We finished mixing a new track with the full Sure Thing line-up last night called Let Nobody Be Your Daddy . It is a Maurice Frawley song which we have done for a tribute album curated by Paul Kelly that is coming out on Liberation – which I am thinking will be quite high profile featuring the likes of Casey Chambers, Tex Perkins, Luke and Katie Steele, Sarah Blasko etc etc. Maurice Frawley was a fantastic Victorian singer songwriter who died last year. He started off with bands such as Japanese Comix and played a lot with Michael Barclay and Steve Connelly before becoming guitarist in some early Paul Kelly band line-ups. He is a sorely missed contributor to the Melbourne music scene and was just a fantastic guy to run into on a regular basis. It’s all incredibly sad.
In terms of the recording after the giant task that Spin! Spin! Spin! turned out to be it was a very enjoyable concept to go into Audrey (Craig Pilkington’s studio) and just do one track from start to finish. We did a full number on the song with Squeezebox Wally and Anna Burley both contributing heavily to the track which seems to have taken on a bizarre Mariachi/ Euro-romantic / James Bond-esque kind of feel. It was a lot of fun and I actually shot some video footage so hopefully I can get my head around the editing and get a little clip up in the next couple of months.
Speaking of ‘getting my head around things’ it certainly has been a time of grappling with new technology, that’s for sure as I daily try and come to terms with the digital behemoth (protools) that has taken residence in my studio and begin to wade through the mountain of prospective material for the Monthly Music Club. But I’m not complaining as there has been a great response so far which is really really nice for us as it has been a lot of work to get it all up and running. But up and running it certainly is and so tell your friends to sign up as I reckon we can sustain a really high quality output of material for the rest of the year.
While we are on the Music Club next month will feature music by Jen Anderson and myself from a short film we did about 15 years back called Left Luggage. There is some really nice stuff on there, in particular a ballad I wrote with Sherry Rich called Slipping DOwn which she sings a treat. We are just chasing some graphics and footage from the actual film so as to give everyone a decent idea what it was all about. Time to get to work.
One last thing, commiserations got to family, friends and former bandmates of Alistair Hulett who died last week in a Glasgow Hospital. Alistair was the singer in Roaring Jack a band who were contemporaries of WPA’s in the Sydney music scene of the late 80′s and early nineties. He has since played steadily around Europe and has managed to keep on working, finding an audience for his writing and performing. I last spoke to him at the National Folk Festival about four years ago and he was as boyant and doggedly optimistic as ever. I’m sure the tributes will flow – along with the tears and whiskey – in the coming weeks.
Mick Thomas, Northcote, Feb, 2010
Mick, Great concept. I’ve been a fan since I saw WPA with Billy Bragg and Michelle Shocked at McGill University in 1988. The MTMC provides a nice reminder of good times until the next time you are out Canada way. Any chance of a stop in Guelph? I’ve never been able to locate a copy of your cover of Skyway – would love to hear it. Cheers!
great idea – I am heading into the box of stuff that may or may not contain that particular track. I may be some time.
Was saddedned to hear of Alistair’s death.
Here’s a tribute song for Alistair: http://www.myspace.com/theshopsteward
Mick,
Another great idea. As a fan, this is brilliant. Your version of Skyway – wow, that takes me back. Sometimes I wonder if there will be another Mick Thomas covers album, just like the first Sure Thing one.
Looking forward to that CD at the end of the year