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1) Spectrum plays de blues at de Wordleys on a Sunday arvo
(Iain Ross)
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gig
report
Spectrum's soirée at the Wordleys'
8.10.08 - We managed to navigate the two vehicles to
the Wordleys' without any major dramas and arrived more or less
bang on time. There was already a fair crowd assembled and there
were more bodies arriving all the time - business was brisk
at Mick's custom-made pizza oven and I barely caught sight of
Mick till well into the evening. It was a glorious afternoon
weather-wise and the room was full of love and inflammatory
dancing - seriously. We caught up.. scroll down |
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2)
Spectrum probably playing Rocket Girl (Iain Ross)
3) Daz and Mike manage to share the same pic (Iain
Ross)
4)
Robbo keeps his options open (Iain Ross)
5) The ritual burning of the Yamaha guitar adds toxic flavour
to pizzas
6) Mick's
sister Della and wife Robyn 7) Mick Wordley eats his own breakfast
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Spectrum's
soirée at the Wordleys' (cont.)
..with a heap of friends during the breaks and sold a shitload
of CDs to boot. My voice was nearly gone by the time we finished
playing, but we all had such a great time we were actually enjoying
the exhaustion. Mick and Robyn Wordley are the most generous
of hosts and the afternoon capped off one of the more memorable
and enjoyable SA trips I can remember.
The next morning I was woken by a call from a radio station
in Bendigo wanting to chat about a series of songwrting workshops
Bill and I are doing for the Macedon Ranges Shire. I literally
couldn't speak and had to put the interview off for another
time. So, while Bill and Robbo took off for Melbourne in the
van, Mick took me to the local doctor and I got a prescription
for some anti-biotics - and ventolin. I had a rehearsal for
MOTE in Sydney that afternoon, which I clearly wasn't going
to be fit for, but, with any luck, the penicillin would have
the situation under control by the weekend in time for the first
show. Given the fun we'd had, I thought it was almost worth
it. |
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KI
rocks!
1)
Ferry 'cross the Back Passage with Spectrum 2) Cabin No. 2 where
Bill & Robbo played flip-the-Neurofen-box
 
3) The
Entertainment Centre at Kaiwarra where the band played a great
gig 4) Robbo shows of his hair styling
5)
Deb and Daz celebrate before dinner on the first night at Kaiwarra
6) Daryl bites off more than he can chew |
7)
Spectrum poses with Wanita and Michael Altschwager
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gig
report
Spectrum Live at Kaiwarra
5.10.08 - At last I've found the
moment I've been waiting for to write about this rather
special gig on Kangaroo Island. It turns out that Jane
Altschwager, who, with her husband Luke, runs the Kaiwarra
Cabins near Kangaroo Island's Seal Bay, is the daughter
of a big-time Spectrum-Ariel fan in Michael Altschwager,
(pic 7), with whom I've been sharing correspondence
virtually since the inception of this website, and who,
as it turned out, was the bright spark who suggested to
his daughter that Spectrum should play this gig in the
first place.
Bill and I have been to SA umpteen times, but have |
never been to Kangaroo Island,
(or 'KI' as it's more commonly known in SA), and whenever
we asked an Addlebrain native about it, they either said
that they'd never been there, or they went into something
akin to a swoon and mumbled that it's a 'very special
place'. With the koala population being clamidia free,
I gather that it's a safe place for a young man to lose
his virginity, but it's also a favoured destination for
honeymooners, so maybe that explains the dewy-eyed responses.
Whatever
Anyway, speaking of honeymooners, Daryl picked up his
wife Deb from the airport at some insanely early hour
on Friday morning and took the early ferry over to the
island, while Bill, Robbo and I followed in the van at
a discrete distance, chortling mindlessly in anticipation
of some koala action, or perhaps simply because we're
idiots (pic 1).
Speaking of idiots, I was very fortunate not to cause
a car-tastrophe when I elected (I actually thought about
it!) not to leave the van in gear while in transit on
the ferry. When it came time to disembark, I discovered
to my horror that the van was resting ominously against
the front bumper of the small white car parked behind
us. Fortunately there was absolutely no damage whatsoever,
but I copped a well-deserved tongue-lashing from Bill
and lost my bottom bunk rights.
Bill lost some navigating credibility when he failed to
read the Google directions correctly and we took an extra
hour traversing gravel roads to get to the Seal Bay turn-off.
When we finally arrived, we were greeted warmly by Jane
and Luke and had a pleasant meal - then elected to go
to the nearest pub (30k away over more gravel roads) to
see the semi between the (hapless) Doggies and the Cats.
When we got back to our cabin (pic 2) Robbo and
Bill played 'flip-the-Neurofen-box' until I could stand
it no more and retired to my top bunk.
The next day after breakfast I ordered Bill and Robbo
to go sight-seeing while I practised my songs for the
Morning of the Earth in the cabin. I
was a bit concerned that my voice was feeling strained,
but put it down to over-tiredness. We set up the
gear early so we could rehearse a couple of new tunes-
a bit of a novelty for us these days - and then watched
the crowd arrive as the support band played their set.
We played the blues set first, which went down really
well, and followed that with the longest set (at two hours)
we've done since I can't remember when - but certainly
the longest this unit has done. I guess you could
say we were enjoying the crisp sound (particularly after
the squishy sound at the Rob Roy), but even more we were
just enjoying playing. It was one of those magic
gigs, and the audience seemed to be enjoying it all too,
even though most of them were quite unfamiliar with the
material.
We didn't play the new tunes funnily enough, but by the
end of the marathon set I was starting to feel quite exhausted
and my throat was becoming a concern, so we packed up
as quickly as we could and retired to our cabins to rest
up for an early start the next morning - afterall, we
had to catch the early ferry back to the mainland and
make a dash to the Wordleys' Mansion on the outskirts
of Adelaide for our much-anticipated repeat of last year's
Sunday afternoon soirée. |
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Spectrum's
first day in Adelaide
 
1) Spelling
please! 2) Bill plots Mike's humiliation in Hindley St 3) Mike
is sodden and humiliated
4)
Geoff Miller's bitchin' bass solo 5) The AJT + JB
or Wendy
and the Lost Boys
6)
Geoff possibly agrees with Putty - or not 7) The dancing class
prepares to rock &
ROLL
8)
Robbo's pretty sure he knows what David Minear is on about 9)
Alex Innocenti still rules in Rundle Mall
10) Greg
Brown and Michelle 11) Ray Hogan came down from Qld for the
SAL show |
12)
Ray Hogan took this pic of sleepy Mike and Daz |
gig
report
Spectrum's No Anchovies night for Support Act Ltd
24.9.08 - Robbo didn't know if he
was going to do the drive with us to SA on Wednesday,
but eventually decided that he'd come with us after all.
The trip was fairly uneventful, despite our trying to
complicate things by having Daryl driving his own car
over as well. We met with Daz for lunch in Stawell, and
Robbo swapped vehicles and slept in his car for the rest
of the trip - and that's possibly where he put his rib
out, 'cause when we got to Adelaide he was complaining
of feeling very sore and not being able to breathe properly.
Apart from that, it was a very easy drive over, and I
had no trouble |
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driving the whole distance by myself.
We checked into the comfortable Hindley St motel that David
Minear had booked for us and went for a walk to find somewhere
to eat. There was an Italian joint handy, so we decided to
eat there, and seeing we had a night off we ordered some house
red, but, inevitably I suppose, Bill managed to spill my glass
all over me. He was just trying to be helpful. (pic 3)
Some things never change, and I didn't even bother to
change when we got back to the motel.
We took a cab to North Adelaide to the Royal Oak Hotel, where
our buddy Geoff Miller's band (The Adelaide Jazz Trio) was
playing. As we arrived, Geoff was totally absorbed in a bass
solo (pic 4) and didn't even see us walk in, so that
was a bit of a surprise for him when he opened his eyes. The
Royal Oak is a very friendly pub, and the atmosphere was enhanced
even more when a bunch of studio dancers came in to strut
their stuff. (pic 7) (Mind you, that's not real
dancing - it's too athletic-looking).
We met the band (pic 5) and had a good chat with
Geoff (pic 6) before heading back to the motel and
watching some late night telly. All very civilised and thoroughly
justified arriving a day early, I thought to myself.
The next morning we met up with David Minear and were taken
to have a look at the Rob Roy Hotel, where the night's show
was, followed by a bit of a chat over a cup of tea. (pic
8) David's a very generous bloke, and has taken the initiative
to promote the concept of Support Act Ltd to SA musicians,
(and to the SA public at large), which was what the night's
event at the Rob Roy was about. (Mind you, I think he has
his work cut out for him - a personal survey at the Royal
Oak showed that none of the musos present had even heard of
it).
We adjourned for breakfast at the East Terrace Continental,
and from there went our own ways. Bill and I dropped in separately
to see Alex Innocenti, (pic 9) who was the first
promoter to book Spectrum into Adelaide. I somehow ended up
buying a waistcoat from him, so he's still got the touch!
By the time we got to the Rob Roy to set up, Robbo was palely
loitering and his vibe was in negative territory, so David
rang his wife Vikki, (got her out of the shower), and asked
her to find Robbo an osteopath. He'd barely started setting
up before being whisked off to be treated, and returned some
time later a little light-headed, but at least feeling capable
of playing acouple of sets.
My heart dropped when we sound checked - the sound was extremely
woofy and there wasn't much we could do about the muddy bottom
end but grin and bear it. As it happened, I could barely manage
even a fake grin I was so on edge. Which was a shame, because
there were a lot of people we hadn't seen for a long time
there on the night, (pic 10) and an old friend of
David Minear's (and of this website), Ray Hogan, (pic
11) had come all the way down from Qld especially to
catch the show.
Check out the videos that Michael Hunter shot at the Rob
Roy Hotel on the Videos
page |
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Wrokdown
for Queensland
12.9.08 - Wrokdown's producer,
Anita Monk, has been in touch to say that Wrokdown is going
national. Queensland is going to be the first state outside
Victoria to receive the show, and QCTV is broadcasting Series
One from next Tuesday at 10.00pm, with repeats on Thursdays
at 10.00pm and Saturdays at 11.00pm. So, Queensland readers
should watch out for the first show at 10.00pm this coming Tuesday
(the 16th) featuring the extended interview I did with Wendy
Stapleton, and now fleshed out with the moody little clip Dick
and I made for the Pigdon Short Film Festival as a special Queensland
bonus.
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1) The
very large MOTE poster outside the Palais (Ross
Wilson) 2) Maree and Dave |
gig
report
The Soundgarden
7.9.08 - Robbo checked and it was March
when we last played The Soundgarden in Altona North. This time
we had added keyboards, so with Daz and a cunning plan
to liven up the stage sound by adjusting the curtains along
the back wall, I was reasonably confident we should be able
to muster a |
more assured performance than the
last time we played there - which was a little bit skittish
as I recall. (Speaking of skittish, Robbo's Scottish flu is
progressing nicely). Anyway, the technical adjustments worked
fine and I was generally happy with the way things went, musically
speaking anyway. Maree (pic 2) observed it was a 'very
smart crowd in tonight', and, as it goes with smartly presented
crowds, they were mostly there to hear the one song, and some
of the other things we trundled out weren't necessarily identified
or even interrogated much on their way to the back wall. Nevertheless,
we got a rousing reception at the end of the night and we could've
encored until dawn if we were so inclined - which we never are.
So, after we'd loaded out we joined Dave, Maree and the barman
Peter for the traditional cheesecake and hot chocolate, before
rejoining the highway, and, in my case at least, gratefully
heading back to the gently undulating bosom of Camberwell.
Re' the pic of the MOTE poster (pic 1), you might have
noticed that it was sent to me by Ross Wilson, who's never before
seen my name in such big letters and thought I should share
in the occasion. Thanks Ross - I'm impressed. |
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1) Mike
with his fave rels 2) Robbo puts in a ghostly appearance with
Lisa, Elaine and Jeff - and Bill and Daz |
gig
report
The Nighthawk and St Andrews rock on
1.9.08 - The Nighthawk gig on Saturday
night was supposed to be Robbo's 'welcome home' gig, but I got
a call from a very sick and sorry Robbo that evening saying
he wasn't up to it. Why is it that you quite often get sick
when you go on holiday? He claimed he had the 'Scottish 'flu',
but it sounded very like the early stages of the version that
I had, and it was clear from the way he sounded that he wasn't
going to make it, so I swallowed hard and said it was OK - as
long as he was available for the St Andrews' gig the next day.
As it turned out, the Nighthawk went OK with just Bill and me
despite our misgivings, and for a change Bob doted on us all
night making sure we were comfortable. It seems the Nighthawk
is on the cusp of changing hands, and there was a minor kerfuffle
a few weeks back with the new owners seeking to impose the new
order before the transaction had gone through, but Bob's will
prevailed in the end. He's had a tough time of it at the Nighthawk
with one thing and another, and I hope things work out for him
better in the future.
About midday the next day I got another sick call from Robbo,
which intitially filled me with dread, but I managed to work
on his conscience without saying much at all, and in the end
he said he'd see us all up at St Andrews. I'm sure he made the
right decision - it was a fun day, the band sounded as good
as ever and the audience really got into it - and the
adrenalin probably did his 'flu the world of good.
My in-laws, Kath and Geoff rolled up with some of their friends,
including Sally and Walter, (pic1) and former party-givers,
Jeff and Elaine (pic 2) turned up with young Lisa who
was celebrating her thirtieth birthday. There were altogether
too many more friends and regulars to mention - I guess you
could say that it was just another typically fun arvo at St
Andrews. |
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