Thursday night and Sunday morning

 

photo by Bleddyn Butcher and also contains some art bordering by Dave Western. 

Thursday nights 8pm is where we've been at.  Coming up to our THIRTY EIGHTH SHOW. It's been a focus for us each week and a way to connect with people. I'm talking about our online shows via Stage It Dot Com. We also do a set every second Sunday morning at 7am to make it a Saturday night 10pm time in the UK and afternoon/evening in the USA.

We play for 50 minutes, using vibes, drums, keys, guitars, rhythm machine, percussion, on occasion some pre recorded backing grooves, melodica, autoharp and our voices. Stage It requires people to pay an admission fee and we have this set at $US5. You can pay more if you like.

Out 38th Show is 8pm AEST Thursday October 8th.    October 8th link here.

Our next Saturday night Greenwich time/ Sunday morning Melbourne time show is October 10th-11th.

In some ways its been reflection in other ways a revision.

Playing songs we have rarely played live or not for many years. 

Also wearing clothes and playing instruments that we would never take out of the compound.

Its a live set, we dont record it and there is no way to watch it back. 

Here are some photos from over the last few months. Mostly taken by Bob Osborne from Salford, Mark O'Brien from Sydney, Trish from Adelaide, Richard Watters from up Yarrawonga way, Ursula from Brisbane and a few others. Thanks to you all!

Here is a rough list of the 98 or so songs of mine we have played.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (2000)

Song Of Life (2019)

Where Did All the Freaks Go? (2019)

Be Sad For Me (2017)

Anchors Aweigh (2001)

Everybody Loves A Mass Killer (1997)

The Devil Drives (1997)

Drugs Are Wasted On The Young (2000)

Tuning Up (2020)

Mt Gambier Night (2012)

Answering Machine (2019)

The Brother Who Lived (2003)

Twilight Of A Villain (2003)

The Stuff That Night Is Made Of (2000)

Vengeance Is On It's Way (2000)

Night Of The Wolverine (1993)

I Need Some Scratch (2000)

A Woman Skinnies A Man Up (2014)

Midnight To Dawn (2003)

Chads Car (1981)

All Our Friends Were Stars (2003)

Everybodys Gone (2005)

A Man On The Make (1997)

Comrade Of Pop (2019)

My Schtick Weighs A Ton (2005)

Where's My Buzz? (2019)

Apollo 69 (1995)

The Birds And The Goats (1995)

Lifes a Dream (2012)

Bodysnatcher Blues (2009)

Baby I Wish I'd Been A Better Pop Star (2019)

Hell Is You, Babe (2019)

You've Been In My Mind (2019)

I Wanna Get Lost Again (2005)

Sometimes You can See Yourself (2005)

I Will Always Hate You (2001)

I Will Have Always Been Here Before (2001)

Ruperts Pets Grave (2017)

Are You Out Of Your Mind? (2017)

Your Masters Must Be Pleased With You (1999)

Lets Live Properly (2005)

We Don't Belong To Anybody (2011)

You Need To Suffer (1993)

We Need A Champion (2012)

You're All Wrong (2019)

Saturday Night Bath (2005)

Everything Was Legendary With Robert (2014)

Have You Heard About The Melbourne Mafia? (2000)

You Put A Spell On Me (2000)

Finally I Come Clean (2019)

Blues Negative (2012)

They Wanted To Be Players (1999)

I'm A Comander (1999)

Lt Colonel Cavalry (1999)

Only The Stoned (2005)

Am I Wearing Something Of Yours? (1999)

That's Frankies Negative (1984)

Ultrakeef (2019)

The Stars, Baby, The Stars (1994)

Eye O' The Vibe (2001)

Where The Trees Walk Downhill (1980)

Clinging To the Coast (2001)

You Need A Kleek, Klook (2017)

I Ain't Hi Vis (2017)

Are We Goin' Too Fast For Love? (2001)

Playin' Chicken (2012)

I Need To Be Hot (2017)

Matey, From On High (2017)

I'm Not Just Any Nobody (2019)

Flash In The Pantz (2012)

This Is the Deadest Place I've Ever Died In (2017)

You Can't Have Your Boogie (2019

Runaway (1983)
2068 Babe (2009
Dylan the Indie fake (2009)

I Need My Guitar (2009)
Country Roads, Unwinding (2014)

Je est Un Autre (2014)

I Dig The Pioneers (1997)
the Greatest Show In Town (1988)

Biker In Business Class (1997)
Son Of Maggie Mae (2001)
Where's My Buzz (2019)
Flower Of The Earth (2014)
I Like To Be Haunted (2009)
You Had To Be Drunk (2009)
The Sheriff Of Hell (two different versions) (1997-9)
Pianola Roll (1997)
I Know You Can't See Me (2014)

Land Of The Giants (1997)
Field Record Me (1997)
Midnights Cats (2012)
I'm In The FutureNow (2007)

New instrumental pieces..

Beckett And Joyce
Diaghelev and Nijinsky
Teardrop Weirdo

And we have done these 32 songs by other artists...

My Foolish Heart (Bill Evans - John McGlaughlin - Billy Eckstine and many others)

Theme From Midnight Cowboy (John Barry)

Everybody's talkin' (Fred Neil)

Time Waits For No One (Rolling Stones)

High Coin (Van Dyke Parks - Charlatans- Jackie De Shannon)

We May Never Love Like This Again (Maureen McGovern)

Clang Of The Yankee Reaper (Van Dyke Parks)

Diamonds Fur Coat Champagne (Suicide)

Lowdown (Boz Scaggs)

Hyacinth House (Doors)

So You Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star (Byrds)

Baby I'm A Want You (Bread)

Walkin' On The Water (John Fogerty- Richard Hell)

Walk On Water (Kevin Ayers)

Alabama Bound (Charlatans)

In A Misty Morning (Gene Clark)

1-2-3 (The Len Barry Combo)

Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers)

Taboo (Arthur Lyman - Martin Denny)

Black Stick (The Cruel Sea)

You're Gonna Miss Me (Thirteenth Floor Elevators)

The Dolphins (Fred Neil - Tim Buckley)

Sweet Surrender (Tim Buckley)
Parchman Farm (Mose Allison)
Ex Lion Tamer (Wire)

Arnold Layne (Pink Floyd)
Codine (Buffy Saint Marie)
Showbusiness (AC/DC)
Alone Again Or (Love)
Live and let Live (Love)
Dropout (Urge Overkill)
Empty Shell (Subway Sect)
Bless the Weather (John Martyn)

All Our Friends Were Stars 2020.

 We have this album out at the moment.

Dave Graney and Clare More with Georgio "the dove" Valentino and Malcolm Ross. I made this clip from photos and video of the European tour the recordings originated from.

Below is an update on the songs we have played for the roughly 31 Stage It Online sets we have done so far. We try and do a different set each week but sometimes we really enjoy revisiting a song and so play it two weeks in a  row.

We have used guitars, keys, vibes, autoharp, melodica , some archival and also newly recorded rhythm tracks, our vintage Rhythm Ace drum machine, our voices and drums.

It took a  few weeks to get ourselves into the right tech areas but once we got NBN happening and the upload speed was right and then a proper audio interface and external camera, it all became a lot easier.

We play every Thursday at 8pm and every second Sunday at 7am . The latter is to make it a  10 pm Saturday night Greenwich time show and early to late afternoon in the USA. 

Doing these shows has given us some focus for our weeks and also a form of contact with people. (The shows are surprisingly social with the chat area). 

Out 32nd Show is 8pm AEST Thursday September 10th. Here is a ticket link.

Our next Saturday night Greenwich time/ Sunday morning Melbourne time show is September 13th. Here is a ticket link.

Here is a rough list of the 84 or so songs of mine we have played.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (2000)

Song Of Life (2019)

Where Did All the Freaks Go? (2019)

Be Sad For Me (2017)

Anchors Aweigh (2001)

Everybody Loves A Mass Killer (1997)

The Devil Drives (1997)

Drugs Are Wasted On The Young (2000)

Tuning Up (2020)

Mt Gambier Night (2012)

Answering Machine (2019)

The Brother Who Lived (2003)

Twilight Of A Villain (2003)

The Stuff That Night Is Made Of (2000)

Vengeance Is On It's Way (2000)

Night Of The Wolverine (1993)

I Need Some Scratch (2000)

A Woman Skinnies A Man Up (2014)

Midnight To Dawn (2003)

Chads Car (1981)

All Our Friends Were Stars (2003)

Everybodys Gone (2005)

A Man On The Make (1997)

Comrade Of Pop (2019)

My Schtick Weighs A Ton (2005)

Where's My Buzz? (2019)

Apollo 69 (1995)

The Birds And The Goats (1995)

Lifes a Dream (2012)

Bodysnatcher Blues (2009)

Baby I Wish I'd Been A Better Pop Star (2019)

Hell Is You, Babe (2019)

You've Been In My Mind (2019)

I Wanna Get Lost Again (2005)

Sometimes You can See Yourself (2005)

I Will Always Hate You (2001)

I Will Have Always Been Here Before (2001)

Ruperts Pets Grave (2017)

Are You Out Of Your Mind? (2017)

Your Masters Must Be Pleased With You (1999)

Lets Live Properly (2005)

We Don't Belong To Anybody (2011)

You Need To Suffer (1993)

We Need A Champion (2012)

You're All Wrong (2019)

Saturday Night Bath (2005)

Everything Was Legendary With Robert (2014)

Have You Heard About The Melbourne Mafia? (2000)

You Put A Spell On Me (2000)

Finally I Come Clean (2019)

Blues Negative (2012)

They Wanted To Be Players (1999)

I'm A Comander (1999)

Lt Colonel Cavalry (1999)

Only The Stoned (2005)

Am I Wearing Something Of Yours? (1999)

That's Frankies Negative (1984)

Ultrakeef (2019)

The Stars, Baby, The Stars (1994)

Eye O' The Vibe (2001)

Where The Trees Walk Downhill (1980)

Clinging To the Coast (2001)

You Need A Kleek, Klook (2017)

I Ain't Hi Vis (2017)

Are We Goin' Too Fast For Love? (2001)

Playin' Chicken (2012)

I Need To Be Hot (2017)

Matey, From On High (2017)

I'm Not Just Any Nobody (2019)

Flash In The Pantz (2012)

This Is the Deadest Place I've Ever Died In (2017)

You Can't Have Your Boogie (2019

Runaway (1983)
2068 Babe (2009
Dylan the Indie fake (2009)

I Need My Guitar (2009)
Country Roads, Unwinding (2014)

Je est Un Autre (2014)

I Dig The Pioneers (1997)
the Greatest Show In Town (1988)

Biker In Business Class (1997)
Son Of Maggie Mae (2001)
Where's My Buzz (2019)

And we have done these 28 songs by other artists...

My Foolish Heart (Bill Evans - John McGlaughlin - Billy Eckstine and many others)

Theme From Midnight Cowboy (John Barry)

Everybody's talkin' (Fred Neil)

Time Waits For No One (Rolling Stones)

High Coin (Van Dyke Parks - Charlatans- Jackie De Shannon)

We May Never Love Like This Again (Maureen McGovern)

Clang Of The Yankee Reaper (Van Dyke Parks)

Diamonds Fur Coat Champagne (Suicide)

Lowdown (Boz Scaggs)

Hyacinth House (Doors)

So You Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star (Byrds)

Baby I'm A Want You (Bread)

Walkin' On The Water (John Fogerty- Richard Hell)

Walk On Water (Kevin Ayers)

Alabama Bound (Charlatans)

In A Misty Morning (Gene Clark)

1-2-3 (The Len Barry Combo)

Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers)

Taboo (Arthur Lyman - Martin Denny)

Black Stick (The Cruel Sea)

You're Gonna Miss Me (Thirteenth Floor Elevators)

The Dolphins (Fred Neil - Tim Buckley)

Sweet Surrender (Tim Buckley)
Parchman Farm (Mose Allison)
Ex Lion Tamer (Wire)

Arnold Layne (Pink Floyd)
Codine (Buffy Saint Marie)
Showbusiness (AC/DC)

 

 An "iso pandemic clip" for We Need A Champion.

GMVR- Graney Moore Valentino Ross - Who What Where - supplemental notes

 Just wanted to flesh out some detail to widen the aperture opened by the last post about our album.

"Malcolm Ross played with us in the latter days of The Moodists and early (London lineup) of the Coral Snakes. Previous to that he had played in Postcard Records bands Josef K and Orange Juice"

 

 

Malcolm Ross playing at the Betsey Trotwood on the night of the recording. Photo by Dave Western.

 

Here is Malcolm playing in Josef K in 1981. Sorry For Laughing. I heard this track in Melbourne and totally loved the Postcard and Fast records bands. Had great times in London in the late 80s hanging and playing with Malcolm and his partner Syuzen and Davey Weddell, seen here on bass. Classic tune. The sound copped decades later by many UK and US indie bands.

 

Malcolm Ross playing in Orange Juice, fellow Postcard Records band but this hit was on Polydor. David McClymont on bass later played in the second version of the Moodists. I learned a lot about songwriting and arranging from their experience. 

 

Clare Moore and Malcolm on a tour the previous year (2016) in Paris. 

Malcolm Ross and David McClymont can be seen lurking here in this hit by ABC, The Look Of Love. Apparently they were all staying at the same London hotel and were asked to come along to the shoot for some fun.

A reissue of Josef Ks classic recordings on les Discques Du Crepuscule.

Malcolm made two solo albums for Marina Records and these are on a compilation.

Malcolm has worked on several films and here he is glimpsed in the band of musicians playing with Johnny Depp in Chocolat. 

Malcolm was in Australia in 2015 and we played some songs at Steve Millers bar, Handsome Steves in Fitzroy. Here he sings his song Heavens Door (playing my Ibanez) with Clare Moore, Stu Thomas  and myself.

 Georgio Valentino in Hull, photo by Rich Duffy Howard.

 Clare Moore and Georgio the previous year in Brussels, where he had been living for a decade or so.

Georgio Valentinos most recent release, BOUND.

Satyros Ironykos - The song Georgio wrote with David McClymont that we recorded in Melbourne in 2016 at Mick Harveys studio. Georgio 'the Dove' Valentino Voice Patrizia F. Bass guitar David McClymont Synthesizer, bass guitar Clare Moore Drums, vibraphone, Dave Graney 12-string guitar, Mick Harvey Piano, organ.
Mixed/mastered by Marc Hacquet at the Subsonic in Montpellier, France.

 

Georgio and Patrizia Finzi (who played on several dates but not the recording) 

 From the 2016 Australian dates. Patrizia wanted to see a Koala.

Statue of Lucifer in Madrid. Ricardo Bellver.

Georgio places a flower at the grave of the great dandy, Beau Brummell, in Caen, France. I did ask Georgio how he survived growing up in Florida. 

Georgio was excited to see this poster. He had recorded a 17 minute homage to Chuck Berry.

Clare Moore setting up at the Betsey Trotwood. Her keyboard on the right, my acoustic and Georgio's bass on the left.

Triumphant pose outside the Betsey Trotwood in London after our last of three shows. Photo Dave Western.

new digital album Dave Graney and Clare Moore with Georgio "the dove" Valentino and Malcolm Ross.

 

 Cover image by Matthew Robertson.

Malcolm Ross played with us in the latter days of The Moodists and early (London lineup) of the Coral Snakes. Previous to that he had played in Postcard Records bands Josef K and Orange Juice.
Georgio “the dove” Valentino is an international man of mystery who currently lives in Athens. Previously he had worked out of Brussels, Detroit and St Augustine, Florida. We met Georgio when he came to Melbourne in 2017 to record with David McClymont, who had played in Orange Juice (and in the later version of the Moodists) and now lives in this part of the world. We did a session at Mick Harveys studio and then Clare Moore and I had Georgio and bass player Patrizia Finzi open for us in a run of shows around the east coast of Australia. A few weeks driving through Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
This led to Georgio offering to return the favour should we do any shows in Europe. So in September that year Clare Moore and I left Melbourne. I wore a pair of suede trousers, a suede coat and a pair of patent leather shoes. All our clothes in one bag and gear in another. Clare had a Yamaha REFACE CP keyboard (all electric piano sounds) and I had my Maton EBG808 acoustic with a MXR micro amp pedal for clean boost, an Aphex acoustic BIG BOTTOM pedal and a Tech21 XXL overdrive.  We landed in Amsterdam and Georgio picked us up in his car and proceeded to drive us to a run of shows through Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Spain and onto the UK. It was the easiest and most fun tour of Europe we had ever done. He drove and negotiated all these different cities and learnt our songs on the bass and generally educated us on music, history and culture. Highlights were a long walk through Madrid to find the only statue of Lucifer in Europe, a visit to Beau Brummels’ grave in Caen and a night in the principality of Andorra, a show with Tav Falco and Panther Burns in Vitoria, Euskadi and generally enjoying Spain for the first time. Patrizia Finzi played on most of these dates, with Georgio and also getting up with us..
Malcolm Ross joined up with us in the UK and we then played Manchester, Hull, Edinburgh and London. Georgio drove all the way, juggling GPS, meal breaks, places of interest and educating us on the Doors, mid period Scott Walker and the Damned.
Mostly,  apart from our own guitars, we played the shows on borrowed or house gear.
We played Hull on a Sunday night in a room that was part of a boxing gym. The show had been organized by Lou and Rich who had been in a band called the Red Guitars that the Moodists had share a bill with at the ICA back in 1984. We came off after the show and people were absolutely beaming. They all really dug “Heroic Blues” which we’d started doing for this tour. A fellow mentioned “You Need  A Kleek, Klook” as he’d been to Klooks Kleek in the 60s and saw Jimi Hendrix three times.
We played Wednesday and Thursday shows at the Betsey Trotwood. Both nights were pretty wonderful. Many old friends and comrades came along. Thanks to us and thanks to everybody. 

Written from Melbourne during the pandemic lockdown.

L-R Georgio "the dove" Valentino, Malcolm Ross, Clare Moore and Dave Graney. Shot taken by Lou Dufy-Howard directly after the performance in Hull. This was the backstage area in the venue. 

 

Dave Graney, acoustic guitar and vocals, Clare Moore, keys, backing vocals, drums, Georgio “the dove” Valentino, bass
Malcolm Ross, electric guitar and lap steel.

 

Recorded at O’Rileys in Hull Oct 9th 2017 and the
Betsey Trotwood, London Oct 11th and 12th  2017.
Mixed at the Ponderosa in Melbourne May/June 2020 by Dave Graney.
Mastered by Greg Wadley.

Track listing:

1 Clinging To The Coast 3:52
2 Everything Was legendary With Robert 4:18
3 A Boy Named Epic 4:39
4 Twilight Of A Villain 6:01
5 Heroic Blues 5:10
6 Happy Boy (Malcolm Ross) 4:20
7 You Need A Kleek, Klook 4:45
8 How Long Does The Raunch? 5:14
9 All Our Friends Were Stars 4:16
10 Robert Ford On The Stage 4:27
11 My Avenger (Malcolm Ross) 3:50
12 We Need A Champion 3:51
13 Night Of The Wolverine VI 5:37
14 I Been Trendy 4:15
15 How Can You Get Out Of London? 4:24
16 As Good As It Gets (Malcolm Ross) 5:28
17 Rock ’n” Roll Is Where I Hide 7:00

 

Or access the album via Apple Music here. 

Thanks to Rich and Lou Howard Duffy in Hull, Bob Osborne in Salford and Manchester,
Buckleys Chance and Maggie Holland in Edinburgh and everybody at the Betsey Trotwood, Patrizia Finzi, Mel Ashton, Luc Dumas, Miqel Gistas, Joost Verhagen , Tim Wootton and Seb Blanchais.

Most songs written by Dave Graney.
Copyright Control except  Happy Boy (Malcolm Ross) My Avenger (Ross-Wedell-Malinen) and
As Good As It Gets (Brogan-Clark-Condie-Fowler-Ross-Webster)

L-R Malcolm Ross, Georgio "the dove" Valentino, Dave Graney and Clare Moore Shot taken by Dave Western directly after the last of the three shows we did at the Betsey Trotwood in London.
 

 

Links- Josef K album via Les Discques Du Crepuscule  

Georgio "the dove" Valentino.com

Hey whatcha been doin?

Hey whatcha been doin'?

Well just hangin' around the house really. Like everybody else in the entire world.

Since early March. A weekly visit to the shops, a short drive away. Reading books, watching some long form tv series. Some old and some new. Scrolling through social media. Waiting for the daily press briefing from the Victorian State Premier and health officer. (There has been a bad spike in Melbourne Covid infections. Either a second wave or the actual real first wave).

Cooking more variety of food than ever in my life. The first lockdown was in late Summer/Autumn so seemed a little easier. This second one has been a winter experience. We have gas heating but also a fireplace so for May and June I was just burning wood that was laying around our block. Fallen tree branches and some logs from a tree trunk that we had had cut up. Lots of bark and stray bits of wood. Then we had to buy some firewood. Hard wood and red wood is about $120 for half of a square metre. There are quite a few places out on the highway. Otherwise the service stations 12 kilo sell bags for about $12.

The places that sell wood also sell mulch and stone and decorative pebbles. The people who work there are tough as the work they do.

My daily clothes have consisted of a few items. Several layers of shirts, jumper and jacket, scarves, socks and boots.

We have played a bit of chess and kept up with physical exercise.

Our weekly shows via Stage It have been  a great focus for us. We have been playing every Thursday night at 8pm AEST and have also been doing every second Sunday morning at 7AM to make a show happen 10 PM Saturday  in the UK/ Euro zone. The latter shows have been really enjoyable as I had not ever experienced performing at that early hour. It is like a being in a half dreamy or softly drugged state. Very enjoyable! Though it destroys us for the rest of the day which we spend wandering about in a jet lagged fog.

The shows are live and there is no facility to record or watch it back. We endeavour to play a different set each week using vibes, keys, guitars, melodica, autoharp and rhtyhm machine. Whatever is needed. So far we have played roughly 73 songs of mine...

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (2000)

Song Of Life (2019)

Where Did All the Freaks Go? (2019)

Be Sad For Me (2017)

Anchors Aweigh (2001)

Everybody Loves A Mass Killer (1997)

The Devil Drives (1997)

Drugs Are Wasted On The Young (2000)

Tuning Up (2020)

Mt Gambier Night (2012)

Answering Machine (2019)

The Brother Who Lived (2003)

Twilight Of A Villain (2003)

The Stuff That Night Is Made Of (2000)

Vengeance Is On It's Way (2000)

Night Of The Wolverine (1993)

I Need Some Scratch (2000)

A Woman Skinnies A Man Up (2014)

Midnight To Dawn (2003)

Chads Car (1981)

All Our Friends Were Stars (2003)

Everybodys Gone (2005)

A Man On The Make (1997)

Comrade Of Pop (2019)

My Schtick Weighs A Ton (2005)

Where's My Buzz? (2019)

Apollo 69 (1995)

The Birds And The Goats (1995)

Lifes a Dream (2012)

Bodysnatcher Blues (2009)

Baby I Wish I'd Been A Better Pop Star (2019)

Hell Is You, Babe (2019)

You've Been In My Mind (2019)

I Wanna Get Lost Again (2005)

Sometimes You can See Yourself (2005)

I Will Always Hate You (2001)

I Will Have Always Been Here Before (2001)

Ruperts Pets Grave (2017)

Are You Out Of Your Mind? (2017)

Your Masters Must Be Pleased With You (1999)

Lets Live Properly (2005)

We Don't Belong To Anybody (2011)

You Need To Suffer (1993)

We Need A Champion (2012)

You're All Wrong (2019)

Saturday Night Bath (2005)

Everything Was Legendary With Robert (2014)

Have You Heard About The Melbourne Mafia? (2000)

You Put A Spell On Me (2000)

Finally I Come Clean (2019)

Blues Negative (2012)

They Wanted To Be Players (1999)

I'm A Comander (1999)

Lt Colonel Cavalry (1999)

Only The Stoned (2005)

Am I Wearing Something Of Yours? (1999)

That's Frankies Negative (1984)

Ultrakeef (2019)

The Stars, Baby, The Stars (1994)

Eye O' The Vibe (2001)

Where The Trees Walk Downhill (1980)

Clinging To the Coast (2001)

You Need A Kleek, Klook (2017)

I Ain't Hi Vis (2017)

Are We Goin' Too Fast For Love? (2001)

Playin' Chicken (2012)

I Need To Be Hot (2017)

Matey, From On High (2017)

I'm Not Just Any Nobody (2019)

Flash In The Pantz (2012)

This Is the Deadest Place I've Ever Died In (2017)

You Can't Have Your Boogie (2019

Runaway (1983)

And we have done these 22 songs by other artists,

My Foolish Heart (Bill Evans-John McGlaughlin- Billy Eckstine and many others)

Theme From Midnight Cowboy (John Barry)

Time Waits For No One (Rolling Stones)

High Coin (Van Dyke Parks - Charlatans- Jackie De Shannon)

We May Never Love Like This Again (Maureen McGovern)

Clang Of The Yankee Reaper (Van Dyke Parks)

Diamonds Fur Coat Champagne (Suicide)

Lowdown (Boz Scaggs)

Hyacinth House (Doors)

So You Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star (Byrds)

Baby I'm A Want You (Bread)

Walkin' On The Water (John Fogerty- Richard Hell)

Walk On Water (Kevin Ayers)

Alabama Bound (Charlatans)

In A Misty Morning (Gene Clark)

Midnight Rider (Allam Brothers)

Taboo (Arthur Lyman - Martin Denny)

Black Stick (The Cruel Sea)

You're Gonna Miss Me (Thirteenth Floor Elevators)

The Dolphins (Fred Neil - Tim Buckley)

Sweet Surrender (Tim Buckley)

Parchman Farm (Mose Allison)

I must pay credit to Clare Moore for learning this amount of material, when she mainly knew them as a drummer. Learning all the chords and arrangements to play them on vibes, keys or melodica has been amazing. (I am really terrible at learning material other than my own). She also really stepped up with the tech by getting her small keyboard to work via midi with a digital mellotron via an aged ipad, no mean feat to do any of that but degree of difficulty with old operating sytems and recalcitrant apps is HIGH!) . There has also been the wrestling with Dropbox to access rhythm tracks we have gravitated to working with.

The first month or so of shows (March) were stressful and occasionally glitchy but since we have had the NBN the upload has been great and sound and vision work perfectly. The sets go for 50 minutes and people "talk" to us and each other in the text area of the sscreen.  They are quite social occasions.

It has been really great for us. A highlight of the week.

Our next show is Thursday 8pm AEST show. This will be our 25th hit out. Here is a ticket link for Thursday August 6th. The cost is basically Five Dollars American (though you can pay more). When I use the platform I use Paypal.

WE are also playing another UK-Euro timesone show August 15th/16th.

 

This image contains a photo by Bleddyn Butcher and elements or graphic art by David Western from an illustration he did for us in 1988.

Otherwise we have an album at Bandcamp and Apple Music (and elsewhere) August 7th. Its is a 17 track collection from a  tour we did in Europe and the UK in 2017, myself and Clare Moore with Georgio "the dove"Valentino and Malcolm Ross. I will write more on it in a separate blog. It is a great recording and is the second of three "from the vaults" releases we have planned for this year. (It follows the album Clare and I did with Robin Casinader - IN CONCERT- which came out in May).

This one is called Dave Graney and Clare Moore with Georgio "the dove"Valentino and Malcolm Ross.

Here is a link to pre order it for $10 Australian at Apple Music.

Here is a link to pre order it at Bandcamp.

The artwork was done by Matthew Robertson from Bath in the UK who had worked on the imagery as a tour poster.

I made a clip for a song from the album. Clare and I did our parts in our Melbourne studio, Malcolm Ross did his in Leith, Scotland and Georgio did his in Athens, Greece.

The song is WE NEED A CHAMPION and the audio comes from a show at the Betsey Trotwood in London.

These album releases have been supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.

Thank you!

davegraney.com

From a remote location.

 

pic Bleddyn Butcher.

We have continued our Thursday Night 8pm AEST sets via Stage It and they have been much more enjoyable since we hooked up to the NBN.
Our next show is Thursday July 2nd. Tickets link here. 

We will also be doing another UK Sat Night/Australian Sunday Morning show. That's on Sunday July 5th at 7am in Melbourne WHICH IS OF COURSE 10pm SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE UK.

pic Barry C Douglas

I have also continued to do a weekly radio show at Triple R in Melbourne every Tuesday from 12-2pm.
I talk via Skype from our studio to Andrew Delaney at Triple who comes in as a volunteer to man the desk and keep the show on the tracks. The station is in East Brunswick and the office has been closed - or manned by a skeleton staff- since March/April. It is a community station run by volunteers and driven by sponsorships and subscribers. A lot of the sponsorship came via venues and performances or tours and that has all stopped as well. So a subscription to the station is a must for Melbourne people.

Here is a page which outlines all the benefits for subscribers.

My show? You can listen back to programs via this link.

Melbourne has experienced a surge in Covid 19 which has resulted in an extended lockdown. The State premier, Daniel Andrews, has been pretty amazing in his efforts and has suffered incredible pressure from the Federal government and the filth Murdoch press to open up the economy and get the slaves back to work. They were at him for being too draconian and now, of course, they are at him for not being tough enough.

So these shows are our outlets and we have been loving doing them.

I got a call tonight from a Melbourne venue owner about doing a show. Took me by surprise as it's been a week of rising infections announced every day in Melbourne. It was nice of him to call and everything but I was filled with dread as I'm not really ready to just "get out there" and "snap back".  In some ways I have enjoyed this radical shift in the world and in my life. I was hoping to come back into a different world as well, a better one, not just the same old scene. In our Stage It sets we have been presenting different sets each week from our albums. Doing stuff we haven't done in years or have never done. I have been really digging it. People are up close to us and we are playing from inside our studio - inside our house. The idea of going out as a commodity and identifying and representing the tiny parts of our work that are recognized as being worthy of commodifying in a commercial area was a long way off from my mind.

Here is a clip I found from about 2011 or so. I think. Barry C Douglas filmed and edited it. The song is from our re-recordings album we made for Liberation. It's called We Don't Belong To Anybody.
The clip is full of little dramatic moments as my guitar cuts out and I try to fix it as we play the song. 





We have this digital album out called In Concert. a one off show from Februry this year in Canberra by myself, Clare Moore and Robin Casinader. I made a clip for it. We played three shows in this keys, guitar and mellotron trio amid areas either burning with bushfires or soaked in semi tropical rain so there was no real opportunity to film it.




The album is quite unique and contains a lot of material from our 90s period done in a real concert style with lyrics right up front.



We have just mastered the second of our releases from the vaults which should be out next month. This time its a set from 2017 when Clare Moore and I played a lot of dates in the UK and Europe with Malcolm Ross and Georgio "the dove" Valentino. It will be a 17 track album from shows in London and in Hull. It sounds great.

Otherwise, Clare Moore and I have been learning songs to play and also have begun a recording project which involves the use of a Four track Tascam cassette machine. Its been challenging - and very interesting. I have a lot of songs to get down. Different guitars and tunings.

We have been watching the Persuaders on DVD. A 70s UK show with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore as rich  guys swanning about in Europe fighting crime for kicks. made around the same time and by the same company that made Jason King. (Which was much better).



It does have the most fantastic theme tune by John Barry which I want to play and which we used to walk on stage to when we were playing as Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. One of those things in that time that I was quite sure no one in our audience knew about. I felt a gulf between what I was throwing out and what people were getting. That was why I was a mixture of recklessness and strict control in those years. I'd blurt stuff out and then retreat into the shadows. perhaps I've always been like that. Excited by trangression but uneasy in the spotlight.

Maxim Porter from Sydney did a podcast interview with me for ART WAR. He is a great young musician and gig producer . Its on Spotify and elsewhere but here it is on Youtube.



Its late on a Tuesday night and the infections are rising. the future is unknown. Australia, like the UK and the USA has in power probably the worst people that they could have chosen for such a critical time. Hopeless student politicians who know nothing but marketing and do the bidding of mining companies and Rupert Murdoch. I hope we get lucky again. Thats all we have ever had here. Luck.

I am reading a  1979 book by Patrick White, our greatest ever author. Its called The Twyborn Affair. I don't know where that is going either. It is pretty great though. Queasy sexuality and manners, rich Australians in Europe in 1914. Who else could take you there?

I saw a picture of a Sydney street online the other day and felt a  wave of emotion. Bittersweet feelings of walking out into a street scene like in the picture. It wasn't that I was young or anything, it was the time that I could walk into a mythic plane of reality. The humid air and the pubs with icy beer open onto the street. A place that existed for itself and was humming there as I was strolling into it. Steak sandwiches. The shops full of books and papers. Stuff to burn.

A bientot comrades!