In 1992 James Blundell was enjoying success not only in Country circles, but in the mainstream media as well. Over the previous few years he’d cemented himself in the Australian Country scene, winning 9 Golden Guitar awards.

James came to the attention of a much wider audience with his 1992 duet with James Reyne. They covered a classic Dingoes song “Way Out West” and it went huge! This tour was right at that peak period and it was a pleasure to be a part of. It was probably the first time I’d ever done a tour that extended over such long distances and that worked 6 or more shows per week.

We had a brilliant band playing fantastic songs to packed houses for an extended period of time. We did four to eight week runs like this fairly regularly over a two year period which adds up to a lot of gigs.
I don’t yet have a full listing as there was a N.S.W. run before this and a Victoria/S.A. run soon after, but I haven’t yet found accurate gig lists for those.

Thanks again to my brother Brett for letting me go through his “shoebox” of old gig sheets.

The James Blundell Band

• James Blundell – Vocals, Guitar
• Dave Druery – Drums
• Ian Lees – Bass, Vocals
• Mick King – Guitar, Vocals
• Charlie Cole – Keyboards, Vocals
• Lawrie Minson – Guitar, Lap Steel, Harmonica, Digeridoo, Vocals
• Lee Kernaghan – Keyboards, Vocals

Management/Crew

• Jeff Chandler – Management
• Louise Blundell – Tour Manager
• Mike Chandler – F.O.H. Engineer
• Brett Gibson – Monitors
• Peter “Tex” Whitney – Lighting Engineer
• Mark Denton – Lighting Rigger
• Mark Gibson – System Engineer
• Rohan Mclachlan – Bus Driver

P.A., Lights & Truck from Bandanna Entertainment

Images

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James Blundell  

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Kevin Borich is truly a living legend. Although he is a proud Kiwi, he has definitely gained “honorary Aussie” status by generations of serious music lovers. His blistering blues/rock style is timeless.

This interview originally appeared on one of my other sites, www.improveyourmusic.com and was done by Mark Johnson. It is such a great interview with such an important figure in Australian music that I simply had to reproduce it here.

Over to Mark Johnson…

In this interview I’m talking with Aussie guitar legend, Kevin Borich. We met up at the Coogee Bay Hotel on a Thursday afternoon for what was more of a “free discussion” than a detailed structured interview. Kevin will be celebrating his 60th birthday soon but shows no signs of letting up. Even his recent cancer scare served only to cement his resolution to push on, and ever upwards. We discussed a wide range of topics and as with other interviews, I again found it hard to decide what to cut out and what to leave in. Kevin was very forthright in his opinions of the Australian music scene, but his seemingly brutal criticisms stem from a great passion that you couldn’t kill with a stick. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this casual chat with Kevin Borich.

Kevin Borich Interview

For more information on Kevin, have a look at his website at www.kevinborich.com.au or his MySpace site at www.myspace.com/kevinborich

As usual, this podcast has been recorded and produced by the wonderful folks at Groovy Tunes Music.

The first hit single from the Freight Train Heart album was “Too much ain’t enough love”. This was the first no. 1 solo hit single for Jimmy Barnes. The album was first released in Australia by Mushroom Records in 1987 and then later released in the US by Geffen in 1988.

I was never a huge a fan of Jimmy Barnes as I was with Cold Chisel. However I have to say that the single from this album “Too much ain’t enough love” was my favourite. Let me know what you think.
Don’t forget you can get your own copy of Freight Train Heart right now from our online store

Tracks

1. “Driving Wheels” (Barnes/Cain/Roberts)
2. “Seven Days” (Dylan)
3. “Too Much Ain’t Enough Love” (Barnes/Cain/Schon/Jackson/Brock)
4. “Do or Die” (Barnes/Cain)
5. “Waitin’ for the Heartache” (Barnes/Child)
6. “Last Frontier” (Barnes/Cain)
7. “I Wanna Get Started with You” (Barnes/Cain/Schon)
8. “I’m Still on Your Side” (Barnes/Vallance/Cain)
9. “Lessons in Love” (Barnes/Vallance/Neall/Cain)
10. “Walk On” (Child/Turner)

General Information

Released : 1987
Recorded : Power Station Studios, New York City & Rhinoceros Studios, Sydney
Genre : Hard rock
Language : English
Label : Mushroom Records
Producer : Jonathan Cain, Mike Stone, Desmond Child

About Jimmy Barnes

Jimmy Barnes is a popular Australian rock singer. He was born James Dixon Swan on April 28, 1956 in Glasgow, Scotland. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. His career as both a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time. The combination of 14 Australian Top 40 albums for Cold Chisel and 12 charting solo albums gives Barnes the highest number of hit albums of any Australian artist. Source Wikipedia

Jimmy Barnes “Thankful for the Rain” Sadly this was Hey Hey it’s Saturday’s
Final show 20th November 1999

A Brief History Of Jimmy Barnes

Around 1973 Jimmy Barnes briefly sang in the band Fraternity, replacing Bon Scott, before joining the Adelaide based band “Orange”. Soon after Orange changed their name to Cold Chisel Around 1977 after moving firstly to Melbourne, then to Sydney, Cold Chisel were picked up by Warner Music Group and released their self titled debut album in 1978.

Jimmy Barnes was the bands singer from 1973 through to the breakup of Cold Chisel in 1984.

Images

Jimmy Barnes Solo Recordings

• Bodyswerve – 1984
• For The Working Class Man – 1985
• Freight Train Heart – 1987
• Barnestorming – 1988
• Two Fires – 1990
• Soul Deep – 1991
• Heat – 1993
• Flesh And Wood 1993
• Psyclone – 1995
• Hits Anthology 1996
• Love And Fear 1999
• Soul Deeper – 2000
• Raw – 2001
• Double Jeopardy – 2002
• Live (Unplugged) At The Chapel – 2002
• Soul Deeper (Live) – 2003
• Double Happiness – 2005
• In The Heat Of The Night – 2006
• 50 -2007
• Max Sessions – 2007
• Out In The Blue – 2007

Other Resources

• http://www.jimmybarnes.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Barnes

About

Brian Baker is a composer, singer/songwriter and producer living in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne, Australia. From his studio he is currently creating music for the Fable/Image production library, writing and recording his own original material, composing jingles and soundtracks, and writing with other songwriters to pitch songs to various artists around the world.
from Brian’s website.

History

Brian Baker landed in Sydney from his native New Zealand during 1980 as a budding performer / composer with some recognition for live and radio performances. He first joined an Avant guarde Pop band “Idiot Savant” and then migrated to Melbourne with a pub rock band called “CRISIS”

In 1985, he entered into a publishing contract with Rondor Music through Graham Connors and soon after a recording contract with CBS Records trading as ‘The Ones’ – a three piece band. Their first and only single ‘Heart’, released in 1986, was produced by Eddie Rayner (ex: Split Enz / Crowded House). The single gained immediate commercial airplay but didn’t make the charts and the band broke up soon after.

Following their studio collaboration on ‘Heart’, Brian and Eddie Rayner developed a working relationship and went on to write and produce a film score for the hit movie ‘Rikki & Pete’. The success of this venture led to the formation of ‘The Makers’.

As the Makers, Brian and Eddie produced two CD albums, The first self titled album for WEA released in 1990 was mixed by Hugh Padgham, whose credits include XTC, Genesis, The Police, Sting and Phil Collins. The album received critical acclaim and the first single ‘Big Picture’ received heavy airplay and charted well in some states. The Makers toured as opening act for ‘The B52′s’ on their 1991 Australian tour and proved to be a big hit with audiences arriving early to see their show.

Their second album ‘Hokey Pokey’ was released though Warner Music but after a label shake up, The Makers were in limbo. Brian and Eddie had different personal needs so together with manager Chris Gough they decided to move on.

Brian moved to a small artistic community in South Eastern Victoria, (Briagolong), where he set up A Tractor Productions. In this refreshing new environment Brian was appointed Artist in Residence at nearby Boisdale School and soon after Musical Director for the Ping Pong Theatre Co. A Tractor Productions soon attracted a steady flow of commercial radio and television work.

By 1994 Brian had written, recorded and produced a critically acclaimed solo album ‘The Field’ which was released independently. With no company backing Brian decided to undertake a massive one man promotional journey throughout the USA, England & Europe.

After returning to Briagolong, Brian formed the band, “Big Head Little Body”, to perform and record new material. More on them here.

Brian, and A Tractor Productions have now moved back to Melbourne, where the studio is pumping out high quality advertising music, including composing library music for Fable Music. Big Head Little Body released their debut CD, “BUG”, in 2000, available on the net through CD Baby.

Eddie has completed a new CD “Play it Straight”, which includes 4 songs from Brian. Two from The Makers, “Big Picture” and “From now on”, one from Brian’s solo CD, “The Field”, called “Letting go”, and a new song called “Fool”, originally recorded by “Big Head Little Body”. “Fool” is sung by New Zealand singer, Annie Crummer and is featured on the NZ on Air A/C hit disc number 4.

Following a trip to NZ in 2002, Brian and Eddie have written 4 brand new songs together. Two of these tracks feature on Brian’s latest CD, “Prague Radio”.

Brian is currently promoting the “Prague Radio”, performing live accompanied by his daughter Ella on vocals.
from Brian’s website.

Recordings

• Albums
  • The Field – 1995
  • Deconstruct – 1996
  • Bug 1999
  • Flight – 2002
  • Prague Radio – 2004

Other Resources

• A Tractor Productions

The “tour” story about Bandanna apparently gave some people, including my beloved Mrs Gibbo, the idea that touring was some sort of wonderful, bohemian lifestyle chock full of naked women, intoxicating substances and midnight law breaking! In an effort to correct this very misguided idea, I would like to present a tale from the other end of the scale. A real tour!
It was 1992 and we were working for a great bloke by the name of James Blundell.

He was red hot property at the time and we worked hard. 6 shows per week, every week for 6-10 weeks at a time. If we could fit a matinee show in we would as well. Monday was classed as a “day off”. It’s funny how driving up to 12 hours can be considered a day off. We literally were on the job 7 days a week for weeks on end but it was great. I can honestly say that some of the best times I ever had professionally were with this band. There were a lot of factors that contributed. James himself was a thorough professional and a real gentleman. The band were absolutely red hot, all top class musicians and all top blokes. They were an absolute joy to watch. The crew all got on well and all did a great job. The standard of venues was usually good. Clubs, theatres etc and the hours were very civilized for people in our line of work. It was usually an 8pm to 10:30 show which is much earlier than a rock gig.

A day usually went something like this.

• Wake up in a hotel/motel room somewhere at around 8am
• Have coffee, shower, get dressed all while watching the tele.
• Drive to the next town on the list. Stop for breakfast/lunch on the way.
• Arrive for load in at venue at 1pm.
• The first road case off the truck was known as VIC. Very Important Case. In it was an urn, tea, coffee, biscuits etc. This got set up first so the water was boiled for a hot cuppa after the load in.
• Load in and setup 8 tonnes of PA, lights, staging, instruments etc. It usually took 3 hours as long as the room had easy access. Sometimes you carry that gear up as many as 4 floors, up the back fire escape quite often.
• Be ready for the band to arrive about 4:30pm for a sound check. This usually took an hour.

My brother Brett at his post side stage during a soundcheck. His job was to keep the whole band happy on stage by providing 8 seperate monitor mixes to an array of speakers on stage. Do you know what the difference between a Monitor Guy and a Toilet is? The toilet only has to deal with one arsehole at a time.

• You do a quick tidy up of any last minute crap like setting up the merchandise stand or such, followed by a search for something good for dinner. You try to have one “decent” meal a day if you can swing it.
• Get ready for “Doors open” at about 7pm.
• Support act on at 8pm for 30 minutes.
• Main Act at 8:30pm for nearly 2 hours.
• Pack up. With six crew we could pack up and load 8 tonne of gear into the truck in 1½ to 2 hours which usually got you back to you room not too far past midnight.

The never ending stream of black boxes. Note the downing of a well earned, refreshing ale.

• A few late night beers and a little tele and off to sleep.
• Do it all over again, and again, and again!

As I said, they were pretty good hours really but shit we did some driving. This is, to the best of my recollection, just one leg of a tour that we did, covering about 4 weeks.
Day 1, drive for about 1000k’s to meet up with the band and half the crew in Brisbane who have been doing record company promo shit.

Leaving NSW. Note the rainbow.

Arrive in Brisbane to find that the record company is still paying for room service. Yeehah!
The next day we are on in earnest. It starts with a drive to Gold Coast to pick up extra lights then off to Toowoomba for the first gig. Up 1 flight of steps!
then(roughly) Kingaroy, Caloundra, Gympie, and Bundaberg.

Some of the boys doing common after gig activities. One is passed out drunk. The other is dribbling shit to his Mrs on the phone just before passing out drunk.

We get a day off at some resort at Bundaberg before the show. The weather is shit so we just bum around all day but appreciate the rest already. We actually sit down to a real meal in a good restaurant. Wow.
Update. I was reminded that I had my first Cane Toad kicking experience in Bundaberg. Happy days indeed!

Then Gladstone, Rockhampton, Emerald, Dysart, Mackay, Townsville and Ayr. I get to catch up with my Auntie Margie and a few of the cousins in Townsville. We even get devon sango’s with Uncle Ray the next day on our way out of town. Bleedin’ luxury.
Enough of the socialising though, it’s off to Cairns.
Even though the gig is at Innisfail, we drive a couple of hours past it as we are staying in Cairns and for some forgotten reason, we need to go there first. We then turn around and drive a couple of hours back to the gig at Innisfail. On the way back to Cairns after the gig that night, I fell asleep driving the truck. Luckily, the guy in the passenger seat was awake and managed to wake me up. He only realised I was asleep when we crossed the road rounding a bend and ended up sideways. Something that is not recommended in a truck! I was wide awake for the rest of the trip.
We got back to our room in the early hours of the morning to find that two of our rooms, mine included, had been robbed. In all the years I travelled, this was the only time it ever happened. They got away with mostly clothes and a bit of cash. I think a few other things went missing that weren’t reported to the Police! Bastards.
We had the next day off in Cairns which was spent mostly sleeping. That night we walked into town to find a Blues Festival going on. It turns out that one of the acts are friends of mine and I am drafted into doing sound for them. So much for the day off. We end the night at Johnos Blues Bar, pissed as nits, watching Phil Emmanuel go off. What a great night.
The next day we do our gig and as soon as the truck is loaded, we start the trek to Mt Isa. The first stop is Townsville for a few hours sleep in a bed. Then head about 1500k’s inland. Fuck it’s a long way. This is the last gig of the run and after this we are heading back to Sydney for a few days off before doing Southern NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

Shutting the truck in Mt Isa, ready for the 3 day drive home. That pan is 26foot long and is chockablock full. Top to bottom, front to back. My Uncle Ray who is a “real truckie” said it was a “poofy town truck that had no right to be driven so far.”
The truck becomes a central part of life on the road. You drive it, sleep in it, eat in it and it carries your entire life for months at a time.

Nearing the end of the first day driving home, we came across the famous Blue Heeler Hotel at Kynuna which was the subject of James’ first(I think) Golden Guitar winning song. We decided it would be a great idea to stop for a pie and a few beers. The publican was really friendly regailed us with stories of when the film clip was being shot. It was a real big deal for them and they treated us well.

Leaving The Blue Heeler.

Crossing the desert that night we were treated to the beautiful sight of a desert sunset.

“Only two more days of driving boys, and we’re home!”