The embedded interview was played twice on air in December 2022 on 107.9 FM Radio Fremantle – The Sound Of Fremantle.
In about 15 minutes, I’ll find out if Pete Stone, Fremantle/Perth music legend and all-round good guy still work for the City Of Melville. I suspect not.
When we met in December 2022 at one of the fantastically popular City Of Melville Summer Music Series gigs in the glorious outdoors that, without looking, I’m guessing was Bull Creek, Pete was artistic and music director for the City Of Melville, but on my last visit there (all of a week ago), I saw a post on social media that suggested others now have this role.
Back then, I made ambitious claims about having an edited version of our chat and a transcription up on my website in days.
It’s 4.15pm on Friday 19 April 2024. And here we are.
Herewith the full, raw, unedited audio. I can’t swear there are no swear words. All from me if they’re there.
Have at it. I’ll get to the transcription a) in the fullness of time, or b) in May when I’m home for more than six days and hiring my latest PA.
Sorry for the ugly link, but WordPress is having conniptions, and the UN Help Ful page is in French. More soon.
For want of anything more meaningful in a meandering, blathery article, all photos in this web version will be from my various trips taken so far in 2024 from Brisbane to Perth, from Colonel Light Gardens to Mparntwe
This article also appeared in the April 2024 Edition No. 162 of Trad & Now magazine.
Greetings from Tarntanya on Kaurna Lands, home of the red kangaroo dreaming. I’m Bill Quinn, the artist formerly known as the author of A Punter’s Perspective and Folk On The Road.
I published my last Trad & Now article in February 2023, and I had intended it to be about crowds and noise.
I say ‘last’, but to quote the Billy Bragg song, “[It] should have been the [second] last, but [it] was just the latest.”
Here then is the start of that latest article. I’ve gone for a title using what we call in some brands of written English, parallel structures. It was called, Thank You And Goodnight Pt 1.5.
Although if you’re the type of person who has kept every copy of Trad & Now magazine, plus most issues of its predecessor, Tapestry, and they’re sitting in the top cupboard in the spare room, or shoved under the bed where your first wain Gwenevieve slept from ages two to 22 before she graduated from Kikatinalong University and then moved to Wealabarrabac for post grad (and also that internship with the medical research group) – take a deep breath; I’m puffin – then you can search out the February 2023 edition.
I don’t know why I don’t do this more often. I go on this last minute, harem scarem, seat of the pants, make it up as I go trips, bust a gut and two to three download sources to update social media that rarely gets looked out or is ridiculously ephemeral when I have this dodgy but useful website.
Herewith then, a work in progress: my current trip of indeterminate length. Not even 24hrs elapsed yet. I left Casa del Cabana en la Piscina at about 9.30-ish from memory – Google Maps will tell me exactly when. Talk among yourselves for half a mini.
9.30am on the dot. Also, here’s a funny thing. Normally around town and city, I have to make about half a dozen edits to my timeline as recorded by Google Maps. Why? Big buildings. Lots of users. Confuses the satellites. In town, lots of big old buildings with thick concrete and glass. It’s why you can’t get reception and follow your influencer mates on Instachat or Snapgram at your office desk in Grote Street, Bradley.
Out in the country, not such a problem.
Speaking of 9.30am, that’s coming soon and I want to get on the road. So a couple of pretty pics then I have to shoot off. Off like a bride’s nightie. Fun fact about my wedding night and nighties…. Let’s maintain a modicum of decorum, shall we? We shall.
Perth Concert Hall will play host to a very special event on Sunday 11 June 2023 from 5pm to 7.30pm when a 1000-voice choir and many others take over the venue for one evening only.
– a 1000 voice choir encompassing several local and WA choirs plus many individuals in four-part harmonies – 250 ukulele players – seven-piece jazz band featuring Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduates – Perth Highland Pipe Band – a few extra surprises some of which not even the choir knows about yet.
Image courtesy of Born To Sing
At the time of publishing this short article, about 80% of the tickets have been sold, and the rest will go quickly. So if you want to experience this amazing live event, go to: www.perthconcerthall.com.au/events/event/born-to-sing immediately if not sooner.
The concert runs from 5pm to 7.30pm with a 25-minute interval at 6pm. Food and beverages will be available.
Except for this bit in italics which did not appear, mostly because when I wrote this article as a lazy way of getting my column together at the last minute by effectively duplicating an old article, I did not realise it would be my last for Trad and Now. But a few weeks later, a few ripples had become waves, and those waves were starting to smash upon the shores of my frustration, patience, and perseverance. I tendered my notice to not contribute to the magazine from 13 March 2023.
Trad and Now is a great magazine, written by passionate and knowledgeable people who give so much on so many fronts for independent music. I remain a great supporter of it. If you have the time and interest, you can read a bit more about my 16yrs 3mths writing for the magazine in a later article here. But to the column that appeared in the actual magzine:
As I type, it’s the last day of January 2023, and last night I sang farewell to Walyalup. (Walyalup is the local Nyoongar word for the area known as Fremantle.) The venue was Clancy’s Fish Pub, the song was (of course, if it’s me), Rag and Bone by Ian Mackintosh of The Wheeze & Suck Band/Traditional Graffiti, and the crowd was glorious.
Also, this article is running late because after 16 years of A Punter’s Perspective/Folk On The Road, you don’t [muck] with tradition. Sliding in just in (or just after) time is kinda my thing.
This edition’s column was originally going to be about an unsavoury crowd/audience incident from late last year in Walyalup, and far too many similar occurrences. I need another month to process all that, though the audio version exists in the on-demand section of 107.9FM Radio Fremantle – Folking Around, Monday 9-11pm. (I’ve already resigned from that radio gig while waiting to raise my anchor and sail off from Fremantle. Also they’re not part of the overarching Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, and I took issue with some of their practices.)
So for now, here’s my column from April 2011, and I’ll organise my thoughts for March 2023. (Now a later entry here on this website.)
50th Top Half Folk Festival, Mary River Wilderness Retreat, NT in June 2021
BQ: Roughly a week ago, I came wandering up the path here at Greenacres Caravan Park and Motel, singing, “Greenacres is the place to be…!”
And there was a tall streak of pelican shit we’ll call ‘Les’, and he was there by the pool. He turned around and he saw this bloke walking up his drive and probably thought, ‘What fresh hell is this?’
He’s shaking his head and saying something I can’t repeat on tape!
Les from Greenacres, g’day and how’re you going?
LD: I’m very well, thank you.
BQ: Now Les, tell us about Greenacres Caravan Park and Motel, and how long you’ve been here for.
LD: Greenacres is a lovely place to relax. It’s 22kms south of Gladstone. It’s probably half way between Brisbane and Mackay. We’ve been here two years now (as of May 2017).
We kicked out a lot of permanents, a lot of dogs and a lot of cats.
BQ: So, it’s more of a tourist park and not so much a residential place, yeah?
LD: That’s right mate, yeah. We got rid of all the residentials!
BQ: Let me start by saying what I’ve observed from being here for a week. I have never spoken more Dutch in my life as this week. There was a family of three, then there were a couple of footballers from the south of the country, and then most recently, a lovely young couple were here the other night.
So, are they mostly backpackers? Are they travelers? Are they Aussies? Who are you getting in here?
LD: This time of the year, the last few months. It’s backpackers. And overseas people of different nationalities. And at the end of July, we’ll start getting all the grey nomads heading north.
Roy Martinez (left) with Rose Parker and David Hyams, Freo.Social, 2022
Bill Quinn: This evening I’m joined by Roy Martinez. Now Roy, you and I go back a long way.
Roy Martinez: A long way back. A couple of days? A few days?
BQ: A long. long way. Last Thursday evening. We were there [at The Local Hotel] for Local Heroes with Bob Gordon to see the amazing David Hyams in conversation and performance. That was a really fantastic evening, wasn’t it?
RM: Yeah, well I’ve known Dave for a long time, but I actually learnt a whole lot more about his history. It was very informative.
BQ: It was, and let me just ease your mind about when we start talking, because I want to ask you some questions in a little while (after I’ve done the gig guide and the parish notices). Don’t worry; I’m not going to ask you what your first memories were and what you were doing when you were five or six years old.
Because we did find out a lot about David Hyams!
RM: Yes, that’s right, of course. I’m going to do one of those Local Heroes myself (as Chilali and The Chief).
BQ: Chilali was going to join us tonight, and we were going to have live music here in the studio, but she’s not able to join us.
RM: She’s not. She’s listening to us now, probably. Her voice hasn’t quite recovered from her bout of whatever lurgie’s going around.
BQ: I’m so sorry to hear that. Chilali, if you’re listening, get the manuka honey into you.
Now you’ve brought in this EP. Tell us more about Chilali and The Chief.
RM: Well, Chilali is my wife. We met because she was writing some songs and we were actually working together, and developed a relationship.
Here we are fourteen years later, and now we’ve finally got a bit of momentum and are trying to make it a career now, the both of us.
2022 has been a big year for fans of Canadian folk-rocker Neil Young.
(Arguably it’s been a big year for Neil himself, but he wasn’t available for comment prior to press time.)
It’s been 50 years since Young’s seminal album ‘Harvest’ was released in February 1972. (The column author was in first grade at Rosary Demonstration School at the time and was sadly oblivious to this moment in musical history.) ‘Harvest’ was the best-selling album of 1972 in the USA and has remained Neil Young’s best-selling album to date.
‘Harvest’ was remastered and re-released on 2 December 2022, and not surprisingly in this digital, multi-platform age, it comes with a host of extras. The reissue comes in either vinyl or CD box set form, with both including two DVDs. Young’s much-bootlegged ‘BBC In Concert’ is included on CD and vinyl in the respective packages, and three ‘Harvest’ outtakes are also made available in physical form for the first time – on a third CD or a 7-inch record in the vinyl set.
And early December 2022 saw the debut limited release of the 1971 film ‘Harvest Time‘, a documentary covering the ‘Harvest Barn’ sessions at Young’s northern California farm, his performance with the London Symphony Orchestra in London, and in Nashville there are scenes of Young working on various album tracks.
Support act is the wonderfully talented local singer-songwriter Carla Geneve.
MTRC have a new seven-track EP out and about – ‘Back In The Day’. It’s a mixture of reworked Weddings, Parties, Anything and Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing tracks, plus some others from The Saints, Johnny Thunders, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse. It’s a teaser for a 2023 album in the works titled ‘Where Only Memory Can Find You’.
On Monday 12 December in Fremantle time for the interviewers, and just a tick or three of the clock into Tuesday for the interviewee in Melbourne, Mick generously gave some of his time at the witching hour to talk with Frank Hodges and Bill Quinn from 107.9FM Radio Fremantle about the upcoming dates in WA.
Image courtesy of Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission
Bill Quinn: Hopefully on Saturday we can bung on some balmy weather, but joining as from the cold, Siberian-like/Arctic wasteland that is Melbourne, we can say hello, good evening, Mick Thomas.
Mick Thomas: Hello to you.
BQ: Is it as bad over there as we’re hearing? Is it really, really cold?
MT: It’s too cold for this time of year, in my opinion.
BQ: Mick, before we dive into questions about the EP and the upcoming album and the gigs, I’ve got a bit of a confession. In the last ten years or so, I’ve lost track of the Mick Thomas story since the days when I was part of the furniture at the Illawarra Folk Festival – where you were always a very welcome visitor to the Slacky Flat Pavilion.
Can you just fill us in with what you’ve been up to in the last ten years or so?
MT: I’ve been making records and putting together bands, different bands. Yeah, I just kept making music; that’s my thing. That’s why I keep making records.
The new thing is The Roving Commission which is me and Wally [‘Mark “Squeezebox Wally” Wallace] who was in the Weddings with me – Weddings, Parties, Anything. Wally came back into it and had a big part – a big role in it.
We thought we wanted a second singer in it, so we’ve run through a bunch from Shelley Short to Ayleen O’Hanlon to Jac Tonks to Brooke Russell. And we finally ended up with Brooke Taylor who’s there at the moment, and she’s sort of killing it, and we really like that.
So I really like that second singer. We’ve played lots, we’ve made some records during the lockdowns of Melbourne, which is something you guys in Perth didn’t get.
But we got it. It was pretty big and it was pretty strong, and it really affected us. But we made a couple of records. And we made them in our back rooms and we sent our files to each other. It was a big deal.
Overheard Productions 