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The Teskey Brothers do their thing at the
Clfton Hill |
gig
report
Clifton Hill Hotel Wed.27.7.11
The
Clifton Hill Hotel acoustic sessions
28.7.11 - On the way in I started reviewing
the songs I'd chosen to play at the Clifton Hill - which was
a mistake. I immediately found that I'd lost some lyrics to
the first song in the set (Dreaming) and resolved to
a) not do that again and b) buy myself a G&T
as soon as I got there.
The G&T seemed to do the trick and I didn't lose any more
lyrics at least. I brought George Martin and my harps along
without an amp this time in an effort to keep it as simple as
possible and it seemed to work OK. Not that there's any pressure
really - the Wednesday nights always seem to be pretty quiet.
The people who did make the effort to be there seemed to enjoy
our set a lot. |
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St
Andrews
1) Greg
Brown - with Michelle and Lachie playing peekaboo 2) Heather
Bass was the sole rep' for The Trollops 
3) It's
Elaine's birthday very soon - hooray! 4) Mick Newman took this
shot of me serenading our youngest fan..
gig report
St Andrews Hotel Sun. 24.7.11
St
Andrews just keeps on keeping on..
25.7.11 - When I'm asked about
my favourite gig, I invariably reply that the St Andrews' pub
is right up there with the very best Melbourne has to offer.
It doesn't have a band room or the best stage or even the best
sight lines for the audience, but those deficiencies are more
than made up for by those crucial intangibles, i.e. atmosphere
and friendliness, and as a result we always manage to put on
a great show. (Mind you, it helps when there's something special
going on in the audience - like this little chap (or chapette)
I'm pictured (pic 4) serenading in Crawling Up
A Hill!)
So, yesterday was another typical St Andrews gig, although The
Trollops were mostly doing other things, (pic 2) but
it was nice to see Greg Brown and family who'd popped in from
SA and to see Jeff and Elaine again. (pic 3) (We'll
look forward to their no-pressure un-birthday party).
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Rock
of Ages 4
1)
Peter McKechnie laughs at our miserable fare 2) Bill and Glenn
Shorrock compare goggles
3) Lisa,
Robbo and Jason Vorherr who played at their wedding 4)
Pilgrimage have fun with Wendy Saddington
5)
The Glenn Shorrock band was as smooth as Glenn's reverse mohawk
6) Jim Keays still cuts the mustard
7)
Chris Scheri the flautist from fellow Bananas' band Sweet Jayne
8) Mick Hamilton and Lyn Thorpe
gig report
Rock
of Ages 4 Palms at Crown Fri. 22.7.11
Ted's
very special birthday bash
23.7.11 - It was Aztec label manager
Ted Lethborg's 47th birthday yesterday, so when Spectrum appeared
we all sang Happy Birthday to him as he strode onto the Palms
at Crown stage to (redundantly) introduce the band. Last night's
show was the fourth in Aztec's Rock of Ages series of concerts,
(not to be confused with the '80s tribute show at the Comedy
Theatre), and if you've seen them all you might've judged it
the best in the series so far.
As we arrived for our 4.15 sound check , Ross Ryan's band was
playing Ross' Cool River, which is all I got to hear
of them as it turned out. (Ross' accordionist Cathy Middleton
was flitting around backstage with a very impressive looking
camera throughout the night and a selection of her fine shots
can be seen on her Facebook
page, or even better on her website).
One of the treats of working at Palms is the massive stage,
which combined with the lights and PA make for a very impressive
bit of theatre - not to mention the novelty of being spoiled
by the stage crew. We made sure to sound check efficiently this
time, asking for a bit of each other in the fold-back, before
filtering down to the Food Hall to take sustenance and generally
fill in the hours before our appearance on stage.
Although I missed Ross' set, I did manage to catch a bit of
Pilgrimage (Phil Manning and Warren Morgan) and their reunion
with the unfailingly provocative Wendy Saddington. (pic
4) After Spectrum's set came probably the most anticipated
spot of the night, if only because he'd not been on the Rock
of Ages bill before. I'm talking about Glenn Shorrock and his
band, (pic 5) and he surely lived up to expectations.
Glenn's blessed with a very easy manner and his voice is as
good as ever - the band shone and the set was received rapturously
by all in the room.
Jim Keays (pic 6) (see Jim Keays' large
pic) finished off the night and I think this particular
band of Apprentices was the tightest of all his Rock of Ages
bands - naturally the audience lapped it up. Then Melanie frog.marched
Jim and me down to the merch table where we had a bit of fun
signing peoples purchases - and that's where I met Sweet Jayne's
Chris Scheri, (pic 7) Mick Hamilton and Lyn Thorpe.(pic
8)
Happily I didn't get lost on the way back to the van this time
and (mercifully) made it all the way home without being interrogated
by breathalysers. A perfectly splendid night! |
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1) The
cover of Breathing Space As Well 2) Mark Holden to compere the
launch |
Breathing
Space 3
21.7.11 - Another
musical miscellany in the Breathing Space series of
EPs is on the way to the printers. (pic 1) Spectrumites
will no doubt be pleased that the band will be adding some new
songs to the live repertoire.
I popped down to Elwood yesterday to have a word to Mark Holden
(pic 2) who has generously agreed to compere the launch
at the Bentleigh Club on the evening of Sunday August 21st. |
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1)
Robbo and Dr Wazz crack hardy at the start of the night 2) Trollops'
Di, Lyn and Heather warm their FTG booth
gig
report
Ferntree Gully Hotel Fri. 15.7.11
Spectrum's
hard landing at the Ferntree Gully
16.7.11 - I predicted a hard landing
for Spectrum at the Ferntree Gully Hotel on Facebook a couple
of days ago, and so it came to pass last night that the SA trip
was consigned to the realm of aberrant dreams in the space three
deflating hours. For a start it was a cold night - ice coated
the windscreen on the van at the end of the night - and the
entire hotel was eerily quiet when we arrived to set up. Then
Bill discovered his 'air' guitar was mal-functioning and he
borrowed my Morris, which, despite the light strings, he appreciated
for its even-ness of response.
Technicalities aside, if it hadn't been for the welcome presence
of the trio of Trollops (pic 2) and Dr Wazz (pic
1) and a dozen or so curious locals, we might well have
have been playing to ourselves. Given the scarce numbers I took
the opportunity to throw in a version of Disco Dilemma,
which I've been avoiding for the past few weeks, so the
night wasn't entirely wasted. Not that any gig is wasted of
course, but it's a shame that the get-down rock 'n' roll allure
of the FTG has failed to attract our regular audience till now.
Maybe next time.. |
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We're
bound for South Australia..
1)
Are we ever gonna see his face again? That's John Brewster 2)
Bernice and Lindsay at the Beach House Café
3)
Our great mate Geoff Miller at the Whitmore 4) Bill signing
posters at the Whitmore
5)
Michelle, Lachie and Greg Brown at the Lobethal Bierhaus 6)
Georgia Germein
7)
Bill chats with Bob who used to see us at the Station Hotel
8) Ted gave us a bottle of his famous red wine |
9) Alistair
and Rose are our happy hosts at the Lobethal Bierhaus |
gig
report
Beach
House Café Thurs. 7.7.11 Whitmore Hotel Fri. 8.7.11 Lobethal
Bierhaus and Brahma Lodge Hotel Sat. 9.7.11 Semaphore Workers
Club Sun. 10.7.11
Spectrum's
SA tour goes off!
13.7.11 - We've always enjoyed our trips to Adelaide and
since we've been working with Peter Serk, our SA agent, our
forays west of the border have been gaining momentum. So, despite
the fact that the menu was almost identical to the last trip
and the weather certainly less congenial, things went even better
this time around. The Beach House Café in Victor Harbor
relies on its tourist business in summer, so it was a real test
to see if anybody would |
show up at all in mid-winter. In
fact, it was only a little down on the summer crowd and we had
another memorable Beach House night to open the tour, despite
the fact that it was 'as cold as a witch's tit' just as Jeff
Sunderland had predicted. The Angels' John Brewster (pic
1) lives just a few doors down from the Beach House and
was a surprise guest for part of the second set, and I discovered
that Lindsay (pic 2) was formerly a Christchurch boy
who used to come and see my first band The Chants at the Stagedoor
back in 1964-65!
The next night at the Whitmore Hotel we had Peter Serk's choice
of sweet Georgia
Germein open for us as she did at the Saturday arvo gig
at the Lobethal Bierhaus. I'm not sure we actually need an opening
act, but Georgia's a talented and self-possessed young performer
who writes her own material and is prepared to take on an audience
of her grandparents' contemporaries without losing her nerve
- or verve for that matter.
When Spectrum came on the affection from the audience was palpable,
in fact almost overwhelming - and our first standing ovation
of the tour at the end of the night said it all. It was good
to catch up with the Wordleys as well as Geoff Miller (pic
3) and his mate Sox.
We were looking forward to the Lobethal Bierhaus gig, which,
like last time, was a fund-raiser for SA Variety, and we weren't
disappointed. It's a very nice woody room to play in and we
had the best spot in front of the open fireplace, (although
Robbo did complain he was a bit hot). Greg Brown and family
(pic 5) made it this time and seemed to enjoy themselves
judging by the beams on their faces, and Bob (pic 7)
got special dispensation to have a drink or two (or more) to
recreate his '70s Station Hotel experience. Ted (pic 8)
gave us a bottle of his very special home-brew red and my friend
Iain Ross even turned up to say hullo/goodbye at the end of
proceedings having been waylaid by a fallen tree.
Everybody giggled when we said we were going to the Brahma Lodge
Hotel for our second gig of the day, but nobody explained why,
although we got the impression the northern suburbs' might be
considered somewhat less sophisticated than the rest of Adelaide.
That being the case we were mildly surprised when the room filled
up with rather normal looking Spectrumites - that is to say,
slightly older than the mean average, neither overly nor too
well dressed, studious but without pretensions to genius and
all quietly looking forward to a communion with one of their
favourite obscure bands.
Given that this was a rare event, there weren't too many in
the room we knew, although I was very pleased to meet up with
an old friend in Edna Gibson. (aka Ande Nosbig)
In some ways the Lodgers got the most relaxed version of Spectrum
of the tour. For 'relaxed' you might read 'tired', but, in any
case, any inhibitions lurking in the Rudd psyche at least were
abandoned by the time we got to the 'bonus' blues set, although,
slightly disconcertingly, by then I was starting to feel my
voice fray around the edges.
The next day was Sunday, (we have to remind ourselves of these
ordinary facts), and were were very excited to be invited over
to the Millers' place in Glen Osmond for lunch. Ju created a
typically lyrical meal and we chatted to Geoff's bro' Adrian
and wife Kath and watched a video of Geoff and Ju's daughter
Andie stealing the show at the end of year dance class party.
Then it was on to the Semaphore Workers Club for the last engagement
of our five-gigs-in-four-days tour. Comrade Dave Pearse was
in fine form (he confessed blissfully he was now a grandfather)
and I think the band was as relaxed as its ever been at the
Semaphore, especially given we were using a foreign PA. The
PA's foldback has seen better days, which wasn't too helpful
given the state of my vocal cords, but again the feeling of
affection emanating from the crowd spurred us on to greater
heights. The rel's made it into the room this time (pic10)
and Mark Smith and Co. (pic 11) eyeballed the
band from close quarters all evening. We sold out of CDs altogether
and it took us quite a while to effect a getaway with all the
well-wishers in between us and the door. It's a helluva life.
We went through the motions of a celebratory Chinese dinner
after we finally got out of the joint, but we were pretty exhausted
and it all seemed a bit anti-climactic after the turbulence
of the weekend. Roll on summer and the next SA tour! |
10)
Micool & Lesley with Barry and Val Carlisle at the Semaphore
11) Mark Smith with his son and friend - plus Bill |
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Sorry..
1.7.11 - The usual 'circumstances beyond our control' led
to the website being off the air for the past few days, for
which I can only apologise. It's provided me with an excuse
for running behind with the monthly changeover, although I imagine
it won't be that much later than usual in reality. |
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Alana and Trollops' Lyn and Maree braved the uninviting conditions
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gig
report
Peacock Inn Sun. 3.7.11
And
then the rain came..
3.7.11 - Sam See rang me this morning in
case I wasn't clear on the the Peacock Inn's policy on dangerous
weather conditions, which I didn't think augered well. When
we arrived there was virtually nobody in the courtyard, which
wasn't surprising given that it was already quite chilly with
the prospect of showers.
Undaunted we set up on the mezzanine as before, but this time
we pointed at the hotel rather than out towards the street where
Bill Henson was poised to make a complaint |
about the noise - The Pardoners had
problems with Bill (or vice versa) the previous week according
to Sam.
It was all quite congenial though, that is until we got to the
last set when it started to bucket down and threatened to inundate
our gear. We paused to make some minor adjustments and then
bravely continued playing until our time was up. We got a very
nice reception too and even sold some CDs. Hooray for
us! |
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