hardtack

Ah yes, our conversation is coming back to me now

I have to admit that I never used to be... but after seeing him doing his solo show with Shane O'Mara at Bluesfest last year, I'm happy to admit I'm a convert. He's a very witty guy with a great "eye" for detail in his observations. He reminds me of a letter day Dave Warner or Paul Madigan... or even Slim Whittle (the Whittle Family were one of my all time favourite Melbourne acts in the 70's).

Was Billy Miller originally with The Ferrets? I only ever got to see them once, at the Tiger Room in Richmond (owned by Francis Bourke if my memory serves me well). They were very good. Rebecca Barnard I remember seeing a few times providing backing vocals for Steve Cummings in his early days as a solo artist (with Shane O'Mara on guitar). The music scene is one of the things I miss most about Melbourne. That Kilbey produced album was the one with The Blue Hour and When Love Comes Back to Haunt You? Great album. I also loved the Rebecca's Empire track "There's Always Something There to Remind Me" on the "To Hal and Bacharach" covers album.

Thanks NB. It's funny actually, after reading the earlier comment that mentioned teh Angels, I had another listen and could understand that some or the "extra" guitar fills in there did have a similar ring to them. I do like the Church comparison, although the actual song predates the Church by a few years..and no, I certainly don't have Kilbey's ego; if I had, then maybe we could have been successful ;-) As for the slide, I'm not sure that Steve (the guitarist) would have borrowed that bottle from Chris Cheney, but I am sure that teh old beer bottle slide goes way way back... hence the term "bottleneck guitar". Steve is an interesting piece of fruit by the way... check out what he does for a (kind of) real living... http://www.steveralphs.com/

Yes NB, I think he may have been off on a bit of a bender for those DoTG shows. I saw Steve with Shane O'Mara not so long ago here in Sydney and that was a great show. Prior to that I had seen Shane O'Mara accompanying Tim Rogers at Bluesfest last Easter... a brilliant performance. You can find a few Steve Cummings pics amongst these in one of my Facebook albums: https://www.facebook.com/tim.fleming.75/media_set?set=a.583242671711020.1073741830.100000758763064&type=3

Yes, if that was the Elvis Costello concert (I went to that Day on the Green show at Bimbadgen in the Hunter Valley), he was very off the mark with his performance. I have however seen him a couple of times since up here in Sydney at a place called Deus Cafe and on both occasions he was excellent, so I wouldn't write him off on the strength of that Day on the Green show. I also have his most recent solo album which is also well worth a listen (gifted by him - we were friends in the early 70's at Swinburne where I was studying Graphic Art). I was also a regular at their pub shows mostly at the Kingston Hotel in West(?) Richmond and the London Tavern in South Caulfield. For the reunion shows the only originals are Steve, Martin Armiger and Andrew Pendlebury... sadly Jim Niven (the keyboard player passed away a couple of years ago here in Sydney) and I'm not sure what has happened to the bass player and drummer (names escape me) and Ed Bates the other original guitarist pre Armiger who came over from the band The Bleeding Hearts. I am pretty sure Mark Ferry (formerly of the Models and regularly in the Rockwiz band) is playing bass. I think the line-up can be found at that link I posted.

One for the diary... I'm tossing up whether I can afford it (money and time), but if I was still living in Melbourne I would be there without any hesitation at all... The Sports reforming for just two shows. http://www.memomusichall.com.au/

Thanks GV, glad you liked it. The guitarist and I wrote that song when we were in a band together in Sydney back in 1979. He moved back to the UK that same year and the band disbanded. So maybe the fact that we had worked together helped with what you call the "organic" sound? We met up again via Facebook and decided to give it another go and so he and his son did all of the music tracks in the UK and sent me a guide track against which I created a vocal track, which I isolated and sent back for them to mix for the final product. My friend played bass and guitars and his son did the mixing and the drums (despite not normally being a drummer - he's a guitarist/vocalist in his own band). We were pretty happy with it.

Yeah, that's me singing... the hair tends to fall out as fast as it grows, but while there's still enough there, I'll let it keep doing whatever it wants to do.

Thanks RL... appreciated.

Thanks DP... the guitarist will be visiting Australia (from the UK) some time this year I believe, but whether we play again is an unknown; I'll need a bigger car to accommodate the walking frame and then we would need to find a bass player and drummer who are willing to put up with the smell from our urine soaked trousers.

Get the Procol Harum albums Home and A Salty Dog... brilliant stuff

He was also outstanding when he was with Procol Harum

Thanks EH... stage presence and energy levels increase exponentially, commensurate with the intake of alchoholic beverages.

No one seems to get over to the music thread in the General forums much, so I thought I would do a little self promotion here... I just want some critiques so that I can feel warranted in my self deprecation... if you like, say so, if you hate it or think its shite, say so. As advised on the page, put in headphones and crank up the volume to cover hide the weaknesses and close your eyes because we never got to put a real clip together and just cobbled a bit of home made footage instead. http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/28948-nuggets-music-videos/?p=1047246

Ok, I know somewhere earlier in this thread I mentioned that I would post a clip of a song myself and a friend (who is based in the UK) created via long distance file exchanges. Well, after much [censored] around with bits of footage and trying to do stuff between his busy work schedule in teh British fillum industry, nothing happened... nada, zip, zilch, not a thing, bugger all... So, being a man of my word, a person with absolutely no pride and a sado-masochist who is prepared to deliver himself the ultimate humiliation while inflicting pain on anyone prepared to click on the below link, I now bite the bullet and give you, Don't Blame Me... a song penned by myself (Tim Fleming) and the guitarist come archery expert and trainer to the stars (Steve Ralphs) in 1979 and re-visited 35 years later to be recorded in two, yes count 'em, two countries literally a world apart (UK v Australia)... One important piece of advice... only listen with headphones on and the volume cranked right up to maximise the pain... err, I mean, experience. Oh yes, you may want to close your eyes as well.

Never heard of that... it was an Australian film? I thought the best "revisit the nazis" film I've seen of late was Iron Sky... very very funny film... particularly liked that the president of the US was a Sarah Palin look alike.

Winners

One of the best goals I can recall seeing... not the strike, but the effort to put it in that position. Astounding!!

Very lucky to be leading though... S Korea have had a few very near misses and most of the play. Perfect timing though, going into half time with the lead.

No problem... I'll be down in Melbourne at Easter with my youngest son for the game against GC... so hopefully there will be an opportunity to catch up with yourself and other D'landers at that time. Enjoy the show!

Yeah, that should be a great concert NB. Shame they couldn't get the Oils to reform just for the occasion... even if only to perform Wedding Cake Island if Garrett was reticent. How long are you in Sydney for? I'm planning on heading over to Carriageworks in Redfern to check out an installation that is a part of the Sydney Festival, called Inside There Falls. I decided I need to drag my camera out again and get snapping. Let me know if you've got teh time and the inclination to meet up... even if just for a midday coffee.

That'd be Kelly Slater

Well, I picked up my copy of What We Do In the Shadows last week and if anything it is better the second time around. In the words of the inimitable Molly Meldrum, do yourselves a favour and get a hold of this... it's dollars well spent:

That Watts pass to Riley in the goals was a thing of beauty!