It has been quite a sociable time of it for me recently. Something to do with the lovely late summer weather in Melbourne, I guess. Also the fact we weren't doing many shows.
We did a series of dates for our CREATIVE CREEP single in February and March and then set about organizing some dates for May, June and July.
Also a lot of time at home. I have been reading the collected short stories of JG Ballard which are amazing me with their prophetic freshness. I am 300 pages in and still reading pieces from 1962. I read some of these in their original collections in the 80s but none of these really early ones. Some very pure sci fi,some with intimations of his later obsessions with time sicknesses and cities that are planet deep. (One has a world with so many people in it that they are each limited to living in "cubicles" that are 4.5 metre wide). Some are so strange they could be scripts for Twilight Zone television episodes. Such a prophet. Studio 5, The Stars could have been written today with its vision of a colony of indolent poets in an idyllic coastal city writing all their verses via computers. Mr F is Mr F was just odd as it features a narrator and his pregnant wife and he keeps getting smaller and smaller as she gets bigger and bigger until.....
Previously I had read some Jenny Diski books which were always interesting and surprising and a brilliant Nabokov novel called ADA. Nabokov stays with you. Such a great writer.
TV? Loved the Austrian /German drama Pagan Peak and the Swedish The Truth Will Out and the Portuguese VANDA. Was riveted by - but hated the characters- in DOPESICK. Also watched a 1987 UK series of a John LeCarre story called The Perfect Spy. That was unsettling and creepy. But great.
Music? Just listening to a lot of old jazz. Educating myself.
Though I have been enjoying VULFMON and his extended group of identities and players.
I have also sarted a SUBSTACK where I intend to post some different kinds of writing.
https://davegraney.substack.com/p/coming-in-with-john-cowper-powys
Had a great night out watching Melbourne player Tim Deane launch his album at George Lane in St Kilda. He played in a band called The Hired Guns with Anthony Paine and Chris Willard on guitars. Tim played guitar and keys. Tim also played for about 13 years as part of the Superstitions who recorded and played many albums with the late Ron Peno. Tim was always a comic figure arriving to play at tiny venures (and large) in his 70s Valiant with no window on one side which suited him as he often had one long keyboard sticking out of that handy opening. He would often turn up with two amps, three guitars and two or three keyboards and then get to hooking up all his pedals as well. He always brought his A game and was a great guy to have on your team (I often saw this at close hand because Clare Moore played drums with the Hired Guns for a couple of years).
I joked that their whole set could just be billed as a night of Guitar Porn as well as music as they all had such beautiful machines in their hands. (Anthony Paine makes HARVESTER GUITARS).
On this night the Hired Guns opened the proceedings under a new name, Sore Eyes. Then Charlie Marshall played a set on electric guitar and vocals accompanied by his son on tenor sax and keyboards.
Then Tim Deane played a set and brought on all of the Superstitions as well as a horn section and Bronwyn Henderson on violin.
Nick Danyi was a character from the very early 80s Melbourne music scene that we enjoyed knowing. He played sax on a track from the Moodists called Kept Spectre from our 1982 album Engine Shudder but he mainly played in a group called the Feral Dinosaurs who also included Jim Shugg on vocals and guitar, Jim White on drums, Conway Savage on keys and Dave Last on bass. Jim Shugg and White also played in The People With Chairs Up Their Noses during the same period.
All
of these characters have been life long friends and many of us
gathered to pay our respects to Nick as he had passed away in March.
A day of beautiful eulogies from Nicks daughter and friends Tony Wyzenbeek and Bruce Kane, Jim Shugg, a woman called Anna who told a story of sailing a Catamaran Nick had bought in Brisbane down to Melbourne even though she had never been to sea before. A woman called Caroline filled us in on all his adventures in country Gippsland before he relocated to Melbourne. Charlie Marshall told a wonderful story of how Nick had rebuilt the timber roof and ceiling of his house. One of those occasions where you realize you knew a person from a few months perspective from decades ago and you got to see more of him the more people filled in all the gaps with their own views and experiences. It was a tremendous tribute to a person. A man of action and mad skills and physicality. Much loved and lamented.
The late Conway Savage and Nick Danyi at our wedding in Adelaide in 1985.
The People With Chairs Up Their Noses. Jim White, David Palliser and Mark Barry on bass. Mark put the PA up for the wake/tributee to Nick Danyi we all attended.
Back sleeve of The Feral Dinosaurs LP, You've All Got A Home To Go To (1985)
We have some other shows booked. These are confirmed so far.
Friday May 3rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Agrestic Grocer in Orange, NSW.
Saturday May 4th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play THE BAROQUE ROOM, Katoomba, NSW.
Sunday May 5th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Stag and Hunter in Newcastle, NSW
Friday May 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play Lyric Lane in Maylands (Perth) WA
Saturday May 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Duke Of George in East Fremantle, WA
Saturday May 18th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine, Victoria.
Wherever we can we will be playing a rock show. Bass, drums and guitar music. In NSW we will be playing with Greg Thorsby on bass and in WA we will be playing with Martyn Casey on the bass.
There are more dates to announce in Qld, NSW and Victoria.
(strangely)(emotional) out April 12th
Night Of The Wolverine available as double vinyl LP.
Lyric book There He Goes With His Eye Out (Lyrics 1980-2023) available via Bandcamp.
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