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The bits
of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous
fortune. |
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| October |
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Close
this window to return to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press |
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Recall
Mazz's friend Jarryd?* |
RocKwiz
- the actual recording
23.10.09 - Jess and I were both there early
at 7.00 and I had plenty of time to accommodate the resident
RocKwiz photographer for a couple of (monochrome) shots on his
antiquated-looking camera. I already had a G&T in hand in
a calculated effort to calm my jangling nerves - and as I waited
backstage to burst through the curtains on Brian's cue, I felt
that I'd done enough preparation in every sense and it was up
to the gods as to how things would proceed from that point.
I performed the truncated version of IBG first up (with
my new G harp) and took my seat with my team of quizmeisters
to try and answer at least some questions and star
as best I could in the Master Blaster segment
I did better than I thought I would and only missed the one
question on my chosen topic and my team pulled off an unlikely
victory by a mere five points. (Sorry to give the game away,
but you're the only one reading this).
Then it was time for the duet. While I'm in the giving-the-game-away
mood, the |
song Jess chose was Roy Orbison's
Crying, and I'd only managed to get through it the
once blemish-free in rehearsal, so I wasn't totally confident.
I whacked my head on the RocKwiz sign and tripped over a light
getting back onto the stage, and when Dugald stuck my cheat-sheet
on the floor in front of me, it'd got scrunched up with the
gaffer on the back, so I was struggling to pull myself together
when Pete Luscombe played the familiar tom pattern that opens
the song.
Thankfully Jess is an uninhibited performer so I just let it
rip, and apart from a spontaneous harmonising wobble at one
point, I think it worked out OK - the audience certainly loved
it.
Then Celine escorted me back upstairs and I changed back into
my civvies. The upstairs toilet was in use, so I went to the
hotel toilet and a couple of blokes of my vintage were in there
discussing something about Mike Rudd, so I told them they should
be careful what they say in the urinals 'cause you never know
who's listening, which gave them a laugh.
While the next episode was being filmed I knocked down a few
more G&Ts, so was in party mood when it was suggested we
go down to Cicciolina for an after-show party. That I went was
unusual enough, but I was almost the last to leave as well,
and apart from being comfortably numb, I felt I was in good
enough shape to drive home. Thankfully I didn't have to test
that theory with a booze bus and everything ended quite satisfactorily.
I'll let you know when our episode goes to air. Hooray!
* I forgot to take my camera |
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1)
Jess Cornelius 2) Mike, his new jacket and Jess go through the
duet one more time.. |
3) My
minder, Celine, and the director, Paul Drane |
The
second RocKwiz rehearsal
21.10.09
- Just before I left last night, a chance comment prompted Celine
to remind me that today's rehearsal was at 12.30, not at 3.30
as Tuesday's had been. Phew! That would've been embarrassing!
Anyway, I'd promised myself a full dress rehearsal, so today
I donned the new jacket and took the stage with Jess for a run
through of the duet. (pic 2) The first two runs were
disastrous from my point of view, with lines dropping out all
over the place, but on the last one I nailed it. Trouble is,
I don't know if that's a good or bad omen. I guess we'll find
out soon enough.. |
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Next!
The RockWiz band eagerly awaits the next artiste |
The
first RocKwiz rehearsal
20.10.09 - As I've already mentioned, the
anxiety about my RocKwiz appearance had well and truly set in
days ago - mainly in relation to remembering the lyrics to the
duet song, but also the 'Master Blaster' segment, where I'm
supposed to know a lot about something, (whereas I know fuck
nothing about fuck all). In a lateral move that surprised even
myself, I popped into Camberwell's Cavalier mens store this
morning and invested in a cream linen sports jacket for some
stratospheric (for me) cost - if I'm going down in flames it
may as well be in a flaring jacket.
The rehearsal at the Espy's Gershwin Room was set for 3.30,
and the band was running through a song with Sarah Blasko when
I arrived. She sounded good too, although |
she's not on our particular episode.
In quick succession I met Celine, who's been assigned as my
looker-afterer, Paul Drane the director, Brian Nankervis and
producer Peter Bain-Hogg, (who confided that my first band,
Chants R&B, had been his first taste of rock & roll
back in Christchurch in 1964), and then of course the RocKwiz
band (pic) led by James Black on keyboards and guitar,
with Mark Ferrie on bass and Peter Luscombe on drums.
We rehearsed an abbreviated version on IBG, the arrangement
of which I may or may not remember on the night, (but I will
have to buy a new G harp tomorrow morning), and then we were
joined by an even younger-looking-than-I-remembered Jess Cornelius
and we ran through our duet till our heads spun. For the record
I think I got all the lyrics a couple of times, but I was distracted
trying to work out some harmonies on the run, so I forgave myself.
Then, as Jess ran through her song with the band, I was spoken
to at length by Brian Nankervis explaining the ins and outs
of the show in detail, then Celine thrust a contract at me and
I signed my life away. All the formalities being dispensed with,
I thankfully rejoined the outside world and drove home to the
relative safety of staid old Camberwell. O that this torture
could be over already.. |
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1) Marcie
and the Cookies rip into it at the Red Violin |
Thursday,
Thursday..
16.10.09 - This ASR page you've stumbled
on has been late in coming this month, not because I haven't
been doing stuff lately, but that the stuff I've been doing
has been so mundane as to not warrant being reported. We've
both dodged a bullet in other words. Yesterday that all changed.
I haven't mentioned to anybody (apart from Robbo) that I've
been seconded onto an episode of Rockwiz and as a result e-mails
and texts have been flying back and forth at a rate of knots.
Yesterday I trundled over to Coburg to meet with my duet partner,
Jess Cornelius, a young kiwi gal almost old enough to be my
granddaughter. We |
2)
A serene Mae Parker and her new husband Steve |
had a helpful session working
out the ins and outs of our chosen song - I'll have to
spend some time each day until rehearsals (on Tuesday)
working on it so that I'm not worrying about fudging lyrics.
Last night I took up an invitation to go into town to
see Marcie and the Cookies (pic 1) perform at
the Red Violin, which used to be called 10th Avenue where
the Party Machine played a few times in the late sixties.
I went in by tram and got there just as they were finishing
their first set and spent some time chatting with a very
serene Mae Parker and her brand new husband Steve (pic
2) who'd just returned from honeymooning in Bali.
At one stage in the second set, Marcie got it into her
head to mention the celebs in the audience and was prompted |
| by a response from the audience
to sing a verse of I'll Be Gone - and then thrust
the microphone at me to render an impromptu version, sans
even the prop of a harmonica. The crowd loved it, of course,
just as they'd loved every note and nuance of Marcie and
The Cookies. The venue apparently plans to have a regular
sixties theme night on Thurdays, of which this was the
first. I wish them luck. |
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