Review of Nov club night
Come All Ye
Alan, Dot and I recited a few poems and yarns. Gary shared his poem about the problems of working as a Landscape Gardener and laying turf. Angelo played several tunes and Nichola sang a couple of her own songs. David Wheeler arrived with guitar in hand. Rae sang a song from “Hair” and told us that the room we meet in was set up as a coffee shop back in 1972 when she met a young man she later married.
It was a low key affair but we went home with fond memories of an evening spent with new friends. Ron Brown
Seems like there was enough for a cosy gathering despite quite a few of our regulars being at Folk In Broke that night—Ed
An interview with Judy Small at our Oct 2007 concert, by Debbi Long
And When Judy Sings: Judy Small in Concert
On Sat Oct 20th the Folk Club hosted a packed concert for one of the deities of Australian folk, Judy Small. The night celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of her first album “A Natural Selection”. Judy was wonderfully supported by the entertaining and quirky
Rising Damper, and a guest spot from 2007 ABC Newcastle Music Award (Folk) winner Grace Turner.
For 25 years commentators have been waxing lyrical about Judy Small’s soaring vocals, the piercing political commentary of her lyrics, and her warm and witty stage repartee. She was introduced to the audience as a legend and an icon of Australian folk, and she did not disappoint the many fans who turned out to see her. Coaldust spoke to Judy Small before the concert.
Welcome to Newcastle, it’s great to have you here.
It’s wonderful to be here. I was last in 1992 - it’s been far too long!
You grew up on the North Coast, didn’t you?
Yes, I did, I grew up in Coffs. I’m a North Coast girl originally.
One of the things I’ve always liked about your music is the way you manage to kick arse with such complexity. You don’t write “single issue songs”, there is always an intertwining of issues. In the eighties you tied in Indigenous rights with the environment and our relationship with the US, and of course in a number of your songs you articulated one of the most silenced aspects of war, the impact of war on women.
Kick arse with complexity – what a nice way to put it! I hadn’t thought of it like that. In a way we were all doing it in the eighties. I have some single issue songs, but not many. I guess that because of the way I see the world.
I see things as social interactions, pieces of a broader canvas, not just individual parts.
What are the things that get you angry now?
John Howard gets me VERY angry now ... and that’s not a single issue! The attitude of white Australia to Aboriginal people still gets me angry. “The Stolen Gems”, my song about the stolen generation, reflects that.
I don’t write as much as I used to. I used to write full time, but now I’m a lawyer. It’s a very different world for me, and I don’t get time [to do as much writing]. It really is true that that kind of creativity is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. I just don’t get time for the perspiration any more.
While there’s still lots of things to write about, I find I’ve often got a song already. I find that issues will come up and I’ll think, oh, I’ve already got a song for that! The last two songs I’ve written were about control orders and the war in Iraq.
With the control orders, thinking about the things that I’ve done in my life, if those laws had been in then, there’s a number of things that I could have been taken away for. The song about Iraq is about the women, because that’s what I do. It’s about the wife of an SAS soldier. The album Mosaic has songs on it about everything from a woman escaping from a child molesting husband to a song for my father. I’m a folk musician, I write about my times. It’s what we do. People say “why aren’t you still writing about nuclear war?” Well, that’s because it’s actually not going to up in the next ten minutes. And we thought it was in the mid eighties. You know, it was important.
Whereas now aboriginal kids are dying …
Yeah, you know, you write about whatever’s going on.
The progression from the type of music you write to working as a lawyer seems like a natural progression.
I think so. I see it as different corners of the same field. I’m heading towards the same goal in both jobs. So I don’t work for a big commercial law firm, I manage the family law department for Victoria Legal Aid. And that’s all the same sort of thing for me. I think my working life has all been about that, it’s all been about social justice.
Has the transition been smooth for you?
I find the transition actually quite difficult, especially things like tonight. Yesterday I was at work. On Monday I’ll be back at work. I’ve actually found a way of dealing with it, which is going to sound terrible, but I listen to myself on my iPod, on the plane, and that gets me back into where I need to be to do a concert. And then when I get home I’ll look at my emails and that will get me back into work mode.
[Commenting on Judy’s elegant outfit] I must admit when I saw you tonight I thought “oooohhh, …. she’s looking more corporate than she used to look”
Compared to when I wore overalls in the 80s? Yes, those days are gone! I started thinking .. I guess I’ve been dressing like this since about the early 90s. I sort of decided my music is folk music, but audience aren’t all folk audiences, and bugger it, every audience is worth dressing up for! At festivals I’ll wear jeans and t-shirts, but for folk clubs and concerts I think it’s worth getting dressed up.
She got dressed up for us, and delivered to Newcastle classic Judy Small: she told us stories, she sang us songs. We laughed, we sang along, and most of us choked up and shed a tear at least once.
And as always, she made us think about our world a little more deeply.
To celebrate her 25 years of recording, Judy has released the double album “Judy Smalll: Live at the Artery”. To get hold of this or other of her albums, you can visit her website:
www.judysmall.com.au
Debbi Long
Taken from Jane’s review originally published in Trad&Now
Review of The Wheeze and Suck Band’s new CD “Flash Lads”
Flash Lads
Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen, the Sydney based Wheeze and Suck Band have primed the firing pan, lit the blue touch paper and launched their new CD – Flash Lads – with an almighty bang! This recording is full of joie de vivre, delivered in true folk rock style, featuring songs you can dance to and dances you can sing – what more could you ask for? All the old Wheezers magic is there, plus some new tricks that will delight the ear and tickle the toes. The opening track – TNT – commences with a rocket launch countdown to some explosive tunes from Tony (Pyro) Pyrzakowski – perhaps he really did do a deal with the Devil to get his shiny new five string fiddle! He certainly appears to have been taking some
supernatural instruction on the application of electronic effects to the band’s material – with stunning results! The album also features a mixture of traditional English ballads and original songs from both Ian (The Pump) Macintosh and Nigel (Muddy) Walters.
Ian and Nigel share the lead vocals, with Ian’s in-your-face delivery and raw energy driving songs like Down Workers Down and The Flash Lad. He also does a creditable impersonation of George Formby (if you can imagine George in a frock with a melodeon instead of ukulele!) on The Day the Virgin Mary Came to Coogee. Nigel strikes a gentler and more reflective tone in ballads such as William Walker and the beautifully delivered Cornish Leaving Song. The cover of Richard Thompson’s Ditching Boy is a great audience charmer and is well worth a listen.
One of the delights of these songs is the lavish use of four-part harmony in the arrangements. These guys can really sing and they do so with great
gusto and enthusiasm. The exuberance of this CD is firmly underpinned by Geoff (One Shot) Woodhead on guitar and John (Red Tips) Milce on drums, ensuring the musical mayhem never gets out of control. It makes great interactive listening on the home stereo! Or at a live performance – I had the great pleasure of attending the Flash Lads CD launch at the Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival and it was just magic, one of the highlights of the Festival.
Buy it, it’ll have you singing, dancing and, above all, smiling!
Jane Harding
Folk Presenter,
2WCR FM, Coonabarabran
thurloo1@bigpond.net.au
To purchase your copy: Flash Lads The Wheeze and Suck Band
$25 available from jmilce@sherborne.com
A Review of the Oct 6 Celebration by Ron Brown
Purple Parrot Reunion
Congratulations to everyone who played a part in getting the Folk Club Reunion together. In articular the small group that took the event from the germ of an idea to completion. Ray Ingham first discussed the idea with Dina Smith (nee Haney) and soon Helen Williams (nee Cummings), Rosemary Melville (nee Johnson), Sally Such (nee Hale) and Kay Cogan were putting the pieces together. As the date drew nearer Neil Kilgour and others started trawling through their old diaries as they tried to track down as many of the people who had been part of the Folk Club over the years.
Their efforts and the response from those who answered the call were outstanding. The success of the event was a demonstration of the importance of the Folk Club in the lives of so many people.
I was particularly pleased to have the opportunity on the night to talk to some of those people who were there at the beginning. Their stories provided me with a much clearer understanding of the foundations of the Club and the bonds that have held it together over the years.
Events of the sixties had a profound impact on the lives of young people in particular. It was a time when young people started to have a voice in the affairs of the world and the issues and politics of the time helped to bring the baby boomer generation together.
Barry Wright was just one of the young people swept up with the times and he and his friends quickly found themselves venturing out into the cafes and bars around town. The Vienna Café in Telford St, Newcastle East became a natural meeting place for young people growing up in Newcastle in the sixties. It was the only venue open after midnight and Barry and his friends gathered there to talk about politics, peace and popular music while they enjoyed coffee and raisin toast.
With the entrepreneurial skills of people like Paul Beard and Warren Faye this youthful energy and enthusiasm was brought together under the banner of the Purple Parrot Folk Club. It quickly became more than just a weekly Folk Venue where music and songs could be shared and enjoyed. It became an integral part of their lives. Weekend camping trips were regular events with up to 40 people travelling by bus to the Snowy, up the Coast or Out West to explore and enjoy each others company and friendship - and with 38 guitars and 9 banjos packed in the boot there was always a lot of music to keep the party rolling along.
We may never be able to get back to that time again but it is great to know that the Folk Club is still alive and well. People can still get together to share their music and fellowship. All I can say is thank you to those who were there in the beginning and thank you to those are keeping the flame burning today.