Every so often you stumble across a piece of music or a band that remind you why you started playing guitar. Wooden Shjips is one of those bands. Now I won’t kid you, this isn’t nice safe indie pop we are playing with today. This is hard listening.

Wooden Shjips are a guitar based band, their MySpace site classes them as “Psychedelic / Trance / Garage” and that’s pretty damn close. I get the feeling that their work ethic is, plug the guitar into a fauzz box, then plug that into another fuzz box and then plug that into a guitar amp on 11 and then plug that into a fuzz box just to be sure that nothing escaped unscathed and to get the perfect amount of feedback.

This is trance music for and by a guitar nut, it would be easy to just dismiss it as noise but it is played with such purpose that I am left convinced that this has carefully and artfully constructed. You aren’t going to get the precise soulful playing of an Eric Clapton but there is stuff going on here that warrants a look. There are traces of Hawkwind, earl Jefferson Airplane and the Doors (not the singles, the darker stuff that seemed to lurk on Side 2 of the albums) in the sound but this is probably just my imaginings.

Recommended, especially if you are at all of a curious nature… like Alice.

Seriously though, how often do you get to spend an evening with two of your old favourite acts and a bunch of friends. I also finally picked up a small digital recorder that I had been reading about for months and thought this would be the perfect excuse er opportunity to use it.

Ross was first up and accompanied by Nicolas Lyon (fiddle and bass) and Ken Stephenson (guitars, banjo, mandolin, any bloody thing with strings on it) who was having a great old time with short sharp succinct lead breaks and tasty discreet backings (Ian and I decided we hate him… Just kidding Ken).

Ross did a selection of material from the re-released “My Name Means Horse” album sprinkled through the set, 606, Orchestra Ladies and the infamous “horse song” I Am Pegasus as well as some more recent material, he even played “Chase The Ghosts Away” which is one of my favourite tracks and with Ken playing on the banjo it was pretty damn fine. The set was a bit loose and the guitar was was too far down in the mix for my taste, but a good time was had by all.

Here is Ross Ryan and Co. playing “Where Are You Now” recorded live at The Trades Hall Bar on my new toy.

They hijacked Robbo to play drums and it rockets along at the end.

This brings us to the Spectrum part of the evening. Spectrum have re-released (after 30 something years) their “Part One” album. The Spectrum line-up for the night was Mike Rudd (vocals, guitars, harmonica), Bill Putt (bass guitar), Peter ‘Robbo’ Robertson (drums) and Daryl Roberts (keyboards) and was everybit as good as the original 30 years ago. We were treated to songs like I’ll Be Gone, Esmeralda, Some Good Advice, We Are Indelible, Launching Place, Fly Without Its Wings, Superbody, and Its A Shame also recorded live at The Trades Hall Bar on my new toy.

My favourite memories (or whatever I am passing off for memories.. imagined urban legends?) of Spectrum all seem to revolve around Carlton and Fitzroy. The very best night I saw them play was at a Melbourne Uni Student Building Gig (it must have been around 1972(?) before the antiwar occupation, it was a small crowd and they were just amazing, they truly ripped my head off. Of course in Fitzroy the fabled TF Much Ballrooms, I wish I could remember more. And to round off the evening we had Hugh McSpedden supply an era appropriate lightshow , the only thing that was missing was the smoke machine. Come to think of it, the other thing missing was the “smoke”.

So did I have a good night? You bet.
Should you go and pickup a copy of the CD’s. You bet.
Do I like my new Zoom H4 recorder… oh yes, it’s amazing. (There is a related post at Thatchspace)

Looking more like a jockey or a boxer than a pop star, Johnny O’Keefe was Australia’s first rock idol, an important part of the worldwide phenomenon sweeping the world in the mid 1950′s, rock’n'roll.

Despite lacking the classic good looks of Elvis or Cliff Richard, O’Keefe was a dynamite live performer, always seemingly on the edge, a ball of menacing nervous energy — attributes guaranteed to raise the hackles of parents and the law, as a conservative Western world attempted to protect their youth from this obscene and menacing culture.

O’Keefe supported many of the big overseas performers of the time, including Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent, but in reality he was as big a draw card in his own right – and a much more dynamic performer than most of the imports.

In many ways his life mirrored that of the King, Elvis Presley. He suffered several breakdowns, developed a dependency on prescription drugs and in 1960 was involved in a near fatal car accident.

Although his career never again reached the heights of the fifties and early sixties he continued to make comebacks between bouts of ill health including a blistering performance at the legendary Sunbury Music Festival in 1973.

Johnny and Elvis were born 11 days apart on opposite sides of the world and died less than 2 months apart at the age of 43, both from heart attacks.

O’Keefe was Australia’s first rock star, he was awarded the first recording contract offered to a rock performer, first to be signed internationally, fronted the countries first rock programmes on both radio and television and scored a staggering 35 top forty hits, an achievement that has never been bettered.

In all he compared four television shows, the groundbreaking “Six O’clock Rock”, “The Johnny O’Keefe Show”, “Sing, Sing, Sing” and the short lived “Where The Action Is”.

The clip here is the signature tune from his national television show Sing, Sing, Sing which ran from 1963 to 1968.

The conservative nature of television during the era means we see none of the energy that was the driving force behind O’Keefe’s live performances and popularity, but never the less this clip is an important part of television and rock music history.

In Biblical terms, this is like watching Adam!

A long time ago in a reality far, far away, (I’m pretty sure it goes something like that…) there was a band called Fairport Convention, and somewhere in the early Seventies I heard their truly awesome album “Liege and Leif” and discovered Richard Thompson on guitar and the late Sandy Denny on vocals. 30 plus years later Richard Thompson is still playing and I’m still listening. (yes yes I know I missed his last concert in Melbourne… stuff happens OK).

After Fairport Convention he concentrated on being a solo artist, put out a couple of amazing albums with his wife Linda Thompson and became known for songs with dark lyrics and awesome guitar that combined British folk ballads and the blues. His immediately recognisable guitar style draws from jazz and roots traditions.

If you have to pick one song that covers both his approach to lyrics and guitar playing “Vincent Black Lightning 1952″ would be a pretty good place to start.

So, here are two mentions of Vincent Black Lightning 1952 in two interviews 15 years apart…

Richard Thompson: The Greatest Artist You Don’t Know – Arts Extra – Newsweek
Article by By Malcolm Jones

Then, suddenly, there is a voice as old and burnished as time itself singing about a small-time crook’s twin loves for his fantastic motorcycle and his equally fantastic girlfriend (“red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme”).

“1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, first released in 1991, is Thompson’s most requested song, and no wonder. It’s one of those songs that, the first time you hear it, it’s like you’ve known it forever. There’s no fat in the telling of this tragedy of a high-octane highwayman and his lady. The ornament is in the musical setting, although separating things out like that doesn’t serve the song very aptly. What makes “Vincent Black Lightning” work is the way everything works together. Words, music, performance, it’s all one, with a melody nicely tailored to Thompson’s raggedly effective voice, which in turn partners with finger-picked guitar accompaniment nimble enough to banish any hint of gravitational pull for the duration of the song. There really is no explaining how someone plays a guitar that well.

and from 1991.

Richard Thompson: Sway into emotion
Article by By Anil Prasad dated May 22, 1991

Describe the inspiration for “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.”

It’s about mythology. A lot of mythology is imported into England from America these days. All of the mythical place names used are American because of the influence of popular song, pretty much through the whole of this century since the 1920s. “Going down to Memphis” or “Going down to San Antonio” sounds great. “Going down to Scunthorp” doesn’t. [laughs] So, I really like to try and validate the use of British mythology in British songs. The Vincent is a rather wonderful, rare and beautiful beast. It is an object of myth. There’s not many I can think of in Britain. It’s hard to find these things. So, it’s the center, “the loadstone” around which the characters in the song revolve around. It’s a romantic object. I suppose it’s a story that relates back to older British and Scottish ballad forms where we have an anti-hero central character, and even though he may die in the end, he sort of triumphs and gets one over on society first. It’s a bit like Robin Hood. There were a lot of ballads about Robin Hood in British folk music, always a very popular subject.

Want more? Good isn’t it?

Well you can find an interview with some live performances at the NPR website.
The Music and Life of Richard Thompson

And as well as Vincent Black Lightning 1952, which is from the Richard Thompson Discussion List you can also hear Keep Your Distance and Hard on Me. These songs were selected by the list members as the best introduction to Richard Thompson’s music.

There is a video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o just Richard and a his guitar in a hotel room.

I just found this on the web, go to verygoodheight.blogspot.com/2006/06/happy-fathers-day.html and you can listen to two of my all time favourites. When I Get To The Border and Beeswing.

This is a video of “Matty Groves” taken at the BBC2 2006 Folk Awards, this is the song that started the journey for me. Richard Thompson on guitar and Dave Swarbrick on fiddle….

St Kilda peaked as the centre of Melbourne’s music scene in the early to mid 1980′s, before insatiable developers, rising rents and changing tastes sent many of the more interesting venues and bands packing.

“Immigrants” from the middle and outer suburbs flocked to St Kilda in droves, drawn by the nightlife, the cafes and the slightly bohemian and edgy nature of the area — then complained about the noise and the prostitutes!

Many of the venues including The Banana Lounge, The Venue and the Ballroom have long since gone, while others including The Prince of Wales and The Espy survive, albeit like St Kilda itself, more gentrified and arguably not the cutting edge they once were.

During the eighties many bands with little or no profile outside the area developed huge and loyal followings despite virtually no radio or mainstream media presence.

Between 1983 and 1988 “I Spit On Your Gravy” ruled the underbelly of St Kilda despite frequent line up changes and even more frequent run ins with the law.

Fronted by Fred Negro, the Gravies attempted, very successfully, to re define bad taste and their shows were often chaotic, but always full of energy and plenty of black humour.

This version of “Fire” originally a number one hit in 1968 for “The Crazy World of Arthur Brown” was recorded in 1984 at recorded in 1984 at The Prince of Wales.

Shot by a punter in the crowd with a hand held domestic camera, sound and vision are of poor quality but perfectly capture the mood of the times —– try setting yourself alight and walking into the crowd at a venue today!

The music may not necessarily be to your taste, but as a piece of historical footage it’s priceless.

(A professionally shot film clip for the band’s single “Piranha” was also on youtube until recently but unfortunately I have been unable to track it of late. If you have better luck let me know)

(There is also a presence at www.myspace.com/thegravies )