Sunday, February 28, 2016

W.O.C.K On Vinyl - Various Artists: Stairways To Heaven (1992)

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Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.
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'Stairways to Heaven' is one of the wackiest albums ever released. Every song on here is "Stairway to Heaven," but all performed in very different styles. To even get a grasp on the range of styles contained within, is almost mind-boggling. For instance, Rolf Harris, best known for his novelty Australian hit "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport," essentially re-does that song with the lyrics for "Stairway to Heaven" as the basis. John Paul Young puts in a straightforward ballroom rendition, mirror balls and all! Other versions include a B-52's cover band, an Elvis impersonator, a Doors tribute band, and two Beatles groups (one early period, one late) all doing the cut in the styles of those groups. There is even a crooner-style rendition (watch out, Pat Boone, you've got competition) and a classically tinged operatic. The liner notes on this one, with their fabricated tale of the making of the album, are even hilarious (preface by Gary Hill)
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These 13 cover versions are not so much a tribute to the Led Zep song but a wooden dagger driven through its heart by tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. Once you listen through all 13 tracks, the song has been well-n-truly killed. You'll be waking in a cold sweat at night with nightmares of a dystopic Orwellian world where the only song is "Stairway". The original won't ever sound the same again.

The concept comes from Australian TV compere Andrew Denton. Every week on his early 90s tonight show "The Money Or The Gun" a different artist would come on and slaughter "Stairway" in a different style. This album compiles some of the more memorable. Not only do you get Rolf singing it "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" style, you also get: John Paul Young singing it "Love Is In The Air" style; The Rock Lobsters (B52s cover band) singing it "Rock Lobster" style; The Beatnix

These tracks are by no means an exhaustive collection, there were  more versions from what I recall (after seeing all of them played back-to-back on late night music show Rage). Lamentably, one of my favourites, the Castanet Club's "toora loora loora lie" sea shanty version is missing. And a great opportunity was missed not to kick it off with the Hard-Ons own demolition of the song (from their Yummy album) where, after trying (and failing) to pick the opening guitar piece, guitarist Blackie swears and smashes his guitar instead. I guess putting Rolf Harris, Barry Crocker and the Hard-Ons on the same album would have been just a tad too surreal.
(Beatles cover band) singing it "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" style; Elvis impersonator Neil Pepper superbly singing it "Viva Las Vegas" style; Barry "Neighbours" Crocker singing it Barry Crocker style; and Doors cover band The Australian Doors Show singing it "When The Music's Over" style, sounding as though this song was always supposed to be done by Jim Morrison! The one that had Radio One listeners the most up in arms in 1995 when it broke through in the UK was the version by actor Leonard Teale. His droll poetic recitation of the lyrics, sounding like a smooth-talking used car salesman, was just too much for some to bear -- the BBC's switchboard was jammed by complaints from irate Led Zep fans!
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So this month's WOCK on Vinyl not only pays tribute to the truly Wacky and Korny of all releases, but may also bring you closer to Heaven, 13 times over. Ripped from CD, this post consists of MP3's (320kps) and full album artwork
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Artist Listing
01 - Kate Ceberano And The Ministry Of Fun 
02 - John Paul Young
03 - Pardon Me Boys
04 - Rolf Harris
05 - The Australian Doors Show
06 - Sandra Hahn And Michael Turkic
07 - Robyn Dunn
08 - Neil Pepper (Elvis)
09 - The Rock Lobsters
10 - The Beatnix
11 - Vegemite Reggae
12 - Leonard Teale
13 - Barry Crocker & The Doug Anthony Allstars 
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Stairways To Heaven Link (85Mb)
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Sunday, February 21, 2016

U2 - Lemon: Unauthorised Live (1993) Bootleg

(Irish 1976 - Present)
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The cover says "Live In Seattle" but from the research I've done (see U2 Gigs), U2 didn't play Seattle on their Zoo TV tour. Because this is an Australian bootleg, and "Dirty Day" was only first played during the Australasian section of the Zoo TV tour, I'm thinking that this recording is from one of their Zoomerang concerts. In fact, I reckon it is from their 2nd Sydney Concert held on 27th November, 1993 due to the similar track listing and because this particular concert was recorded on Video: Zoo TV: Live from Sydney.and broadcast live on FM Radio, making it easy pickings for the bootleggers
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One interesting side note is that the Sydney show from the previous night is infamous as being the only U2 concert to be missed by a member of the band. Adam Clayton was so severely hung over that he could not take the stage, and the show could not be postponed as it was a necessary rehearsal for the videotaping of the next night's concert (which, as well as being recorded for official video release, was also to be broadcast live). Adam's bass technician, Stuart Morgan, filled in on the bass, and Bono informed the crowd that Adam was "sick".
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The following is an extract taken from 'U2: The Rolling Stone Files' by editors of Rolling Stone magazine, Sidgwick & Jackson Publishers, 1994. p215-216, where Bono discusses the changes that they had made to their setlist during the later stages of the Zooropa '93 concerts.

The U2 MANAGEMENT crew, friends and hangers-on pile on a bus that will travel from Sydney Football Stadium to a 5 star Hotel in Sydney, about a half-hour trip. It's about 1:30 A.M., the 2nd show ended a few hours ago, and only four shows remain until the end of the Australasian leg of Zooropa '93. It feels like the last week of school.
Bottles of wine are being passed around and someone shouts for music. Someone else pops a cassette in the deck. Over the speakers comes the fanfare that begins "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car," on Zooropa. An instant collective drunken groan: "Oh, nooooo!"

The Zoo TV show, which starts out so explosively, fades out on a far more ambiguous, introspective note. A desperately searching "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" is followed by an equally desperate, equally searching "Love Is Blindness." Then comes Bono's eerie, falsetto rendering of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." "Elvis is still in the building," Bono says softly, as U2 exits the building and Elvis' own version of the song comes up on the PA. Through all this Bono is dressed as the devil.
What's the meaning of all that Elvis business at the end of the show?

THE EDGE: Well, we wanted to move away from the well-established and longstanding tradition of ending on "40" [laughs]. It seemed like the only way to make sure we didn't have to.
Really, who else but Elvis could have made that possible? You have to call in the big guns, it always comes down to that.
I think at this stage, yeah. People still start singing "40" at the end of the set. I guess it'll be a while before we can lay that one to rest. People come to the shows who have seen U2 before, and you're constantly having to deal with their expectations as opposed to what you're trying to do. I know there are a lot of people who come away disappointed from the Zooropa show because we didn't play "Sunday Bloody Sunday" or whatever other old song they wanted to hear.
But you dose the set proper with "Pride." How does a song as emotionally direct as that fit in with all the irony and media chicanery in the rest of the show?
At the beginning we weren't sure if that was going to work. I think it does work. It may be a bit of a jump to go from something as ironic as Bono as MacPhisto or the Hy and yet pull off "Pride," complete with Martin Luther King on the video screen. But it comes at a part of the concert where to make a connection like that is important. Amid the uncertainty there are certain ideas that are so powerful and so right that you can hold onto them no matter how screwed up everything else is.

Bono as 'MacPhisto'
"Everybody wants a long life. Longevity has its place. But I don't care about that now. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land!"( Passage spoken by Martin Luther King on the videowall during 1/2 V version of "Pride")
There's a really theatrical element to that MacPhisto character.
BONO: The cabaret aspect ... I was called by a tabloid photographer, who said, "You know, the fellow you do in the fin-ah-lay" [laughs]. I thought, "Oh, wow."
It's great, your singing an Elvis song in the fin-ah-lay, too.
For me, MacPhisto is sort of sad, bad, not so funny but might be. It's like taking the rock jerk that the Fly is and—if you're going to play him—take him to his logical conclusion, which is when he's fat and playing Las Vegas. It's a bookend to the funky and fucked-up swagger of the Fly.
It's rather poignant. Also, whoever he is now—Jesus or whoever—Elvis once was the devil.
The "devil's music"—that was the thing, wasn't it? The beat. The sadness of that last song, though, that child's voice, that falsetto as the song ends, is the most poignant moment of the show, because, in among all those fucked-up qualities, there's just that little childlike voice. That voice to me is the cover of Boy. If you study those films of Elvis—and I have—there were some very powerful moments as he was in decline. Maybe more powerful than when he was the svelte pop hero.
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This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from my Grapefruit Bootleg CD and includes full album artwork as per usual. I've also included artwork associated with an alternative release of this amazing concert - 'Zoomerang Live Down Under' & the first half of the concert which was released under the title 'Mysterious Ways' by the same Australian bootlegger.
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Track Listing
01 - Dirty day
02 - Bad - You've got to hide your love away -All I want is you
03 - Bullet the blue sky
04 - Running to stand still

05 - Where the streets have no name
06 - Pride (in the name of love)
07 - I still haven't found what I'm looking for
08 - Stand by me
09 - Desire
10 - Help! - Ultra violet (light my way)
11 - Daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car
12 - Lemon
13 - With or without you
14 - Live is blindness
15 - Can't help falling in love

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U2 Lemon Link (172Mb)  New Link 15/01/2023
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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Jeff Duff Orchestra - Selftitled (1989) plus Bonus Track

(Australian 1971 – Present)
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Think of Bowie channeling Sinatra, fronting Blood, Sweat & Tears (playing Chicago covers) and you might get an idea of what Jeff Duff is like (that quote from Aztec Music who has reissue Jeff’s band Kush first two albums on CD).
Born in 1950 this eccentric singer with his jazz – rock style band Kush released a great version of McArther Park. With the break up of Kush in 1975, Duff went solo and went to the U.K. The British accepted his style but he caused a stir with the mainstream media. In ’88 Duff returned to Oz to play Secta in the film “Sons Of Steel”. Later that year he formed the Jeff Duff Orchestra, an all girl group of classically trained musicians. In ’89 Jeff Duff Orchestra recorded “Walk On The Wild side” for the second time, this time on the Captain Vimto label where it became a hit. I think it’s very different than the original Lou Reed version… see what you think. [extract from Ozzie Musicman]
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America born Jeff Duff (aka Duffo) possesses an excellent tenor voice which seems more suited to opera, but he has succeeded in recording in the rock medium. As lead singer of the Chicago / Blood, Sweat And Tears - influenced big band Kush (1971-77), Jeff secured plenty of attention with his antics and bizarre choice of costume. The band, limited by its size, could only work the large venues and cabarets, and despite the huge effort to maintain the band, managed to record two albums and have two Top 40 singles. Upon its demise, Jeff formed his own group and toured with a lively and varied show, which failed to relate to confused, conservative audiences. Jeff moved to the UK in 1978 where he recorded and performed as 'Duffo', releasing several albums, touring Europe and having sporadic chart success in Holland and Italy. He also recorded under the names Ivor Biggin and Jupiter Jones. It was somewhat surprising to see him return to Australia to indifferent audiences in 1988, when he performed as a jazz singer with his Jeff Duff Orchestra, an experimental outfit, and is the focus of this post.  His signature song remains Lou Reed’s "Walk On The Wild Side", which he has recorded at least three times. The Jeff Duff Orchestra album featured some reworking of older material, ‘Pilot’ and the excellent ‘Killing This Affair’. Jeff appeared as 'Secta' in the Australian science Fiction movie 'Sons of Steel', released in 1989, featuring Duff single, 'Here Come the Freaks', which is also included on the album featured here. [Extract from All Music.com]
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Jeff Duff returns with some classical insight
(Rolling Stone #431 May 1989 p22  by Samantha Trenoweth)
The former Kush singer returns from the wild side with an all-girl orchestra and a new approach to
the pop.

IT'S SIX O'CLOCK ON A Friday evening in the middle of Kings Cross. A tall, thin man, dressed in white on white, is standing by an iron grille, waving. Jeff Duff has decided to meet me on die pavement because the doorbell to his bedsit doesn't work. A woman walks past in the highest shoes imaginable, the brightest of lipsticks and the shortest of skirts. "I used to look just like that," quips Duff recalling his Seventies past.
Back in the early Seventies Duff sang with a jazz rock band from Melbourne called Kush and began to indulge his cabaret fantasies that had more than a touch of camp. Kush recorded two albums; 'Snow White and the Eight Straights' and 'Nah, Tellus Wh't Kush Means, Yer Great Sausage'. Duff was not unfamiliar with wearing lingerie or bananas on his head.
Jeff Duff Orchestra On "The Money or the Gun"
These days Jeff Duff looks, you might almost say, elegant. What's more, he looks pretty well unmistakably male. Upstairs, in the tiniest of rooms he offers pumpkin seeds, a copy of the Jeff Duff Orchestra's live album and a single rose. Not, one suspects, in the spirit of payola but rather because he likes roses and likes making friends. Mr Duff calls forth all sorts of Victorian expressions like "delightful", "charming" - and he is all of these things and also talented.
"Do you like my view?" he enquirers, throwing open a window to reveal a huge exhaust fan and a brick wall. "It's hot very pleasant but it's typical of the rock & roll lifestyle. Bob Dylan probably had the equivalent in Greenwich Village... and I tend to be a bit more productive and creative when I'm living in squalor."

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Jeff left Australia in 1978 after the break-up of Kush, spent ten years in Europe, changed his name to Duffo and made some interesting records which sold quite respectably. In the two years since his return to Australia he has had some chart success with a version of Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side" and assembled the Jeff Duff Orchestra with a line-up that is, aside from Duff himself and the drummer, all women.
"We're combining a bit of the pop culture with some classical insight" he explains. "We've had a battle with venues. They sort of flip out. After they've seen us it's okay but our agent has trouble' convincing them that there's this girl orchestra with a singer and they have violins and no guitars.
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"Also we have this tendency to write songs which are very melodic. You know, they're not four-on-the-floor so people can dance their butts off. Still, it's interesting seeing the way people approach our music on the dance floor. A lot of them end up embracing one another, whether they be male and male, female and female or whatever... which is a good thing, I guess, instead of banging their heads against the wall. Once people get to see us they do seem to like it. It's not that 'we're trying to be different, it's just the way we are."
Jeff Duff still takes his music very seriously — and his ambition to be one of the world's great singers. Similarly his writing which revolves around a fascinating blend of the mundane, the tragic, the fantastic and the absurd. The current crop of songs on the Orchestra's debut,show a new depth to his dry humour.
"You've got to get the sexual scandal connotations into the article," he adds finally with a smile, ever the showman. "Now, who did I sleep with last night? No, it was just me and the teddys on the pillow."
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This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from vinyl and includes full album artwork for CD.  If you followed Jeff while he was fronting Kush, then you'll appreciate how he has taken his musical style to a new level on this album. His reworks of "Macarthur Park" and "Walk On The Wild Side" demonstrate his musical prowess, as do all the tracks on this album. I have also chosen to include as a bonus track, a recording of "Stairway To Heaven" which he made on the ABC show "The Money or the Gun" back in 1990. This album should not to be missed.
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Track Listing  
01 - Pilot   
02 - Hurt Me Tenderly   
03 - Nastassia   
04 - Dwarfs   
05 - Macarthur Park   
06 - Walk On The Wildside   
07 - Venice   
08 - Killing This Affair   
09 - New Boy   
10 - Freaks
11 - (Bonus) Stairway To Heaven *

* From the TV series "The Money or the Gun"

Band Members:
Jeff Duff (Vocals)
Freny Ardeshir (Keyboard, Backing Vocals)
Sally Cooper (Bass)
Helen Lutz (Violin)
Linda Patching (Violin)
Phillip Edwards (Drums)
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Jeff Duff Link (116Mb) New Link 16/05/2021

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Lou Reed - Live Not Authorised (1972) Bootleg

(U.S  1964–2013)
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New York born, Lou Reed was leader of that city's seminal Velvet Underground until their disintegration amid apathy end of 1970. The Velvets had never achieved the attention their work warranted, and Reed was to claim that all the mistakes of his solo career were born out of this frustration, of a lust for some kind of success and for recognition of his former group's importance.
Either way, the Velvets split left Reed drifting in and out of music circles for a year - he worked for a spell with his father's accountancy firm in Freeport, Long Island - before RCA proffered a solo contract at the suggestion of New York writer and producer Richard Robinson. Interested in what was coming out of Britain, and with Reed having every reason to be disenchanted with New York, the pair traveled to London December 1971 to work on Reed's eponymous solo debut using an oddly mixed line-up which included Steve Howe, Rick Wake-man and Clem Cattini.
The result was less than satisfactory, but Reed persisted with British studios and players -though he did axe Robinson virtually at the point his producer was packing for return to London studios. This probably had less to do with Robinson as the fact that David Bowie, nascent androgynous hero of British rock, had shown interest in producing Reed himself; Bowie's work and attitudes owing a large debt to Reed and Velvets.
The result of this coupling was Transformer, which appeared late 1972 and spilled forth a whole closet-full of twilight zone characters on a public whose appetite for this "daring" new turn in rock had been whetted by the likes of Reed disciples Bowie and Roxy Music - It mattered not to them that the figures and scenarios of Reed's former (Velvets) work had been reduced to cartoon proportions, or that Reed was parodying Reed (as he would on each successive album) - this was what his new audience wanted to hear, and it had undeniable commercialism.
It even yielded a smash hit in Walk On The Wild Side, though how the single got played on BBC Radio 1 remains a mystery -presumably nobody there knew what "giving head" meant. Nonetheless, there was Reed in 1973 with the success he craved - a hit album and single in America and' Britain. [extract from The Illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock, by Nick Logan & Bob Woffinden, Salamander Books, 1977. p191-192]
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This post features Lou Reed performing at Ultrasonic Recording Studios in Hempstead, NY on 26th December 1972 with his band - The Tots - recording live for radio. Recorded just a month after the release of Transformer, it is a great show, featuring great stereo quality, with the band really delivering driving versions of some Velvet Underground numbers and Lou’s early solo work, including "Walk On The Wild Side", "Vicious" and "Berlin" – the track that would title his next release six months later. This is the show that every Lou Reed fan would love to see. It’s got minimal attitude, lots of great songs (including a generous smattering of hits) and FM quality sound.  I really love the fact that ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ had only been out for a little over a month. the crowd loved the ‘giving head’ line!
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The post itself consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from my AMCOS CD along with associated artwork, including covers for equivalent bootleg releases such as 'Hero & Heroine' by Swingin' Pig, 'Streets of Berlin' and 'Sweet Jane'. Quality of the recording is damn good (9/10)  and this is one bootleg that you can't afford to miss.

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Track Listing
01. Vicious
02. Waiting For The Man
03. Sweet Jane
04. Walk On the Wild Side
05. Walk And Talk It
06. Berlin
07. Rock 'N' Roll
08. Satellite Of Love
09. I'm So Free
10. Heroin
11. White Light/White Heat 


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Lou Reed And The Tots:
Lou Reed - Vocal / Guitar
Vinny Laporta - Guitar
Eddie Reynolds - Guitar
Bobby Resigno - Bass
Scottie Clark - Drums


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Lou Reed Link (132Mb)
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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Peter Allen - Tenterfield Saddler (1978)

(Australian 1968–1992)
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Peter Allen was born on Feb 10, 1942 in a little town in the hills of N.S.W. He learnt piano from an early age and was playing at the local pub by the time he was ten. Peter left school in his mid-teens and decided to further his career in Sydney. It was there that he met Chris Bell and they joined forces as the Allen Brothers.  After releasing several records and becoming TV regulars, they set out for the Orient where they met Judy Garland. Judy enticed the duo to the US where Peter met her daughter, Liza Minnelli. The couple subsequently became engaged late in 1964. They were married in 1967. However, the relationship became strained as Liza became a star and Peter's career seemed to stagnate.

Finally, in 1970, the couple broke up and so too did the Allen Brothers. From this point, Peter began to nurture his talent for song-writing. He moved to Greenwich Village where he gradually developed a cult for his bizarre stage antics in the small clubs in the area.
As his popularity in cabaret began to increase, Peter directed his songwriting talents to expatriate Australians, Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy.

It was for Olivia that he wrote the dual Grammy Award winning song, "I Honestly Love You" in 1974. He returned to Australia in September 1975 as the opening act for Helen's show in Sydney.
Meanwhile, in the US, Peter was beginning to attract bigger audiences and had moved into bigger clubs. In 1976, Dee Anthony (Peter Frampton's manager), took over his affairs and things began to happen. Peter teamed up with composer, Carol Bayer Sager. He also recorded "I Go To Rio".
Although the single eventually topped the Australian charts, it was not until that amazing film clip of the song was shown on the pop show Countdown, that it received any airplay. By the time Peter arrived back in Australia in September 1977, the record had made number one and he was met with a tumultuous reception right throughout his tour.

'Rio' was followed hotly by his best selling album, Taught By Experts, and another single, 'The More I See You'. The next release by Peter was a double live album recorded at clubs in both Los Angeles and New York, entitled 'It Is Time For Peter Allen', which hit the shops in October 1977. [extract from Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock, Outback Press, 1978. p 12-13]

He was the only Australian to win an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe, and wrote some of our most iconic songs before dying in 1992 at 48-years-of-age. Born in Tenterfield, his song "Tenterfield Saddler" continues to be a classic song that thrust Tenterfield into the limelight after its release. The Tenterfield Saddlery was made famous by Peter Allen's tribute to his past, and grandfather George Woolnough in the 'Tenterfield Saddler'.

However it is much more than just a song. For 50 years (from 1908 - 1960), this quaint blue-granite saddlery on High Street was a key meeting place in town. Saddler George Woolnough plied his trade, listening, undisturbed by the chatter and opinions of those who wandered in. One famous customer was Banjo Patterson.

Since 1860, the building has been used as a bank, private residence, and saddlery. Classified by the National Trust and in original condition - the old ceilings wear 130 years of tobacco stains, wooden floors are patched in places with scraps of leather, and visitors can see the working conditions of 100 years ago first hand.
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The Boy From Tenterfield
This Tenterfield is a wonderful spot,
Today it's freezing, tomorrow it's hot,
Today it's raw and rainy and gusty,
Tomorrow it's dry and dirty and dusty.
(A grumpy visitor, February, 1899)

More than ninety years after those words about Tenterfield were written, the first man ever to dance with New York's famed Rockettes found himself once again in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This time he was crouched inside a giant champagne glass prop waiting for the orchestra down beat to start his dinner show. The solo performance awaiting him would doubtless be demanding, but the man himself was intrepid, the man was a tank. But it was also true that the 1980s for Peter Allen had started in triumph then ended in calamity, testing him personally to the limit. He had buried in the past few years more friends, colleagues and lovers than he likely had the heart to dwell on. He had also seen his dream of a Peter Allen Broadway musical soar into a fantasy of goodwill and imminent triumph, then splatter into the reality of scornful reviews and a sniping, vengeful press. The worm had turned and now the song and dance man's most valuable resource, his energy, was beginning to ebb. The uninvited visitor illness was quietly creeping up on him.


Tenterfield Saddlery Today
The performer nonetheless had his vast experience and pronounced native cunning to fall back on. Once Peter's show was humming along he would pad it out by talking and telling gags instead of singing. He would tell the audience the same story he had always told them, the story of his childhood, 'Out in the bush, chasing kangaroos, eating koala bears for lunch.' This was Peter Allen's image, his show-business insurance and it made simple commonsense to maintain it. 'Never interfere with the legend, never correct it,' his former mother-in-law Judy Garland had decreed, and the bush bou-levardier was not about to. Not that he expected to be genuinely understood, not in his racket. Truth was far too complex a matter for legend and Peter Allen had too many incongruous and opposing qualities to be understood; it was one of his strengths that this gregarious, guarded, self-contained man had never expected to be understood. So Peter Allen would joke his way around the Broadway flop and tell them about the folksy Australian town he came from, Tenterfield.

The fact that Peter had never actually stayed on in Tenterfield would not be mentioned because it would only confuse the issue. Peter Allen, real name Peter Woolnough, had in fact grown up in Armidale. But Armidale had been almost (but not quite) sophisticated for an Australian country town, and what was the value of that to legend? Best to talk about this little kid dancing in the never-never land of the Tenterfield bush, hoofing and tapping and queening it up while his grandfather made saddles; destiny's tot rejecting the family business because he 'didn't want to work in leather,' as he put it. As for the other town, Armidale, it just wasn't funny, and didn't sound right in a lyric. More to the point, though, Armidale was cursed by memory and blighted by personal ruin. So Peter Alien was the boy from Tenterfield and that was that for the purpose of myth. [extract from Peter Allen The Boy From Oz by Stephen Maclean, Ranmsom House Aust, 1996. p3-4]
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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my trusty vinyl that has had a spin or two on my turntable - especially after watching the recent T.V mini series 'Not The Boy Next Door' and reading Stephen Maclean's biography 'The Boy From Oz'.  One can't help but be in awe of what Allen achieved as an Australian artist and how talented a musicianand songwriter he was. This album should not be missed and you'll not hear one pop or click in this recording. Full album artwork and label scans are included as usual. Note that this album was originally released in 1972 by Metromedia in Italy & US, catalog number KMD 1056 with a different cover (see right)
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Track Listing
01 - Tenterfield Saddler
02 - More Than I Like You
03 - The Same Way I Came In
04 - Good To See You Up There
05 - I Can Tell A Lie
06 - Just Ask Me I Been There
07 - Cocoon

08 - Harbour
09 - Somebody Beautiful Just Undid Me
10 - The Other Side

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Peter Allen FACs Link (212Mb)
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Thursday, February 4, 2016

Swanee - Ready For Action: Live In The Snow (1983)

(Australian 1979 - Present)
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John Swan, more commonly known as Swanee, was born John Archibold Dixon Swan in 1952 in Glasgow, Scotland. He came to Australia with his family in 1961 and is the only one of his siblings to keep his natural fathers surname. He is the older brother of Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel) and the uncle of David Campbell.

Swanee started his musical career as a drummer in the band Happiness before moving on to other bands such as Fraternity, Feather and Cold Chisel. He branched out on his own, under the name Swanee, in 1979, releasing the album “Into The Night”. His first commercial hit was in 1981 with his version of “If I Were A Carpenter” off the album “This Time Is Different” which featured two other hits, “Temporary Heartache” and “Lady What’s Your Name”

In 1983 he released a live album, recorded at the Thredbow Ski Resort in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia and is the feature of this post.

In 1987 he replaced angry Anderson as lead singer in Paul Christie’s “Party Boys” where he had another hit with “He’s Gonna Step on You Again” and then “Hold Your Head Up”. He left the band around 1989 to again pursue a solo career that still persists today.


Since 1990 Swan's recording career has been less than prolific, producing only two singles that year and an album, Heart and Soul in 1997, although he still maintained a constant live presence.

In 2007 Swan released the album Have a Little Faith (Liberation Records). The project was recorded with Nashville's best, and produced by leading expatriate producer /guitarist Mark Moffatt, now resident in Tennessee. Musician credits feature players who have been session men for Garth Brooks, John Fogerty, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton and Shania Twain among others.

In July 2014, Swanee released the album One Day at a Time (MGM Distribution), which is entirely his work in collaboration with Darren Mullan of Adelaide Recording Studio fame, and Tony Minniecon on 'Rescue Me'. Swanee was also named Senior South Australian of the year [extract from australianmusichistory.com]

This post consists of FLACs and MP3's (320kps) ripped from my 'Specially Priced' vinyl which I purchased back in the early 80's. I think the one thing that really caught my attention when I saw this album in the shops for the first time was the inclusion of the Led Zeppelin Medleys - especially featuring Black Dog and Whole Lotta Love. But there are some other great covers on this album, including Stevie Wright's "Evie" which really tears down the house along with Tin Soldier (Small Faces) and Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen)
Full album artwork for CD (thanks to Deutros) and LP are included along with label scans. Thanks to Greg Noakes for the publicity photos of Swanee.
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Track Listing
01 - Talk To Ya Later

 02 - Tin Soldier
03 - Lady What's Your Name

04 - Born To Run
05 - Led Zeppelin Medley 1

       (Rock N Roll, Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love)
06 - Led Zeppelin Medley 2

     (Black Dog, Rock N Roll)
07 - Mathew
08 - Evie Parts 1,2 and 3
09 - Motor Down

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Swanee were:John Swan (Lead Vocals)
Dennis Wilson (Guitar, Vocals)
Phil Screen (Drums)
Coz Russo (Keyboards)

John Srango (Bass)
Mark Tinson (Guitar, Vocals)
Taya (Backing Vocals & Keyboards)

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Swanee FLAC Link (288Mb)
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