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Scroll
down to the start of the month |
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Chants
R&B in B&W 1965
(Cope-Williams)
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Mike
Rudd profile - an historical perspective
30.3.14 - When I was in NZ recently,
my brother Jeremy made me aware of an historical
tract written about me and my various bands over
the years, starting off with the Christchurch-based
band The Chants (pic) in the mid-sixties
and ending up with the present day version of
Spectrum. More recently still I was asked by the
writer, Teneti Ririnui, to cast a critical eye
over his article with a view to being published
on a (NZ) site called Audio Culture (the noisy
library of NZ music).
I was happy to oblige as it was well-written and
for the most part accurate and I was able to interpolate
the odd helpful comment as a bonus. It's a detailed
and comprehensive history and frankly you'll be
lucky to make it through without taking time out
for a snooze, but I can recommend it to students
of the era. There are pics and videos to break
the monotony.
Anyway, you can read it at Audio
Culture - let me know what you think.
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1)
Dean Haitana struts his stuff 2) Mike plays I'll
Be Gone (Tim Petts) 3) Mike
and Danny Phegan after the show
gig report
Sat. 15.3.14 Spectrum in Gerogery
Spectrum
in Gerogery
16.3.14 - I didn't even know
how to pronounce Gerogery (jerojerry)
till somebody told me at the Trevor Young tribute,
but it was Dean Haitana (pic 1) via Daryl
who initially recommended that I get in touch with
the Gerogery pub's Danny Phegan (pic 2)
a couple of months ago and last night's date was
set up. Since then Danny's been very pro-active
on the publicity front - he texted me the TV ad
they'd been running and I did an interview for the
Border Mail for instance - and it all paid off with
a very good crowd in attendance and the bar and
kitchen running red hot. We were playing al
fresco but the rain that had been threatening
all night mercifully held off, apart from a distant
lightning display and a couple of light showers
during the show, but it came down hard after we'd
packed up. All in all a good result for the gig
and for the surrounding countryside, which was looking
pretty parched.
The crowd was pretty good-natured, despite being
unfamiliar with most of out stuff. We had time for
a run-through during the sound check and pulled
off good versions of Stash and Brunswick
St as a result.
I didn't sleep that well - a goods train ran right
through my room at about 2.30am and scared the daylights
out of me - but the drive home was uneventful, apart
from an unfortunate encounter in Glenrowen with
a breakfast McMuffin (which tastes like every bad
breakfast you've ever had condensed into one evil-looking
burger).
4)
The band fires up with Bill's instrumental, Little
By Little (Tim Petts) 5)
Mike and Robbo in I Play My Guitar (Tim
Petts) |
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Wrokdown's
Trevor Young benefit
1)
Wrokdown's Anita Monk introduces the show 2) Dennis
Millar 3) Dennis checks Mick Rohotas' on the same
page
4)
Mike on stage left makes life uncomfortable for
Broc in Spectrum's set (Hood) 5)
Even Chopped Liver gets a pic! (Hood)
6)
The girls who make the show run enjoy a moment in
the audience for I'll Be Gone (Hood)
7) Brenden Mason delivers |
8)
Daz and Robbo join Blackfeather for a stellar performance
at Musicland Fawkner |
gig
report
Tues. 11.3.14 Musicland Fawkner Wrokdown Trevor
Young benefit show
Trevor
Young's last gig
13.3.14 - I barely
knew Trevor Young but he popped up tellingly in
my life a couple of times so I was happy to recount
those moments to Wendy Stapleton on the Wrokdown
couch with Gavan Anderson and Dennis Millar, both
of whom had long associations with Trevor and
consequently knew him far better than I did.
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a pizza in from over the road
as the interviews rambled on and then Terry Dean
and Peter Robinson, followed by Dennis Millar
and the Rohotas brothers with Gavin Carroll and
even Anita Monk took to the stage as we waited
for Robbo to arrive.
To give Robbo his due he'd had an enormous few
days at home followed by a very long day teaching
and yet he still managed to retain his good humour
and enough energy to play a short set with us
(pic 4) followed by a quite demanding
set with Blackfeather (pic 8) who, probably
not coincidentally, sounded the best I've heard
them
Anyway, Wrokdown producer Anita Monk (pic
1) summed up the evening with the following
messsage on FB
Everybody from Wrokdown would like to thank
everyone who turned up at Musicland Melbourne
last night for the tribute for legendary drummer
Trevor Young. Wendy interviewed Mike Rudd, Gavan
Anderson, Dennis Millar, Neale Johns, Gavin Carroll...,
Brenden Mason and Kerry Ian McKenna for the TV
show. Then afterwards we all got up and danced
to assorted bands with all these wonderful musicians,
also including Peter Robinson, Terry Dean, Aaron
Schembri, George Rohotas, Mick Rohotas, Daryl
Roberts, Broc O'Connor, and Peter Robertson. All
of these wonderful people donated their time for
Trevor, who was a most intelligent and thoughtful
man, and I spent many hours discussing the industry
with him among other things. I'm sure Trev was
impressed with the turnout. I'm sure at this very
moment he'll be pushing Bonham off the drum stool! |
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Peace,
love & sandals..
1)
A couple of the Russos' drag racers - Peter fired
one up and deafened everyone 2) Princess Helen gets
a tiara!
3) Robbo and Daz with Lyn and Di (Newman)
4) The talking point on FB - Mike's Kelly
(Newman)
5)
Mike's world's worst pack for Bill 'packman' Putt
(Gravias) 6) The alleged Hammond
allegedly out of the box (Roberts)
gig
report
Sat. 8. 3.14 Helen 'Proc' Russo's 60th Sun. 9.3.14
St Andrews pub
Two
gigs in two days and the world hasn't ended
10.3.14 - I arrived
at the Russos' just after 5.00 and decanted my gear
onto the home-made stage in the marquee set up in
their generous back yard - and then had to readjust
because I'd forgotten that Daryl was playing with
us for a change. While I can hardly claim all the
credit, Daz is also playing with us at Gerogery
next week which means a sequence of three whole
four-piece line-up gigs in a row - and in more quasi-miraculous
news, Daryl rang me the other day to tell me he's
gone and done it and bought the latest model Hammond
SK2 (pic 6) which I'll take as a positive
response to my previously ignored pleas to the universe
at large.
Anyway, we dagged around the marquee for a couple
of hours until the party got going with Helen (or
'Proc' as she's better known) being told to sit
down in front of all the guests to be presented
with long-lost friends and various gifts - including
a tiara! (pic 2) One of the Russos' drag
racers got fired up, which made us realise that
noise is relative - and then we were up and playing.
We got to play some songs that we hadn't played
with Broc before, like Make Your Stash
and Bill's instrumental Little By Little,
but I squibbed on Brunswick St. Maybe in
Gerogery..
Anyway, the evening was all very civilised - I even
played a solo version of And if it Wasn't For
You at Helen's request on George Martin - despite
the inevitable arcing-up of the crowd when we attempted
to play I'll Be Gone as the final number.
Incidentally, I hadn't come across jelly shooters
before, but they're bloody delicious!
Sunday - as we passed the dead big red 'roo at Kangaroo
Ground on the way to the St Andrews pub we wondered
if was an omen - but thankfully it wasn't. I didn't
have George Martin to set up this time, but setting
up just one extra guitar takes time and I didn't
have time to change into my fetching blue shoes
and made do with my sandals for the arvo.
The bottom end, absolutely missing in the Marquee
the night before, was there in abundance at St Andrews
as usual and I was able to relax and enjoy my return
to lighter guauge strings and the fret-dressing
Brenden gave the Strat last week.
The Kelly was even more fun than the night before
and Stash went pretty well too. The gig
was like a home-coming with Rosemary and Georgina
and three of the Scallops on hand, (pic 3) (Mick
Newman was taking shots left right and centre),
with the McClatchys and Rolfes and Barry and Claire
amongst many other old friends in the room.
I realised early in the load-out the pack was going
bad - and so I went out of my way to make it the
worst ever (pic 5) and dedicated it to
the memory of Bill, who was the band's packmeister.
I imagine he's still laughing.. |
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Introducing
Larry Hoofs
7.3.13 - Following
on Larry's introduction in this month's P&W
and the samples of his unique interpretations of
some of my material, I thought I might give you
the opportunity to get in touch with Larry himself
(pic) and perhaps negotiate the purchase
your own copy of the CD. It has a whole 13 tracks,
including I'll Be Gone, Jamaican Farewell, Rock
& Roll Scars, And I'm Blue, Love's My Bag, Launching
Place Part 2, We Are Indelible, What the World Needs
is a New Pair of Socks, Red Hot Momma, Medicine
Man, I Can't Say What I Mean, I Am the Laughing
Man and And if it Wasn't for You.
You can email Larry on [email protected]
and he'll be pleased to have a chat I'm sure. BTW,
he was slightly aggrieved that I didn't give mention
to his playing a Salvation Army Tambourine - so
I've mentioned it. |
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The
Hard Yards Music Festival
1)
Interested parties look on with interest as the
gloriously unaffected Biddlewoods strut their stuff
2)
Mike chimes in on harp with the Holden Brothers
Travelling Circus 3) Two old blokes having big fun
- seriously! (Maria)
gig
report
The Hard Yards Music Festival somewhere near Chum
Creek Sat. 1.3.14
No
rain, no fuss and hooray for us at The Hard Yards
Music Festival
2.3.14 - I'm not complaining,
but if this is the only festival I'll be playing
this year, I'm glad it was a lovely one. Of course,
I created a pressure bubble for myself and didn't
truly settle down till my spot was over, but I needn't
have worried because the audience was in a relaxed
frame of mind and paid attention all the
way through.
The big plus for the festival was the spectacular
location (on a hill top not far from Chum Creek)
and the weather, which, while overcast for the most
part, remained fine and warm till the sun went down.
Mind you, in true festival tradition things were
running considerably behind, but this meant I got
to see and hear more of the bill than I would've
otherwise - and I got the benefit of the evening
light during my set.
Mark Holden was premiering his Holden Brothers Travelling
Circus band and had requested I join them on guitar
for his haunting song, This Old Guitar.
(pic 3) We had a run through in the caravan
beforehand and he asked if I'd mind joining them
for another song as well, so I volunteered some
tootling on blues harp. (pic 2) My guitar
(George Martin) got another guernsey when Mark borrowed
it after his Gibson went irretrievably wayward in
its tuning.
Anyway, it was all good fun and I think the brothers
will have benefitted from a live run through in
front of a partisan crowd. The Holdens' set was
filmed too, so you never know when that might show
up on YouTube. |
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