The bits of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous fortune.		  
 
 
 
April
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Sarah Carroll and friend play at The Basement Discs

My day in the city..
18.4.11 - After our usual stop-off at Choclatté on Saturday morning, I thought it would be a nice change for Chris and me to head into the city and take in a little of the action at The Basement Discs on Independent Record Store Day. I only had an hour's parking so we couldn't spend very long, but I managed to catch a little of Sarah Carroll's set and ran into her old man, Chris Wilson, and later on still I bumped into my new FaceBook friend, Jeff Lang.
I had a chat to Rod Jacobs and I'm happy to report he's fighting fit again after a very diffcult last few years. It was good to see the place busy and I vouch-safed a date down the track for an appearance there when we launch the next Breathing Space EP.
That night I was with a friend from Canberra in Melbourne's sports precinct on the edge of the CBD to see BB King at the Hisense Arena. When we arrived the support act, Art Neville's The Funky Meters, had just started playing. Their set consisted of two medleys of songs that were barely distinguishable from each other and given no room to breathe dynamically speaking. I don't think the Meters knew why they were there and the audience certainly didn't. I can think of several local blues acts that might've benefited from the exposure and been far more appropriate.
When BB's band arrived on stage the dynamics and the discipline that were so absent from the Meters' performance were immediately in evidence and the room settled down for some classy blues from the King of the Blues. I wasn't necessarily expecting a masterful performance from an eighty-plus year old BB King and so I wasn't too disappointed in his scratchy performance, although he didn't actually play for very long and he probably talked as much as he played, (especially when he embarrassingly forgot some lyrics mid-song), but at least his voice was fairly intact. I was however dismayed at his guitar sound, which, while being very audible in the mix, (on our side anyway), was unnecessarily distorted and woofy.
My main beef though, as always, is with the venue. Why does Melbourne have to put up with touring acts being shunted into a tennis stadium? The sound is shit, the sight lines are shit, (well, they are if you're on the sides), and it's simply an embarrassment for a town this size not to have a purpose-built concert arena. Your thoughts please.
 

1) The ever-reliable Billy Pinnell 2) The Mist's Clare Moore and Premier Artists' Patrick Delves

3) Dave Graney's luridly yellow

Two fat lesbians and The Lurid Yellow Mist
6.4.11 - It's a fact that I don't go out enough, so I was delighted to receive an invitation to attend Dave Graney's book launch at the Toff of the Town last night. For one thing it meant there would be nosh, well, finger food around and, of course, I'd have an opportunity to network. (Sigh!) It was an early start at 6.00, but that meant there was the likelihood of an early finish, so it was all good. Naturally I barely recognised anybody in the room and those that I did recognise I'd forgotten the names to, so I was relieved to see Billy Pinnell (pic 1) lurking near the back of the room and we had a lovely chat. He introduced me to Premier Artists' Patrick Delves and then Clare Moore (pic 2) materialised and revealed that this book-launch thing was a novelty she could get used to and she was already having too much fun. A couple of Affirm Books people got up and spoke and then Dave gave us a very amusing background to his book before reading a couple of extracts, which might've guaranteed I'd have bought a copy if

I'd had any money. (Sigh!)
Dave and The Lurid Yellow Mist then performed, and I didn't understand one word from that point on, which was a little disappointing but par for the course I guess. I'm looking forward to eventually getting the book though.. Go to the Affirm Press website to buy Dave's 1001 Australian Nights
As I walked back to the van my awareness of the twilight street life seemed to have been heightened by Dave's semi-mythical observations; the two fat lesbians grimly plodding against the tide holding hands, the Thai ladyboy in pink jeans and white shoes and his fat mate with his jeans hanging off his arse all seemed to be potential characters in a Graney song as opposed to just grubby and dreary. Thanks Dave..
 
 
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