It is with much sadness that I learnt of the passing today of Greg Clarke, one of Australia’s finest Audio Engineers.

I still remember the exact day I met Clarkey just over 20 years ago. It was the 17th March 1990 (I still have the backstage pass!) at Waves Nightclub at Towradgi Beach, Wollongong & he was the sound man for an up & coming band called Judge Mercy. They were supporting a Cold Chisel cover band I was mixing & I still remember at how much sound he managed to squeeze out of that poor PA. It wasn’t just loud though, which was a bit of a trademark of his, but it was loud and awesome! The guy could make your teeth rattle and make you love it all at the same time. Someone once told me that he’d managed to blow up a good chunk of the subs while Judge Mercy were supporting AC/DC a few years back. That sounds like Clarkey!

It was no accident that he would end up working for such legends as Billy Thorpe, Rose Tattoo & too many other quality acts to keep track of. He was very close to Billy Thorpe and was working on his album when Billy died.

He was a guy with great technical knowledge too & proved helpful to me at many gigs over the years but especially in the early days. Sadly, the last time I saw him was at Pat Pickett’s funeral where, despite his own grief, he was running around helping to organise things and working on a video tribute to Pat. That’s the kind of bloke he was. Genuine.

Funeral details:
Tribe we wish to invite you to Greg Clarke’s service and reception to be held in Sydney on Wednesday 8th June at Notes Niteclub 75 Enmore Road Newtown 11 am Funeral Ceremony 12 noon Reception and tall Stories …….. to all those who knew Greg lets send him off accordingly………..

Rest In Peace Greg.

Images courtesy of Clint Braddick

I’ve heard the sad news from a few industry folks over the past few days that Robert “Jock” Bain had passed away. Tony Wilde has written a short piece in tribute.

“Jock started off working for bands in Melbourne with acts such as The Ferrets in the late 70’s. Thru the 80’s he did many miles with Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons as their monitor engineer and worked on many tours with many bands.

Eventually he headed overseas and worked for many acts touring England and Europe, many of them for the large production company Britannia Row, where he was much respected as a sound engineer and equally well liked as a great bloke.

After many years he started to spend time back in Australia, doing a lot of work for Johnston Audio Services. In 2009 he was Chief System Engineer on the huge “Sound Relief” bushfire benefit concert at the MCG with a record paying crowd of 82,000. To get an idea of the size of this event and Jock’s responsibility, please see:

http://www.johnstonaudioservices.com/news/news2009/sound_relief.html

He was very well read, intelligent and knowledgeable, always up for an interesting chat on a huge range of subjects, which makes it so sad to lose him this way so soon. Those of us who knew him for 30 years will miss him just as much as the younger guys in the biz who valued the time he happily spent teaching them the craft.

He is survived by his mother, sister Ruth and son Harry, who our hearts go out to.

RIP buddy.”

A service will be held at Le Pine Funerals, Carlisle st. St. Kilda, Thursday 21st April 2011 at 10am.
A wake will follow at the Esplanade Hotel St. Kilda.
Update:
Jock’s funeral service will be streamed and can be viewed here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-jock-bain-rip

A lot of people have been asking about Pat Pickett’s funeral so I thought I’d pass on the details here I received from Greg Clarke.

PATRICK PICKETT’S FUNERAL NOTICE
On behalf of Pam Pickett, and for immediate circulation please.

Our beloved mate Pat Pickett has passed on after a brief illness than none of us, including Pat expected. Pat is an icon of the Australian music industry, and had history with AC/DC, Midnight Oil, The Models, Spy vs Spy, and The Screaming Jets, among many many other bands, and in many roles such as FOH and monitor sound engineer, system engineer, production manager, stage manager, truck driver. Originally Pat was from Melbourne, and in more recent years he was based in Sydney. You name it Pat did it, and in inimitable style. He took young bands and crew under his wing, and he showed them the ropes so they would never forget him.

Let’s remember Pat at his memorial service, which will be held at the South Chapel Rookwood on Tuesday the 7th of December at 10:30am.
Rookwood Memorial Gardens and Crematorium
Memorial Avenue
Rookwood Necropolis
Phone 02 9746 8945

Despite the fact that Pat had a terminal illness, he was completely independent and working right up to the week before he died. His rent was paid up in advance, but unfortunatley Support Act have been unable to help out as they don’t cover funerals.
A bank account has been set up for those able to contribute to the funeral expenses. We are aiming to raise at least ten thousand dollars. Any amount remaining after all the expenses are met will be given to Pat’s family. The banking details are as follows:

Pat Funeral Fund
Commonwealth Bank
BSB 064121
Account 10245472

Any queries regarding this can be directed to myself at admin@audioboffin.com or Geoff McGowan at geoffmcg@optusnet.com.au

Thank you and peace to all.
Greg Clarke

Sadly I heard today that Pat Pickett had passed away as a result of cancer. Words like “legend” and “icon” get thrown around too easily sometimes but Pat really was a legend and an icon. Pat was an old school “road warrior” whose reputation in the industry was huge. I only had the pleasure of working with him a few times so we were acquaintances rather than mates but I knew where he stood in the business.

His resume was a who’s who of Australian rock starting out with a very young AC/DC and including acts like The Angels, The Screaming Jets and literally hundreds of other bands over many, many years.

Rest in peace Pat.

* Update *
Clint Braddick, Garry Chamberlain and Derek Bovill have kindly given me use of a couple of great photo’s of Pat, thanks Guys.
If you have some you’d like to share here please send me an email or just leave a comment below with your email address & I’ll find you

* A Tribute to Pat Pickett from John Swan *
Another good friend and fine roadie passes away, I’ve been sharing stories all day with my friends who worked with Pat Pickett He was a funny bastard- nothing was exempt from his sense of humour. He invented the dance of the flaming ass holes and of course the Pat Pickett Strut funniest thing you’ll see.

All day good friends and some I haven’t spoke to for a while have been checking to see if I was OK. Now that to me tells you the type of man he was I met him way back at early AC/DC gigs Mark Evans will go into the stirs for you I hope if he deems this appropriate. Somehow appropriate and Pat don’t go together He was a real roadie he loved his friends, he entertained others.

He was loyal and funny, but most of all he was a big softie, he would protect the girls who had bad names he would try to get the good girls into trouble. Crew in this period were real worked hard and played hard, no podiums not much money or food none of us ate much then I guess we were looking after our figures (yeah……..right! ? ) but always had a GREAT time

Like all of us he was no angel and there was a lot that went on, on the road which shall remain there “what happens on tour stays on tour”. I liked him because if he didn’t like you he’d call you the most disgusting names. If and when he got to know you, he’d apologize, for only a few, because at the time you usually were what he suggested.

My light shines a little dimmer each time a friend passes, my heart goes out to all who knew him I had a chat with girl from Melbourne tonight, just talking about Pat, She’d been howling because she read my face book update she told me things he did for her how he took her in he was like the big brother she needed. She told me lots but I’ll just leave it at that.

All I can say is Bon Scott, Norm Sweeney, Billy Thrope, Wayne “Swampy” Jarvis, Marc Hunter, Ted Mulry, Mick Cocks to name only a few (sorry I know I’ve missed some here there are so many more.). So many we loved will be having a laugh tonight as he tries to explain some road antics to St Peter they will be pissing themselves as he takes them on a journey you would have to have been there to enjoy.

Funny man, great roadie, good friend such a kind person, I loved him as did many of the real rock and roll bands and their crew. Big, small all you had to do was ROCK, he would help drink your rider and tell you the best yarns in the most colourful vernacular.

God I’ll miss him RIP BIG MAN e used to say he was an honoraury Scott as they were the only other c….s that could get in as much trouble without even trying XXXXXXX . For those who think this is inappropriate, it’s only for those who knew Pat, the rest, well you can always go f………k yourself.
Reproduced with the permission of John Swan

G’day,

Well first up I should start with a disclaimer for all aspiring crew & the young & impressionable. My stories come from a time in the industry that was pretty wild & I was young and probably (well, yes I was) reckless. Today you couldn’t get away with some of the crazy stuff that went on, and that’s probably a good thing. In the music industry a lot of people have nicknames and that is pretty much all they are known by. I have been known as Reckless or Recko for ages. Very few people from the industry know my is Steve. Glen “Heffo” Heffernan (Guitarist : Meatballs show etc) had fun with it, sometimes I’d be Restless (when I said i was going home) Legless (On the piss) Harmless etc. Anyhow this is how I got my nickname:

In the early 80′s i was working for Mad Gorilla from their second or third gig onwards. One of the first road trips was up to Cobar (September 1980) and that drive has a funny story i’ll tell later. If you’ve never been out that way it is a long drive and a totally different landscape from the coast. It’s actually almost in another time zone it’s that far. The locals don’t get many live acts, they come out in force and have a bloody good time.
When we got there it was straight out of the vehicles and into the load in. A quick focus & sound check and it was almost time to start. I grabbed a beer & went outside to check the sunset and gather my thoughts.

It was my first full night on the lighting desk for Gorilla as Roger didn’t come away with us due to work and family committments. So I had a walk around the club and sat down to roll a cigarette.

A female voice says “Is that a joint?” and I looked up into the sun to see the silhouette of a very shapely lady. I blocked the sun with one hand to see she was just as pretty as her silhouette suggested, “No, I wish it was” I replied. She giggled and stuck her hand under my nose, there was a round piece of alfoil in her hand & the smell of hash was unmistakeable.

“Where will we go?, we can’t smoke it here” she giggled again. I suggested the back of the truck and off we went. Well one thing lead to another and not only did the evil temptress get me stoned but not long after we were having some great sex amongst the drapes in the back of the truck. We were totally lost in what we were doing and had lost track of time.

Next thing i hear a guitar and someone banging on the drums “OH SHIT! ! !” I suddenly remembered why I was there. “Quick get dressed, OH SHIT, OH FUCK!!!!”

We get out of the truck, pull the shutter down and I’m running for the door of the club. My shoelaces aren’t tied and I get my shirt caught in the zipper of my jeans, “SHIT”.

I burst into the club straight past the doorman who’s saying “They’re looking for you mate”

The stage is dark, the band’s all on stage ready to go. The room is chocka block full. As I ran into the room tripping over my gym boot laces Sticko ( the singer) is saying to the crowd “Has anyone seen our lighting guy, he’s a little hairy bloke,where is that reckless young lad ?” the whole room turned around, pointed at me and yelled “there he is” and they all cracked up laughing and clapping. Coby was on the sound desk and immediately (and deservedly) starts paying out on me, points at my shirt sticking out my fly “What the fuck were you doing!?”. She kept threatening to make me get all the drapes drycleaned after I told her. All through the night the locals were coming up, slapping me on the back and saying things like “So what were you up to, you reckless young lad ?” then cracking up laughing and handing me a beer. By the end of the night even the local police seargent was calling me the reckless young lad. And everytime they did Coby looked daggers at me.

After the first set I was called into the band room for what would now be called “counselling” I copped an absolute bollocking & then someone giggled and everyone (except Coby) had a laugh. By the end of the night the name Reckless had stuck. The crowd had a ball and we ended up sitting up drinking with the club staff and the local cop till dawn. I never saw her again, can’t remember her name but boy do I remember that night and the time we spent in the back of the truck.

Disclaimer:

G’day Gibbo,
Had a thought about my ” My nickname” post and would like to add this disclaimer.
To all wives and girlfriends: The incidents related in the my nickname story were not everyday occurences & in the time I worked in the entertainment industry (1977 – 2008) only happened twice in that time. The second time I got married to the lady & besides 2 beautiful daughters was in hindsight a disaster. Generally we were too bloody busy & then too tired or heading off to another gig. ….. Recko.

Wane “Swampy” Jarvis was one of Australia’s most respected and longest serving road crew. He is regarded as one of the first “professional” roadies and went on to be an internationally regarded tour manager.

From his site: “He set standards and developed operational criteria that have become the Worldwide Industry benchmark for just about every activity involved with touring and concert production. He gave the industry, as a whole, a level of dignity, professionalism and compassion that is very often missing in this day and age.”

 He unfortunately passed away back in 2004 and his family were forced by financial circumstances, to auction off his vast collection of Aussie tour memorabillia. Unfortunately Swampy was around in a time when most roadcrew didn’t have such luxuries as superannuation. His family have a site up which is a nice tribute to a well loved character and some of his tour passes etc are still available from eBay.

Have a look at his site for more info & links to the remaining items. There is a lot of history there waiting for a good owner and the proceeds go to a good cause, his family.