Cornish arms 5^th birthday Celebration

I arrived at around six to catch Nick Barker’s set. He opened with “Imogene” and stated that it was an example of “songwriting revenge”. Following “World’s a Peach” and “Action Jackson”, Nick changed the tone and explained that “The Other House” was about his grandmother, before playing “Protection”. The short set was finished with “Space For Rent”. One of the other acts I had the pleasure of seeing was Vika and Linda Bull who sang a powerful set full of soulful, feel good, up beat tunes before Karma Country and State Of The Union Jack. Kerrie Simpson came on stage, with Chris Wilson joining her through out the short sets. The last set for the night belonged to Ross Wilson who opened with a new song “Here On God’s Island” before “Time Destroys (As Well As Heals)”. Daddy Cool’s “Come Back Again” was the third song of the set. “Mood Swing”, which featured in a Mothers Day CD to help raise funds for charity earlier on in the year was the next song. It was back to the older songs with “Daddy Cool” before “Cool World”. A new entry to Ross’s set list came in the form of an older song, “Woman Of The World” which was originally released when Ross was with The Party Machine, before the upbeat “Hi Honey Ho”. “Bed Of Nails” from Ross’s latest album, Country and Wilson was followed by a Mondo Rock classic that had the audience clapping along – “Come Said The Boy”. The night finished with everyone singing along to “Eagle Rock” before happily cheering Ross back on stage for an encore of “Hound Dog

Daddy Cool DVD Launch.

I was fortunate enough to go to the Daddy Cool DVD launch last Tuesday night and I must say it was a gas! The night kicked off their short set with “$64,000 question” followed by “Good Rockin’ Daddy” (which still features regularly in Ross Wilson’s solo set). After the song that has been dubbed “The Stalker Ballad” by many a newspaper, “Come Back Again” before the B-side to Eagle Rock, “Bom Bom”. Daddy Cool’s newest release, “The Christmas Bug” was next and it was more than clear that the band loved being onstage as much as the lucky audience loved having them back. My personal favourite Daddy Cool song “Hi Honey Hi” was next and has never sounded better. The short set finished with “Eagle Rock” leaving the audience wanting more (hopefully it won’t be another 30 year wait)

Finally I’d just like to say a big thank you to the folks that put the night on, particularly the person that got me into the launch. Thank you for a great night; it’s something I’ll never forget.

The DVD is available right now at all major retail and music stores. It’s one of the most professionally done music DVDs and contains footage of the Tsunami benefit gig earlier this year, which, if you weren’t there, you should buy just for that concert alone, let alone the other few hours of great viewing.

Andy Baylor benefit gig – The Rainbow Hotel

The night started with a great set by Mike Rudd as you may have never have heard him before – solo and acoustic (also gigging at Fresh in Elwood on the 22^nd of Jan.) I love hearing Mike solo as the acoustic approach breathes new life into classic songs, as well as a few new ones. Mick Thomas played a set as well. Before the Hornets came one featuring none other than Daddy Cool’s Wayne Duncan and Gary Young. The Hornets played a short blues set, including “Heart attack and Wine” and “Save Somebody”. By this time the Rainbow was well and truly packed to the point where it was hard to move, but there was a great atmosphere as Joe Camileri came on for a short two song set before Lucy Miller came on for three and then Ross Wilson came on to play “Flamingo”, before “Mood Swing” and the night finished with a song that should hopefully make it on to Ross’s new album, “Sexy Girl”

Ross Wilson @ The Royal Melbourne Show. 21^st/09/ 2005

Wilbur Wilde started the show with an instrumental piece followed by the Dragon hit, “April Sun In Cuba”. After the Axiom classic, “Little Ray Of Sunshine”, Ross Wilson and Eric McCusker joined the band on stage to the applause of the audience, opening with “Good Rockin’ Daddy” before playing “Bed Of Nails”, from the album “Dark Side Of The Man”*. The next few songs were both mondo rock hits(mondo rock reform for three shows in November, but more news on that later) “Summer Of 81” and “Cool World” were both well received before the 1971 classic “Come Back Again”.  Ross then had an entranced audience clapping to the intro of “Come Said The Boy” The second set was opened by Wilbur Wilde and guitarist Paul Gadsby dancing to “Love Is In The Air” which was followed by Skyhooks drummer Freddy Strauks singing “All My Friends Are Getting Married”. Ross Wilson and Eric McCusker were then re-introduced and played two daddy cool numbers “At The Rock House” followed by the 1972 hit “Hi Honey Ho” . After a few covers, one originally by Chuck Berry and the previous song being the Elvis classic “Hound Dog”. Paul Gadsby then stepped forward to perform a stunning version of “Stand By Me”. After “She’s So Fine” Ross turned to the audience and said “I want you all to turn to the person you’re here with or the person you’d like to be here with and say to them “I love you”. They’ll either say it back or give you a restraining order. Either way I’d like to see it” before “State Of The Heart”. Wilbur Wilde turned to the audience and asked them all to be upstanding for the national anthem. As the opening notes of “Eagle Rock” filled the air, audience members of all ages stood up and happily sung along to the timeless classic that closed the performance.

*Footnote: this CD is no longer available in stores. However, there is a copy of the track on “Now Listen”

Something I was lucky enough to buy was the Idols of the 80’s unplugged CD and have to say it’s great. I was not surprised to hear Brian Canham’s voice still in fine form during acoustic performances of “Listening”, “Don’t Go” and “A Beat For You” as well as Scott Carne singing “Change In Mood”, however, the real surprise is Brian Mannix’s mellifluous voice during “50 Years”. If anyone ever doubted that Brian Mannix has talent, this song proves them wrong. It’s a stunning version of an already great song and “Everybody Wants To Work” sounds fabulous as well. If you haven't got it you may want to e-mail interpol records and see if they have a copy left as it's not availiable in stores but if you e-mail idols@interpolrecords.com the good folk there may be able to do something for you

The Pictures, The Vandas, The Inches, Bakelite Age @ The Corner Hotel. Saturday, The 2^nd Of July

The Inches opened up the show with “Never Sleep” and a strong set with catchy rock tunes like “S.O.S” and “Bad Reputation” in an energetic performance that included an awesome cover of Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin”. The only difference being that Andrew Ferz in more interesting to watch than Ian Gillan. The Inches finished with “Undercover” and by far outshone and outclassed the next act, Bakelite Age. The Vandas, however are worthy of the name they took from Harry Vanda, talented songwriter and member of 60’s Australian rock group, The Easybeats. The Vandas show a lot of promise and talent and have a strong following in Melbourne already. Their set included three tracks from their latest EP, Didn’t come here to be alone as well as “Right Time” and “3 Steps” finishing a 10 song set with “Drag” before The Pictures came out and opened up with “Knocked Out” to the cheers from the audience. This was followed by “Stupid Me”. The Pictures played seven songs in total from their self titled album and finished with the singles “Pissin’ With The Catman”.  Davey Lane had the audience in the palm of his hand as they screamed for more, the encore consisted of two songs including a cover in the set.

On a disappointing note however, I would like to report a sad farewell to one of Melbourne’s most beloved rock venues, The Duke Of Windsor is closing this week. Quite frankly, I want to say, it’s outrageous. What is they world coming to? Is someone going to close down The Tote next? Bands like Jet, Dallas Crane, The Pictures and The Casanovas (just to name a few) started off there. The Sparrows were given a mini residency there. It’s the only good small venue in that area and it’s being closed down. A piece of Australian music industry is closing folks, and it’s nothing to rejoice about. This venue also played host to some of Australia’s greatest rock bands like AC/DC, The Angels and Midnight Oil. I now understand how Billy Thorpe felt when they shut Surf City. It’s a damn shame that a good Australian rock venue is being turned into a pizza parlour with doof doof and foreign beer. It’s been taken over by the people that own Bimbos Deluxe, so there’s no hope that the new owners are going to keep the sacred venue’s original purpose. The closing of the Duke is going to make it harder for younger bands to get gigs. The Duke played host to events such as “Rock wars” where rock bands could try their wares against each other. Jet’s Nic Cester has sited The Duke’s staff as being some of the first to have faith in Jet. Smaller venues are also necessary for younger bands to help alleviate the pressure on going from playing a few gigs, to trying to pack out bigger venues and the closing of this venue, is shutting the doors on opportunities for so many younger rock bands. I think I’ll boycott bimbos from now on. . .

The show was opened with a laid back version of “Bed Of Nails”, followed by “Good Rockin’ Daddy”.  The Cornish Arms choir then kicked in for “Come Back Again” and Ross played the “confessional” “Time Destroys (As Well As Heals)”. Ross then recounted a story with the Urban Legends lead guitarist, fellow ex-mondo rock member Eric McCusker before playing “(I Was On) MTV In The 80’s”. Ross invited Eris O’Brian, who wrote “Like A Cross”, to join him onstage to perform it before “Hound Dog”. Ross then spoke about the controversy surrounding the Bill Ward and the Dominoes original, “Baby Let Me Bang Your Box”.  The next song was “I Come In Peace” and Ross co-wrote it with Rick Brewer. After “Cool World”, Ross wound up the first set with a fantastic semi-acoustic version of “Hi Honey Ho”.

Ross opened the second set by talking about getting older and introduced “Strange As It May Seem” by dedicating it to everyone in the audience. This was followed by another new song, “Here On God’s Island” and then the moving “Same Moon” in which I noticed some members of the audience so moved they were in tears. After “Old Country Road”, Ross spoke about working with Hey Gringo and that they bring out the self loathing in him, before posing the question, “I know, I’m pathetic, aren’t I?” but the crowd strongly disagreed with that statement. It was then time for a few Daddy Cool songs and “Hey Sinorita” had the audience clapping along, as did “Daddy Cool”. Ross then introduced lead guitarist, Eric McCusker and played Mondo Rock hits, “State Of The Heart” and “Come Said The Boy”. The crowd erupted for the last song of the set, “Eagle Rock” and were left screaming for more before coming back out for “Summer Of 81” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”. AS I left I heard members of the audience remarking that it was one of the best concerts they’d been to, and I agree with that statement.