Rock City quizzes RocKwiz’s Ringmaster

Often licked never (easy)beaten – Harry Vanda and George Young playing in The Easybeats
Source: HeraldSun

RocKwiz ringmaster Brian Nankervis and his mates “were mad for The Beatles and The Stones, but there was something special about the fact that The Easybeats were Australian.” Too right.

“I don’t imagine I realised at the time that they were ‘Boat People’. Two from Holland, two from England and one from Glasgow,” he says, effectively doing what RocKwiz has been done so well for ten years now: educating through the power of rock’n'roll.

Saturday night’s best stay-in option favourite RocKwiz wants to say “Hello, how are you?” in person on their Vanda and Young tour which will celebrate Harry and George’s illustrious, intertwined careers respectively.

“They had an incredible run of hit singles … fifteen Top 40 Singles in Australia between 1965 and 1970, including three No.1 hits. Then they went to England and recorded Friday On My Mind which David Bowie covered on his Pin Ups album,” Nankervis says, dropping some more knowledge.

“My friend Pete Campbell was crazy about The Easybeats. He was the first of our mates to get his driver’s licence and we’d travel to parties in his tiny Mini Minor. If the party was a little dull, Pete would produce his Best Of The Easybeats album and after a few bars of She’s So Fine, Sorry or Wedding Ring, the party would be rocking, with lots of fists in the air and shouted choruses. At the end of the night we took great delight in walking with Pete back to where he parked his car. Unbeknownst to him, we’d snuck out earlier and lifted the extremely lightweight Mini and placed it in some bizarre position,” Nankervis recalls.

“By the time Countdown was featuring Vanda and Young’s singles as Flash and The Pan or their production work for The Choirboys, John Paul Young, William Shakespeare or Cheetah, I was displaying some – probably quite tedious – Rock Snob tendencies and was immersing myself in more alternative music. This show is my chance to catch up and fill in some gaps,” he says. “A couple of years ago I directed Nick Barker in Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be: The Bon Scott Story and listened pretty closely to those first AC/DC albums, all produced by Vanda and Young. I always loved The Angels and Rose Tattoo who were produced by Vanda and Young too.”

What’s this we hear about a new Duets CD and DVD series, BriBri? “The RocKwiz Duets Volume 4, With A Little Help From Our Friends, (DVD and CD) draws from RocKwiz episodes in series 7, 8 and 9. It features 31show-closing duets and stunning extras, a special performance from New Orleans’ The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Joe Camilleri, Talei Wolfgramm and Alex Gow (Oh Mercy) performing a tribute to Solomon Burke at the 2010 Queenscliff Music Festival and the RocKwiz cast discussing their memories of each duet like Suzi Quatro and The Living End’s Chris Cheney, Kimbra and Ben Salter, Marcia Hines and Old Man River, Megan Washington and G Love and of course the song choices … from Rebel Rebel to Crazy In Love to Itchycoo Park and I Won’t Back Down.”

“Both formats climax [easy there BriBri – Carry On Ed.] with an incredible version of With A Little Help From My Friends, led by Dan Sultan and Ella Hooper, with a little help from Ash Naylor, The Wolfgramm Sisters and Paul Williamson and Ross Irwin on horns.”

All sounds very goose-flesh inducing.

Typing of which, Nankervis thinks long and hard and names his top three ‘Somebody-pinch-me-this-simply-cannot-be-happening’ moments.
“1. Leaving the back bar at Ciccolina after a taping, farewelling Sarah Lee Guthrie [Woody Guthrie's granddaughter] and her partner Johnny Irion [John Steinbeck's great nephew] deep in discussion with Dinosaur Junior’s J Mascis. Turns out that not only do they all go to the same farmer’s market somewhere near Amherst, Massachusetts, but they also follow the same Guru! We later heard that they went from Ciccolina’s to The Vineyard to Luna Park and finally they wandered down to the water and watched the sun rise from the rocks at the end of St Kilda pier. Earlier in the evening Mascis and Adalita had closed the show with a rocking version of Stop Dragging My Heart Around and J entertained the audience with his deadpan delivery, sharp buzzer work, amazing rock knowledge and the news that he was keen to write a travel guide based on restaurants in Sweden.

2. Watching Tex, Don and Charlie perform my favourite Tex, Don and Charlie song, Paycheques on the final episode of Series Eleven. We had Tex and Mia Dyson performing together and had asked Don Walker to perform a song in the middle of the show. We’d been trying to persuade Don to come on the show for a few years. ‘I’m not really a buzzer kind of guy Brian’, Don had told me. But for the last series, we always had a song in the middle of the show, performed by an artist who would come out and just sing. Don brought Charlie Owen along to accompany him on Young Girls, a song from his latest album. As Julia said after the break when the camera revealed an empty chair where Tex should have been. ‘If you’ve got Tex and Don and Charlie all in the same room, it would be silly not to invite them to sing’. She did, they sang and grown producers wept.

3. Working with my 18 year old daughter Claudia on this last series. She joined the RocKwiz team as runner, coffee maker, prop buyer, sandwich maker, researcher, artist comforter and general assistant to whoever needed assistance. I think officially she was an intern and I just loved working with her in an environment vastly removed from our home and family life. It meant we related in new and challenging ways and it was very special for me…and I hope for Claudia too! We’d come home from script readings or rehearsals or a filming night and have great post-mortems. We’d analyse the day, laugh about the mistakes or the triumphs or the tray of sandwiches she’d dropped in the street or the night that the star’s ex-girlfriend arrived and … RocKwiz lawyers have suggested I don’t finish this sentence!”

Another sentence he won’t finish is the “Mikey m’boy, here are some hints at who the mystery guests will be on this Vanda and Young tour..” merely stating “We have household names to up and comers, from performers who have worked closely with Vanda and Young in their glory days to younger performers who will put their own distinctive stamp on the material.”

To win one of two double passes to the Palais show email michael.cahill@news.com.au with the subject heading ROCKWIZ SURE AIN’T A FLASH IN THE PAN.

Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda. Dec 8, $ 79 to $ 179, www.ticketmaster.com.au www.facebook.com/RocKwizOfficialpage

Whole Lotta Rosie
As revealed in Rock City a few months ago, Elizabeth Rose has been working with Gotye and, to bastardise a Craig David album title, they were born to duet. Before you hear those tunes you need to be “across” her shuddering single The Good Life.

The Sydney pixie is playing shows at New York’s CMJ next week then a national tour. Recently, at Brisbane’s Big Sound conference, her showcase gig was well attended but underwhelming. Rose has stepped out from behind the keyboard and is still finding her feet as a frontwoman.

Lizzie, you’re better off dominating from behind the electronic ivories!

Workers’ Club, 51 Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Nov 23, $ 12, www.theworkersclub.com.au

More Than A Feeling
Those plying a different strain of electronic pop, Melbourne cosmopolitan playboys Client Liaison have a new clip for their Feeling single and it’s more ’80s than Matt Lattanzi on a jet ski.

They encourage you to come to the show and “put it on the company card”. Their debut album will be “paired as impeccably as Barossa Valley shiraz and King Island eye fillet with a music video experience worthy of Peter Weir”. Top notch/nosh.

The Toff, 252 Swanston St, city, Oct 19, $ 15+bf, www.moshtix.com.au

Flumin’ Heck
Speaking of dominating [we kind of were - Self Referencing Ed.], Flume won four of the five categories he was nominated in at the Carlton Dry Independent Music Awards. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard took home two, including the inaugural Carlton Dry Global Music Grant that gives them a $ 50,000 grant to promote their four-star record Float On/Fill Your Lungs overseas.

Vance Joy picked up two gongs and Future Classic took home the award for Best Independent Label.
Saskwatch began the night by ripping through new songs Hands (embedded way down below), Seth Sentry praised the “f—king lords” in the room and couldn’t believe Urthboy didn’t win, RÜFÜS showed they’ve earned their umlauts with a stirring live performance, Big Scary bolstered their live sound to a four-piece and Tom Iansek crooned to us “This is my idea of fun” [of course Tom, it’s Indie Christmas!], Violent Soho showed everyone their updated take on grunge has legs, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard took all 14 of their spaghetti legs on stage and played an unannounced song Let Me Mend The Past that closed the night and, overall, host HG Nelson did a commendable, pugnacious job, even if he was a bit out of his comfort zone and didn’t have nicknames prepared for any of the artists.

Surprisingly he didn’t once use the word date in a non-calendar context.

www.air.org.au/features/review-carlton-dry-independent-music-awards

THREE GIGS YOU GOTS TA GETS TA

Gurrumul and Sarah Blasko
Backed by Philharmonic Orchestra, Gurrumul will tell stories of his people, the Yolngu, through song and film. He’ll be playing us new works while filmed narration by the Yolngu clan members tells the tales of his people, his family and his island home. Your eyes may get misty.

Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Sat 7pm, $ 30-$ 80, www.ticketmaster.com.au

Bushwalking, Free Choice
Has Karl Scullin ever released something sub-par? The answer is a resounding no. Enter his latest project Bushwalking, the mouse man has worked with Nina Venerosa (Fabulous Diamonds) and Ela Stiles (Songs) to make cathartic, shapeshifting guitars ’n’ (c)harmonies record No Enter.

Curtin Bandroom, 29 Lygon St, Sat, $ 12, www.johncurtinhotel.com

Brighter Later
Scoop: Brighter Later’s The Wolves album has just joined the 2013 Australian Music Prize Longlist. This will be the first they hear about it too! Text ‘em if you know ‘em. Jaye Kranz arrived with swooping dreampop that is sultry yet coy. Like rekindling a school friendship sans Facebook.

Northcote Social Club, 301 High St, Sun, 7.30pm, $ 15. www.northcotesocialclub.com

8 Clips That Have Been Way-diiing For A Girl Like You

Hands – Saskwatch

Good Problems – Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes

Oh Oh Oh – McKisko

 After The Disco (teaser) – Broken Bells

 Words From Robin to Batman (live) – Kill Devil Hills

Words from Robin to Batman (Live) from The Kill Devil Hills on Vimeo.

Hoping For – Bad//Dreams

Needle In The Hay – Sally Seltmann

Nova Pilota – Money For Rope

www.news.com.au/entertainment/music