(strangely)(emotional) coming out on classic jewel case compact disc April 12th.

 

 Art by Tony Mahony

 

Dave Graney and Clare Moore, (strangely)(emotional).

15 track album (includes two versions of one song).

All instruments played by Dave Graney and Clare Moore.

Dave Graney, guitars, bass, autoharp, harmonica, vocals.

Clare Moore, drums, vibes, keys, percussion, backing vocals.

Joined by Shane Reilly (Lost Ragas) pedal steel on the opening track, Dave Wray (aka Frank Bennett) on tenor and soprano sax for three songs, Genevieve Fry (Cold Hands Warm Hearts) on harp on one song, Will Hindmarsh (aka Twinkledigitz) and Emily Jarrett on backing vocals on two songs and Catherine McQuade, bass and mixing on another.

Mastered by beats / hip hop producer and drummer Plutonic Lab who had collaborated with Dave Graney on the homage track GRACE TAME IS PRESIDENT in 2022.

 “As I have said many times nobody else is making music like this. A combination of the familiar tropes of rock and pop intermingled with literary lyrical explorations, jazz elements, ambient sounds, and a degree of abstraction masking astute commentary on the state of the world today. There are more ideas in these 15 songs than most artists achieve in their careers”.

Bob Osborne – DIFFERENT NOISES – Salford UK

(strangely)(emotional) is released April 12^th 2024.
Preorder the album here. https://davegraney1.bandcamp.com/album/dave-graney-and-clare-moore-strangely-emotional

 Early review of the album from Different Noises Bob Osborne in Salford UK

https://differentnoises.home.blog/2024/02/12/may-you-live-in-emotional-times/

Dave Graney and Clare Moore have in recent years been swinging between song focused studio albums (like this one) and more band focused rock albums, (like their previous set In A Mistly).

(strangely)(emotional) is so carefully titled because that’s the age we live in. A person has to be sure and careful of their words. It’s a sensitive area, the world, in 2024. Even though it is also brutal , viral and violent all at once. (The ground we walk upon is contested and just holding together with surface tension). So the words are quarantined from each other, in parentheses so as not to be qualifying or commenting on the other.

The sounds on the album come from vintage drum machines, electric (six and twelve string) and acoustic (nylon and steel string) guitars, pedal steel, harp, harmonica, electric piano, drums, vibes, marimba, mellotron and tenor and soprano sax.

The words are rich, playful and very personal. Dave Graney is a proud Creative Creep.

(strangely)(emotional) comes after a year where Graney and Moore toured the country to joy and acclaim with their 90s band Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. This album was cooking away in the background all the while.

It’s a Dave Graney and Clare Moore album. They’ve always done their own thing. This time, it’s (strangely)(emotional)

 

CREATIVE CREEP First single from the epic 2024 album (strangely)(emotional) which is to be released on classic jewel case Compact Disc  April 12th. Touring near you, soon.

  Murry Wilson was Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys father. This is a link to his only album release.

Touring near you, soon.



Friday May 3rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Agrestic Grocer, Orange NSW

Saturday May 4th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Boutique Room, Katoomba NSW.

Sunday May 5th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play THE STAG AND HUNTER, Newcastle NSW.

Friday May 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play Lyric Lane, Maylands , WA

Saturday May 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Duke Of George in East Fremantle, WA. 
Saturday May 18th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine, Vic
Saturday June 8th (strangely)(emotional) Melbourne album launch at Kindred in Yarraville.

Back In A Day

Just me on guitars and Shane Reilly on pedal steel.  Lyrically its setting down a bit of an agenda or course. Or game plan. People say "back in the day" so casually. Here I say "better to say back in A day..." It's an important distinction when you talk about your life.

Family Gatherings 

I wanted to write a song about a particular time in my life when my mothers sisters and my fathers brothers all had kids around the same time and they  would often come to visit. Young parents with their strange, rival children. A brief period just before I went to school. The visits stopped after a while and we had no car until I was a teenager so did no visiting of our own. I mention records my mother used to play and shoes and dresses they favoured. The guitar only on this version. Clare thought it sounded nice as just guitar and vocal. Tuned to open D.

My Cancellation Came Through

Guitar tuned to open G. Clare playing a drum sample on her Ensoniq which hits a low D note. Dave Wray on saxophone.  Just singing about how peaceful it must be when you are eventually cancelled by the social world. Its finally happened and you don't have to worry any more.

Creative Creep

A noun and an adverb and  verb. Two chords on the guitar, built up from a single lick on the guitar. Sax from Dave Wray. I tried to miix it low like the Stones used to do in the 70s. Dave played on several tracks on our last album In A Mistly. He lives up near Lismore.

Love Story

Dave Wray on sax. Another song about my first kiss. I play bass and guitar and Clare plays piano and keys (strings).  "That farm girl! Hot pimples on her forehead! Her hair was bone dry- like mine..."

I Said No To Myself

I thought I knew what I was talking about on this track but I think I might have been saying something else too. Sometimes that happens. It's a risk you take writing and singing words.  Clare on keys and me on guitars and bass. Will Hindmarsh (Twinkeldigitz) and Emily Jarrett from the Routines, Rockin Pelmets and GoGo Sapien and Damien Cowells Disco Machine contributed these incredible vocals.
UK soundtrack maestro Barry Adamson is doing a  remix of this song.

Ice Bergman

A swinging jazz R&B tune from the Soundpark sessions for our previous album. It didn't seem to fit with that.  I sing "I'm gonna be old in the end times" in the chorus but that seemed to be too much as a title. Clare came up with Ice Bergman. A play on words and a nod to a cold Swedish film maker. Clare on drums and vibes and me on guitars and bass.

They Walk Among Us

Recorded at Soundpark studios. Clare on drums and vocals. Me on guitars. I played bass but we asked Catherine McQuade to do a remix and she put her bass playing on it.  I heard all these anti vax "no" voting people yelling about being "sovereign citizens" and started to write about "ha'penny people", "bitcoin buddies" and "florin entities" "pounds shillings and pence over the fence no sense - LS Demons...." etc 

We worked on this track YOU CAME TO ME IN A DREAM with Cathy last year. I wrote the lyrics. 

 

He's Talkin' To His Base

They give free passes to right wing populist figures like Trump and let them say all manner of foul shit and excuse them by saying they are "talking to their base".  "Base" also meaning the lowest of a persons nature. Worked on this track for a few years. Just liked the chords. Built up the guitars and added base. Clare plays electric piano. 

I'll Cluster It

This is probably the (strangely)(emotional) song. Its parts of a groove I put together for a song called KING OF THE DUDES in 2012.  I just added this vocal one day. It seemed to be quite mysteriously confessional. Very oblique but very personal. Strangely emotional. I'm confessing to a few weaknesses. I can't help. I'll cluster it.

Already Missing The Lockdown

 Hey, who didn't enjoy a moment or two when the world ground to a halt there in 2020? And we learned so much. So much was laid bare. We didn't have to be anywhere. We couldn't do anything wrong....
Nylon string guitar tuned to open G. Clare on piano.

Poor Covid

A drum loop from Clare's Ensoniq keyboard and I started to play a bluesy groove.
I thought the title "Poor Covid " sounded like an old folk song. Like Tam Lin from Fairport Convention.
Covid was an illuminating moment that showed us how sick the world was.

You Were Gaslit For This

A simple looped rhythm. Discovered it while tooling around on an older song from 1999.  Twelve string electric guitar. Sampled aacoustic bass. Clare on piano and Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett on vocals.
It has a stiff, automated, looped rhythm and then we played it on real drums and bass and acoustic guitars as a crazy coda to finish it. An interesting musical jump sideways all over, this track.

 Madly, Softly, Hardly

 One of the songs we started playing around with during a long lockdown in 2020. Then we forgot it and then found it again and recorded it with drums and vibes in at Soundpark studios. I asked Genevieve Fry from Cold Hands Warm Heart to play some harp on it. Its played with a  drop D string on the guitar.
I play bass on it. Autoharp and acoustic and electric guitar. Lyrically I say it all here. I was thiinking about people and events from the past and dwelling on it all. Madly, Softly, Hardly. Singing about getting older and losing your sharpness. Disappearing in many ways.

When we began to play live again in 2020 and 2021 we drove everywhere with our gear in the van. On one trip we were outside Port Macqquarie and a show dropped out but we didn't want to go all the way back to Melbourne ( a few days drive) and then back up again so we set up a tent by a river on a farm and stayed there for a week. An open fire at night and cooking on an iron griddle. I kept hearing this quite distinct birdcall in the morning and evening and recorded it on my zoom. I also recorded some cicadas and other birds and put it all onto the beginning and end of this track.

Family Gatherings II

The second version of this song to close the album. Some more lyrics at the end and a drum machine, a bass and dave Wray on soprano sax. 

What we did in March and what we'll be doing in May and June.

 It has been quite a sociable time of it for me recently. Something to do with the lovely late summer weather in Melbourne, I guess. Also the fact we weren't doing many shows.

We did a series of dates for our CREATIVE CREEP single in February and March and then set about organizing some dates for May, June and July. 

 

Also a lot of time at home. I have been reading the collected short stories of JG Ballard which are amazing me with their prophetic freshness. I am 300 pages in and still reading pieces from 1962. I read some of these in their original collections in the 80s but none of these really early ones. Some very pure sci fi,some with intimations of his later obsessions with time sicknesses and cities that are planet deep. (One has a world with so many people in it that they are each limited to living in "cubicles" that are 4.5 metre wide). Some are so strange they could be scripts for Twilight Zone television episodes. Such a prophet. Studio 5, The Stars could have been written today with its vision of a colony of indolent poets in an idyllic coastal city writing all their verses via computers. Mr F is Mr F was just odd as it features a narrator and his pregnant wife and he keeps getting smaller and smaller as she gets bigger and bigger until.....

Previously I had read some Jenny Diski books which were always interesting and surprising and a brilliant Nabokov novel called ADA. Nabokov stays with you. Such a great writer. 

 

TV? Loved the Austrian /German drama Pagan Peak and the Swedish  The Truth Will Out and the Portuguese VANDA. Was riveted by - but hated the characters- in DOPESICK. Also watched a 1987 UK series of a John LeCarre story called The Perfect Spy. That was unsettling and creepy. But great. 

Music? Just listening to a lot of old jazz. Educating myself. 

Though I have been enjoying VULFMON and his extended group of identities and players. 

I have also sarted a SUBSTACK where I intend to post some different kinds of writing.

https://davegraney.substack.com/p/coming-in-with-john-cowper-powys

Had a great night out watching Melbourne player Tim Deane launch his album at George Lane in St Kilda. He played in a band called The Hired Guns with Anthony Paine and Chris Willard on guitars. Tim played guitar and keys. Tim also played for about 13 years as part of the Superstitions who recorded and played many albums with the late Ron Peno. Tim was always a comic figure arriving to play at tiny venures (and large) in his 70s Valiant with no window on one side which suited him as he often had one long keyboard sticking out of that handy opening. He would often turn up with two amps, three guitars and two or three keyboards and then get to hooking up all his pedals as well. He always brought his A game and was a great guy to have on your team (I often saw this at close hand because Clare Moore played drums with the Hired Guns for a couple of years). 

I joked that their whole set could just be billed as a night of Guitar Porn as well as music as they all had such beautiful machines in their hands. (Anthony Paine makes HARVESTER GUITARS). 

On this night the Hired Guns opened the proceedings under a new name, Sore Eyes. Then Charlie Marshall played a set on electric guitar and vocals accompanied by his son on tenor sax and keyboards. 

Then Tim Deane played a set and brought on all of the Superstitions as well as a horn section and Bronwyn Henderson on violin.

His album is at Bandcamp. 

Nick Danyi was a character from the very early 80s Melbourne music scene that we enjoyed knowing. He played sax on a track from the Moodists called Kept Spectre from our 1982 album Engine Shudder but he mainly played in a group called the Feral Dinosaurs who also included Jim Shugg on vocals and guitar, Jim White on drums, Conway Savage on keys and Dave Last on bass. Jim Shugg and White also played in The People With Chairs Up Their Noses during the same period. 

All of these characters have been life long friends and many of us  gathered to pay our respects to Nick as he had passed away in March.

A day of beautiful eulogies from Nicks daughter and friends Tony Wyzenbeek and Bruce Kane, Jim Shugg, a woman called Anna who told a story of sailing a Catamaran Nick had bought in Brisbane down to Melbourne even though she had never been to sea before. A woman called Caroline filled us in on all his adventures in country Gippsland before he relocated to Melbourne. Charlie Marshall told a wonderful story of how Nick had rebuilt the timber roof and ceiling of his house. One of those occasions where you realize you knew a person from a  few months perspective from decades ago and you got to see more of him the more people filled in all the gaps with their own views and experiences. It was a tremendous tribute to a person. A man of action and mad skills and physicality. Much loved and lamented. 

The late Conway Savage and Nick Danyi at our wedding in Adelaide in 1985. 

The People With Chairs Up Their Noses. Jim White, David Palliser and Mark Barry on bass. Mark put the PA up for the wake/tributee to Nick Danyi  we all attended. 

 Back sleeve of The Feral Dinosaurs LP, You've All Got A Home To Go To (1985)

We have some other shows booked. These are confirmed so far. 

Friday May 3rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Agrestic Grocer in Orange, NSW.

Saturday May 4th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play THE BAROQUE ROOM, Katoomba, NSW.

Sunday May 5th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Stag and Hunter in Newcastle, NSW

Friday May 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play Lyric Lane in Maylands (Perth) WA

Saturday May 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Duke Of George in East Fremantle, WA

Saturday May 18th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine, Victoria. 

 Wherever we can we will be playing a rock show. Bass, drums and guitar music. In NSW we will be playing with Greg Thorsby on bass and in WA we will be playing with Martyn Casey on the bass. 

There are more dates to announce in Qld, NSW and Victoria. 

 (strangely)(emotional) out April 12th

Night Of The Wolverine available as double vinyl LP.

Lyric book There He Goes With His Eye Out (Lyrics 1980-2023) available via Bandcamp.

Dates in NSW and WA in May and a discography leading up to our 2024 release.

 

 

 

Our Melbourne single launch went well. A 1:30 pm start at the Northcote Social Club. Two sets with Stu Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar. Dave Graney and the mistLY. We had last played in Melbourne late 2022 at the Nightcat when we launched our album In A Mistly.  This was/is an album full of great rock songs and sounds and dynamics. One of our best ever. So we played a lot of it at this show. Hopefully there will be another Melbourne show this year.

We had one rehearsal a couple of nights before out in Hallam which is a short drive for Clare and I and Stuart but a long one for Stu who lives in Western Melbourne. We usually rehearsed at Soundpark but were under the mistaken belief that it was shutting down. (It was going to be moving as of December 2023 but plans have changed). Thats great because its our favourite studio to record in. The best!

Thanks to everybody who came to the show. Melbourne has been full of all sorts of touring acts both international and local for all of this year. Crazy busy. So yes, thank you to everybody who somehow tuned in to our wavelength and came to the show. We love playing daytime gigs.

 We have some other shows booked. These are confirmed so far. 

Friday May 3rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Agrestic Grocer in Orange, NSW.

Saturday May 4th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play THE BAROQUE ROOM, Katoomba, NSW.

Sunday May 5th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Stag and Hunter in Newcastle, NSW

Friday May 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play Lyric Lane in Maylands (Perth) WA

Saturday May 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Duke Of George in East Fremantle, WA

 Wherever we can we will be playing a rock show. Bass, drums and guitar music. In NSW we will be playing with Greg Thorsby on bass and in WA we will be playing with Martyn Casey on the bass. 

I thought I would put a rough discography here so as people could see what led up to this new album. 

Discography
DAVE GRANEY AND CLARE MOORE

April 2024  (strangely)(emotional) Dave Graney and Clare Moore  (Cockaigne) CD and digital release.

 Re-Release of Night Of The Wolverine in double gatefold vinyl edition 2023.

THERE HE GOES WITH HIS EYE OUT (lyrics 1980-2023) Book released 2023.

 

Dave Graney and Clare Moore – IN A MISTLY – 2022 album released on CD through Cockaigne.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore 2021 album released on CD through Cockaigne. EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY.

Dave Graney and ClareMoore 2020 digital album with Robin Casinader - IN CONCERT.

Dave Graney and ClareMoore 2020 digital album with Georgio "the dove" Valentino and Malcolm Ross.

Dave Graney and the mistLY - 2021 digital album - LYVE AT BYRDS

 November 2019 digital only album of studio recordings ONE MILLION YEARS DC by Dave Graney and Clare Moore.

March 2019 ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? Dave Graney and the mistLY (Cockaigne) CD and digital release.

April 2017 Dave Graney and Clare Moore LET"S GET TIGHT (Cockaigne)

Nominated at the 2018 OZFLIX awards for best original soundtrack (with Dave Graney) for the Donna McRae film, “LOST GULLY ROAD

WORKSHY – Book. Dave Graney Memoir. Affirm Press October 2017.

June 2017 – digital single – Two Bass Drums and A Mellotrone . Credited to Dave Graney

2017 CD "LET"S GET TIGHT" – CD, Cockaigne.  Credited to Dave Graney and Clare Moore

Completed a 15 date tour of Europe in 2017, playing in Spain for the first time, as well as France, the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.

 

Completed a 17 date tour of Europe in April/

May 2016, the main focus of which was the ATP festival in

Wales curated by lauded comedian/writer Stewart Lee. The

festival was a cavalcade of underground heroes and heroines

from the music worlds of the USA/ Europe and the UK. There

were two Australian acts chosen, Dave Graney and the

mistLY and jazz mysteriosos , the Necks.

HARRY HOWARD AND THE NDE – Sleepless Girls  (CD Spooky 2017)

dave graney - Once I Loved The Torn Ocean's Roar - 80s/90s Demos Vol. 2 - digital only release 2016

HARRY HOWARD AND THE NDE – PRETTY (CD Spooky 2015)

dave graney - night of the wolverine demos/early 90s songwriter demos - digital only release 2015

dave graney and the mistLY - Play mistLY For Me
(2015 digital only release - live collection vol 1)

Feted as Melbourne Music Legends by City of Yarra/Leaps and

Bounds Festival in 2015. A concert given with a cavalcade of

Melbourne musicians young and vintage playing Dave Graney and Clare Moore songs.

FEARFUL WIGGINGS (Dave Graney CD Cockaigne 2014)

HARRY HOWARD AND THE NDE – Near Death Experience (CD Spooky 2013)

Live in Hell (DAve Graney 2013 digital only release of follow up narrative show from 2009)

Point Blank (Dave Graney digital only release of 2007 narrative show - 2013)

THE DAMES  (Clare Moore project with Kaye Louise Patterson) CD, Cockaigne 2013

YOU'VE BEEN IN MY MIND (Dave Graney and the mistLY CD Cockaigne 2012)

1001 Australian Nights. Book. Memoir on Affirm press 2011.

Rock'n'roll Is Where I Hide . Dave Graney and the mistLY. Album of electric re-recordings. (CD Liberation) 2011

Voted Best Victorian Act by readers of Fairfax for the Age EG

Music Awards 2011.

Supermodified (CD Cockaigne) Dave Graney and the Lurid Yellow Mist 2010

Knock YourselfOout (CD Dave Graney Cockaigne) 2009)

We Wuz Curious (The Lurid Yellow Mist – featuring Dave Graney and Clare Moore – CD Illustrious Artists 2008)

Best Music Act at 2007 Melbourne Fringe for the show

POINT BLANK.

Keepin' it Unreal (Dave Graney and Clare Moore – featuring Stu Thomas – CD Cockaigne 2006)

Hashish and Liquor (double disc w/ Clare Moore. CD Reverberation 2005)

The Brother Who Lived (the Royal Dave Graney Show, CD Cockaigne 2003)

The soundtrack to the movie Bad Eggs (David Graney and Clare Moore, CD Liberation,2003)
ARIA award nomination best Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album 2003

Two Fisted Art (the Moodists, CD WMinc, 2003)

Heroic Blues (the Dave Graney Show, CD Cockaigne 2002)

THE THIRD WOMAN Clare Moore solo CD (Cockaigne 2013

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (the Dave Graney Show, CD Cockaigne / Cooking Vinyl 2000)

The Baddest (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Universal , CD 1999)

The Dave Graney Show (the Dave Graney Show, CD, Festival 1998)

IT IS WRITTEN, BABY. Book of stories, lyrics and Tony Mahony images . Random House 1997.

The Devil Drives (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, CD, Universal 1997)

The Soft'n'Sexy Sound (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Universal ,  THIS WAY UP CD 1995)

You Wanna Be There But You Don't Wanna Travel (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, CD, Id/Universal 1994)

Night of the Wolverine (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Id/Universal , CD 1993)

Lure of the Tropics (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Torn and Frayed 1992)

I Was the Hunter and I was the Prey (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes , CD Fire - recorded 1990 but released1992)

My Life on the Plains (Dave Graney 'n' the White Buffaloes, vinyl LP and CD Fire, 1990)

With the Coral Snakes At His Stone Beach (4 Track vinyl EP on Fire Records 1988)

Hey Little Gary 4 track vinyl EP (The Moodists TIM Records 1987)

Take The Red Carpet Out Of Town ( The Moodists 12"EP TIM Records 1986)

Double Life (the Moodists, Red Flame 1985)

Justice and Money Too (12” The Moodists vinyl EP on Creation 1985)

Thirstys Calling (the Moodists, vinyl LP, Red Flame 1984)

Engine Shudder (the Moodists, vinyl LP, Au Go Go / Red Flame 1982)

Gone Dead / Chads Car 7" vinyl single The Moodists, AuGoGo 1981

Where The Trees Walk Downhill 7" vinyl single The Moodists, AuGoGo 1980

 

I guess thats between 30 and 40 physical releases and a dozen or so digital only releases. Clare Moore has been involved in more, of course. 

 

Live shows (strangely)(emotional) happening all of a sudden. Saturday March 2nd Northcote Social Club

 We are playing a show Saturday March 2nd AFTERNOON SHOW
Northcote Social Club, https://tickets.northcotesocialclub.com/outlet/event/0649b86e-f550-45bd-8066-1e8bbd9e81ca

Doors are at 1pm and we will be playing two sets, previewing some material from (strangely)(emotional). We will be playing with the mistLY, Stu Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar. 

 

We rarely play in Melbourne, perhaps twice a year. Our last gig with the mistLY in the city we live in would have been in 2022.

Last year was all retrospective with our 18 date national tour by Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. Now we have a new album to come out and another already in the works.
We will be previewing tracks from (strangely)(emotional) as well as playing some songs from our last album of new material, IN A MISTLY which came out in November 2022. One of our best collections of songs and performances in our career. 

Yes all of a sudden we are back into doing some long drives and playing. Clare Moore and I got into the van and played in Canberra, Bulli (near Wollongong) and Sydney, accompanied by Sydney based guitar player Greg Thorsby on bass who we had a zoom session with the week before we filled the van and drove off.

Clare's brother Dennis, who is an actor once told me that embarking on a new creative project, performance or release is called a "leap into the void" and that it gets harder and harder as you get older. Thats just by the by. I find the writing and recording easy. The tech is eating away at all kinds of ways that people earn a living and create intellectual or artistic property that has - until recentlly - been able to hold some sort of value so I cant really moan about that. Everybody is being shook/disrupted by the tech. 

photo clare moore
 

We stayed in the beautiful town of Gundagfai on the way to Canberra and I bought two pairs of RM WILLIAMS boots in an op shop for $40. I am told these retail for up to $650 nowadays. I have a pair I bought in 1994 already so they do last.

 

We rehearsed with Greg at the hotel. It was a Thursday night show. We had a lot of tech for Clare to plug in as she was playing keys as well as drums and also using our Cymatic rhythm machine.

photo clare moore

 We assumed we could rehearse more at soundcheck but the show before us went over by an hour. A tedious 20 year old George Formby impersonator running  a cabaret variety show which was really more of an open mic night. We pretty much set up and played and there were a few tech problems but we made show. The hotel overlooked Lake Burley Griffin and had great views of Parliament House at night.

photo greg thorsby

 

photo clare moore

The next day we drove to Bulli, listening to warnings of torrential rain and cyclonic winds. Its a climb over a high hill and down steep winding roads to the sea. We drove up and I scraped our van against a stone planters box outside the venue. The rain came in sheets off of the sea and whipped all across the outdoor stage. The show was called off twice as the rain came and went but the people stayed so we set up on the floor and did two sets with no mics on the drums and me singing through a foldback wedge. No soundcheck rehearsal again.

 

We drove back over the hill towards Sydney around midnight in complete white out fog at about 30ks an hour around mad bending corners with hazard lights on in the car. We got to Sydney and unloaded the gear and slept. 

The next afternoon , we loaded into THE GREAT which is a club in Marrickville. A suburb of Sydneys inner west over which the international jet planes fly so low that the idea of making a noise complaint about music is ridiculous - because the ambient noise of the area is LOUD. (Still, the venue has been fighting just such a  complaint from one neighbour for a  couple of years). 

My third cousin AVA came to say hello.(Or am I her Great Uncle? I was at the GREAT I guess...) Avas' mother Kristyn did the amazing cover shot for EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY at their house in Dismal Swamp, SA.

Road warlord Henry Brister was working at the Great so it all went smoothly in setup. We felt as if we'd been on tour for a month already. We did a fantastic show. A power trio. Greg played brilliantly and I got such a tremendously pleasing sound from my guitars and amp. The show was full of freshness and improvised moments. Thank you so much Greg! What a  mensch!

We had played with Greg Thorsby a few times before in the past but he had played guitar with us for those shows. We had first met him when he played in the Atlas Strings who did some gigs opening for Dave Graney and The Coral Snakes in the mid 90s. He is playing guitar on the left in this clip. RIP to singer and songwriter Ben Mullins.

During that tour we were in Sydney and our guitarist Rod Haywards father died suddenly and he had to go deal with that. It must have been1995. We were in the midst of a run of album release dates and media calls and we were never the types to cancel anything so Greg did this tv show of Andrew Dentons with us. (Sorry Rod)

CREATIVE CREEP First single from the epic 2024 album (strangely)(emotional) which is to be released on classic jewel case Compact Disc in April. Touring near you, soon.

Saturday March 2nd AFTERNOON SHOW
Northcote Social Club, https://tickets.northcotesocialclub.com/outlet/event/0649b86e-f550-45bd-8066-1e8bbd9e81ca

Shows coming up in WA in May as well as NSW and Qld.

photo - Clare Moore