Musings

May 22, 2009

In the last couple of days I have come across another Blog Site called Musical Notes: Taylor Square initiated by one of the girls/women who hung around there in the mid- late sixties. Many of the names popping up are very familiar to me - some just of people that I'd heard of, some of people that I knew and even a number who were/are old friends of my own from that era from the sixties through to the early seventies and beyond.

Names like Wheezing Walter T. Mudd, Mort Fist, Peter Anson, Alan Meadows, Mick Leiber, Shane Duckham, Terry Darmody, Barry McGloin, Chris Blanchflower, Graham Lowndes and the list just goes on.

From the time that I left High School at the beginning of 1969 through until around 1971 (granted not a long time) I used to knock off work on Fridays and head, much to the chagrin of my parents, into the city to knock around with the friends I'd made and usually not returning to the nest until around dinner time on Sunday night - the weekend usually a blur of folk & blues music and very large quantities of alcohol, plus the occasional pull on a joint. Usually very little food!

Fridays were usually at the 'Lime Juice Tub' Folk Club in the Day Street bar of the Maitland & Morpeth Hotel in Pyrmont, Saturdays usually at PACT Folk in the old Corn Exchange Building where, when it rained the water more often that not just came dribbling in through the roof and onto the audiences. Occasionally the Saturdays were spent at a party, the Elswick Pub in Leichhardt. or wherever.

Even after leaving all that behind, I didn't change that much and usually wound up somewhere listening to music, usually Balmain, getting pissed and listening to music. Then, in 1973, I decided that I could sing and finished up putting an acoustic trio together with a couple of mates singing around the so-called 'Christian Coffee House Circuit' for a couple of years.

The World is Full of Surprises

Last week I was tooling around on YouTube and found a link to the band Railroad Gin and their singer Carol Lloyd performing at the Warana Festival in Brisbane in 1993. This intrigued me because I had done two of those festivals with what was our (then) festival line-up of Tony Barnard's jazz band which we called Four Brothers Ahead as it consisted of both Tony (guitar), his younger brother Adam (drums), the two Qua brothers, Willy (reeds/percussion) and Chris (bass) and myself ('Beachhead') on vocals and I couldn't recall seeing Carol or Gin playing.
It wasn't until later that I realised my error to be that we had actually done it in 1991 and 1992.
Thanks to Brisbane-based Blues enthusiast and film-maker, Harry however I have discovered 17 years on that we were filmed during our final performance at the 1992 festival and these have now been uploaded to YouTube.
The performance took place on the Eagle Street Pier Stage on the Saturday afternoon - September 26, 1992.
This is great for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we didn't know there was any footage of the band until now. However, in the front row can also be seen on various occasions my darling late wife, Shirley enjoying the music with friends Roy & Pat Theoharris.
It was a wonderful time for us (Shirley and I) - even though we had very little money by that stage, we were travelling together, enjoying the music and friendships we made and having a great time with the boys who were more like family to us than band members. They still are!
The last time this particular band got together was over the weekend of March 3rd and 4th, 1999 when we played in the open air at the 'TRAILS Bistro' at Caves House, Jenolan Caves on the Saturday afternoon (the PA we used was stolen immediately following the gig by junkies) and then (with a borrowed PA) we did the Sunday afternoon in the Royal Hotel at Oberon and, much to the surprise and delight of the publican, packed the room and the rest of the pub from when we started right up until closing time. I think we must have come close to drinking the joint dry!
I should add that there are several audio recordings of the band in my collection, including one of our performances at Montsalvat in 1993 and at least one form an evening at the Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain when Chris and Willy were both playing with us.

This was taken at the 'TRAILS' gig on the Saturday arvo - March 3, 1999.

This is from the Oberon gig on the Sunday - March 4, 1999.

This is the band playing my own composition 'Sunday Morning in Balmain' at the Powers Festival in September 1992.