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Jimi Hocking is one of the few musicians to have made a career out of music and (unfortunately) not be a household name in Australia. From my reckoning Hocking has been playing in bands since 1983, which is over 20 years, plying his wares mostly around Melbourne, although he did move to Sydney circa 1993 to eventually to play with The Screaming Jets. However he has had to re-invent himself. There's his heavy rock guitarist stature, but of late I've seen him perform solo, playing blues orientated material and being more of an entertainer, telling a few jokes and winning over the audience with his personality rather than his talent as a guitarist or singer. This album collects songs from 1989 and 1992, when he was fronting Spectre 7. This era saw him being the guitar hero, out front of a backing band, singing anthems, playing sizzling guitar solos and providing a show, rather than just being the band in the corner of the bar. The album is a mixture of old demos with ad-hoc guitar parts, new acoustic recordings and 10 tracks of a live concert from 1989. In almost every instance I prefer the live versions of the three or songs which appear twice on the CD. The live concert recording provides some interesting insight of the material that was popular at the time. The voice-over introducing the band indicates the band were prepared to do something a bit different, raising the anticipation and excitement levels a bit higher. For my money, the strongest song on this collection, is The Wizard, which has one of those hooks which stay stuck in your brain. Why this song isn't among Australia's most popular live songs is beyond me. The Questions is another top track, with some tasty guitar soloing in the middle. Track 14, among the live tracks which is not named features Jimi's speedy guitar soloing, which I expected to feature more. The acoustic songs include No Turning Back (the title track of an earlier album and is among the weaker tracks here), Whites of my Eyes, In the Dark and the first movement of The Questions. In the Dark features some Spanish inspired guitar work. Both No Turning Back and Whites of my Eyes appear in the live concert and both sound better with the full band. The Broken Arm song is another strong track and I enjoyed both versions of The Questions. Hocking reveals some of his influences in his cover of a Status Quo song; I can also see some similarities with the style of bands such as Kiss. If you like your music loud, passionate and with a pub rock or rock stadium overtness, this collection should sit well on your shelf - or better still in your cd tray. You might also like to check out Jimi's several other solo cds as well. As Jimi is prone to quote - Buy vintage and buy Australian! References Previous
columns Chris Spencer is author of the "Who's Who of Australian Rock'. He can be contacted through Moonlight Publishing. |
Jimi
Hocking
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