Andrew Picouleau passed away this week.
I heard about it via text from a friend who had also had the good fortune to have played with him.
Andrew played with Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes on bass in the year 1991-1992. May have been just a little less than two years.
Our
bass player Gordy Blair had come to Australia to play with us in 1991 and stayed until August, when he had to leave to return to
the UK. I was in a bit of a slump due to an album we had recorded being lost in the British Indie music world as a big distributor had gone under. I was in a low point.
Andrew was a friend of Rod Haywards from previous work in - I think -The Pete Best Beatles (which included Frank Savage - elder brother of Conway- and also had included Gary Adams, Johnny Topper and at some point Spencer Jones). Andrew had also been in the Pop Gun Men and the Metronomes and the Sacred Cowboys. So he was a totally made Melbourne music guy.
He was educated and light hearted and agreed to play with us until Gordy came back. It was nice of him to do that. He was also a great player and knew the material and nothing fazed him. He was interested in the mechanics of song contstruction and paid me compliments about my tunes as he quickly worked his way into them. That was also really nice of him and at the time I needed all the positivity I could get.
After playing shows around the usual haunts open to us in Melbourne I thought I should just have a spell but Robin Casinader began intensive rehearsals with Andrew, Clare Moore and Rod Hayward - along with Amanda Brotchie - to play his material as The Vanishing Lady. A brilliant band with Robins visionary folk rock bent really coming out. Some very complex arrangements. Robin drilled the band far more than I ever did! Andrew stepped into this all very easily as well. A classic, solid bass player. A great guy to have on your team. The rehearsals were mostly all at our flat in Port Melbourne which was above a garage so I loved listening to the music as an observer and faux outsider.
Clare and I had a mindset to keep Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes playing in Sydney as much as Melbourne but due to work commitments Andrew couldn't take any time off. (He worked for many years in University administration). We played shows without a bass. Andrew was cool with that too. These were what we called ‘soft’n’sexy’ shows all through the latter part of 1991 and into ’92. Semi-acoustic shows with acoustic guitars, piano, violin and percussion.
It all came to a boil around the end of that year. Lure Of the Tropics came out and then I Was the Hunter And I Was The Prey and then we went into a studio for a day to record Night Of The Wolverine. Half of it was done with no bass and for the others, we captured the songs with Andrew on bass for that more full-bodied and full-throated sound. For the groove he had worked up with Clare. It was too good not to record it. We did a couple more days overdubs in the following weeks but Gordy Blair was back in town so Andrew suddenly seemed to fade from the picture. I say that as if it just happened and I wasn't there but it did just occur that way. And I felt a little guilty, always, as thats what bands are like. You are held together by promises and camaraderie. You put up with situations that are very undignified, you see each other at your worst. All that intense stuff. In a way you are more than friends. Comrades! Yeah, we owed Gordy but as it turned out we owed Andrew as well.
We kept in touch with Andrew, not very regularly, but we attended significant moments in each others lives. He would say occasionally things about other players from our band who had moved on or whom we had moved on from like "so you kicked them to the gutter and walked away too?". He would say this sort of thing with a smile and laughter but there was something real there. Those are the sorts of messy things we leave trailing for each other I guess.
But I don't mean to say he was full of grudges, he just had that dark, grim, macho wit men of our generation tried to summon and play with and which we communicated through.
He was genuinely a nice character and a great player. I was lucky to have met him and played with him.
He continued to work in the university sector as well as recording several albums with The Metronomes. Farewell, Andrew. Condolences to Margaret and the kids (young adults).
The Metronomes 2023 album.
The Metronomes 2016 album
Pete Best Beatles in "battle Of The Bands" shot. Andrew Picouleau at bottom.
