Rock ‘n’ Bowl at Victoria Gardens shopping centre, Richmond Sunday, 1^st of May

I had the joy of going to see Betchadupa twice in the space of a week. The first gig was on Sunday the 1^st of May. It was at Victoria Gardens shopping centre in Melbourne and is the beginning of a new trend Concerts in Bowling alleys. Now I know that sounds like some cheesy 80’s video clip, but it was actually a lot if fun. The Gingers were the first act onstage and they proved their professionalism in the way they dealt with technical difficulties. In the end it was fixed when Chelsea found the solution. In the meantime the girls in the band didn’t panic, they even joked around whilst they were trying to find a solution, unlike certain bands who I have seen say to the sound tech “just fix it, now!” Apart from the professional attitude these girls sound great too. Chelsea is the multi - talented lead singer, as well as playing guitar; she also plays keyboard and harmonica on their songs. The Gingers are the stars of the latest Jay Jay’s add with what looks like being a single, “Evening Rose”. Etta showed some class on drums and by the third song, Nellie was showing flair on guitar and moving around more. By the last song the girls had won many fans in the audience. The next band up was a rather loud band called Yidicore. They were followed by an energetic band called The Knockabouts. The Knockabouts style of music reminded me of what would happen if you were to take the lead singer of The Living End and put him in with The Cat Empire. The keyboard player showed skill and was entertaining to watch as I noticed that some of the audience were doing a n interesting shuffle, which also kept the not-so cool audience members entertained and somewhat fascinated by the dancing style of the members of the audience.

The last band I managed to catch for the day was the standout performance in Betchadupa. The young New Zealanders opened with “Intensity” in which they shouted “strike” and had the crowd rocking with “Supa Day” and then played a few songs from their latest album Aiming For Your Head. “Design” and “Diversions” were followed by the latest single “My Army Of Birds and Gulls” with Liam Finn on an acoustic guitar. “Running Out Of Time” then picked up the pace before a song about Liam’s brother, “Elroy”. The instrumental “RT1090” before the title track from the latest album, “Aiming For Your Head”. Whist the boys were playing “Moving Over” the noticed that’s what film clip was playing on the TV’s at the Bowling Alley. A funny coincidence that Liam joked about. The last two songs were “Who’s Coming Through The Window” and “Drop D”. Liam thanks the audience and all the other bands that played and then thanked the Soundtech before the boys left the stage to meet fans. They were very courteous and patient and a group of shy girls approached them for a group photo, so star stuck that they could hardly talk.

In other news world war three broke out recently and I am not going into another Virgin megastore again! I went in to purchase a CD and then found myself defending the artist. I can appreciate the value of a good customer/assistant music debate, however saying that you doubt that one of Australia’s most beloved musicians has talent and asking if I wanted a Mark Holden CD with my purchase is a low blow. I buy at least one CD a week. Add the profits of a years CD buying together and it’s a nice sum. However, Virgin megastores won’t be getting any of that. I also found myself outraged at the accusation made by the herald Sun that Daddy Cool was a “flash in the pan”. They didn’t even abide by their own guidelines when they included Daddy Cool. I, for one sent them a letter pointing out to them in the nicest possible way that they were not following their own guidelines, let alone taking into account exactly what Daddy Cool achieved. If you couldn’t already tell, incompetent journalism really annoys me. Then again, so does people insulting Daddy Cool.  

 March 26^th I went to go and see Spectrum playing at The Lomond Hotel in Nicholson Street. The gig got underway with “I Wonder who’s Kissing Her Now” before the audience were “Dreaming”. The third tune was an instrumental penned by Bill Putt called “Jenwha”. I tend to agree with Mike when he called the next song “another magnificent epic by Bill” as that’s what “Little By Little” is. “Menuala” was the fifth song in the set and on Easter Saturday it would have appeared that Spectrum remain The Lomond’s undiscovered secret. The place you tell only those worthy of knowing about because you’re afraid that if it gets too popular some genius will think of charging an entry fee and you wont be able to see anything because there will be too many people there. Mike Rudd spoke about playing at the Frankston Guitar Festival before playing “Launching Place Part One” followed by “On Broadway”. The Latin blues tune “Rocket Girl” was the second last song of the set which was finished with the upbeat “When I Play My Guitar”.

Set two erupted with “Baby Please Don’t Go” as the volume and energy levels went up a notch. “Hoochie Coochie Man” was played before the audience was “Sitting On Top Of The World”. After “Help Me” the sense of humour all three members of Spectrum hold was displayed when Mike Rudd proceeded to chase Peter Robertson with a microphone in a hilarious display that had the audience laughing. (For those interested, I think Mike Rudd ended up winning the game of chasey) After “Spoonful”, the question to ponder was then set- “isn’t it dull always being politically correct?” “I Wanna Know” had punters up and grooving about, and they didn’t sit down again for “I Ain’t Superstitious”.  The John Lee penned song, “Good Morning Little School Girl” was next followed by “So Low”. The second last song for the set was “Coming Home” and the set was finished with “Albatross”.

The first song of the final set was introduced as “an Easter song” and was followed by something you can play all year round- “I’ll Be Gone”. Even Mike Rudd was in the dancing mood by now and did a bit of a jig to the song that made Spectrum famous. The Indelible Mertceps theme “We Are Indelible” was played. Mike Rudd declared that Spectrum was going to play “a song about shoes” before “Sensible Shoes” and “Silicon Valley”. Everyone decided that “I’m Not Tired” as the night was still young and the boys were called back to play just one more song for the audience and it was “I Just Wanna Make Love To You” to end an all round entertaining night. If you live in Melbourne and are anywhere near the Lomond I recommend that you get down there on the 11^th Of June to see Spectrum again. It’s a gig for all ages, it costs nothing and there’s something in there for music fans of all tastes. Even if you really don’t like the band, I’d go just to see what tricks these boys get up to next time.

Just over a month ago I went to see Cotton, Keays and Morris at The Melbourne Town Hall. As it was a senior’s event, I was not surprised that I was the youngest audience member present. The opening song was “Hush” and it set the tone for the acoustic set. It was followed by banter in which Darryl pulled out a pair of oversized women’s underwear and proceeded with a light hearted anecdote about them. Jim then introduced a reasonably new song from “Pressure Makes Diamonds” called “This Song”.  Darryl then reminisced with the audience, “I can remember being 18 and thinking, if I make it to 25, I’ll be happy and all these years later, here we are”. The question of “does anyone remember countdown” was posed before “Same Old Girl” was performed. After “Living In A Child’s Dream” was played, there was more banter, this time directed at the appearance of Masters Apprentices fans. The next song was sung by Russell Morris. Written though the eyes of a nurse working during the Vietnam War, “Rachel” sounded great on just the two acoustic guitars and a keyboard. The emotion of “Don’t Let It Get To You” was also captured in this stripped back mode and sounded even better that way than it does with a full band. When the cover of “Ohio” was introduced, it was introduced as a bit of “Crosby, Stills and Nash”, Even though there was a crediting error made by Darryl (Ohio is actually a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song, and was written by Neil Young) it still sounded as good as the original version and also benefited from the musical set up. It was followed by another cover, Russell Morris singing “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” before Jim Keays solo effort “Waiting For The Big One” which can also be found on the Jim Keays CD Pressure Makes Diamonds . Russell Morris got another opportunity to showcase his vocal talent with “Sweet, Sweet Love” before a cover of “I Am The Walrus”. Darryl acknowledged the influence that The Beatles had on The Zoot and started talking about the various members of Darryl’s earlier band. He called out “Does anyone remember name of the drummer?” Only to be shocked when the reply of “Rick Brewer” came from the youngest member of the audience. After “Elenore Rigby” Darryl apologized for an open shirt claiming that there was a button missing and it couldn’t be done up, to the laughter of the audience. “Wings Of An Eagle” was played followed by Jim Keays on Harp for the Mississippi hit “Will I”. Some more jokes that everyone but me seemed to be laughing at, but me. The third last song was “5.10 Man” and “Because I Love You” was introduced as a song by “the late great Jimmy Keays”, much to the audience’s delight as Jim humorously tried to protest the title. Before finishing with “The Real Thing” and the applause for an encore was answered when the boys came back out for “Turn Up Your Radio”.

The first band on the WestPoint Ford stage was "Society Four". Instead of their scheduled break between 1:15 and 1:30 pm the band continued to play from 12:00pm right thru until 2:30 and ended up taking requests of songs including a jazz version of "Come Away With Me" and the classic "It Had To Be You". Despite the quality of Society Fours's music, everyone I spoke to was there to see one act- Ross Wilson. Ross and the Urban Legends were in their usual fine form, opening with "Chemistry" and by "Bed Of Nails", which was the second song, the audience was his as he moved and danced around the stage. Two songs off Daddy Cool's first LP, "Daddy Who?- Daddy Cool" were next - "Good Rockin Daddy" and "Come Back Again", in which Ross managed to fit "I went to Weerama but I went all alone". The improvisation was continued for "The World's Got Everything In It" which showcased the talent of John McAll on keyboards. "Old Country Road" was introduced as "a soulful song. I released it last year, I like it so much I might release it this year too" and was followed by a cover of "Hound Dog". It has a slightly different sound to the original, but not in a negative way and is a lot better than most covers of this song I have heard. Ross then bought up the controversy surrounding "Baby Let Me Bang Your Box", originally by Billy Ward and the Dominoes, it's not the most obscene song ever written and Ross said "let's hope we're forgiven for playing this one". The upbeat "Hi Honey Ho" was next and sounded every bit as good as it does on record. After "Hey Seniorita" Ross introduced Eric McCusker on a black and white Fender Stratocastor before playing "Summer of 81" and "Cool World". The reflective statement of "This song should really be played at night was followed by Ross saying to the audience "look at the one you're here with today or the one you'd like to be here with and pull them close and say to them "I love You". The world would be much better for it" before playing "State Of The Heart". Ross then went into conductor mode and got the audience to clap in time to "Come Said The Boy" before having to retune his Gibson Les Paul Special guitar for the second time that day due to the heat. Somebody in the audience yelled out "get a fender" and Eric McCusker smiled in agreement. "Eagle Rock" was the last song of the day and although the audience called out for an encore as Ross left the stage, fans were already swarming him. Everyone I spoke to in the line to "meet and greet" was very happy with the performance and Ross won over a few new fans in younger members of the audience.

In other news... did anyone see Mondo Rock's new film clip "Winds Light To Variable" on rage at some time after 4:00am(I can't remember the time, but I stayed up for it) last Saturday morning. It's great and although you don't actually get to see any of the band in the film clip, it's still interesting to watch. Also Rockwiz was pretty interesting last Saturday night with Ross Wilson and Nessa Morgan, I know I reported on here that it was going to be on sometime ago, but that's what I beleived and I fell for it which means that I watched rockwiz everyweek regardless of what I was actually meant to be doing. The Cotton, Keays and Morris review will be up by Sunday.... and I'll be reviewing Spectrum at The Lomond this Saturday (the corner of Nicholson street and Arthurton road, Brunswick, Melbourne.) The gig starts at about 8:30 but get there early if you want good seating.  

Melbourne International Music Festival- Sunday 27th of February

When I arrived I could hear the last of Cold Chisel's warm up and Ian Moss in fine voice. Jim had a gig in Sydney that day and would be flying down that afternoon for the concert as soon as the gig was finished which means I got to hear Ian singing "The Things I Love In You". It was 10:15, the queue was massive and yet, the gates didn't open until 11:00 and the performances didn't start until 12:00. It was a perfect day, a sunny 26 degrees and everyone was set for a night to remember.

Eran James was the first act and his song list included "Jealous Kind". Eran is aged only 15 and has been praised by James Brown for his vocal ability, To add to his talent, he is polite, friendly and good looking(according to some of the young girls I saw in the line to get his autograph). Joel Turner dedicated "These Kids" to Tsunami victims and finished with "Knock You Out". Whilst wandering around I bumped into none other than Spectrum's drummer, Robbo. who introduced me to Ross Ryan. It was Robbo's day off, but he ended up signing autographs and making new fans in a bunch of young girls that were standing in line to meet Joel Tuner and the modern day poets. Diesel had the crowd singing with "Tip Of My Tongue" and "Soul Revival" as well as performing a fantastic duet with Roachford of "Jealous Kind" (yep, same song as Eran James performed earlier). Diesel was friendly and when a few of the girls started asking for hugs, he was happy to oblige.

Richard Claptan was in fine voice performing hits like "Deep Water" and the classic, "Girls On The Avenue". Michael Franti and Spearhead got everyone up and jumping with upbeat, funky songs, starting with "Everyone Deserves Music" and then he introduced 16 year old Kieran Murphy to guest on guitar. He met Kieran the day before at the dress rehearsal when Kieran walked up to him and said "I want to play something for you". During the set, Michael Franti jumped into the crowd and ran up onto the grassed area before playing a touching song called "Tolerance". Images of his trip to Iraq were cast onto the big screens to add to the atmosphere of the song. Michael was extremely friendly and hugged everyone that he met, which was a lot of hugs. I also caught The Sparrows playing on the Lawn stage. They sounded awesome with hard hitting rock including my personal favorite, "Diamond Eyes". A proud dad in Glen Wheatley was in the audience watching his son Tim on bass. Tim is just as talented as his father was and a lot better looking. I got to meet Glen afterwards and he was a lovely guy, he thanked me for being patient and was obliging when I asked for a photo with him. Another person I had the pleasure of meeting was Josh Owen. He was friendly and very happy with girls asking for autographs, photos and the odd few that wanted to touch his hair (I'm not joking!). Unlike Robert Mills, who ran from a girl that clearly wanted to approach him and gave her a dirty look to add insult to injury. The girl was not rude and waited until he had finished talking and yet he still felt the need to act that way. 

John Farnham came out to the cheers of the whole audience and played "Drive On" before "Take The Pressure Down". After "Hearts On Fire", John informed the audience that Human Nature could "keep Sydney" and said "that'll make the news tomorrow" and played "Everytime You Cry". By the time the covers of "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "Sweet Soul Music" were being performed, John had already bent one microphone stand and was onto his second. The crowd sang happily along to "That's Freedom". "Playing To Win" way introduced as a song from John's "LRB days" and the crowd were up on their feet for "You're The Voice". The crowd wanted more and John came back out for a great version of "Long Way To The Top".

I would like to establish the fact that I am normally a quite audience member. I sit in the audience and clap at the end of each song. Never raising my voice and under no circumstances crying, but when Daddy Cool came out all that changed. It was total hysteria. The crowd cheered, people screamed and girls cried as the first notes of "Good Rockin' Daddy" were played. "Are you glad we're here? That is the $64,000 question?" Ross asked and the audience answered with a loud "YES!" "$64,000 Question" was the next song. From the start Daddy Cool had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Daddy Cool's 10,000+ back up singers sang along to "Come Back Again" and "At The Rockhouse". Ross announced that it was "jacket off time" and burst into "Lollipop". The Daddy Cool choir was then divided into male and female whilst an amusing example of how to sing the higher part of "Bom Bom" was displayed by Ross Wilson. Ross then recounted the controversy surrounding the second album, Sex, Dope and Rock'n'Roll- Teenage Heaven. Ross told the crowd that the records were thrown out onto the street and run over with a steamroller. Ross claimed "it was all over a song about a piano!" and as "Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box" finished he shrugged, feigning ignorance. "I'll Never Smile Again" was dedicated to Tsunami victims and Ross hit the high notes of it with ease. "Hey Senorita" which was recorded in the early 90's as part of a CD with Skyhooks was before "Zoop Bop Gold Cadillac". When "Hi Honey Ho" came on, if I hadn't been crying tears of joy since the second song, I would have started then. "Eagle Rock" was the last song of the set. The crowd wanted more and the guys were dragged out for one more song- "Daddy Cool". The last note was savored, my final screams were heard, I realized that I had just witnessed something truly special and continued counting my blessings as I ran, along with the rest of the crowd to meet Ross. I was still crying so much I was surprising myself, and I wasn't the only one!

Billy Thorpe and the Sunbury Aztecs opened with "Rock Me Baby" and bought out his first guest in Phil Manning. Phil was also on stage for "Be Bop A Lula". Billy then brought out Mike Rudd and Bill Putt from Spectrum. No Robbo, much to his disappointment(funnily enough, we were discussing whether or not Billy would play this song earlier). The crowd cheered and the cheeky scream of "go uncle Mike!" was heard before "CC Rider" was played. The only slow song Billy plays, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" was the second last song before "everybody's theme song" "Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)" in my opinion, there should be a word change to that song. Most people don't think that Billy's crazy, they KNOW he is! The encore of "Ohh Poo Pah Doo" was introduced by Billy confessing he has no idea what the song is about and claimed that "considering a lot of the .... that you put through your lungs that wasn't half bad. I know, because it's the same .... I put through my lungs" in reference to audience participation. I guess loud noise makes Billy happy?

The last set of the night belonged to Cold Chisel. It was amazing. Once again there were people screaming and on their feet as the boys opened with "Khe San". Ian Moss then displayed stunning vocals on "My Baby". "The Things I Love In You" had me in tears again and something strangely wonderful happened... a young male approached me and handed me a ticket into the seated area. I don't know who you are, and I didn't get a chance to say THANK YOU. I got in, walked up to the front and had a better view than I could have even imagined and it was the icing on the cake for an already perfect evening. "When The War Is Over" sounded superb and "Hound Dog" was pure brilliance. The upbeat "Merry Go Round" was followed by "Flame Trees" which had even the few non-chisel fanatics singing along joyfully. The last song for the set was "Bow River" but the audience wanted more and more they got with "Forever Now" followed by "Goodbye(Astrid Goodbye)". Michael Chug then came out and tried to convince the audience that another encore just wasn't going to happen. "dream on, it's never going to happen". Well, not within the next second anyway. The cheers and screams got louder and louder and back out came Ian Moss, Phill Small, Jim Barnes, Don Walker and Steve Preswitch for "Rising Sun" and the night was finished off with a fantastic version of "Wild Thing". Chuggy had to then tell the audience to go home! The lights were turned back on and everyone left with a heap of stories that will be recounted forever.

I have one thing to finish with. To all those involved in this, to Ross for putting Daddy Cool back together, to every act and to every individual working behind the scenes, THANK YOU. I feel truly honored to have witnessed last night's concert and it's something I'll never forget.

P.S: I have set up an e-mail you guys can contact me on - ozmusicrocks@hotmail.com I have more photos from the event that I can't post on here, but would be happy to e-mail people with all of them.