Cheese on cheese at Lizotte's Restaurant

1) Mark Tinson and 2NUR's John McGann 2) Mark Tinson with Ngariki at ABC Radio on the Carol Duncan show

3) Bill's on the phone to Rosemary again 4) Daniel's Roger Pyke and 5) Jim Neal at soundcheck

6) Daz and Roger Pyke in the foyer after the show 7) Collector George Papanicolaou and Matt Finish's Rob Prior
gig report
Lizott'e Restaurant Fri. 27.8.10
Taking nostalgia to Newcastle
29.8.10 - The last time we were in Newcastle was during the Long Way To The Top tour back in 2004, but it must've been thirty years before that again that Spectrum, (perhaps even the three-piece version of Spectrum after Lee Neale left), had played a gig in Newcastle, but whichever way you look at it it's been an awfully long time between drinks. The Lizotte's restaurant gig on Friday had been set up by Mark Tinson (pics 1 & 2) and Bill and I had flown up on Thursday to spruik the event with Mark on a couple of radio shows. The interviews weren't scheduled until the following day, but the first one was at 10.30 in the morning, so we were grateful to be able to get up at a respectable hour.
The second of the interviews was early in the afternoon at ABC radio with Carol Duncan, and while we hadn't expected to be joined by local musician and identity, Ngariki, (pic 2) he turned out to be as affable as his appearance suggests, not to mention a powerful performer and a songwriter of some mettle - he proved that by writing a song in ten minutes from a theme suggested by a listener and performed it live-to-air, repleat with the I'll Be Gone riff at the start!
When Bill and I finished off the interview with a shamefully shambolic rendition of Sitting On Top of the World, Ngariki sportingly joined in - and when we caught up with Ngariki after the show at Lizotte's he generously offered to drive the other chaps back to the hotel. Nice bloke. (Check out his MySpace site).
Robbo and Daz arrived from Melbourne just as the ABC interview finshed, so it was off to lunch followed by a soundcheck at Lizotte's. Mark lent me his refurbished Vox amp' for the night, and I got a pretty good sound from it right away - I was told it sounded great by several people after the show - but the organ was proving to be a problem and Daz decided regretfully to ditch it and go with the piano's built-in cheesy organ sounds.
As we were finishing up, Daniel's Roger Pyke (pic 4) and Jim Neal (pic 5) arrived for their soundcheck. I was delighted when Mark told me he was using them as a support - while I'd seen Roger quite recently I hadn't seen Jim since Daniel broke up. They sounded terrific as a duo too, which I guess is testament to the quality of the songs as much as anything else, and of course the crowd absolutely loved their home-town boys.
Then Spectrum took the stage, and apart from a dislocated start to Launching Place Part Two, it all went pretty well. It was a pity we didn't have a bit longer and it would've been nice to have the nylon-string guitars, (which we'd left in Melbourne for economy reasons), but apart from a couple of guys in the audience storming out when we declined to play Stash or Superbody, I think most people enjoyed what was on offer.
Bill and I went out to the foyer at the end of the night and chatted with some old friends, including Pam Cleary and Lyn Timmis who'd taken two trains to get there, Trevor Leeden, (who was mildly annoyed we didn't play his pick as Song of the Year in Hotels, Motels) and his Katherine, Rob Prior, (pic 7) the Pyke family, (Milli insisted I autograph her arm, which I was told was actually her second choice), and numerous others whose names I've

No fix for the chronologically challenged
3.8.10 - I have to plead mea culpa to the misleading header on the latest mail-out, suggesting that Spectrum's playing at the Fleece Hotel this Thursday. In fact, it's next Thursday. I've never been good with dates.
Those of you who've been following my moving saga on the ASR page will be aware that my music computer hard drive bit the dust almost as soon as it arrived in Mt Waverley. I was very fortunate that my 'man', James Feldman, (pic) was in town last week to diagnose the problem and that he arrived again today to replace the errant hard drive with a new, much larger model. Lucky, 'cause James is domiciled in Shepparton, and it's not always convenient for him to pop into town. Anyway, I mentioned that for three reasons:. 1) I told James his photo would be on the website. 2) To remind you that there is such a thing as the ASR page and 3) to remind all you computer users out there to always back up - I might've lost all the work I've done on the next EP had I not backed up on my external hard drive.