Howzat! with Jeff Jenkins

HOWZAT!

MEET THE CHEATS

When an album starts with some handclaps, a series of "Heys!" and the line, "C'mon baby, let's do the twist", you know that the band is not out to change the world. But Melbourne duo The Cheats - Jules on guitars and vocals, Coops on drums and vocals - do know how to make a glorious racket. Their debut is a wonderful get-the-party-started album, with an energy that leaps out of the speakers (props to producer Robbie Adams). Hats Off To The Cheats (on Off The Hip) will have you dancing around the house - and that's a beautiful thing. The Cheats are launching the album at Yah Yah's on Saturday, June 6, so we put Jules in the Howzat! hot seat. Did you always intend to be a two-piece? "Not really. Coops and I decided to start a band, so we began writing songs together, and we found that they sounded pretty good without bass or a second guitar. So we never considered getting anyone else." What's the best and worst thing about being a two-piece? "The best thing - it allows us to just focus on what each other is doing, so we can follow each other and change how a song is played as we go along, without having to worry about anyone else getting lost. That keeps it interesting and fun. The worst thing - there's not a single moment on stage that either of us gets to have even the slightest break from playing and singing. And a broken guitar string can cause the wheels to completely fall off." Do gig-goers comment about your lineup? "All the time. The two most common things we hear: 'You guys sound like a lot more than two people playing', and the usual, 'Where's your bass player?'" Best gig? "Two in particular stand out - the Pony 2am slot the night John Howard was ousted. There was a euphoric atmosphere over the whole city and amongst The Cheats, and we let out 11 years of pent-up frustration in one hour on stage. The second was supporting Eagles Of Death Metal at the old Palace in St Kilda. We thought no one would be there early but it was packed and everything on stage just clicked, in front of our biggest crowd to date." What's the worst thing you've ever cheated at? "I remember cheating at 'Heads Down, Thumbs Up' in Grade 3 by sneaking a look at the other kids' shoes. Is that bad? I thought I was pretty clever at the time for devising such a foolproof scheme." What do girls say when you say you're in a band called The Cheats? "Funnily enough, the name was partly inspired by an ex-girlfriend who had cheated on me!"

MAURICE FRAWLEY, THE YARD GOES ON FOREVER

I remember sitting at my local having a few beers with Dan Warner, talking about who should be in the ARIA Hall of Fame. "You know who should be in there," Dan insisted, "Maurice Frawley. He's a dead-set legend." 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. Howzat! was saddened to hear that Maurice had died from liver cancer at the age of 55. We asked Dan Warner to write a few words about him: A few years ago, I bumped into Maurice Frawley on the train. I got on at Richmond station, Maurice spied me and came walking down the aisle towards me. It was early morning, and, as the track is raised above the road on that part of the line, the windows of the carriage were filled with the smoky blue autumn sky. The train began the slow curve out of Richmond. Even though Maurice was carrying a guitar and a bag, he walked without trouble towards me. He had been a decent footballer in his youth. I'd heard stories that he'd played Under 19s for St Kilda, or maybe it was Collingwood - whatever VFL team's draft zone had included Mt Pleasant in central Victoria, where Maurice had played. After all these years he still had the grace and balance of an athlete. Our conversation was easy and familiar, though Maurice, as usual, got a few things out of me - where I'd been playing gigs, what I'd been writing. We talked about the possibility of touring together up the East Coast. He told me, as he usually did, whether as a jibe or a prod, I'm not sure, that he'd had a bit of a purple patch and that he'd been writing some songs. Maurice was old-school showbiz. He'd seen a fair bit and he knew a thing or two. He always assembled great musicians around him: Garrett Costigan, Charlie Owen, Shane Walsh, Alan Brooker, Michael Barclay. His records always sounded great, as did his gigs. But, most of all, for Maurice it was about the writing. That day on the train, early in the morning, that's what I mainly remember, that Maurice was happy that he'd been writing some good songs. I got off one stop before him. As I stood up, Maurice nudged me, cracked a joke and burst out laughing. I took one last look at him as I went out the door. He was still smiling mischievously, like a young boy out of an old face. He was a bit like that, Maurice, hard to pin down, a bit rough around the edges, but also stylish, and well put together. Like his music. He was still laughing as I stepped on to the platform. About a year later, I heard Maurice's new record, Good Things. I wondered if these songs were the ones he'd talked about on the train. If so, he was right, all the songs were good. The title track is a cracker. Over the last few days, a few lines from that song have been playing over and over in my head: Like those old mountain songs, ringing through the valley/ Those old mountain songs just keep on ringing in my belly. 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. - Dan Warner

STEPHEN'S WONDERFUL LIFE

Howzat! went with a friend to the launch of Stephen Cummings' new book at Readings. I have to pick up my friend at her work, a cosmetics company. When I arrive, my friend is in a meeting, and I have to spend an awkward 20 minutes talking to the young receptionist, who Stephen might refer to as "flawless beauty to admire". Not knowing anything about cosmetics, I try to engage her in conversation. "We're going to the Stephen Cummings book launch." She nods. "He's a comedian, isn't he?" "Not really. Singer. Who Listens To The Radio …" She shakes her head. "Your mum would know it." I own every one of Stephen's 23 albums, four with The Sports and 19 solo, so I quickly scan my brain for something the young gorgeous girl will know. Finally, I say: "You might know the song he did for Medibank Private - I Feel Better Now." "Oh, yeah," her eyes light up, "I know that one." I try to think of another point of reference, but there's nothing. Stephen's entire career, more than 30 years of making wonderful music, has been reduced to a single jingle. His memoir, which follows two novels, was going to be called "Mister Transistor". Then it was titled "Nice And Evil". But it has been published as Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy? (Hardie Grant, $29.95). The new title refers to an exchange Stephen had with Billy Joel in New York. "Nice And Evil" would perhaps have been a more apt title because Stephen shows that he is the master of the backhanded compliment. Nick Cave is "the consummate showman", he writes, "like a gauche Tom Jones", adding: "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." Michael Gudinski is "an offensive and abusive bear of a man, [though] at least he went to gigs and liked music." Tex Perkins: "People say he's so talented. To me, he's butch and so square." Renee Geyer has "a lovely baby-doll voice, but she has been singing the same songs live for years". Like Don Walker's recent memoir, Shots, this is a collection of anecdotes. But Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy? is the better read - more accessible and entertaining. Stephen calls himself "a pop singer with hang-ups". Long may he make music - and write books.

HOWZAT! PLAYLIST Do It Again THE CHEATS Knock Yourself Out DAVE GRANEY Away From The Microphones D. ROGERS This Is Not My Town THE MODEL SCHOOL Good Things MAURICE FRAWLEY Knock Yourself Out DAVE GRANEY Away From The Microphones D. ROGERS This Is Not My Town THE MODEL SCHOOL Rack Em Up THE CHEATS Is Melbourne Bitter TIJUANA SOUVENIRS