Grouch Of The Day #1

Over the summer I had planned to introduce a short segment on Off The Record titled Grouch Of The Day. As I am taking most of December off we will have to leave the on-air Grouch until January.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t grouch here online.  Last week I went to see Crowded House at the Rod Laver Arena and was amazed at how many people were using mobile phones, either to text their friends or to take photos of the band. I reckon at one stage I could see the lights from at least 300 phones! So, as I was trying to watch the band on stage, my peripheral vision was distracted by the lights that were blinking on and off.

Let’s get it straight.  I don’t know much about photography but I know the following. Mobile phones take crap photos. So do almost all digital cameras in low light conditions.

So all you are going to get is a blurred image on the phone and, if you use a digital camera with a flash, a photo of the back of the head of the person in front of you.

Please put your bloody phone away – all you are doing is annoying others.

The 20th Anniversary Show!

We broadcast live from The Corner Hotel on Saturday, November 10. Thanks to all those people who turned up to watch the broadcast and the ‘roast’ that followed. I received a light basting from Tracee Hutchison and Geoff King and a char grilling from Tony Biggs and Leaping Larry L.

Then we adjourned downstairs for the gig, which was fabulous. Several notable highlights included Rebecca Barnard and Shane O’Mara’s version of ‘Boots Of Spanish Leather’ and Dan Warner and band’s ‘Cortez The Killer.’

Thanks to Nerida Leggatt for doing such a fantastic job in organising the day. Thanks alos to Brian Nankervis, the fabulous MC for the roast and the gig.

Below are some pics courtesy of Michael Mackenzie. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger photo.

The Corner Hotel Rooftop

Brian, Hugo Armstrong and Jeff.

Stephen Cummings, MC Brian Nankervis, Geoff King, Tony Biggs & Leaping Larry L.

It Was 20 Years Ago This Week

Believe it or not, this week marks the 20th anniversary of my first program on Triple R – the Sunday evening show (8.00-10.00pm), Axis.

Off The Record came along in, I think, April the following year when I was asked to fill during the notorious Film Buffs walk out incident. This occurred when the then Program Director, Stephen Walker, attempted to get Paul Harris and John Flaus to restrict their talk to one hour instead of two. Some battles you just cannot win and this was one of them. Of course, I didn’t realise the storm I had walked into and was eventually relieved to go back to Sunday after just six weeks. The following year Off The Record became a permanent part of the Saturday line-up.

I was thinking of some highlights and notable moments of the past 20 years and have started compiling a list:

- Interviewing John Lee Hooker at his home in Redwood City in 1999.

- Interviewing Allen Toussaint in his office at Sea-Saint Studios in 1991 and having him sit at his grand piano and perform.

- Having Stan Rofe do his very last on-air spot on my program.

- Interviewing Tom Waits – at the time of Mule Variations – who went off on a tangent about fish.

- The Bob Dylan tribute sessions recorded at Woodstock Studios in 1998 and broadcast on the weekend Bob was in town. (Later they were released as the Woodstock Sessions).

- Buddy Miller performing live on the program.

- The Patron of the show Joe Camilleri offering to match every subscription for the final 20 minutes of a Radiothon program and discovering there were more than 25 subscribers.

- Having Dave Dawson conduct a vendetta against me – on air and in print – after he thought I had made a derogatory remark about yodelling in relation to High In The Saddle, the show he and Keith Glass did and which followed Axis each week. I actually said, ‘You won’t hear any yodelling on High In The Saddle, will you Keith?’

- Stan Rofe taking over the Sunday night slot after I gave it up to move to Saturdays permanently.

- Watching a reel of tape drop off the machine and roll across the floor during David Langsam’s Keith Richards interview and putting me off air for a few minutes.

- The first minute of Axis when I played a song from a Brian Ritchie solo album which started with the word ‘fuck’ – six times. Tim was panel operating and managed to fade up each time the word was said. I thought my Triple R career was over before it started.

- The first Byron Bay broadcast from the camper van at Belongil Fields.

- Just prior to a Byron broadcast from the new site at Red Devil Park seeing Bill Runting sprint out of the demountable in Byron to reconnect a power cable that had been kicked out and put us off air.

- Panel operating for the travel show and having the guest’s false tooth fall out during an interview!

- Helping to start Radio Rider – the first motorcycle show on Melbourne radio and then as a fringe benefit getting to ride around the Phillip Island circuit.

- While sharing a house with the AMCN guys at Phillip Island, I wore my red pyjamas and when I jumped out of bed in the morning one of the guys started yelling saying he thought he was being attacked by Santa Claus.

- Going to the Stones press conference at the MCG in 1995 and seeing James Young grab Keith’s glass.

- Standing ankle-deep in water at Belongil Fields in 1995 watching Mick Taylor with James Young who was convinced that Mick and Keith were going to turn up. I should have learned my lesson earlier when we went to the Esplanade to see Canned Heat with the same false expectation.

- Having Program Director Chris Pekin tell Angela Catterns to go away when she came to share our van at Byron because the ABC didn’t have any prep room.

- The Died Pretty Incident. For some reason I didn’t want Jeff Jenkins to play a Died Pretty track, we argued about it and didn’t speak to each other for a year!

- Finally taking a group of listeners to New Orleans in 2007 after threatening to do so for many years.

- Meeting Neil Young backstage at the Myer Music Bowl after the Greendale concert.

- Nearly running into Bob Dylan backstage in New Orleans but being thwarted by a proposed Lucinda Williams interview that in the end didn’t happen.

- Having Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash and Mary Chapin Carpenter in the studio for an interview and song each.

San Francisco Blues Part 2

This is the same weekend as the Great Southern Blues & Rockabilly Festival in Narooma that my friend Big T is attending for the first time. I have to say that, apart from the headliners, Narooma’s line-up is probably as strong as the San Francisco Blues Festival: Renee Geyer, Bakelite Radio, Tex Perkins, Watermelon Slim, Lynwood Slim, Kyla Brox, Rod Piazza, Bill Kirchen, Ash Grunwald, Dave Hole, Chain, The Backsliders and more.  A weekend ticket to Narooma is $210 and daily tickets for Saturday and Sunday are $115 – a lot more than San Francisco’s blues event but they do have to pay the transport costs for the international artists.

San Francisco’s second and final day featured James Hunter, Joe Louis Walker & Sugar Pie DeSanto as well as John Hammond, Charlie Musselwhite and Allen Toussaint. For US$35 (advance) that represents excellent value and you would have to think it is probably too cheap! There was a rumour sweeping the festival at the end of the day that this could be the last one at the Great Meadow site – or maybe the final one of all. They definitely need a bigger crowd but I think, with the right publicity and line-up, they could get at least another couple of thousand there. I was surprised last year at how few people were there to see Little Richard.

These thoughts were excercising my mind even before I heard the rumours. As I surveyed the festival site I wondered just how they could keep up the standard of line-up and maintain such a comfortable environment. The answer is that they cannot unless they get a few more major soponsors.

I arrived early to find all the people from Saturday ensconced in the same positions. It was as if they had been there all night. ‘Did you go home?’ asked one chap. The Blues Guitar Women showdown was interesting, Ron Hacker & The Hacksaws were workmanlike (talk about damning with faint praise), the Blues Farm Revue went up a notch when the colourful Carter Brothers made an appearance and there was a strong tribute to Little Walter (featuring Gary Smith, Paul Durkett, Joe Filisko and former Little Walter associate Craig Horton).

For the third time this trip I saw James Hunter and his band and he has not failed to impress on any occasion. Hunter’s voice is uncannily soulful for a white English lad and his stage repartee amusing (‘This song calls for a lot of severe jiggling about.’).

John Hammond opened the final set acoustically. Since his album of Tom Waits’ covers, Wicked Grin, his career seems to have gained a new lease of life. His brief performance featured several songs from his latest, excelltn album, Push Comes To Shove.

Hammond was followed by Allen Toussaint solo at the piano who did the usual selection but finished with a really unusual song that showed his brilliance as a piano player. He opened with ‘There’s A Party Going On’ and followed it with his usual medley (‘A Certain Girl,’ ‘Mother In Law,’ Fortune Teller’ and ‘Working In A Coalmine’). Then we were treated to ‘get Out Of My Life Woman,’ ‘Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky’ and ‘Brickyard Blues.’ Then he chose to cover Paul Simon’s ‘American Tune,’ which might have seemed surprising until you realise that Tousaint worked on the album (There Goes Rhymin’ Simon) on which it originally appeared. He introduced it by saying that he did not write it but wish he had. The set closed with ‘What Is Success.’  The encore was a dazzling instrumental which traced Toussaint’s career and his facility in just about any style – from classical to boogie woogie to New Orleans – amusingly he kept returning to ‘Chopsticks.’

Like John Hammond, Charlie Musselwhite also seems to have gained a new lease of life with his latest band and his Delta Hardware album is one of his best ever. Charlie’s band is red hot and his set here was powerful. There were two selections from his latest album and ‘Strange Land’ which appeared on his very first album forty years ago.

Then Hammond and Tousaint joined Musselwhite and his band on stage for  a finale of ‘Yes We Can,’ ‘Push Comes To Shove’ and ‘Christo Redemptor’ (a song that also appaered on his first album).

Off The Record – RRR – Saturday November 3

Get Out Of My Life Woman – Allen Toussaint – What Is Success

ID – Allen Toussaint

Such A Night – Bakelite Radio – IV

Who Wants To Mend A Broken Heart – Stephen Cummings – Space Travel

Be There Soon – Sime Nugent – Happy Hour

Jail, It’s Hell – The Wagons – The Curse Of Lightning

Be A Little Quieter – Porter Wagoner – Wagonmaster

Hush – Russell Morris & Melinda Schneider – Rockwiz 2

Key To The Highway – Derek & The Dominos – Crossroads

ID – Ian MacLagan

Spirit Road – Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II

Barstool Blues – Neil Young – Zuma

ID – Leo Nocentelli

FERGUS LINEHAN – ARTISTIC DIRECTOR – SYDNEY FESTIVAL

Ring Them Bells – Sufjan Stevens – I’m Not There

Silvio – Bob Dylan – Dylan

ID – Chuck Leavell

JOHN FOGERTY SPECIAL

ID – Ray Benson

Broken Down Cowboy / Somebody Help Me / River Is Waiting / Long Dark Night / Natural Thing / Don’t You Wish It Was True / Creedence Song / Green River / Longshot / I Can’t Take It No More / Gunslinger / It Ain’t Right

ID – Natalie Merchant