pop crimes

From the spectacle of the Rolling Stones the previous night, I awaken somewhat seedy and blasted. It’s been a huge week, dealing with our Beasts of Bourbon documentary, taking note of Stoneswatch, seeing the Stones on a stage half a soccer pitch away and now… Rowland, who would have been 55 the previous day (AKA Stonesday here in Adelaide).

Ho to the Wheatsheaf Hotel on a borderline suffocating hot day, where Alison Lea’s photographs of young Rowland (the infamous late 1980 Adelaide tour, where scrawny Nick Cave painted a skull and tentacles on his chest, performed topless with the paint running to buggery and beyond.) If you’ve seen the cover of the Nick the Stripper 12”, that’s Alison’s photo. If you need more information go here.

There were two sets, the first being These Immortal Souls, and the second devoted to Rowland’s solo work. It wasn’t the line-up for the Melbourne shows; Hugo Race wasn’t there, nor was his sister Angela, nor Ed Kuepper. 

I haven’t been so profoundly moved all year. Partly because, after interviewing him on many occasions and brought him down to Adelaide for a few gigs, I knew Rowland reasonably well. Which meant that seeing these songs being performed by his friends had me rather teary. It was painful to watch, confronting, nasty even; more poignantly, his words are now far more loaded…

_{Murray Bennett photo.}

Made it through an intense year of behind-the-scenes, hatchet job betrayal, on constant alert with old stuff anxiety kicking in and an ADHD burn-out that sent me to a dark and desperate place. 

But despite all the amputations, my life was saved by Rock ‘n’ Roll….

1. The Cruel Sea
Made a new album with The Cruel Sea. Recorded in three days in a tin shed during a brutal Melbourne heatwave. A bunch of songs we barely knew and nearly all first takes with minimal overdubs and quick mixes. Relied on our old wits and it sounds pretty damn good! 

2. Robyn Hitchcock
Spent time with my dear friend Robyn Hitchcock as we both navigated dark waters, then played a wonderful show at The Great Club in Sydney with Samand Davey and Katethat steered us straight, and we stayed up grooving on my back deck until the birds and the garbage trucks joined us. 

2024 TOP TEN-ish

GIG OF THE YEAR- Just one? No.

VICTORIA + DAVE MCCORMACK AND THE POLAROIDS at the Golden Barley, Sydney.
I’d never heard nor seen either band before and both were rather excellent.

POP CRIMES: JP SHILO, HARRY HOWARD, KIM SALMON, HUGO RACE, LYDIA LUNCH, TEX PERKINS, MICK HARVEY  AND MANY MORE- Factory Theatre, Sydney
Those songs, played by these artists.