When enough is clearly just enough..
30.9.22 - George and
I had an intense rehearsal period a few weeks ago for my 'solo' appearance
on the Casey Radio show (whatever happened to that?), so when this Lomond
Acoustica show suggested some sort of preparation was
necessary, I decided that this time it would be enough for us to practise
in our own time and in our own space. On our own together sort of..
George readily agreed, but he would wouldn't he, because, as Greg Champion
correctly asserted, George can expertly busk his way through anything
anybody can throw his way.
My own biggest concern was getting an appropriate guitar sound. George's
CUBE was now back in contention and I'd sorted out a very passable sound,
albeit confined to the back pick-up of my Les Paul look-alike Kelly guitar.
My picking style would seem to demand a steel-string acoustic or even
a nylon-string guitar, but I was determined to forge a new path with an
electric guitar that I'm comfortable playing.
Noodling at home I felt in my comfort zone, so I arrived at The Lomond
relatively confident we could come up with the goods, aurally speaking
at least.
There was a small crowd on hand, as is quite often the case at Rodney
Claringbould's Acoustica Wednesdays, and which I found oddly reassuring.
Sound-man Ray Moon managed to elicit some feedback from George's accordion,
but we both remained unfazed and we launched into the set brim full of
mild-mannered hubris. Honestly, we both decided that it was one of our
better nights at The Lomond, both as a duo and playing in other formations.
Greg Champion sniffed around my guitar /amp set-up and said it was most
unusual but implied that it kind-of worked, which is most satisfying news
from a fellow guitarist.
Maria and I stayed and watched Greg's set. Greg was in the mood to explore
some music other than his bread and butter repertoire and intrigued everybody
with his selection, even asking the audience to identify a couple of songs
that he'd sourced with a great deal of diligence as well as a great deal
of affection, including a charming one from Gerry Humphrys called The
Loverly Car that I wasn't familiar with.
There weren't a lot of people in the room but I know those who were there
will be glad they could share the music and the good vibe, including the
ghost doggie who seemed to be very happy to be there and said hullo to
everybody in the room. |
| The Indelible Murtceps
debut in Sorrento with The Indelibles works out pretty well..
30.9.22 - I had to check the last
time The Indelibles played at TOM KATZ! at the Portsea-Sorrento RSL
(and incidentally rediscovered my very commendable DESIGNATED DRINKER
suggestion) in order to see how many sets we’d played on that
day. It was important to know, as this time The Indelibles were hosting
another Ruddy band, Spectrum’s quirky alter-ego The Indelible
Murtceps, in hope of awakening some response from get up and dance fraternity
on a late Sunday arvo in downtown Sorrento.
I’d scheduled a rehearsal of the Murtceps songlist a few days
beforehand as we’ve only had the one Murtceps gig at Archies Creek
way back in January. Although some of the Murtceps songs haven’t
been played for nearly fifty years, (like In The Bog and Hand
Jive), most of the songs have been borrowed from the existing Spectrum
and Indelibles repertoires and so are very familiar. In retrospect we
probably should’ve paid more attention to the Indelibles set (‘there’s
three key changes in this one’, mused Broc ruefully about Soul
Man, my homage to Max Merritt) as the more recent Indelibles tunes
are quite complex by comparison to Murtceps simple fare.
Maria and I drove in the 90 minute plus journey to Sorrento in silence
– well, the two of us were silent. The van is so bloody
NOISY you can’t really conduct a normal discussion, so there’s
just the occasional terse ejaculation, (as Conan Doyle would have it),
such as ‘another dead wombat on the side of the road’, our
current favourite.
It got me thinking that maybe it’s time
to move on from the ‘Mike van Driver’ era. We are rarely
required to provide our own PA these days and the interstate road trips
are almost a thing of the past, so maybe I should trade up to something
more recent, smaller and, well, quieter to drive to gigs.
‘I hope you’re going to play Jamaican
Farewell’ said the gent who was later to man the bar with
the obliging Denise as we walked in – I gave him the thumbs up
and he gave me a big grin.
Ian, our resident sound engineer for the day, was anxious to be helpful
and The Indelibles hit the stage at about 4.15, full of good intentions.
We started with Keep on Dancing, but when I unilaterally changed
the introduction there were blank faces all round. I was very pleased
with my new mini-wah pedal however and the sound it produced - much
better than my old one, so perhaps losing the old one was a good thing
after all!
The crowd was politely interested in The Indelibles, but not overly
enthusiastic. Luckily I’d laced both Indelibles sets with some
blues tunes (from the Spectrum Plays the Blues CDs) and they at least
elicited a flicker of interest. I was hopeful that boded well for the
Murtceps set.
When the Murtceps crew did finally troop on stage, clad in our idiosyncratic
avatar costumes, I was completely overwhelmed by the response we got.
Immediately we started playing there were bodies up on the floor dancing
and laughing and just generally having fun, just the way I’d hoped,
but even more chocolatey!
This, of course, fed back to us on stage and as the chaps had an open
remit to experiment with their characters they were encouraged to try
even more - most of it worked too.
Maria recorded three or four vids of the set (in Super 8 format –
she’s an artist) and they reinforce the perception I had on stage
- the 21st century version of The Indelible Murtceps is a WINNER! Hooray!
The Portsea-Sorrento RSL committee was obviously impressed and made
it clear they want to have us back at TOM KATZ! again as soon as possible.
Huzzah! |
