campaign trail notes

Time has been eaten up totally with book and cd coming out. The book has been getting an amazing reception so far. Not really used to it. Embraced by critical voices.


Ta!

The launch for the book was incredibly well attended by many old friends and musicians and artists among them. Never ha d a night like it really. Martin Hughes from Affirme Press and Warren Costello from Liberation introduced the night, and me, in a very formal way which was quite touching for us. Introduced to media and artistic people as musicians and an author of interest and integrity. It meant a lot.



Elizabeth McCarthy who co presents "BLB" with me on RRR then gave an introduction to me that was equally impressive. More from a friend and comrade. It meant a lot as she is definitely from "the new world". By that I mean comrades and friends we have worked and associated with over the last decade rather than from the distant past.
We then sat about having a few glasses of water in the bar. Feeling great.

The previous morning I had been a guest on RRR and then went on "THE CIRCLE" on Channel 10 which is an afternoon how presented by women. Like all stalk appearances, it was a bit like an alien abduction. The bright lights come down and you lose track of twenty or so minutes of your life.
The producer was in the Green Room, trying to sort out what I could talk about and how I could interact with the hosts. He mentioned someone from The Scissor Sisters. I said I didn't know squat about that act. He was very nice and not at all trying to make me do anything I didn't want to. He asked if I would dance on , doing a bit of a "mash up" as he had read that I liked hop hop.I said that I had only one gear and it was what he was getting as he spoke to me. He laughed and appreciated that.Chrissie Francis, Yumi Stynes, Kate Ceberano and Glenn Robbins were the hosts. I always feel the hosts are the most nervous in these types of situations. I can control the tempo.



Looking forward to ore shows and readings over the next couple of months.
Harry Howard and the N.D.E. album in the can. Started to learn the clarinet.(Well it took me half a day to get a note and I'm enjoying the feel of it)



Thursday 14th April
Reading 6pm House of Refreshment Level 1, Abbotsford Convent, Heliers St
Abbotsford VIC 3067 p. 03 9419 5255

Dave Graney appearing as part of a group of musicians for INTERNATIONAL RECORD STORE DAY at Basement Discs in Melbourne.

Thursday 28th April
12.45pm -1.15pm The Wheeler Centre
Topic: “Will the social networks bring back an interest in the future/ the unknown?”
176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne 3000 (03) 9094 7800
6.30pm Reading at Readings, St Kilda .
112 Acland St, St Kilda
Saturday 30th April
1-2pm - Reading at TITLE
Sydney Rd Brunswick

5-6pm Williamstown Literary Festival
Old Council Chamber @ Williamstown Town Hall,
Ferguson Street, Williamstown
Thursday 5th May - Bended Elbow- GEELONG.
Friday 6th May- Bended Elbow - Ballarat.

May 7th - Northcote Social Club _ "ROCK"N"ROLL IS WHERE I HIDE" cd LAUNCH with special guests Go Go Sapien.

12th May - appearing on the Marngrook footy show.

Saturday 14th May- the Republic Bar- Hobart

18th May- Sydney Writers festival - READING/appearance at the SEYMOUR CENTRE 7pm.


Thursday 19th May
3pm Better Read Than Dead Book Signing
265 King St, Newtown


19/05 Thursday - Notes, Newtown

20/05 Friday - The Vault, Windsor

21/05 Saturday - Coogee Diggers

22/05 Sunday - Clarendon Guesthouse-- Katoomba


Monday May 23rd. POPCORN TAXI with Dave Graney- Bondi Event Cinema- Bondi Junction.


Monday 23rd May
7.30pm Ariel Booksellers Launch.
42 Oxford Street PADDINGTON NSW 2021

26/05 Thursday Lizotte’s – Dee Why

27/05 Friday Lizotte’s – Kincumber

Saturday 28th May
2pm Reading @ McClean’s Booksellers
69 Beaumont Street, Hamilton NSW 2303 p. 02 4969 2525
http://www.macleans.indies.com.au
www.lizottes.com.au
28/05 Saturday Lizotte’s - Newcastle
www.lizottes.com.au

Monday 30th May
Maitland Library READING
480 High Street, Maitland



Thurs 2nd June Gollan Hotel 73 Keen st Lismore (solo show)
Friday 3rd June Jubilee Hotel - 470 st pauls terrace fortitude valley Brisbane
Saturday 4th June SOL BAR, Maroochydore QLD
Sunday 5th June- Great Northern - Byron bay-Ph: 02 6685 6454
Friday 17th June Westernport Hotel - San Remo Victoria
Saturday 18th June- Baha Tacos - Rye Victoria
Friday 24th June the Loft Warrnambool Vic
Sat 25th June- the Wheatsheaf Hotel - Adelaide
Sunday 26th June- Semaphore Workers Club- SA
Thursday 30th June- Transit Bar - Canberra
Sunday 3rd July- Williamstown RSL

rock'n'roll is where I hide/1001 australian nights tour dates

DAVE GRANEY - CLARE MOORE - LURID YELLOW MIST
'ROCK'N ROLL IS WHERE I HIDE' ALBUM TOUR

Dave Graney and the Lurid Yellow Mist live and work out of Melbourne Australia. Dave Graney and drummer Clare Moore played with the Moodists from 1978 to 1986. They then played with the White Buffaloes/Coral Snakes from 1987-1997.

“Rock’n Roll Is Where I Hide” is a collection of electric rock’n’roll re-recordings of a dozen Graney classics. Dave describes it as “our 3rd debut album”.

"I mean your debut album is the one where the band knows the material inside out and just lays it down in the studio without even thinking. They know it so well.
The songs on this record are songs that we’ve been playing, on and off, for a very long time. Sometimes, we went for a decade without touching them. Then we came back to them from a different direction. By ‘we”, I mean myself and Clare Moore who are the only ones to play on any of the original recordings. Stu Thomas has played bass with us since 2004. Stuart Perera has played guitar with us since 1998 , when he joined us as a teenager. Mark Fitzgibbon is a jazz powerhouse who we first played with in London many years ago in the Moodists. They mostly learned the songs at rehearsal from me going over the arrangements on a guitar. Years ago. Then we kept playing them into different shapes. For some, we might have listened to the original recordings. Mostly, we wanted to play them a bit differently and sometimes they just grew to be different.”

“To mix the record we asked Victor Van Vugt (PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Augie March) in New York City, who had left Australia with the Moodists many years ago and also produced our 1995 cd, ‘The Soft’n’Sexy Sound’ “ - Dave Graney.

“Rock’n Roll Is Where I Hide” will be available from your favorite music vendor on Friday April 15th, 2011 through Liberation Music.

As well as the album Dave Graney is also about to publish his memoirs in book form: '1001 Australian Nights' has the legendary rock showman taking us on a journey about growing up, finding your voice and hitting the right pitch. In August 1977, Dave sets off on a road-trip from small-town Australia, a young man fired up by punk rock, outside of life and looking for a way in. When he loses the map Graney finds his groove, then twists and turns his way through three decades as a working artist. This is no standard rock'n'roll trip; it's Graney up close, out there and on his game. Published by Affirm Press & available from your favorite book vendors Monday April 4th.

DAVE GRANEY & THE LURID YELLOW MIST
will be performing the music of 'Rock'n Roll Is Where I Hide' at the following fine venues:



Thurs May 5th THE BENDED ELBOW, Yarra St, Geelong VIC
PH: 03 5229 4477 www.oztix.com.au

Frid May 6th THE BENDED ELBOW, Lydiard Street, Ballarat VIc
PH: 03 5332 1811 www.oztix.com.au

Sat May 7th The Northcote Social Club, 301 High Street,
Northcote, VIC
ALBUM LAUNCH “ROCK’N’ROLL IS WHERE I HIDE"
w/- special guests Go Go Sapien.
Ticket enquiries PH:: (03) 9486 1677
or purchase direct from The Corner Box Office, 57 Swan St, Richmond

Sat May 14th THE REPUBLIC BAR, Elizabeth St, North Hobart TAS
PH: 03 6234 6954 www.republicbar.com or www.moshtix.com.au

Thurs May 19th Notes, 75 Enmore Road -Newtown, NSW
PH: (02) 9557 5111 www.noteslive.net.au

Fri May 20th The Vault, 146 George Street - Windsor NSW
PH: (02) 4587 8146 www.vault146.com.au/

Sat May 21st Coogee Diggers, cnr Carr & Byron St, Coogee, NSW
PH: 02 9665 4466 www.coogeediggers.com.au

Sun May 22nd THE CLARENDON HOTEL, Katoomba NSW
PH: 02 4782 1322 www.clarendonguesthouse.com.au

Thurs May 26th Lizottes, 4/5 629 Pittwater Road, Dee Why NSW
PH: 02 9984 9933 www.lizottes.com.au

Fri May 27th Lizottes, Central Coast, Lot 3 Avoca Drive, Kincumber NSW
PH: 02 4368 2017 www.lizottes.com.au

Sat May 28th Lizottes, Newcastle , 31 Morehead St, Lambton NSW
PH: 02 4368 2017 www.lizottes.com.au

Thurs June 2nd THE GOLLAN HOTEL, 73 Keen Street, Lismore NSW
Show info www.sideshowpresents.com.au

Fri June 3rd THE Jubilee Hotel, 470 st pauls terrace,
Fortitude Valley QLD
PH: 1300 762 545 www.oztix.com.au

Sat June 4th SOL BAR, Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast QLD
Show info and tickets: www.oztix.com.au

Sun June 5th THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL – Byron Bay, NSW
Ph: 02 6685 6454 www.oztix.com.au

Friday 17th June Westernport Hotel - San Remo Victoria

Saturday 18th June- Baha Tacos - Rye Victoria

Friday 24th June the Loft Warrnambool Vic

Sat 25th June- the Wheatsheaf Hotel - Adelaide

Sunday 26th June- Semaphore Workers Club- SA

Thursday 30th June- Transit Bar - Canberra

Sunday 3rd July- Williamstown RSL

http://www.thedavegraneyshow.com
http://davegraney.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/davegraney
http://twitter.com/davegraney
http://www.reverbnation.com/davegraney

For further album & tour information & interview opportunities regarding the
‘Rock ‘n Roll Is Where I Hide’ album by Dave Graney
Please contact Mushroom Group Promotions
Melbourne: 03 8687 1353 | Sydney: 02 8356 1299 |
Or Email info@mgpromotions.com.au
National Project Publicist; Sarah Morgan 03 9695 7824/0408 540 019 or sarahm@mgpromotions.com.au
Blog: http://mushroomgroup.wordpress.com/

For further information & interview opportunities regarding the publication
“1001 Australian Nights” by Dave Graney
Please contact Zeitgeist Media Group:
Benython Oldfield 02 8060 9715/0410 355 790 benython@zeitgeistmediagroup.com

First Tuesday Book Club March 15th ABCtv

I was invited to be a guest on the First Tuesday Book Club and it was filmed in mid January.Based around "cult" books, I had to answer some questions and provide my idea of a cult book. This was when they first approached me. Had to give some information. I dashed it off pretty quick and sent it off in November. Forgot what I'd said by the time it got to taping the show. Jennifer Byrne had it fresh in her mind and I was scrambling to stay on deck and on topic.

This is my cult resume....


1. Describe your top pick for cult novel - and why.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by M Barnard Eldershaw.
Why? A sci fi novel written in Sydney during WW2 by two women, writing as one name. Very modernist. Censored at the time of release. Features a narrative of a writer in the future reading a book he has written about events in Sydney in the past . Leading to the vague, drifting Utopian world they inhabit. Touches on the joys of a writer in the midst of creation when he is in possession and is possessed by a story . Also quite political. The USA offers Japan, Australia at the end of the war, I think.


2. Is the time of your life you read it crucial? Must you be somewhere under 30 - in your teens, likely - when you have your first exposure?
I read in it my 40s. It wasn't widely available and was re released by VIRAGO, not an imprint I was drawn toward when I was younger for some reason. More the accessibility in this case.


3. Does a cult book have to have a broader social impact, capturing the zeitgeist of a time, of others being switched on to the same idea eg Less Than Zero or Fight Club. Or can it be utterly personal?

I like hidden, occult things which escaped the clammy touch of their times. I get the same freshness from reading Patrick Whites stories. And David Fosters.


4. Can bestsellers count? Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh has sold over a million copies, is it still cult? Lord of the Rings is considered cult by many ...

Books which have had a long life are great. Continual re discovery. Best sellers? No, i don't think they can count. Damaged goods. Shop soiled merch for the most part. I saw a sign outside Collected Works bookshop in Melbourne saying that the Bestsellers of the day will all be forgotten and small print books and pamphlets will live forever. And change the world.


5. How much does the lifestyle or excesses of the AUTHOR contribute to making a book cultish? (with extra points given to authors who die young and tragically) Or is it fundamentally about the grip it has on the imagination of the READER?
Some writers are possessed of good looks and dark glamour. Some, like Hemingway, are talked up (and down) by a lousy crowd and a lot of people never approach them. People who might probably love his stuff. I'm not impressed by dribbling drunks or dope fiends. Though some hop heads write great poetry when they are infused with the drama of their scoring and fixing.


6. Is achieving cult status something that happens spontaneously or can publishers create or concoct a cult book?
Yes, spontaneously- though pr companies all try for that authentic note.


7. Truman Capote famously said that Jack Kerouac was "not writing, but typing" - does the quality of the writing count

Well, there is someone like HP Lovecraft or JG Ballard who can, and have been parodied but their actual writing will live on for years.


8. Do you ever go back to a cult book? Or do you suck it up then put it aside, knowing you can never pass this way again

Sometimes I go back and have another look. Never the same feeling of entering the unknown so I don't often think to do it.


9. Do you think less of someone who doesn't share your passion for a cult book? (eg The Alchemist/Chariots of the Gods) And more if they do?
Well it's nice to share an enthusiasm but I don't demand it.



10. Cult books make lousy films. Discuss!

Not always true. Terry Gillams "fear and loathing" was a good film. The director had a feel for the times. Naked Lunch by that Canadian director was good too. He put it in a more biographical direction. "The sheltering Sky" by Bertolucci was a nice try but Paul Bowles's books are unfilmable, I think. Leave them alone.

rock n roll is where I hide /1001 australian nights album-book tour dates

Saturday 26th March
National Theatre - Braidwood, NSW


Thursday 31st March- Dave Graney and Clare Moore playing bass and drums for Harry Howards NDE at the Old Bar- Fitzroy.

Monday 4th April

8am 3RRR, Breakfasters
 
The Circle, Ch 10 LIVE IN STUDIO

Friday 8th  April Dave Graney and Clare Moore playing bass and drums for Harry Howards NDE at the CHERRY BAR- Melbourne.

Saturday 9th April- Clare Moore playing with the Ukeladies at the Old Bar- Fitzroy.


Thursday 14th April
Reading ?pm House of Refreshment Level 1, Abbotsford Convent, Heliers St 
Abbotsford VIC 3067 p. 03 9419 5255      


Sat 16th April - Clare Moore playing with the Hired Guns at the Retreat.
Dave Graney appearing as part of a  group of musicians for INTERNATIONAL RECORD STORE DAY at Basement Discs in Melbourne. 


Thursday 28th April
12.45pm  -1.15pm The Wheeler Centre
Topic: “Will the social networks bring back an interest in the future/ the unknown?”
176 Little Lonsdale Street  Melbourne 3000 (03) 9094 7800

6.30pm Reading at Readings, St Kilda .
112 Acland St, St Kilda

Saturday 30th April

1-2pm - Reading at TITLE
Sydney Rd Brunswick           
http://www.titlespace.com/

5-6pm Williamstown Literary Festival
Old Council Chamber @ Williamstown Town Hall,
Ferguson Street, Williamstown


Thursday 5th May - Bended Elbow- GEELONG.
Friday 6th May- Bended Elbow - Ballarat.

Saturday 7th May- CD LAUNCH for ROCK N ROLL I WHERE I HIDE at the Northcote Social Club .Go Go Sapien open the show.

Friday 13th May - the LOFT- Launceston
Saturday 14th May- the Republic Bar- Hobart



Thursday 19th May
3pm Better Read Than Dead Book Signing
265 King St, Newtown   
http://www.betterread.com.au/ 

Notes, Newtown
75 Enmore Road Newtown, 2042 (02) 9557 5111      
http://www.noteslive.net.au


Friday 20th May

The Vault, Windsor
146 George Street Windsor NSW 2765 (02) 4587 8146
http://www.vault146.com.au/ 


Saturday 21st May
Coogee Diggers
Corner of Carr and Byron St Coogee, NSW, Australia 2034 02 9665 4466
http://www.coogeediggers.com.au


Sunday 22nd May
Hotel Gearin
273 Great Western Highway Katoomba, Blue Mountains 2780 02 4782 4395
http://www.hotelgearin.com

Monday 23rd May
7.30pm Ariel Booksellers Launch.
42 Oxford Street PADDINGTON NSW 2021


Thursday 26th May
Lizottes, Sydney
4/5 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why NSW 02 9984 9933
http://www.lizottes.com.au 

Friday 27th May
Lizottes, Central Coast
Lot 3 Avoca Drive Kincumber  NSW  2251 02 4368 2017      
http://www.lizottes.com.au 

Saturday 28th May

2pm Reading @ McClean’s Booksellers 
69 Beaumont Street, Hamilton NSW 2303 p. 02 4969 2525      
http://www.macleans.indies.com.au 


Gig: Lizottes, Newcastle
31 Morehead St Lambton  NSW 2299 02 4368 2017      
http://www.lizottes.com.au

Monday 30th May

Maitland Library READING
480 High Street, Maitland




Wed 1st June solo show at the Hoey Moey- COFFS HARBOUR
http://www.hoeymoey.com.au/
Thurs 2nd June Gollan Hotel 73 Keen st Lismore (solo show)
Friday 3rd June The Flood Collective - Lismore
Saturday 4th June Old Museum - Brisbane
Sunday 5th June- Great Northern - Byron bay-

Thursday 9th - Sunday 12th June- WA dates TBA. 


Friday 17th June Westernport Hotel - San Remo Victoria
Saturday 18th June- Bah Tacos - Rye Victoria


Friday 24th June the Loft Warrnambool Vic
Sat 25th June- the Wheatsheaf Hotel - Adelaide
Sunday 26th June- Semaphore Workers Club- SA

Thursday 30th June- Transit Bar - Canberra


Sunday 3rd July- Williamstown RSL

Questions and answers for Australian Bookseller Magazine.

An edited version of this article is in the current edition, along with a review.The writer notes that "some have said" my music is more style than content. Nobody has ever said that. The book is about the style and the content and the tone.


1. How did 1001 Australian Nights came about? Was it something you’d been working on for some time—or were you made an offer you couldn’t refuse that got you writing?



It was an idea that seemed to make sense one day and I started on it, handwriting in a big old blank hardcover book and then I typed it into a computer later on, after I got the feel and shape of it.

I wanted to write the story of my life as a musician and include the flow of the lyrical side of it that I'd been putting out on all my albums. It was a story I'd been writing within my songs and I thought I'd earth it and make a longer piece of it. Only my adult life a s a musician though.



2. Could you talk us through your writing process? You drew on tour diaries for parts of it (specifically the tours with Nick Cave and Henry Wagons). How else did you go about collating or accessing your memories?



Well I like to read books by musicians. Not really by people writing about music so much, very few have any empathy for the players. Miles davis autobiography is great, Charles Mingus, Wreckless Eric, Louis Armstrongs dope dealer ,(also a player) Mezz Mezzrow wrote a really good one. Julian Cope, Zodiac Mindwarp.

I don't like nostalgic things much and its disappointing how much of modern music is driven by it. I'm not really that much of a household name that I think the minuteae of my personal life is worth putting under peoples noses and , in a way, all stories of bands and players are the same. Archetypal stuff. So I tried t write my story in a mythological way at the beginning. the times when I launched into a life of music. I don't come from a rich background nor did I have any higher education. In the world of music this is a bit of an oddity as they're all silver spoon types so I thought it might be interesting to trace where I got the bright idea to be a player. I don't mention many peoples names and tried to keep it interior and mythic. people feeling around in the dark. I wasn't being demeaning or disrespectful to any of my comrades.I hope.
The book is in two parts.One reflective in a long shot style and the other more sharply focussed,recent events.What I thought I was doing and what I think I'm doing.



3. Your love of literature is evident in this memoir. It has a Kerouac-like road trip feel; noir stylings of a hard-boiled novel; and you make wonderful use of the run-on sentence in the section headed I Who Know the Others. Are there any particular writers that inspired your memoir? And would you consider turning to fiction—perhaps a crime novel?



A lot of the book is about where I copped my tone. Tone is everything in music and writing. I love Guillaume Apollinaire and Arthur Rimbaud for their fearless, heroic bravado I love the pulp writers from the 30s to the 80s! I really love the australian poet Robert Gray and his recent book, "the country I came through last" was a great inspiration. Those of us who loved his work would have really tuned into it and, in a way got a bit disappointed when he finally earthed his poems with the real events of his life. He brought it all down for us. Its great. i also love david Foster, especially his recent "sons of the rumour".



4. Sartorial ensembles feature almost as characters in their own right in this memoir. You’re obviously a stylish dude. If ‘clothes maketh the man, what clothes maketh Dave Graney?



I dont talk about this shit.



5. I understand there will be a ‘greatest hits’ album released to coincide with the memoir’s publication and numerous live shows across the country. What else will you be doing to publicise this memoir?



I've recorded an album for Liberation of all my favourite songs (of mine) from the 90s. Its called "rock'n'roll is where I hide. Its kind of a greatest hits but a also a re recording. Its a real rock'n'roll album with my band "the Lurid yellow Mist". its not a sad, acoustic set. All musicians who out records find that they are playing the songs so much better a year later. This will be about fifteen years later for the most part. We know the shit inside out, above and below. Its my third debut album. Its got flow and bounce and thats what I like.



6. Finally, what was the last book you read and loved?



I have discovered a 1920s british writer called AE Coppard. I have read one called "adam and eve and pinch me" and 'clorinda walks in heaven". I find his writing pretty astounding. He has sentences that other people labour over through whole books to express.

CHEERS!

This article appears in the current Adelaide Review.


Went for a walk one morning. Just after Xmas and New Year and the world was still kind of giddy and hungover and not quite back into gear. Where I live is a bit like the Adelaide hills, only further out from the city and covered in fern trees and gums. Hills. The east side hills of Melbourne. A walk is as good as a run and you go up and down the vale. The road twisted to a dirt track and a fellow was ahead of me, struggling with a box. he kept stopping to rest and I eventually caught up with him. Ahead of us was a bluestone set of steps and then two quite sheer streets that take a lot out of the fittest person. he had stopped to rip open the carton and down a beer. it was 9:30 on a Sunday morning. I am always gladdened by the sight of people misbehaving and offered to help him with his burden up the next few levels. He said he was ok but he was puffing and I picked up the box. We walked on and he was embarassedly saying that the next few streets were just that bit too steep at the moment. I agreed. I offered some advice to him in that he could have bought cans and probably got 30 to a case and they’d still have been lighter. He said he liked Crown Ales.
He had standards. he said he’d started drinking at 6 am that morning. His wife was not around to tell him to stop and the beer was sitting there in the sky. the way he said it sounded logical.
I helped him to his gate and we parted ways.
I’m not a drinker myself, though I once was. I got out of the habit when I moved to this area. It involved so much more driving that I just stopped. I also noticed I dropped about 8 kilos immediately and that was s a plus too. Also, being a musician, you find after a while that its great to FEEL the EXCITEMENT and the fear when you’re performing. To know and to be aware .To have the PRESENCE.
I know a lot of drinkers and I see a lot of drinkers. Like that fellow on the street they can be cute and funny for a short time. Prolonged periods spent in their company can get a but tedious. Repetition etc. Maudlin mood swings. Jolly drunks are cool. When I drank I stayed up. I was talkative and came from a family of heroic drinkers. And that family came from a town which was in a country where boozing was a national sport. People used to carry BATHTUBS full of cans and bottles into Adelaide oval to watch the cricket.I’ve seen film of that crazy mob doing that and it filled me with pride that I once lived in such a free and easy country. Now its all law and order and the booze and food concessions are sold to private companies who sell light beer and pale foodstuffs to well behaved crowds and the sponsors are happy etc. The crowd is bought and sold and fed and watered. Football and cricket the same. I know the cry is that its more of a family friendly thing but I despair of living in a world fit only for goddam kids. Hey let ‘em look through the window at the adult hell inside the bar. They can look forward to it with FEAR or EXCITEMENT. At the moment though, its not for them.
On the other side of life in the hills- the night time.-just before Xmas a wild looking character had his picture in the paper for allegedly attacking a copper with a knife. In a suburb even further out. His picture made him look like a zombie, worse than Saddams when he came out of the hole in the ground in Iraq. People thought it funny and pasted the picture as their avatar on social networks as the image of their post Xmas/new Year feel. He was still at large though. The papers said he was in the forests of the hills “travelling up to 30 k’s a night”. For about a week a helicopter kept flying around in the early hours. Someone in a house further into the hills, someone who was staying there for a few weeks, had heard a noise outside and called the police. (Its so quiet up hear you get woken by birds and a car driving past is thunderous). Dutifully, the helicopter was sent out at 2am. People reported that they had fewer eggs so he must be nearby. Up went the chopper again. The folk devil was eventually caught in an inner city suburb and charges have yet to be laid. Back on your heads everyone!
Cheers.

New cd- "rock'n'oll is where I hide - due April on LIBERATION.


New book- "1001 Australian nights" - due April on Affirm Press.

death by harmonica

THIS APPEARS IN THE LATEST EDITION OF AUSTRALIAN MUSICIAN MAGAZINE.

Death by Harmonica.
I was doin'’ a gig deep in the hills. A modern day gig which means it was pretty primitive. I mean not much thought went into the situation. Nowadays, people have watched so much music on tv and youtube that they think it just “happens”. There is not a lot of empathy with the players in most areas music. I mean look at the critiques. its all about the business (and don’t they know it all) or about the medias perception or recognition of something. They don’t know shit. The public like to think they know whats goin on too. Have you ever wondered why everybody thinks they’re cool now? Its because they know the tempo. Because most of the music allowed in public is OLD. Because people HATE new stuff. The clubs are definitely on that beat. They treat the players like bums. You have to go into these joints like a commando.
Anyway. This little joint was a resonant , hard surfaced cube. Even talking in the room was hard. Three people talking made a real racket. The reverberant sound blew it all up into a major squall. Made it sound busy and exciting I guess. I could deal with that.
(I must say, there's a whole new business out there to be made in dealing with sound in places like gyms. People don't understand it at all. They only know volume).
Had to take my own sound in etc. I could do that. I was by myself with a great amp with a twelve string guitar and a mic pumping through it. Times like that, you dig in and open fire. I pumped out two sets of about an hour each of my own songs. I was a machine.
After the second set I was packing up and a fellow approached me with a beer in his hand, aussie young man style. He asked did I want to have a “jam” with his friend. Turned out his friend played the harmonica. He was “real good” I was told. I’d had to get into a certain mode of defiant hardness to do the gig and was still coasting on that plane. I said, “ I bet he’s real good, I bet he tells you too!”. The kid nodded. I asked if he played anything. He said he mucked around on the guitar. I was feeling like I could give a fuck so I told him. “Cos thats a real instrument. A harmonica is like a sad bike thats left outside a supermarket that everybody gets on and goes for a ride!” He still didn’t seem to get my evil drift and I went on ( and on) that an instrument like a guitar or a set of drums or a sax or a piano is something you never really get to the end of and is also really hard to get a note out of at the beginning. You have to dive into it and get humiliated at first and that feeling of humility never really leaves you when you get down to it.
I was feeling a bit silly and felt I was owed something and that he wasn’t really going to respond so I turned it up a notch . I said “ I see your mate over there. He looks real confident and I bet he is. Harp players are like that because anybody can get a note out of those damn things. They march into your dressing room and light up a fag like they’re a brother and everybodys into getting fucked up and they’re too loud and they never fucking stop. They slobber all over every part of every goddam song if you let them! I have just played for two hours, songs I have written over a couple of decades. From my mind and my life and you are asking me to stand here and comp a twelve bar while this dribbler in high waisted stretch acid washed jeans blows some crummy licks from a fuckin’ toy at me? No I think I’ll pass on that. Stick to the guitar!”

I was being reasonable and unreasonable. Rude and stupid. Sometimes you find yourself, as a player, a musician, in a world of pain. Painful, yabbering, swaying, wall eyed t shirted , gelled, bunged up drunks. And they get stuck in a loop and try to drag you into it. If you’re a player, you still have your legs and you know the room, you feel the need to take something back from this world. Perhaps your own dignity. For a moment. You get over it and then wake up to a new day. Its not always that way. Can be if you let it.

The next week I did a gig and I had my band with me so I was happier. In firefights, its best to have some light artillery on your side. At this gig I saw and heard Matt Walker and Broderick Smith playing together. Both can make the harmonica do things that the crude archetype I was mocking above could never do. Matt was playing guitar this time and Broderick was singing and playing the harp. What a master! He concentrates on that little thing and gets melodies out of it. Its there to sing as well as him. Supreme players , performers and writers.
Mike Rudd from Spectrum also has a distinctive tone and grasp of the harmonica. He gets it to do stuff for him and doesn't just bring it in for a melancholy wail here and there.
Other harp players I love on records would be Norton Buffalo who played a lot with the Steve Miller band, Lee Oskar from the amazing r&b/funk/soul band WAR and Magic Dick from the J Geils Band. Stevie Wonder hit it and made it dance but he can do that with any instrument. The classic Little Walter and Howling Wolf put sounds and licks together for everybody else to copy for several generations. And, of course, Toots Thielmans. Any of his albums.
So, I’m trying to take back some of that slack I stole when I was abusing some hardnut harp player who must have upset me somewhere along the way. Blow that thing, its easy!