Loaded Dice Raffles Hotel November 1984 Part 2 скачать в хорошем качестве

Loaded Dice Raffles Hotel November 1984 Part 2

IF YOU remember them, you were there. The days of The Triffids at The Stoned Crow, Eurogliders at the Subi, and a “suburban boy” at the Shents. Times when Sundays involved a session, bands played to smoke-filled beer barns with only one brew on tap, and music came courtesy of vinyl and cassette. If you wanted to call a mate about a gig, you picked up a rotary phone. “Six years, eight hours a day, seven days a week,” sighs George Matzkov, a former fashion and music photographer whose love of live bands started in Northbridge where his dad, George Sr, owned the Smoke Stack Disco in Francis St. At night, in his bed next door to the venue, young George would drift off to sleep with riffs dancing in his head. “I have dug up so many people out of the grave,” he laughs of his extensive research for his new rock anthology, which he claims will be the first in-depth catalogue of its kind. “I’ll get old band members say, ‘How the hell did you find me? I’ll give you half an hour for an interview’, and we’ll still be there talking three hours later.” Matzkov’s Lost Perth Bands: 1976-1989 Facebook page (set up to gather information) joins the ranks of other nostalgic sites including Lost Perth, Lost Gay Perth, Lost Bali, even Lost Merredin, which have surfaced as testament to the public’s new-found romance with nostalgia. With more than 1700 invitation-only members, and growing by 25 newcomers a day, Lost Perth Bands is proving a popular site “It’s really cool to find all these little surprises that pop up,’’ Matzkov says. “The younger generation won’t know anything about this period of music. People should know what the scene was about and say, ‘Oh, this was when Mum and Dad went to see bands’, talk to their parents about it, and get involved.” Back when Skylab fell from the cosmos and a Sony Walkman cost $200, Perth’s talent pool was strong, according to Warner, who formed Australia’s first punk band, Pus, before moving on to rapscallion pub rock with his Dave Warner from the Suburbs band. “A lot of the most interesting musicians, actors and artists came out of that melting pot at the time. Whatever Seattle was to the US, Perth was to Australia”, says Warner, in reference to the Emerald City’s pivotal role in rock ’n’ roll history as the birthplace of grunge and music greats such as Jimi Hendrix. “In the mid-70s, I had to knock on the door of every pub in Perth to get a gig,” Warner recalls. “As soon as you told them you were playing original material, they’d say, ‘Oh that won’t work’. There were only half a dozen bands playing original material. Virtually everyone was doing covers.” Bands such as V-Capri, The Jets, Flash Harry, and The Frames hammered out covers in big beer barns such as The Overflow, The Generator, Raffles, Floreat and the “Herdie” (Herdsman). Their set lists predominantly comprised Top 40 hits played on local radio and ABC TV’s Countdown. “Perth was renowned for producing really good cover bands,” recalls veteran radio presenter Steve Gordon. “I saw a band supporting The Angels do four or five Angels’ songs. Then on would come the Angels and do them themselves.” Some even took out full-page ads in the city’s then afternoon newspaper, the Daily News. “I remember one ad where V-Capri gave credit to their hairdresser. If you saw the photo, you’d know why,” Gordon laughs of the heavily coiffured power-pop quintet led by Tod Johnston. Charging $5 entry (Swan Draught was $2 a jug), cover bands pulled in the crowds and the cash with their slick stage shows. Original bands, meanwhile, toughed it out in smaller, lacklustre venues such as Hernando’s Hideaway, the Governor Broome, The Stoned Crow and the Broadway Tavern. “It was a very divided scene,” Gordon says. “Neither had much time for another. Covers made so much money. They put on big productions, had lighting people, extra roadies, big PAs . . . the originals really had to move away from Perth to make a name for themselves.” The Sunday Session – running from 11am to 1pm and 4.30pm to 7.30pm – was unique to WA, and an eye-opener for visiting eastern states promoters. “They just couldn’t believe it,’’ says Gordon. “Bands would be playing to 1200 to 1500 people. Particularly in the summer, at the ‘Cott’ and ‘OBH’, people would drink as much as they could in two hours, then go lay on the beach and come back for the afternoon ‘sesh’. At 7.30pm they’d pour out on to the streets and, as Dave Warner so colourfully observed in his songs, the action would move to the car park, with vomiting, brawling and fornicating, donuts and burnouts.’’ Bernie Lynch from the Eurogliders, Perth’s most successful “indie” export with hits including Heaven (Must Be There) and We Will Together, remembers the band’s first pay cheque. “We’d play at Albert’s Tavern and Hernando’s and be given $20 and a bag of dope. (Source : Melenie Ambrose for STM PerthNow August 23, 2015)