Gigs of note - just last weekend, on Fri night 15.4.05 we had TH3 (Tyson Hodges Trio) and Ethanol.
These guys come from Bendigo and are regular performers at the Golden Vine Hotel there. Every time I have done sound for Geoff Acho and Chris Wilson Spidermen at that pub TH3 have done the support, we liked them so much they came to Melb and played a gig with Geoff and the boys at the Corner Hotel a while back. TH3 are an awesome instrumental trio that once you hear them you cant get enough. Like wise Ethanol (except they have a singer and it's not instrumentals, but you know what I mean). Tyson (guitar), Colin (drums) and Don (bass) are TH3 and for Ethanol, Don leaves the stage and Dan steps up for bass duties, they are joined by Tom on rhythm and Skip vocals/ percussion. So, Tyson and Colin play in both bands and it all works out brilliantly. Ethanol - fantastic energy, great funky grooves, original Australian humour in their songs and if you like to dance this is the party band for you, and a nicer bunch of blokes you wont meet. They’ve done a few gigs at St Andrews now and I hope they do a lot more and become one of the regular legendary bands who frequent the pub.

On Sat 16.4. it was Dutch Tilders for the Sat arvo solo acoustic and the night gig with the Blusicians – Pete Howell on bass, Rob O’toole on drums Ken (sorry ken don’t know your surname) on Gibson goldtop lead guitar. What a gig, in the arvo Dutch played 3 sets of blues and was in fine voice. At the night gig the band kicked into gear and it was a real treat. Dutch’s voice is still huge and his new Gibson, now that it's got the butt plug and we can control the feedback take-off, sounds full on. I really like the new songs he has written too.


Working back in time to the previous Sunday 10.04.05 and it was the Andy Cowan gig. For those of you who remember Andy in his solo and quartet style gigs well you are in for a huge surprise.
He has been playing with this extraordinary band of musos who can only be described as the best in their respective fields. Recent gigs have featured a rotating roster of bassists in the form of Howard Cairns, Stephen Hadley and at the last gig - Jo Imbroll. Usually on drums is Dave Hicks, (the running joke is that they let him out of Guantanamo to come play the gigs) but jokes aside, Dave has played with Andy for some years now and Brian Cadd, Max Merritt, Spectrum a while back to name a few. The last couple of Andy gigs at St Andrews though, have featured Mark Kennedy on drums, he has been touring with Andy for the Melb and Byron Blues festivals and luckily for us has been spending a bit more time in Melbourne . One of the all time legend Australian drummers in my book, I saw Ayers Rock a few times in the 70’s and listened to their albums heaps. And who would have thought that he’d be still playing amazing drums and right here at St Andrews. The common link between Andy and Mark is Ayers Rock, but Mark tells me that they didn’t actually play in the band in the same time frame.
Out front is Jimmy Sloggett on sax and he is the most tasteful player I’ve ever heard and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a fluff from him. Lovely tone, always just there in the right spot. Gavan Anderson on left guitar, amazingly tasteful and compliments Andy’s songs perfectly, not to mention his beautiful slide work. Geoff Wright on guitar right, (‘scuse the pun) likewise just so tasteful and magic jazz flavoured solos. Unfortunately for us it was Geoff’s last gig with the band as he is moving to Byron Bay. I guess they had a real good time at the blues fest, but seriously we’ll miss you Geoff , for those who don’t know Geoff’s band ‘12 Bars From Mars’ was also a regular at St Andrews a few years back and he has had a long relationship with the pub and we wish him and his wife all the best for the future.


The night before that - Sat 9.04.05 we had the Bondi Cigars. After some initial confusion as to who was actually doing the foh mix for the night and I do understand their perspective, but it is my pa and I usually manage to scrape thru with a half decent mix esp. when the band is really good like these guys were. Anyway, long and short of it was 2 very excellent guitarists, bassist Alan was obviously the boss and new recruit on drums Joel Sutton (definitely must be in the blood, his uncle is John Watson – total groove machine in my book and Joel holds down a feel so well ‘Watto’ should be proud) anyway Alan and Joel provided the perfect engine room for the guitarists to do their thing and it was an excellent night of good rockin’ blues.
The support was young Luke from Warrnambool who played songs in the Langy acoustic slide open tuning type vein and he was pretty good, if somewhat nervous. You see he didn’t actually know he was coming to Melb until the night before when he did the support for the band in Warrnambool and they asked him to come with them. Serendipity strikes again.
When we were setting up, Luke was looking around and came to a realisation. “Is this that St Andrews Hotel where the cd’s were recorded?”
“And are you the bloke who did them?”
“You know I grew up listening to Live At St Andrews and Souldiggers and Jeff Lang ‘Real Scars’, playing along, trying to figure out how they did what they did, and you mean to tell me I’m here in the same place about to play in this legendary pub?”
To which I said, “You are standing in the very spot where everything you listened to happened.” Makes you stop and think a bit, amazing really when someone you’ve never met brings it home to you. I always said to Geoff Acho that one day young musos would come up to him and say “You know you are the reason I play music.” And of course it happens all the time nowadays. But I

never realised that the recordings from St Andrews would have the same type of influence. I know it's all about the music but I then realise that if I hadn’t done the steep curve at the time, these young musos would never had heard this stuff in the first place.

Moving right aback now… we come to the weekend of April fools day but there was no foolin’ with the quality of the music on this weekend.
Started off on Fri nite with a band I hadn’t heard before but would like to hear a lot more of, called ‘Longrass’ really excellent alt country spaced out rock kind of style. I remember thinking Stones meets Small Faces meets Country and the Coast, East Coast Victoria that is, even tho I know they live in Brunswick. That’s the beauty of music, doesn’t matter where you live, influences can come from anywhere. I enjoyed every moment of the gig and because the keyboardist and guitarist/singer were brothers it reminded me of my band days with my brother Warrick. I played a Wurlitzer piano and Warrick played a fat Les Paul and there is this unspoken chemistry between brothers that when applied to music, comes across as not just a tightness but another level of musicality almost on a telepathic level.
Chubby Rae and the elevators were on the Sat night and with the addition of Lou on sax it was a magic night. New material, from Craig and Merissa, great guitar sounds from Jim Dyson, Merissa singing up a storm, what more could you ask for in entertainment.I always enjoy doing gigs with these guys.
Sunday brought us Mick Pealing, Gary Young and Steve Wade for a treat of beautiful 3 part harmonies and 3 acoustic guitars. Great performances esp given that the sun arvo gig starts at 3pm usually when most musos would be waking up on a Sunday. Although I think this one started after 4.00pm it was well worth the wait.

Lucky Oceans and The Zydecats played here in mid March. A Cajun Zydceco soul treat. These guys came all the way over from West Australia via Port Fairy to play just for us and this is where I have my little bitch session.
The people that saw this gig had a great time - good rockin’ dancing toe tapping world class quality music. But because they weren’t as well known as some of the other bands that play here the crowd could have been bigger.
Without getting on a soapbox too much you’d think that given the consistently high standard of music Kel books at the pub, people would maybe take our word for it when we say it's gonna be a good one and come and check it out.
So that’s what I’m finishing this rave with. Every week St Andrews Hotel has music that is guaranteed to be of the highest quality this town and country, for that matter, has to offer. So get up outta the city and into the groove that we call Snangas and check it out!!!

Coming up - Wolfegang. Sun 24.4.05 we’ve been recording several Wolfegang gigs over the last 12 months. The band consists of singer/boss Diana Wolfe what can I say? – charming, beautiful talented, say no more, Robbo (Spectrum) on drums Mick ‘The Rev’ O’Connor on piano, Roy (drives the best looking Holden Brougham you ever saw!) Zedras on bass and Brock O’Connor (no relation as far as we know) on lead guitar. Over the time they have had various guests sitting in - a few that come to mind -- Steve Williams - sax (Farnham band) Jimmy Sloggett - sax (Andy Cowan band) and Broderick Smith – harmonica that sounds like no-one but Brod. So, all being well they will all be on the cd.

That’s all for now, I never have a shortage of things to say just lack of time to say them.
Rob Harwood
Can’t believe it's…
April 2005 already