Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press



		Close this window to return to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's home page

April
	For previous months' Stop Press, go to Archives Directory

Hello!
and welcome to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press

If you're a first time visitor I can tell you that the Stop Press feature is updated on an
almost daily basis.. The May edition is due out momentarily.
March was HUGE... check it out
If you'd like to check out the rest of the refurbished website, just click here
and you'll be taken to the home page

Check out the new page on I'll Be Gonz
4.4.04 - May is the 34th anniversary of I'll Be Gone achieving numero uno status Australia-wide, and to mark the occasion I've whipped up a little something about the I'll Be Gonz project, replete with numerous pictures. check it out

David Porter returns to his first love
25.4.04 - Bill and I popped down to Lygon St on a grey Anzac Day morning to meet up with former Go-Set photographer David Porter and occasional Stop Press correspondent Ron Govett to talk about their plans to put an exhibition of David's photos up at Cathedral Hall, the venue for the TF Much and Much More Ballrooms in the early '70s. David (pic) looked scarcely a day older than when we last saw him back in the '70s, and confessed that Melbourne remains his favourite city, despite his forsaking her years ago for the gentler climes of the Blue Mountains.
David very kindly gave us a couple more vintage shots too - check ' em out

Q & A
Over the past few months I've received a number of e-mails about the dreaded Spectrum back-catalogue. Not only Spectrum of course, but the Indelible Murtceps, Ariel, Mike Rudd and the Heaters and WHY. But if there's one album that gets more mentions than any other, it's the Spectrum 1972 classic double album, Milesago. It seems this particular epic arouses a great deal of nostalgia and sentiment too, probably helped by the fact that it's pretty difficult to find, let alone acquire, and seems to have acrued a great deal of value over the years as a result,
Brad Wilson, now of the ACT, is the most recent of my correspondents on this particular issue, and has generously given permision to reprint his query.

The Question
Dear Mike & Bill,
I once had about 150 vinyl albums. However, 25 years of time, occasional poverty, theft, continued moving & technological progress has decimated that collection. I'm now down to merely 3. Two of them are Beatles
bootlegs (1st live recordings in Hamburg), the other one a water damaged, sapphire stylus abused, crackly copy of Milesago.
It's not my original copy. A thief with good taste took that & used it with a hundred others for some needed arm relief (pawned for heroin). That was the one with the speckled cover. The matt cover version I have now I found a few years later as I was looking through some second hand records. I was consciously looking for that album & that album alone at the time.
Finding it was a seminal event! Milesago, which I originally bought for $9.00 in 1972, totally captured me. All
tracks are great, though my least favourite is Mama, did Jesus wear makeup (don't understand it). My favourite is Fly Without it's Wings, especially the guitar solo. At one point you seem to hear some airy sound from the amp, which somehow remains as one of the finest moments in music.
I no longer have a record player, so I can't play it (but that's all right...trust me). What I do need is a quality copy on CD, and that's why I'm writing. Having just browsed your web site, I have a sinking feeling it's not available. Can you help? Will it be available in the future?
I saw you guys do a gig at "Minnie's Place" in Moonah (Hobart, Tasmania) in 1972 or 3. Not a great gig, to my disappointment. Lee Neale was missing. Only the three of you played. No announcement or explanation was forthcoming as to why. Don't think you did anything from Milesago. Still, it was exciting to be there, only a few feet from you guys (I was a bit of a groupie then, only about 15 or 16).
I'm in Canberra now. Will have to catch you guys if you ever play here.
All the very best,
Brad Wilson.

The Answer
Brad,
Liked the saga of the lost and/or deteriorating vinyl. I don't know if you noticed on the website that a couple of years ago we released three Ariel CDs on our own Rare Vision label after extremely protracted negotiations with EMI. We decided last year to lease back all the back catalogue so we wouldn't have to repeat the delays with each album, and began talks with EMI again. At this stage, we've not come to any satisfactory arrangement.
At the moment we're preoccupied with getting a new CD out, but as soon as that's out of the way we intend to concentrate on the back catalogue issue again.
If sanity prevails, you could reasonably expect we'd have something out by the end of the year - we intend starting from the beginning, so Spectrum Part 1 is first up, followed closely by Milesago.
Unfortunately, as regards EMI, I have no reason to assume the best.
Cheers,
Mike.

The Post Script
While I can't blame EMI entirely, (there have been the inevitable changes in personnel over the years and every approach necessarily starts from scratch), there are questions that demand rational answers. If we don't release these albums, will they? Up till now theye've shown no inclination. What's the problem? We pay for the remastering (and if you've got any of the Rare Vision CDs you'll know the remastering has brought them up a treat) and any art work, not to mention the production and distribution. All they've got to do is accept their percentage for no effort. It makes good business sense even to me - and I'm a musician.

Lomond sees off the Britters invasion
16.4.04 - The Lomond gig on the Saturday of the Easter weekend turned out to be the usual goer, despite the bulk of the population heading off to holiday in all directions.
Not only that, but it was the scene of the last appearance in Melbourne of the Brittendens before they headed back to the drab shopping opportunities in Christchurch.
Tony (pic) was picked out by Buffalo Bill's alleged great nephew as a look-alike. When Tony said a lot of people thought he looked like General Custer, the gent replied, 'Not that butt-hole!'

Fishy Pub goes right off
10.4.04 - The South Gippsland Hwy is becoming is becoming a well-worn road for Spectrum. Last night (Good Friday) the lads headed off to Fish Creek, (which is not that far from Foster where they were just a few weeks ago), to play at the Fishy Pub, the latest enterprise by Fio, the former Ruckers Bar owner. Of course, a great night was had by all, including Shirley (pic) who is really pleased we're coming her way for a change!

1) The ageless Shirley puts in yet another welcome appearance at the Fishy Pub 2) Bill
really tries to keep his eyes open with the vivacious Molly from Inverloch

Easter revellers trashed in dance frenzy at St Andrews!

Pics 1) Kate models a radical Easter outfit at St Andrews that leaves Stacy in the shade 2) The cartwheeling Kings return to Stop Press after starring at the Jones Winery gig 3) Longtime fan Peter Carolan and Mike 4) The Britters' invasion - L-R Robbie, Tony, Rowan and Jan Brittenden visiting Melbourne this week

TISM to use sample from Spectrum song!
2.4.04 - Famous sometime Melbourne band TISM, are to use a sample from Spectrum's Launching Place Part ll in the song As Seen On Reality on their soon to be released CD. TISM man Humphrey B. Flaubert (pic) did coffee with Mike and Jenny in St Kilda yesterday and gave Mike a rough demo of the song, while very politely requesting approval for the use of the three bars or so they sampled.
Mike and Bill listened to the demo later that afternoon and were duly impressed. Bill claims to have heard a track about traffic lights by TISM and really liked it. Neither Mike nor Bill have seen TISM perform and are looking forward to their VIP passes to the show..

back to the top