, Richard Hell And The Voidoids. Wynonie Harris, Bo Diddley. Elvis Presley, Tim Buckley. Lord Buckley.
10. Still need to see - Paul Westerberg.
Tomorrow we fly to Queensland and hook up with Adele Pickvance who will play bass with us and Dave Wray aka Frank Bennett who will play sax at these venues...
Thursday February 16th we play at Mos Desert Clubhouse in Burleigh Heads.
Friday February 17th at the Hotel Eltham in Eltham (Lismore).
Saturday February 18th we play the Citadel in Murwillumbah.
We are endeavouring to play music from In A Mistly at these shows so we need to make some rock action and drama with bass, drums and guitar. We will be playing other material from our back catalogue as well.
On Saturday afternoon February 25th Clare Moore and I play an opening set for Dog Trumpet at the Northcote Social Club. We will be on quite early.
Thursday March 23rd we play our Melbourne In A Mistly album launch at the Nightcat in Johnston st Fitzroy. We played every Wednesday night in 1999 at 8pm at this venue in one of the first things we did in our post Coral Snakes period. Mick Medew and Ursula will be coming down from Brisbane to open the show as a way to launch their album Love Is Calling in Melbourne as well.
Friday March 31st we play Smiths in Canberra.
Saturday April 1st we launch In A Mistly in Sydney at the Great Club in Marrickville.
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