It
had to happen - and now it has. Here are all the video clips I can
muster for the moment on two pages. If you want you can check them
out on YouTube, but you probably won't get the historical (and occasionally
hysterical) overview.
Spectrum
- Everybody's Walking Sideways
Spectrum
1972 - Everybody's Walking Sideways 27.6.09
- Another contribution from the ABC's Simon Kain,
although the more I look at it, the more I suspect it's
not actually a GTK recording. I'll have to check the original
correspondence and see if there's a hint as to what show
it might be. Everybody's Walking Sideways is
from the Sideways Saga suite on the Milesago
album and it was a curious song to choose. I'll get
back on this..Hmmm. I'm now thinking it was Dick Williams'
Hit Scene on ABC TV. More to come..
Spectrum
- the GTK theme
Spectrum
plays the GTK theme 24.6.09
- I was making an attempt to tidy up and to catalogue
the CDs and DVDs cluttering up my living space when I
found this particular DVD that the ABC's Simon Kain had
sent me and which I'd intitially turned down because of
synch. issues.
It's not that substantial and, frankly, it's not that
good - the anarchic Fugs-type approach I had in my head
doesn't really come off. Still, it's a slice of history..
Spectrum
- Who is Bugging You?
Spectrum
- Who is Bugging You? 3.10.20
- This song
is clearly overdue for some illumination from me, especially
as Aztec's Gil Matthews is talking about re-issuing Spectrum's
last studio album Testimonial this year - or,
given the Covid interruption, 2021. Perhaps. Anyway, this
is another clip from the trusty GTK vaults featuring the
Testimonial line-up of Spectrum, i.e.
me, Bill Putt, RayArnott and newby, John Mills on keys.
It's a song about drug-induced paranoia set in an uncomfortably
high key for the singer, which serves me right as I wrote
the damn thing. Hyper-arranged but interesting enough.
Ariel
- Hard Way to Go
30.7.14 - Harry Brus stuck this GTK clip up on FB
a little while back as a dedication to the late, great
Bill Putt and sadly it remains one of the very few live
records you can see today of this fabulous line-up of
Ariel. We all look a a bit grumpy 'cause it was raining
and we were due in the studio the very next day to record
A Strange Fantastic Dream with the late Peter
Dawkins at the helm. Grumpy or not, Tim is playing sublimely.
Mike
Rudd &
The Heaters - the Mushroom Evolution concert
The
Heaters Mushroom Evolution concert 18.5.09 - Thank goodness! A live clip to balance
the extraordinary silliness of the promotional videos.
Thanks to the indefatigable RettroDood
for digging up another Rock Arena clip.
More to say when I get my breath back..
Mike
Rudd & The Heaters - I'm An Animal
The
Heaters - I'm An Animal 18.5.09 - RettroDood
strikes again! Incredibly, this is an even hammier experience
than the other clips he's unearthed. Our old friend Howard
Gable, who produced this single and The Heaters' The
Unrealist album, had persuaded us that we should
get into putting eye-makeup on (kajal) for our live performances
- so we used it on the clip as well! I seem to remember
the live part was filmed at the Bombay club. I'll think
of something else interesting to say about it eventually..
The Countdown version is much better - see nearlyoutofideas
on YouTube.
Mike
Rudd & The Heaters - Australian Girl (Countdown)
Aussie
Girl - Countdown style 30.8.09
- 3D Radio's Michael Hunter dug this one up for me,
and it provides a camparatively restrained counterbalance
to the official clip - and probably got seen by ten times
the audience. Still didn't do much good for the sales
though.. One of the songs I'm considering revising for
a Liberation Blue-type treatment.
WHY
on the Daryl Somers Show! 15.6.09
- It must be more than a year ago that I got a data
disk from ex-Heaters/WHY keyboardist Tony Fossey, but
it wasn't till last week that I got around to checking
it out. We used to snigger at Tony for religiously keeping
a record of everything, but now I'm grateful - there are
some real treasures. The Daryl Somers show didn't last
long, but this clip probably demonstrates better than
anything else on record what WHY was attempting to do.
There's a bit of tape wow at the start and guitar hoemorrhaging
in John Moon's solo, but that just adds to the live-ness.
WHY
- Hey, Hey It's Saturday
WHY
on Hey, Hey It's Saturday 17.6.09 - Even rarer than WHY playing on the
Daryl Somers Show, (below), is this clip of WHY
on Hey, Hey It's Saturday playing Percy Grainger,
a track from the unreleased (in Australia) album,
Present Tense. (It's a long, painful story,that will probably never be told). In an all-too
typical case of failure of imagination, this song is uncomfortably
shackled in its '80s power-pop shoulder pads, whereas
it should have been given the vaudeville straw hat treatment.
By the time we get to the rather childish punchline, you
just don't care. Daryl and the ostrich have fun with it..
The
Suits' Going Home 4.2.15
- Thanks to Peter Carolan for preserving this rave
from The Suits' gig at The Lomond Hotel (Sat. 24.1.15).
The stream-of-consciousness rave is something I used to
do on a regular basis but a lot less often these days
- I guess I have to be in the mood, but I also suspect
the possibilty of people recording me is an inhibiting
factor. I don't want to offend anybody in the room, of
course, but having to consider a YouTube audience as well
is a big ask.
The
Indelibles & Tim Gaze - I'll Be Gone ('B' version)
Another
I'll Be Gone.. 10.11.08
- I almost forgot - Peter Laffy got in touch to remind
me that we'd been filmed at the New Capers' launch of
the Breathing Space EP back in 2008. Buggered
if I can remember it. This is a particularly pedestrian
version of the B version of IBG, notable for the inclusion
of Nic Lyon on bass and Tim Gaze on guitar, but also a
dud reed on my E harp, which only ever gets a workout
on this song. Laff said he was sending me some DVDs of
the whole show, but in the meantime you can go and check
out some more footage on the website.
BTW,
there's a James Reyne version live on RocKwiz too!
Billy
Thorpe plays I'll Be Gone!
Billy
Thorpe plays Rudd?
21.11.20 - I suppose it's not all that amazing - it's
well known that Billy liked the song and quite often played
it at his gigs. This appears to be the only video of it actually
happening however, so thanks to ex-Spectrum and Heaters' player
Tony Fossey for finding it and bringing it to my attention.
The gig in question was back in 2006 at the Doncaster Shoppingtown,
an event that Spectrum played at recently. Typically Billy's
taken the whole column width.
Funky
Road interview 11.12.08
- I'd forgotten
entirely about this interview and the programme (Funky
Road) for which it was recorded for that matter. My sibilant
's' (that would have to be rectified if I wanted to pursue
a career as a teacher I was told) is prominent, as is
Glyn's discomfort at being asked about our writing together
(we never did that really). I wonder what happened to
Stephen MacLean?
The
Valley of Ewen 18.6.08
- Brenden Mason
popped up on my doorstep this morning, thrust a disc into
my hand and fled back to Real Guitars. So, here it is
at last for your viewing pleasure, featuring quite a bit
of me as it turns out, as well as the fiddle-playing Lance
O'Reilly. If you want to see this clip, and any of the
others on this page for that matter, in its pristine condition,
go to our site on YouTube
Bill
Putt - Pedro the goat
Pedro
the goat 4.2.09
- There's really nothing sinister about Bill's relationship
with Pedro the goat, despite Bill being trapped for days
at a time at Rosewood, his partner Rosemary's property
at Strathewen miles away from anywhere. (Scroll down to
see Bill's The Valley of Ewen video below). This
is a charming little song written by Bill and realised
on video with Bill's usual efficiency - not to mention
with the essential complicity of Real Guitar's
all-round nice guy, Brenden Mason
It
Comes As No Surprise - Mick & Dick's entrant in the
Pigdon 5-minute Film Festival It
didn't win the Oscar, but I believe that it won a lot
of friends in the audience on the night. Unfortunately,
owing to a prior commitment at the Wild Thyme Café
I couldn't be there, but Dick said his daughter Elizabeth
wasn't actually embarrassed by it, so he's deliriously
happy. Incidentally, we owe a debt of thanks to Bill
Dettmer, who added to the reality and drama of
the crucial opening scene by loaning us his ambulance
- and himself.