Something special

This Tuesday, I’m honoured to have the opportunity to perform live at the Hyde Park Hotel for What I Have is Gold II, a night dedicated to the incredible songs that have come out of Perth over the last couple of decades.

For Facebookers, the info is here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=79149253348

In essence, it will be local artists playing covers of local artists and it promises to be a good night for punters.

For me, it’s the opportunity to demonstrate something I never felt I was able to adequately express in all my years of music journalism — exactly how much I love music and how deeply I respect the talent of the hundreds of songwriters that by and large, most people will never hear of or about.

In recent years, Perth has been more successful than usual with its ‘shout it from the rooftops’ approach of publicising it’s local musicians, but the real local music devotee (regardless of where they come from) must come to terms with the fact that the vast majority of their favourite tunes will fade into near obsolescent obscurity the moment that the band in question calls it a day.

Local stations such as RTRFM, which pride themselves on unearthing new talent, play a massively important role in the promotion of new artists/bands: this necessarily means that once a band has folded, the impetus or excuse to play the ‘best song of last year’ is exponentially undermined with each new artist that requires their assistance… and that’s as it should be, for the most part.

But on Tuesday night — possibly (at least rumoured to be) the last night of live local music at the public bar ‘fuck no, we don’t have a stage‘  institution that has been the Hydey front bar — I’ll be taking the opportunity to pay homage to some of my favourite bands and songs of yesteryear… (with one notable exception).

It’ll also be my first non-comedy solo show in 6 years.  It’ll be my privilege to play, and a pleasure to see you there if you’re able.

Me as the angsty, mysterious artist... Early morning in a barn being renovated in rural France (outside Poitiers). Cool as fuck, moi.

Casual Cuts

“It’s amazing how fast kids grow when you don’t see them.
It’s even more amazing how they don’t grow when you don’t feed them.” –SW

“He had all the painting ability of a dentist.” — Chris Fuller

Abroad, don’t you know?

I feel kind of guilty for not having updated sooner, and as a result, I continue to put off doing it, but then again, if I don’t do it soon, I’ll miss out on writing about what is happening now on account of not having written what happened then and in as much as everything isn’t worth anything anyway it’d be a shame of some kind for some people and so…

We started by missing the plane.

For anyone who’s interested in getting cheap flights around Australia, please note that Jetstar stop letting you in 30 minutes before take off — 15 minutes earlier than on any other airline. Ray was furious.

So, she has to pay more money to get us on the next flight and it’s another two hours before they’ll let us check in our luggage and another four hours before the next flight.

We’re waiting (with our luggage) near the check-in when my friend Josh walks past, so I call him over and have a chat about what’s going on with his band — ask him what he’s doing and he tells me he’s on his way to the ARIAs to play with Missy Higgins, who soon walks up (she has perferct skin) and they head off to the Gold Club to get breakfast. Soon afterwards, Kate Ceberano walks past, so I say ‘hi’ and decide that’ll be fun to just spot all the Melbourne musos heading up to Sydney… but we don’t. Ray is still furious.

Eventually we’re at the Launceston airport, and soon after, driving in our hire car, looking for Launceston until we realise that we just drove through it. Ratty had told us that it was about the same size as Freo and upon reflection, I guess it is — probably even bigger. Things just seem bigger when they’re familiar and imbued with memories and meaning, I guess.

We spend the next couple of days driving around while staying at a pretty amazing chalet that has a door at ground level and a balcony about 20ft above the ground. There’s no TV, no radio, no mobile phone reception, no nothing… it’s a bit of a shock to the system for me.

On our second day there I interview Brendan Gallagher about the new Karma County album, which I’m only able to do because the hotel’s manager lets me borrow her office for about an hour.

Went as close to Cradle Mountain as time and my rolled heel will allow — highlight for me is reading about this Dutch guy who built the Waldheim chalet to encourage people to check out the rainforest and the mountain, especially how he would treat visitors with his specialty dish ‘badger stew’ — made with wombats and garlic.

Day three is a massive drive around Cradle mountain and the Plains…. amazing how diverse Tasmania is really, some of what we expected, but much more that we didn’t. Queenstown is quite possibly the ugliest place in the world and it really makes you appreciate how violent open-cut mining is… especially when you drive around to the other side of the mountain and see a lake that is quite beautiful, with the best half of what remains of the mountain facing it.

Eventually, we move to the Launceston Country Club, which is luxurious enough, but has no sense of place about it. There’s in-room cable (AUSTAR), but we’re constantly surprised to find ourselves finally settling on something interesting and then realising its the ABC. Sweet. There’s a casino, but I walk two steps in, see my fave number come up on the roulette wheel and decide to turn around immediately and not return… it’s an itch best not scratched.

Best part of Launceston is hanging out with Ratty (Ray allows us a whole day of one on one geekdom while she tracks down the house of Senator Bob Brown). Watching his production of The Golden Age was fun, especially having seen the play so long ago and being better able to understand the subtext and the use of language now. I find myself surprisingly moved when Ratty immediately introduces me as his ‘best friend’ to the people he actually spends time with on a daily basis. Talking talking talking — fucking brilliant!

Home again, home again (sorry about the lack of detail/commentary, but I’m just trying to plough through this so I can get back to my life, and commenting on that) and we suddenly have an unexpected houseguest in the form of Jo Marsh, a theatrical type (which in this instance, means: one who works in theatre) whom I look forward to doing some work with once I get back to Perth.

My buddy Chris Fuller is staying with us at the moment… but seeing as that brings everything up to date… more later!