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Howzat! with Jeff Jenkins
HOWZAT!
2009:
WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?
Leo Sayer became an
Australian citizen. John Farnham
made a comeback. And our queen of soul, Renee Geyer, battled breast cancer. 2009 was not all good. But,
then, the Community Cup came
back, Paulie Stewart docked again at The Age EG Awards,
and the Skipping Girl Vinegar
sign returned to life – and the band did a wonderful residency at the
Northcote Social Club. So what do we make of 2009? It was certainly
bittersweet. Wagons delivered
Howzat!’s favourite album of the year, but were shunned by Triple J. Music
director Richard Kingsmill reportedly didn’t like Henry’s voice and also
dismissed the band as “a live thing”. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald
about Daniel Merriweather, Bernard Zuel stated: “Radio? Please. They haven’t cared about
music for years: the commercial stations can’t tie their shoelaces without
doing a phone survey to find the least offensive knot, while Triple J is a
commercial enterprise in all but name where the remit long ago moved from
music to marketing.” Thank God we live in Melbourne, with RRR, PBS, 3CR and
SYN. Sydney also suffered with the loss of the legendary Hopetoun Hotel.
ARTIST
OF THE YEAR
He
mentored Henry Wagons, telling him to write a boogie (“Everyone loves a boogie”). He confounded Glen Campbell fans
when he supported the Rhinestone Cowboy at year’s end. He’s never been
played on commercial radio, and Triple J hasn’t touched his music in the
past decade. But he delivers a thrilling playlist on his RRR show. Even
when he was an insider, he was an outsider. He’s been making music for more
than three decades. He’s a volunteer – nobody asked him to be so great.
He’s a Heavy Entertainer, a self-styled King of Pop, Mt Gambier’s Mr Magic.
As a concept, incredible. But he’s a reality. The world deserves something
great once in a while. Dave Graney
is Howzat!’s Artist Of The Year.
GIG
OF THE YEAR
It
was a festival of festivals. All Tomorrow’s Parties came to Australia for
the first time, curated by Nick Cave. The Big Day Out got even bigger.
Homebake turned 15. A new festival was a Blueprint for disaster. Festivals come and go, but legends last
forever. Two legends celebrated their 45th anniversaries in
2009. In his memoir, Stephen Cummings wrote of Joe Camilleri: “He was solid, powerful and never panicked.”
Stephen also delivered the line of the night at Joe’s 45th
anniversary gig: “There’s a big group of single mothers here tonight, Joe –
they’ve all come to collect their maintenance.” Three months later, Ross Wilson did his “5 Decades of
Cool” show. “Where are the white pants?”
a crowd member asked. “In the closet,” Ross replied, “I pull them out every
now and then … for bowls.” But there’s plenty of life left in these two
legends. In fact, Joe Camilleri at the Palais on May 9 and Ross Wilson at
the Palais on August 14 are Howzat!’s Gigs Of The Year.
ROCK
IN PEACE
“We’re
lucky we’ll always have Maurice’s songs: rough around the edges, but also
stylish, and well put together. Ringing in our guts.” So wrote Dan Warner
in his tribute to Maurice Frawley,
who died of liver cancer in 2009. He was 55. A road warrior, Maurice did
his time with Paul Kelly and the Dots (co-writing Look So Fine, Feel So Low) and Olympic Sideburns before forming
his own band, the Working Class Ringos. In 2006, his new band, Maurice
Frawley & The Yard Hands, released the wonderful album, Good Things. Cancer also claimed the
life of Magic Dirt founding member, bass player and great bloke, Dean Turner. He was just 37. Gary Rabin, the passionate former
manager of Ross Wilson, died in America of a suspected heart attack. He was
57. Meanwhile, after more than 15 years together, Bodyjar called it quits, with “The End Is Now” tour. The Stems broke up again after a
farewell tour. Chrissy Amphlett declared “Divinyls are dead” in the updated edition of her autobiography.
And, inexplicably, The Getaway Plan
broke up after just one hit album.
READ
ABOUT IT
Steve
Kilbey called him “a fucking blabbermouth” and warned: “Beware of falling
singers.” But Stephen Cummings delivered
the music book of the year, Will It
Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?, a tragicomedy that savaged Steve Kilbey,
Nick Cave (“It was Karl Marx who observed that history repeats itself first
as tragedy and then as farce. The same could be said of Cave’s career”) and
Michael Gudinski, “an offensive and abusive bear of a man”. Cold Chisel’s Don Walker also delivered an array
of anecdotes. And his book came with a moral: “If you’re gunna wear the
blame, at least maybe do yourself a favour and get in there for a slice of
the crime.” Shots is an
intriguing collection, but ultimately unsatisfying. Don doesn’t mention
Chisel by name, and he makes just one passing reference to a Chisel album (East). Stephen’s Billy is the better read – more
accessible and entertaining. Steve
Kilbey didn’t like his depiction in Stephen’s memoir, threatening
revenge. “Maybe
I can chip in with Gudinski and get Cummo’s kneecaps done,” Steve wrote in
his blog, adding: “Don’t forget, I got an autobiographer’s mind, too, and
you never know when I do my own book how you gonna appear.” That didn’t
happen in 2009, but an excellent Church biography arrived, No Certainty Attached, written by
American fan Robert Dean Lurie. The year concluded with two brilliant
“mix tapes” – Craig Mathieson’s Playlisted and Robert Forster’s The 10
Rules Of Rock And Roll. Craig’s book had the year’s most striking
opening line: “Is Kylie Minogue human? On the basis of her music, that’s
not an easily answered question.”
HOWZAT!
Howzat!’s 2009
wrap continues …
ALBUMS
OF THE YEAR
1. WAGONS – THE RISE AND FALL OF GOODTOWN
As
Henry Wagons declared on his band’s fourth album, “I always bring the shit”. Goodtown plays like an unfolding
adventure, filled with melodrama and menace.
2. SPECIAL PATROL
– THE STRANGER’S DOZEN
It’s
a mystery why Adelaide’s finest band is not massive. Their fourth album
might be a masterpiece.
3. STEPHEN
CUMMINGS – TICKETY BOO
Stephen reckons “the battle’s
already lost”, and claims that this is his final album. If it is, he’s
going out on top.
4. BERTIE
BLACKMAN – SECRETS AND LIES
An
artist who never stands still delivers her most intriguing album yet.
Intoxicating electro pop.
5. NICK BARKER – BLACK WATER BLUES
Breaking
up is hard to do, but Nick Barker gave us a break-up record that’s raw and
real.
6. D. ROGERS – SPARKS ON THE TARMAC
Dave
Rogers ranks alongside Special Patrol as Australian music’s best-kept
secret. Deceptively sweet classic pop.
7. PAUL DEMPSEY –
EVERYTHING IS TRUE
Robert
Forster says great bands don’t have members making solo albums. But
Something For Kate are a great band and Paul Dempsey delivered a great solo
album.
8. OH MERCY – PRIVILEGED WOES
They
survived being compared to The Go-Betweens. 2009’s best debut.
9. DAVE GRANEY – KNOCK YOURSELF OUT
“The
world deserves something great once in a while,” Dave declared. Knock
yourself out!
10. THE CHEATS – HATS OFF TO THE CHEATS
The
year’s best party record. Melbourne’s finest two-piece gave us a glorious
racket with their thrilling debut.
11. JACK HOWARD
& THE NIGHTBIRDS – LOST HORIZON
After a brief Hunnas reunion, Jack Howard delivered a world-class
jazz-pop record.
12. THE PICTURES
– KICKING INDIFFERENCE
The
Pictures’ second album was met with indifference. But it’s a genre-busting
hi-fi adventure. We loved Davey Lane’s description: “It’s the sort of
record Queen would make – if they were making it in Ferntree Gully.”
OUR FIVE FAVOURITE SINGLES OF 2009
DAVE GRANEY – Knock Yourself Out
KATE
MILLER-HEIDKE – The Last Day On
Earth
CAITLIN HARNETT –
Throwaway
CUTHBERT &
THE NIGHT WALKERS – Pace Ourselves
PRINCESS ONE
POINT FIVE - You
CHART
NEWS
No
blockbuster homegrown hits in 2009. Three Australian singles topped the
charts (compared to two last year, and six in 2007). Meanwhile, six Aussie
albums went to number one (compared to seven last year, and nine in 2007). Powderfinger equalled Silverchair’s
feat of five number one albums. No band has had more. And Barnesy scored his ninth solo
number one album – he’s had more
chart-topping albums than any other Aussie act. Hilltop Hoods’ State Of
The Art became the first local album to spend more than one week on top
since Silverchair’s Young Modern in
2007. Internationally, The Veronicas
became the first Australian act to sell one million copies of a song in the
21st Century, with Untouched,
which also became the first Aussie song to hit the US Top 20 since Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head in
2002. Untouched also went to
number one in Ireland, and number eight in the UK, where Daniel Merriweather and The Temper Trap also had Top 10
hits. Missy Higgins’ Steer hit the Top 10 in Canada. Stan
Walker’s Idol single, Black Box, failed to top the local
charts, but hit number one in NZ. And Keith
Urban’s Defying Gravity entered the US charts at number one. Putting
AC/DC aside, Keith is the first Aussie act to have a number one album in
the US since Men At Work 27 years ago.
NUMBER
ONE SINGLES
Jessica Mauboy – Burn (one week)
Guy Sebastian – Like It Like That (two weeks)
Vanessa Amorosi – This Is Who I Am (two weeks)
NUMBER
ONE ALBUMS
Natalie
Bassingthwaighte
– 1000 Stars (one week)
Eskimo Joe – Inshalla (one week)
Hilltop Hoods – State Of The Art (two weeks)
Short Stack – Stack Is The New Black (one week)
Jimmy Barnes – The Rhythm and The Blues (two weeks)
Powderfinger – Golden Rule (one week)
HIP
HIP
2009
was a major year for milestones. Spooky
Records turned 10, The Fauves
and Shock Records turned 21, Delta Goodrem turned 25, PBS and Daniel Johns hit 30, Bernard
Fanning, Tim Rogers and
Russell Morris’ The Real Thing turned 40, Daryl Braithwaite and John
Farnham sang “Do Ya Think I’m Sixty”. Billy Pinnell celebrated 50 years in radio. And Barnesy became a grandfather when
his daughter Mahalia had a daughter, Ruby. Midnight Oil, Hunters and Collectors and Split Enz re-formed for the Sound Relief concert at the MCG; Underground Lovers and Tumbleweed reunited for Homebake’s
15th Anniversary. The Painters
and Dockers docked one more time, at The Age EG Awards, and Cold Chisel got new managers and
played at the V8 Supercars in Sydney.
BRING
ON 2010
There’s
a lot to look forward to in 2010, including new albums from Sydney’s two
best acts, Perry Keyes and Lazy Susan. Ron Peno’s
eagerly-awaited solo debut will also arrive, and hopefully we’ll also get
solo albums from Adalita and Fiona Lee Maynard. There will be
new albums from Ross Wilson, James
Reyne, Hoodoo Gurus, INXS, GB3, Even, You Am I, Silverchair, The Badloves,
Marcel Borrack, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Charles Jenkins and a
new lineup of Geisha. And we’re
looking forward to debut albums from Georgia
Fields, The Hello Morning, Ryan Meeking, Rushcutter, The Verses and Caitlin Harnett, and the second
albums from Skipping Girl Vinegar,
Tobias Cummings, Michael Meeking and Leanne Kingwell. And we can’t wait to hear the new Airbourne album, No Guts, No Glory. And will we
finally get to see the second album from the Spazzys?! Another wish for 2010 – Stephen Cummings inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. It’s
time.
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