the johnnys

_{Dave and Hoody: The Crisps. Shona Ross photo}

The Crisps
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Marrickville Bowling Club, Sydney
Friday, 7 April 2023

Photos: Shona Ross

Seventeen years after they last stood together on a Sydney stage, The Crisps are hitting the road up and down the Australian East Coast, partly to promote the release of an EPand partly for fun. Tonight’s show is number-two of the run and happening on the Friday of an Easter weekend.

_{Liz Pommer photo}

The Johnnys
The Tote
Friday 14 October 2022

There’s some audio of The Johnnys live at Le Tote sometime in 1983, couple of years after the Doherty family had decided to host bands in the band room of The Ivanhoe Hotel in an attempt to address the pub’s precarious financial future.

The set is good ol’ sloppy cowpunk fun, replete with lyrical signposts to The Johnnys’ inebriated schitck and irreverent celebration of country music. “You know why we’re having fun?’, guitarist-singer Roddy Radalj calls out rhetorically. “Because we’re drunk!”

They were Australian rock and roll’s undisputed Kings of Cowpunk in the 1980s and broke house records around the country. Four decades later, The Johnnys are out to show they’ve lost none of their edge when they rock Manly and Elizabeth Bay in New South Wales this month, presented by The I-94 Bar.

The Johnnys will play The Old Boat Shed at Manly with locals DISGRACELand on Friday, February 16 and Pacific Palms Recreation Club with Mid North Coast rockers Mooton Saturday, February 17.  Tickets for Manly are here and Pacific Palms Rekky here.

Trailblazing Australian cowpunks The Johnnys will celebrate their 40^th anniversary with a handful of New Zealand concerts in late July - their first tour there since the pandemic and only their third in 32 years.

The Johnnys' barnstorming shows at legendary NZ venues like The Gluepot and Warners back in the ‘80s made an impenetrable impression.Their 1986 album “Highlights Of A Dangerous Life” was a runaway success in Australia and New Zealand. It was firmly embedded in the NZ Album Top 20 chart, where it remained for 10 weeks, thanks to infectious tracks like “Bleeding Heart”, “Injun Joe”, and “(There’s Gonna Be A) Showdown”.

SPENCER P. JONES
1956-2018

In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Robert Pirsig interrogates the very nature of quality through the lens of motor mechanics. Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristic of quality.

Spencer Jones knew a thing or two about quality - especially musical quality. Born in 1956, the Year of Elvis, Spencer wanted to be a working musician as long as he could remember. Spencer’s family moved from the regional town of Te Awamutu to Auckland in 1965, the same year the British invasion swept through New Zealand, with tours by The Rolling Stones and, infamously, The Pretty Things.

Spencer’s grandfather was a gifted musician; his mother, too, was born with a natural ear. Recognising Spencer’s musical abilities, Spencer’s elder brother Ashley recommended his parents buy Spencer a guitar.

Carbie Warbie photo

Your favourite cowpunks The Johnnysare back for their first Sydney show since 2023 and it’s at their spiritual home, Marrickville Bowling Club, with a killer line-up, presented by The I-94 Bar.Tickets are on sale here.

Joining The Johnnys will be high-energy Melbourne veterans Brando Rising, launching their self-titled album, and the internationally-credentialled swamp rockers Pete Ross & The Sapphire, signed to French label Beast Records but now living in Sydney..  

The show is a home town return from the injured list for bassist Graham Hood, who is bouncing back from a wrist operation.

All is well with Hoody after the equivalent of a grease and oil change, He, Slim and Billyhave been in the studio over winter, working with producer Phil Punch to preparing a vinyl re-issue of their debut  album, “Highlights of a Dangerous Life”. 

The gig will be the Sydney debut of Brando Rising, with singer Ripley Hood and bassist Tony "The Kid" Robertson (of Hitmen and The Naked Lunch) back on what was their home turf for many years. 

Peter Ross and his crack outfit are fast making a name for themselves in Sydney and played a memorable support to Charlie Owen at a sold-out Django Bar that still has people talking.

Book your ticket often and early to save and make admission on the night a breeze. Cheap drinks and even cheaper thrills from The Johnnys under The Bowlo's Coppperart ceiling. What else could your heart desire?

1. In February, we played a gig at the now closed Platform 5 in Clayfield, Brisbane. This venue was always good to us and we were very sorry to see it go.

2. In March, we used our frequent flyer points to head to Melbourne to launch our 2022 album, “Love Is Calling”. (ED: WHAT NO RECORD COMPANY TAB?)Dave Graney and Clare Moore invited us to open for them at The Night Cat in Fitzroy. What an honour! And what a great turn-out. We then played on the southside at The Lyrebird Lounge with special guest Penny Ikinger. Thanks to Suzi and all our Melbourne (and even Tasmanian) friends and fans who made this trip so special for us. We'll be back!

_{Graham Steel (left) tries to convince Graham Hood from The Johnnys that the bar's shut and it's time to go home.} 

Earlier this year, Newcastle’s mainstream media reported that the closure of The Cambridge Hotel was going to have a huge impact on the Newcastle music scene. But, in fact, the opposite is happening. 

Newcastle is going off! 

2023 may have been marked by that venue closing but it actually reopened not long after, just up the road next to the King St Hotel, in a similar format of two band rooms. Then the virtually dilapidated “The Oaks” at Tighes Hill was quietly renovated and opened a month or so ago to a swagger of gigs already, and the Hamilton Station Hotel re opened the renovated larger back room mid-year to accommodate larger bands. 

Add in a few venues around Maitland, now keen to accommodate live original music, as well as the usual haunts, and the Newcastle music scene is in fact booming.(try booking a gig before April 2024!). 

TOP 10 FROM OUTTASPACE!
By Adam Brzozowski and Milly Dalton, co-owners at Link and Pin cafe and live music venue, Woy Woy, NSW, and the Outtaspace record label.

The label went a bit quiet (because REASONS), but we’re ending 2021 with a BANG!

1. NOT THE JOHNNYS Link and Pin, New Year’s Day 2021
Hoody, Slim and special deputies Kane Dyson and Matt Brown had the audience fit to bust; it was our first proper rock’n’roll show in the beer garden after the Avalon COVID spike. There were a few tears between us when the fellas ripped into ‘Injun Joe’. You can see THE JOHNNYS live at Link and Pin on 9 January, 2022! Tickets here.

_{At the MoshPit Bar in Sydney. Sandra Kingston photo} 

Celia Curtis’ Top Ten-ish of 2021 (in no particular order)

Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders - “...there’s pretty things in Palookaville...” Album.
Sixteen songs from the Punk/ Country/ Blues/ Rock’n’roll master craftsman. Pat Todd is the real deal! Sure, it’s not as instantaneously enthralling as 2008’s “Holdin’ on to Troubles Hand”; But seriously, SHOW ME AN ALBUM THAT IS? “..pretty things” grows on you like a stubborn fungus.

Literally anything Pat does in a year is Top 10 worthy. Luckily he put this record out so I didn’t have to rate one of his turds. (Which would have been good shit by the way).

_{Colin Blum photo}

1. Craig McRae
I’ll get to music in a second, but I need to give kudos to the Human Fly, Craig McRae, for his amazing job as first year coach of Collingwood. From second last to one point off a grand final appearance. I don’t want to overhype him and I’m aware he’s only just started the role, but I think it’s safe to say McRae is on track to be Munster’s person of the decade.

2. TISM- The Croxton and Prince of Wales Bandroom
After nearly two decades of nothing, it was wonderful to see the return of the band that put Melbourne’s South East on the map. Two brilliant warm up shows (missed the third), I was amazed that after all these years, the band, now approaching retirement age, put on a no holds barred show that included crowd surfing and the full contact dancing that you only see at a TISMshow. The crowd was mixed of people that came back to relive the glory days, and plenty of young people seeing TISM for the first time. The songs are still brilliant, and hearing two new Ron Hitler Barassi diatribes proved that TISM are just as relevant now as they were in there 90s heyday. And these secret shows were a godsend, meaning I could keep well far from that odd festival they were on at.

THE FARMHOUSE TOP TEN

Hello Barflies, another year nearly gone, another Top Ten and what a wonderful 12 months it has been. I got off the farm a few times for my horrible public transport trips to Melbourne. A thousand-kilometer return trip is getting harder and harder to get motivated to do, but some bands are bloody well worth it. Oh, and family and friends also. Big shout out to my gig buddy, The Tasmanian Bushman. 2023 - bring it on! So folks, here you…here’s my humble Top Ten.

X at The Tote
X live at the Tote Hotel playing ”X-Aspirations” for its 40th anniversary. What a blast this night was. Steve Lucas’s screaming guitar and vocals are always great but at the old stomping ground, the Tote Hotel in Collingwood, they were something else. A memorable night and the gift of a scarf from Kim Volkman made my evening.

THE JOHNNYS
The Johnnys at St Kilda Bowls Club was another wonderful gig. It was made all the better because it was my birthday and Bushy got me a wee bit drunk. And I got a present from Billy Pommer Jr.

MARVELLOUS MUSICAL MOMENTS OF 2022 AND MORE MUSINGS:

Firstly, thanks to The Barman and I-94 Bar contributors Keith Claringbold, Dylan Webster, Matty Ryan and Edwin Garland who included my shows with my band in NSW and Melbourne in their Top Tens for 2022. That is so cool and greatly appreciated! Thanks to everyone who came to these shows! It was fabulous to see so many “old” friends there!

Thanks to the musicians who played in my band – Tim McCormack on bass, Jason McGann on drums, Julian Held on guitar, Sam Billinghurst-Walsh on guitar and Ryan Oliver on keyboards. They are worthy of the attention they have been getting.

In fact, thanks to all the musicians who performed live on the indie rock circuit in 2022. These are not easy times for many musicians, and it’s been fantastic to see so many artists back in action on stage, in the post lockdown world. Often, I cross paths with them when they attend other people’s gigs as well. It’s a wonderful thing to behold - intrepid rock’n’roll soldiers leading the charge to bring live music back into the forefront of our hearts and minds! 

Thanks to all the punters who have been supporting live gigs. Thanks to the music journalists for reviewing our shows and new releases and to the radio presenters who have been playing our music. Thanks to the venues and the promoters, with a special thanks to The Barman for his tireless efforts to keep our rock scene alive and well.

1. THE MUNKS and THE STALLERS @THE MOSH PIT, SYDNEY
Opening act The Stallers pumped out a high-energy set , a mix of obscure garage covers and originals. Loved it , good guys , great players led by head gunslinger DARREN FALCONSTEIN who plays in many other bands like BAHNE SUPER-FLEX.  All the way from Ulladulla  THE MUNKS pumped out the Raw ROCKNROLL, a sense of humour , showmanship and quality playing. Probably my favourite Semi - local band I've seen in a long time. 

2. The JOHNNYS, @THE OLD BOATSHED, MANLY
I saw THE JOHNNYS  many times in the ‘80s, one time at Selinas supporting the HOODOO GURUS and THE JOHNNYS blew them away. It's  ow 2024 , 40 years later. SPENCER, unfortunately, isn't there but HOODY, SLIM and BILLY still blasting the stuff that hooked me as a teenager. 

3. The DAMNED @ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY
Some bands get old and bitter, these guys don't. The more I listen to THE DAMNED the more I appreciate and love them.  Punk, Goth, Pop - call them what you want, I call them  awesome. RAT SCABIES was a highlight,  I didn't realise how good a drummer he was.....possibly second only to CLEM BURKE.

Much-loved Australian rocker Spencer P Jones is terminally ill and may have months to live.

Spencer’s wife, Angie, confirmed the news on Facebook about 5.30 this afternoon. In a statement, she wrote:

First of all Spencer & myself would like to thank everyone in the community for all the love & support since Spencer was struck down with illness in 2015, rendering him unable to pursue his creative musical career.

For the past two years, we have been under the wing of the wonderful peeps at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Unfortunately after another scan in March this year the doctors found a cancer tumour in Spencer's liver. 

In short , as a result Spencer has now been diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer.

Rumours that Spencer’s health had hit a new hurdle had been circulating for weeks. His Beasts of Bourbon bandmate, Brian Henry Hooper, passed away on April 20, just days after a benefit show for him while he fought cancer. 

Australian musical legend Spencer P Jones has passed away in Melbourne following a long fight against cancer.

The news broke tonight with outpourinfs of grief breaking out all over social media. Spencer is survived by his wife, Angie. 

A member of Beasts of Bourbon, The Johnnys, Paul Kelly and The Coloured Girls, Hell To Pay, Chris Bailey and The General Dog, Maurice Frawley and The Working Class Ringos, and Sacred Cowboys and a solo artist with 10 albums to his own name. Spencer was one of the Australian underground music scenes's leading lights.

Born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand, in 1956, Spencer moved to Melbourne in the mid-'70s and played with Cuban Heels among others before a shift to Sydney where he joined cow punks The Johnnys.

Carbie Warbie Photo

The Johnnys are playing a Sunday afternoon show at the hottest bar , the Link and Pin, in Woy Woy (an hour north of Sydney) in January. They're following in the steps of the Hard-Ons who playsed a secret gig with their new frontman, Tim Rogers, on December 10 as a warm-up for theiur national tour. The Johnnys do the Link and Pin on January 9 from 5pm. Buy a ticket in advance here.