Brisbane's Hale St Link is named Go Between Bridge

I was rather surprised yesterday while watching the news
to see Robert Forster wearing a hard hat.
Not something you see every day.
It was the announcement that the latest Bridge to span
the Brisbane river shall be named in honour of the
fabulous band that started here some 30 years ago.
There's a great little interview with Robert
to be found here
And this article from the Courier Mail.


BRISBANE'S Hale Street Link is now the Go Between Bridge
with ratepayers voting to honour one of the city's most
famous rock bands.
Ratepayers overwhelmingly voted for the name from 11
short-listed suggestions.
Robert Forster, who founded The Go-Betweens with the
late Grant McLennan in 1978, was thrilled with the
unexpected surprise and the tribute.
"My thoughts are that bridges are romantic and poetic,"
Forster said yesterday.
"If The Go-Betweens name is going to be lent to anything
then I think a bridge is perfect."

Mutant Death - Death Culture/Police Verbals/Priority One

What a little gem this one is,
Paul sent me this record in the mail so I could digitalize and
share with you all. So I have eventually got around to doing
it this weekend.
Thanks Paul !
Now lets here from paul himself.

Track List
01. Death Culture
02. Police Verbals
03. Priority One
Paul here aka Bottlelow. I just tracked down a 7"
from a guy in France that I have been trying to find for years
by a Sydney band from the early 80's Mutant Death
ex members of Brisbane band The Black Assasins.
It's super rare with a great track Police Verbals on it,
a song that has stuck in my mind since the first time
I heard it and subsequently has had even more significance
due to first hand experience of corrupt cops.
I think you would enjoy it and I'm sure
some of your readers would too especially Sydney ones.
My turntable cant connect to a computer so I thought
I could send it to you you can give it a spin.


Download Here

Robert Forster Up Late, Brisbane Art Gallery. 18-09-09

Chuck has done it again,
this time he has recorded the last gig of the most recent up late
series and I for one are eternally grateful cause I missed the gig
and it looks like is was magic.
Also many thanks to Kathleen, who Chuck describes as a fan
of the blog, for the wonderful photos that Chuck has used in
his equally wonderful artwork.
Thanks Chuck! Now lets hear from the man himself.

I was supposed to work this day but ditched work at the last
minute to go to a friends funeral and finished a rather sombre
day with this great concert that cheered me up tremendously.
Thx Robert and his 2 great conspirators
Thx also to Kathleen for the pics - some more of this concert
and lots of past pics can be found on Kathleens Fickr pages
found here
This was the last concert in "the met up late" series that
combinedentry into the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane
and a host of bands on friday nights. The art gallery was
hosting the "American Impressionism and Realism" exhibition.
The gig occured in a rather large hall as seen in front cover pic...
the artist preformed from a small island in a large pond with
pebble covering... a sonic nightmare, although the recording
/ mix on the night sounded ok.. sadly the rather wined up
friday night crowd murmurings echoed about the cavern
making an acoustic set hard work for Robert;
but 30 years on the job saw him shine on through !
btw - does anybody else still hear grant singing the harmonies
on the go-be songs in their heads? freaky . . . . .


Download Here

Kate Jacobson and Ben Salter solo Brisbane Art Gallery

As part of the Brisbane Art Gallery’s popular Up Late
program during the latest exhibition
‘American Impressionism and Realism:
A Landmark Exhibition from The Met’,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
theres been a weekly program of resident jazz DJ, talks
and live solo, duo and trio performances from a range of styles.
This weeks on Friday the 11th of September was the 2nd last
and one of the pick of the program.
Next weeks proformance is the last and will be Robert Forster.




But back to Friday night.
Kate Jacobson from Texas Tea and Ben Salter from the Gin Club
put on a fantastic night in the unusual surroundings of the
Art Gallery.
I was there to see Kate and she put on a fine show drawing
old and new songs from Texas Tea.
Joined on stage with Ben for Whiskey & Wine a highlight,
it was a most enjoyable gig.
Ben was very good also, he reminds me a bit of
Nick Drake, A very talented man



For those who don't know of Texas Tea, heres a bir
of background and do visit their My Space site.

Texas Tea is the partnership of Brisbane musicians
Kate Jacobson and Benjamin Dougherty.
Their style of ‘alt’ (alternative) country has earned
the duo accolades, including being selected as finalists
in the 2006 Q Music Awards for their debut recording
Take a sip. Their most recent release is The junkship
recordings (2008). Live Texas Tea shows are known for
adept use of various instruments on stage –
with the two members switching between vocals,
guitars, harmonica and percussion.

Texas Tea has played with international performers
including Iron and Wine, The Handsome Family,
Jeff Lang, Kim Salmon and Ron Peno’s
The Darling Downs and many others,
and have toured Germany, The Netherlands and France.


You can find a fabulous recording of this at Turn it up Here
Thanks Brenden

First Breath Of Air - Matt Williamson

Second is "First Breath Of Air", this one was on the prefered
playlist of radio 2MCE fm for 2004 it received a review so
rather than say anything myself i'll quote John Walker.

" First breath of air ". was recorded in a two hour session on
the verandah of pix records in Queensland in the spring of 2002,
it is an album of unique and beautifully crafted songs by Australian
tunesmith Matt Williamson. the title track is a reflection on a life
fractured by depression and is autobiographical in nature,
it acts as a perfect introduction to an album that is a poignant
and heartfelt observation of humanity and the universal themes
of belief of culture of nature and of life and death. These truths are
observed with insightful lyrics and a style of singing and playing
that is so honest and unique it is impossible to draw comparisons.
Matt plays an old nylon string guitar held together with aroldite
and a couple of five dollar mouthorgans, he sings with a sense of
devil may care inner reflection, his guitar playing has a percussive
style that somehow fully orchestrates each tune, creating an album
full of atmosphere and intensity.
Song by song it is full of gems,
"Loaded Man with a Gun" a statement on american ideoligy,
"Trees" a wonderful contempory take on Joyce Kilners famous poem,
"Damn it all" the loss of a friend through drug abuse,
"Truck" and "Waiting For The Rain" are meditative and beautiful,
made up on the spot during the recording session,
"Comes the Time" is lyrical and profound it gives an insight
into not only a unique and wonderful singer/songwriter
but a great australian philosopher, Matt Williamson.

John Walker, The Advocate.



Comes the time - Matt Williamson

And when the time has come
to lay your body down,
is that when peace will come
is that where freedom's found
and as your bones decay
a name without a face,
will your soul rise up
into another place?
Or will you linger there
within the inbetween,
and will your "eyes no more",
see things you've never seen,
will the promise made come true
or was it a guess,
at least while your alive,
good luck, take care and God bless.

Download Here

All Over The Moon - Matt Williamson

John Williamson is a very generous soul who has shared
much of his music both here and on his My Space site,
his music has always incited some of the most excited
comments and amazement on how he has remained
unknown.

Hi Bob, I've put together another couple of albums
for you and if you like them please feel free to
share them.

First is another compilation of songs called
"All Over The Moon",
some are solo recordings and others i have the
support of other musicians and some lovely backing
vocals from Tomika and Karen.

Playing on this one are.
Peter Hudson - drums
Kim Hinkfuss - bass on "radio heaven"
Mick Thatcher - guitar
Tomika - backing vocals on "the moon is on our shoulder"
Karen - backing vocals on "feel"
Wendy Hodgson - piano on "jimmies gone"
Pix Vane-Mason - arrangements and backing vocals

Track List

01 From my hometown to the common ground
02 Feel
03 I believe
04 Old friend
05 Radio heaven [live]
06 The moon is on our shoulder
07 Get outta here
08 Jimmies gone
09 Familiar
11 Scruffy man

Download Here

The Banana Peel Sessions - VA

We are in for a treat here, David sent me an email the
other day part of which read,

I have some music you might be interested in posting.
Some Brisbane bands from the early noughties,
a 4ZzZ compilation CD that got all the way to being
recorded and mastered before being given the red light by the
management of Zed (no reason given, as usual).
It's been on my hard drive for about six years
waiting for me to do something with it.

And interested I most certainly was.
Dave has knocked up some artwork and
included a very funny written acount called
the reality of live to air. He has also writen
some brilliant background to this unreleased cd.
Thank You Dave.


I moved to Brisbane in 2000, when the city's live scene
was unbelievably healthy and vibrant and I spent most
of my spare time and money going to gigs. There were
nights where I'd be "doing the runner" from Ric's to the
Healer to the Zoo to Reefo's or across the river to the
Railway or the Gabba and back again, catching a dozen
local bands in a night. And that could be just a Thursday night.

When I started at Triple Zed I became determined to
resurrect Live to Air to capture the amazing scene Brisbane
had to offer. Station management weren't particularly
receptive to the idea, but I basically refused to be
dissuaded and got the program up and running.

The deal was that any subscriber band could come on air
on a Saturday afternoon and play, and we recorded their
set to a CD-R, so basically they got a free, reasonable quality
demo for their subscriber dollar and we got recordings of
some amazing bands doing their thing live, which was where
the essence of local music found. In a city the size of Brisbane
not many bands can afford to get a great studio sound
and a lot of artists are plain uncomfortable in the studio.
This way we got as close to both worlds as possible.
Some weeks the bands were smoking hot, though some
weeks they were terrible. Some weeks the gear was smoking
hot, some weeks it was just smoking. Which lead to some
great bands not making it to this mix and some
not so great bands not being used despite their pristine recordings.
That's they way it goes.

The room (amusingly called 'Studio 3') was terrible -
a brick triangle with windows on one wall, exposed mains wiring
on the second and and the broadcast chain on the third -
and the gear was borrowed from a certain
Zed pseudo-celebrity who had been booking gigs around town
for about fifteen years. He proudly told us his kick drum mic
had been found in someone's yard being chewed by a dog.
The arrangement was that he picked the gear up from Studio 2
(with all Zed's production equipment in it)
after we knocked off. What gear Zed did have disappeared piece
by piece as he left with his own. After we changed the lock on
Studio 2 and left his gear in the hallway our equipment stopped
going missing and he stopped lending us his.
(I guess enough time has passed to admit that I stole some
of it back from a now-demolished pub while he wasn't looking.)

After a brief hiatus, we eventually wrangled a deal with a
PA hire company to lend us whatever they hadn't hired out
over that weekend. Some times that was a geriatric six track
desk and three mics, but one week it was a 24 track portable
digital desk that didn't fit in the recording booth and
a dozen SM-57 and '58s. Naturally we had a two piece
band in that week.

This compilation was put together as a fundraiser due
to Zed once again going broke to dwindling public interest
and the usual confusion about direction and audience and
whatever else a station could be confused
about. The idea was that it cost us nothing to make,
acted as a promotional tool for the station and the bands,
and might make some bucks to boot.
Change was in the air at the station and huge arguments
ensued over changing the station's sound, removing the
female and local content quotas and even the station's
news programs. Somewhere in all of this the
decision was made that this compilation wasn't in the
station's best interests and nobody ever called me back
after I submitted the master for review.

It gives me great satisfaction to note how often the
bands featured on here cropped up in the yearly Hot
100 afterwards and that a track from one of these
sessions actually made it to the top two in an unmastered
form. So I do sleep better at night knowing they made
the wrong decision in not optioning the album, as they say.

I also have to give a special shout out to the people
involved in this: Damon, whose job as roadie mostly
consisted of keeping our engineer away from the desk
and mixing himself ; Tony, who never told anyone just how
many liberties I took with cables and gear from the office ;
Ben, who once or twice did actually help out ; Alex O, Waz
and Andy who did the engineering when Damon didn't ;
also a massive thanks to Adam R for mastering the tracks
in a way that made them go from live to alive.
You're a legend.

Given the differing circumstances from week to week,
it's probably important to say a little something these tracks.
The Community Cervix track was recorded with all two
hundred members of the band (okay, there was nine of them
or something) in a room the size of your lounge room with
no foldback. Dougie (vocals) couldn't hear himself at all.
Frankly, I think they deserve a medal for staying anywhere
near in time with one another... ... Dick Nasty's set was recorded
with the worst gear we ever used, though Adam managed to
'fix it in post' as they say... Listening closely to the first track
Gorgeous offered to us you could hear an eighteen wheeler
passing under the studio window, panning from left to
right - we had almost no soundproofing and relied on bands
being louder than the Valley traffic, which obviously didn't
work with a duo whose percussion instrument was a glockenspiel.
This one must have been during a red light... ... Double Chamber
had no compression on their recording whatsoever -
the gate and compressor were busted, and they were really
loud, so this recording is remarkably good, all things considered.
They were a band that never got their due, with the hilarious,
satirical desert rock with wicked intertwining guitar solos... ...
Giants of Science were the loudest band we ever had in -
in Studio 1 the lightbulbs were humming in their sockets
and I'm happy to say that this session raised their
profile a little, though they never made it as far as they
should have... ... I saw Mouthguard with Brisbane band
legend Ben Nose on guitar about two weeks before their session -
on the day of recording he carried in a drumkit, set up and played
drums instead... ... Steve Towson turned up
with the smallest amp and cheapest guitar any of us had ever seen,
played the fastest soundcheck in history before knocking off a
bottle of Stone's ginger wine while playing his totally unique
take on old school social movement folk music... ...
Omar's Basement performed as a two-piece on a week we had
about ten mics. In a different dimension (one where Zed had
released the album) I feel this song would have been an
instant classic in that Zed style of Pig City or Fuckhead Zone... ...
The Badnitz and Cervix shared some members and played back
to back weeks, one of which was during a no sleep weekend for me,
so it's all a blur... ... Kev, guitarist of the mighty Psychotic
Lemmings was asked by our engineer at the time, Warren,
to play his loudest and fastest sound and Kev complied.
Warren then asked for the slowest and quietest sound and
Kev shrugged and repeated the same riff. We fell about the
studio laughing... ... Dollarbar was our first band and about
all I remember was Dale being sober (a rarity) and Zed's
Alex O being behind the controls... ... Gazoonga Attack were
their charming and sultry selves and caused me a headache
by playing some of their songs double time, thus finishing
their set while I was out getting lunch... ... In hindsight,
the Fulcrum song included here probably isn't
their best nor is it a great recording (we were still having
problems with the gate and compressor), but they were
another top-notch example of the wave of rock bands
springing up everywhere at the time. The guitar player
was amazing - I hear he now lives in a tent with only
an acoustic guitar and a Bible... ... The Standing 8 Counts
put on a great gig in my absence. I was at my father's wedding.
No idea how that session went... ... Cherry
Cherry and the Export Data were easily one of my favourite
Brisbane bands - singer Cheryl's eccentric vocals and guitar
non-playing and drummer Alan's non-drumming (two toms,
no kick drum) were always entertaining and energetic... ...
Alan Nguyen's solo project of processed noise was great
to engineer - two cd players and a mixer... ... Solotaro was
one of those collaborations that feature a lot of talent and
only last for a short period of time. DMC turntable champ
DJ Sheep is now doing Ministry of Sound and trotting the globe.
This was their first gig, I believe, and mixing the violin,
flute and beatboxing was a trial... ....

Track List

Alan Nguyen - Birds on wire
Badnitz - IX to V slob instrumental
Cherry Cherry and the Export Data - Underwear song
Community Cervix - Friends
Dick Nasty - Ignorant Generation
Dollarbar - Journey to the centre of attention
Double Chamber - Earth buzz
Fulcrum - Typhoon Struggle
Gazoonga Attack - Chix
Giants of Science - Ive Tried
Gorgeous - The Butterfly Song
Mouthguard - Down the drain
Omars Basement - Busted
Psychotic Lemmings - Dugong Song
Solotaro - Funky chord jam
Standing 8 Counts - You make me stiff
Steve Towson - When the revolution comes

Download Here

The Geelong Rhythm Collective Demo

Colin, from way down south, has bought us another
rare and wonderful gem. So let me pass you over.
Thanks Colin.

I'm afraid I can't tell you a hell of a lot about this group.
This tape, released in 1985, is the only release I know of
by them. The band featured Dave Steel, but that's all I can
tell you. It doesn't help that the players are identified only
by initials or first name. I thought Jeff Raglus might have
been involved in this, but it doesn't appear so.

It's a curious collection of music, with touches of reggae,
jazz and calypso. A couple of the song titles reference places
around Geelong, such as Corio Bay and the Bellarine Penninsula.

And that's all I can tell you ...

Colin.

Download Part 1 Here

Download Part 2 Here

Is This Not Paris - John kennedy

John Kennedy has a revamped web site and
you can buy his brilliant new cd there plus so
much more.
I lifted the following review and video from
them but have a look yourself.
johnfranciskennedy.com.au

Is This Not Paris? is Kennedy’s 11th album and his
first since the release of Someone’s Dad in 2007.
This new album continues Kennedy’s established
musical themes of travel and heartache.
But it is also a departure in many ways.
Subtitled Emotion Picture Soundtracks,
Is This Not Paris? is a concept album of sorts
where Kennedy and his band present songs that were
film soundtracks, should have been soundtracks or
could still be soundtrack music.

Along with new original songs, this album contains
covers of well known film soundtracks mashed with
more obscure songs and covers of songs with a strong
filmic sense that Kennedy has picked up on his travels
around the globe. Kennedy has even covered two of his
own hits: Big Country and The Texan Thing,
reinterpreting them as soundtrack music.
There are also new original spaghetti western
and surf instrumentals.

The album was recorded in his adopted hometown of
Sydney with his band John Kennedy’s ’68 Comeback
Special at Zen Studios, St Peters –
only a stone’s throw away from Kennedy’s beloved
King Street. Multi-instrumentalist, Jeff Pope’s
guitar, dobro, pedal steel and lap steel playing
give the songs a stronger roots flavour than the
band’s last release.

The title song, Is This Not Paris? features a duet
with Kennedy and Megan Heyward that transports
Johnny Cash and June Carter’s Jackson to Newtown,
Sydney via London and Paris. Wherever the bus routes
meet, John Kennedy is there. This new album finds
Kennedy bringing it all back home. In the title song
he compares Newtown with the City of Light and
concludes that,
“the Newtown skyline has it’s own romance”.
As he sang in his song King Street back in ’85,
“All roads lead to Newtown”.



Is This Not Paris -
John Kennedy and Megan Heyward
and 68 comeback special