Hey! Guess what?
I’m still here, just when I thought it was all getting a bit much and I was getting too old for this shit I discovered much to my surprise I’m not as jaded as I thought and I’m actually enjoying doing gigs at St Andrews more than ever. Maybe its because I don’t do as many as I used to or maybe because there’s no more smoking in pubs so I don’t feel like death when I get home at 2.30 am. I gotta say for all you people who have been holding back from seeing live music cause you can’t stand the smoke it’s all changed, it’s great. Come and check it out, I reckon the gig nights are gonna get better and better because of it, also because Melbourne and especially St Andrews still has the best music in Australia in my humble opinion.

I mean where else can you see such a great combination of wonderful Australian rock legends and newer roots artists at the one place.
The number of times I’ve started a rave for the web site and not finished…… since the last ones….
Apparently my youngest daughter Grace has a ‘Myspace’, (another thing I’ve been meaning to get around to) and featured on it is a photo of me sound asleep on one couch and the cat sound asleep, book ending the other couch. Winter time eh? Any time really, is good, if you can.

Anyway I’ve been flat out (obviously!) way too busy for stuff like writing raves.
But seriously there is a new St Andrews live recording in the pipeline from a band that has been rippin’ it up at the pub for the past year or so and that’s ‘Fats Wah Wah’. Just finished mastering, should have 2 or 3 tracks on the jukebox anytime now and I really love this band. I’ll say no more and youse can check it out for yourselves babies!
I’m trying to say less and make it more these days probably failing miserably but!

Gigs of note – given that its been a long time since I wrote a rave for this site there has been a considerable number of gigs of note.

‘Geoff Acho’s’ farewell at St Andrews and his gig at Brunswick East, both sensational, although must say Brunswick we all nearly melted in the heat.

‘Andy Cowan’ is on a 6-mth sabbatical - he got married to Wendy. My wife and I went to his wedding and I found myself playing Andy’s grand piano accompanying Chris White at the reception at Andy and Wendy’s new place in the Dandenong Ranges. I haven’t played piano in public for a long time and I must say playing in front of Andy was somewhat daunting but very enjoyable.
Other acts of note that I really dig who played the pub, ‘Josh Owen Band’ - I love his stuff can’t get enough of it. They are back soon. ‘The Brewster Bros’ have played the pub a couple of times and I really like what they are on about, its just a bloody shame they didn’t use my recording of the last time they played St Angas cause I gotta say it’s really good. Instead they released a live recording from Port Fairy from ABC, the old radio networking wins again. I didn’t even bother getting a copy to listen to so as you can gather I was a tad disappointed.

But what the hell, I love working with them anyway cause they play great music.
Who else? Mick Pealing of ‘Pealing Wade and Young’ fame – Mick is one of the reasons I still do gigs at the pub, cause I love what they do and it’s always a great Sunday arvo when they are in the house. Actually when I think about it I guess that is the main reason I’m still hangin’ in there – because of the regular roster of acts, we’ve all worked together for so long it’s like a mutual admiration kind of thing.

‘Lil Fi’ is back as a regular again and her gigs are really special blues and gutsy with Dodgy Robbo and Rory.

‘Wolfegang’ just played a Sunday again and are better than ever. Every time I see Diana perform she goes from strength to strength and the band lifts accordingly. Really enjoyable and I’m looking forward to where they go from here.

‘Monique Brumby’ and partner – unique is the best way to describe what their music. Almost from a whisper to a roar very engaging and entertaining stuff I must say.

Phil Para and Jimmy Fewing, who’d’ a thought a duo could pull off Hendrix but I guess if anybody could it would be Phil but he has a great repertoire besides Hendrix and a long history in the Melb. music scene as well. Because it's a duo gig and Jimmy plays bass, the drummer is an egg shaker gaffered to Phil’s shoe – works a treat. No, it really does, believe me!

‘A Planet In Space’ I’m thinking ‘Pink Floyd’ meets ‘Rage Against The Machine’ trippy jam band with some extreme attitude (musically that is) thrown in to the mix. 2 drummers Ben & Tony who don’t get in each others way – amazing in itself, but when they go hard the intensity multiplies exponentially. Dan Smith - great voice and great guitar chops, I’ve always loved Dan’s playing and singing. Alex Hayes - the ‘nerd’ of the band (in the nicest possible way) laptop, fireface, guitar fx, keys fx, bass fx, he’s a busy lad and sings plays bass and keys then swaps on guitar for a few songs. Very interesting stuff all in all.

Last but not least for now anyway is Jaimi Faulkner who has been away OS for a while but before he left was doing regular gigs at the pub with his band. Excellent band and re Jaimi’s material and voice - I’m really interested to see where he goes from here and I’m looking forward to doing more gigs with him in the future.

What else? Well last year was a big one in terms of change, resulting in reassessment left right and centre. New stage, different acts, Rob freaks out cause of all the different acts coming in. Dealing with a booking agency for the first time and not lovin’ it at all. Prima Donna acts who do 1 hr of music and expect a support and often that one hour could be condensed to 1 minute and you’d still know what the band was about.
Bringing their own sound engineers (and I use the term liberally) who also didn’t have a clue, so I was real close to spitting the dummy. I guess you’d call them the ‘gigs of no note’. (And a booking agency who shall remain nameless (cause I want to keep my kneecaps) causing us no end of grief with their lack of attention to doing the job that they supposedly exist for).
Then last October I came back after a lovely 2 week holiday to Tassie only to find that Kel has spit the dummy and left. I thought, “Geez, I was gonna do that.”

Now in hindsight I have to say congrats to Stan for keeping the live music going and congrats to me for not chucking it in (even tho I was sorely tempted). As a result things are back on track and lots of great Saturday nights and Sunday arvos goin’ down at St Andrews Pub.
Rob Harwood
Aug 2007