How to play the demos..
Just left-click on the name of the song in the DOWNLOAD button and your chosen player (i.e. Media Player or RealPlayer for instance) will start downloading the mp3.
If you have any comments about the songs, please feel free to get in touch.. feedback

Check out Mike & Bill's videos..
Just when you're getting used to one medium, another comes along! Check out Mike & Bill's fumbling beginnings at the moving image game on the Videos page.

Bill Putt's partner Rosemary discovered these lyrics that Bill wrote a matter of weeks before his heart gave way while he was chain-sawing some wood up at Rosewood last August. It's hard not to read some sort of prescience into them given the circumstances, but it could be simply coincidence. It's a typical Bill lyric - he liked a bit of black humour - and it's written in a bluesy kind of metre so I've made it into a blues, Bill's favourite format. It's just a draft, so it's rough as, but you'll get the idea.

I wrote OMG for the Christchurch Relief Concert that was held here in Melbourne in whatever month of whatever year. Well, maybe I didn't write it specifically for that, but it was played to the three punters and a dog that actually turned up for the concert and now I incude it in my solo shows. Perhaps it exemplifies my ambivalent attitude towards The Almighty but I'm sure a lot of Christchurchians might be feeling the same way on a daily basis.

Song For Marilyn is the third in the series of Rosewood songs that Bill wrote about the 2009 fires that devastated Bill's partner Rosemary's property in Strathewen and took the lives of so many in that small rural community. This one's dedicated to Rosemary's late twin sister, Marilyn, and was recorded here at Mt Waverley.
See the video..

Chants R&B, or simply The Chants, in Christchurch in February 2010 for their second reunion with Tim Piper taking the guitar duties. (See February's Stop Press) These three songs were recorded live at Radio NZ's Christchurch studio during an interview with on the Afternoons with Jim Mora show. (Check out the link for the entire interview on the Chants R&B page).

Chants R&B with Tim Piper taking the guitar duties recorded this live at Radio NZ's Christchurch studio. There was a doco made about Chants R&B called Rumble & Bang and you can hear an interview with the director Jeff Smith recorded before the premiere with Radio NZ National's Kirsten Johnstone. There's also an article on a website called Elswhere about the doco and the band.

Chants R&B with Tim Piper taking the guitar duties recorded this live at Radio NZ's Christchurch studio

So, this is hardly new - in fact, this particular 'morning after' version of I'll Be Gone in the key of B was recovered from the Spill sessions we did at Ross Ryan's studio late last century - but I've included it on compilation CD we're sending to a couple of venues where Bill and I are playing soon, and I thought you might like to hear it too.

Again, this ain't new - but hardly anyone has heard it, so I thought it was worth posting here. My Dad Said is a song I wrote and performed, and it appears on the extremely worthy Fatherhood CD, which was released a year or two ago. Time flies. Some real stars appear on the set, including John Butler, Paul Kelly and Tex Perkins.

This first track of Bill's was co-written with a mutual song writer friend, Byron K. Called Somewhere Down The Track it's a jaunty but wistful song, looking forward to better times in warmer climes, coming just 'down the track'. Byron has a warm and appealing voice, and Bill did a great job arranging, playing on and recording the song in his Glen Iris home studio. I did the finishing touches here at AMS

The Girl Has Got A Gun came about when we were testing Robbo's new, (well, it was new then), electronic drum kit. I asked Robbo to hit everything he could, and then he and I just had a bash in the key of A. (Robbo bashed and I was in the key of A). A quirky little narrative popped into the frame and Bob's yer uncle. Daryl helped out with some keyboards the other night - thanks Daz

Daryl Roberts, the most recent inductee to the Spectrum lineup, has his own band of course, Hey Gringo. He invited Spectrum to appear on his composition, You Know What I Mean, which is going to appear on the next Hey Gringo offering - Three.YKWIM has the sort of loping groove that suits Spectrum quite nicely, so I think you'll like it.

This is the second track from Bill's Twang to be sampled on this page - the first was Somewhere Down The Track. I guess this track is a little more typical of the overall feel of the album, with Bill's sense of the absurd well to the fore. That being said, there's a couple of stylistic left turns on the Twang set that will surprise and delight you. Write to us and let us know what you think.

And now the third Twang track already! You probably think you're starting to build up a picture - but you're wrong! Bill's got some really laid back offerings as well. George Koves' voice is prominent in the backing vocals dept. and Bill's naturally playing a host of guitars. Robbo plays drums on all the tracks and plays congas on this one as well - you can almost see his golden locks, can't you?