Oz Tour 2001 - Part 2

Billy Bragg Oz Tour 2001 - Part Two

Enmore Theatre, 15th October - The Return Of The Wildebeeste (Mark)

Apologies for not making this sooner or longer but I'm suffering - the flu struck me down Sunday night and it was only a last minute decision to make the 4 hour drive to Sydney yesterday. Currently I have the sorest throat ever...arrrrggghh !

Last night's set was a repeat of the first night in Melbourne with only a couple of changes (this is from memory - I don't write the songs down Geoff !) - we got St Swithin's Day and also, instead of "I'll Be There" it was "Dark End Of The Street". Bill knocks out these 60s/70s tracks after "Tears Of My Tracks" with the line "I may have sold my record collection but I still remember the songs".

The underpants get a briefer mention now but Bill has stretched the Wildebeeste info that he's gleaned from Discovery channel so it lasts through the whole set and into the encores. And he's also starting into wombats now (reminds me of all the elk gags he makes at Swedish gigs). The audience were a bit more lively than Melbourne however the response to Bill's comments about refugees was patchy...maybe from guilt. Anyhow, there seems to be a urinary tract infection going around Sydney - I've never known so many people at a gig get up and go to the toilet... there was a constant stream of them... or maybe a dealer was doing a special outside ??

Bill mentioned after the show (again, I forgot the first time) that Andrew Collins has caught up with him recently to write more material for "Still Suitable For Miners" so when it's reprinted next year it will have new up to date info. So, we'll all have to buy another copy !

Enmore Theatre - 2nd Night 16th October - Billy Enjoys Himself (Mark)

Two songs then the first rap - and amazingly he starts off with a whole new spiel....there he is rabbiting away when a woman in the audience asks about his underpants...and we're back in to the Qantas Y-fronts rap with variations and extensions. After 20 minutes Bill realises he's supposed to be playing songs too !

This is the liveliest seated audience so far on the tour and Bill is not only rapping at great length but engaging the hecklers...

Bill : "There's no animal with a less expressive face than a wombat"
Heckler : "Echidna"
Bill : "Bless You"

Later Bill in mid-rap yells out "Echidna" and a heckler calls back "Bless You" !!

Much later Bill is showing off a feature of the new Burns Steer - the metal plate that reflects the spotlight so that Bill can flash it in the eyes of hecklers. Just then he spots a woman in the centre aisle looking lost and after asking who she's looking for. He then guides her with the light of the Burns to her seat. Bill : "I could get a job doing this, you know".

It was yet another variety on the 2nd Melbourne set with Bill doing "Cindy Of A 1000 Lives" (but he forgot "the pig faced boy, the corrupted clown" and it all went a bit awry after that) and a thrashing version of "Accident Waiting To Happen". He also reprised the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" in his oldies spot (sorry Bill, I couldn't find those lyrics you were after at the time). Another great night.

The official Bragg saddoes tour (yes, that's what Bill called us) was due to wind up tomorrow with Geoff and I racking up 5 gigs each in 8 nights. However Bill tipped us off to a special gig he's doing on Saturday in Sydney at the Bar Broadway (a small club near Central Station) - it's Australia's only chance to catch a "Talking Woody" show. Tickets were available at the two Sydney gigs on Monday and Tuesday - got mine, it's #12 ! So I'm driving back to Sydney on Saturday....my wife is most impressed So that'll be Wilson 5 gigs, Warner 6 !!! (6 Bragg gigs in 10 nights - is that a record ???)

Setlist – Tuesday 16^th October, Sydney (Geoff)

She’s Got A New Spell
Richard
The Only One
I Guess I Planted
St. Monday
The Short Answer
Man In The Iron Mask
Little Time Bomb
Rumours Of War
Distant Shore
Milkman Of Human Kindness
Dolphins
Cindy Of A 1000 Lives
Accident Waiting To Happen
------
Tears Of My Tracks
I’ll Be There
Yarra Song
Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards
------
Tank Park Salute
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key
A New England

The new album has a new suggested title: Aspirin Weeks, subtitled: transcendental paracetamol. The other new guitar is a National reso-lectric, a hybrid resonator body with a pickup. Groovy. Earlier at the soundcheck Bill asked me "What ones haven't I done yet, Geoff?" so I got to make some requests which I'm hoping get a run in Canberra. Bill also gave me a quick guitar lesson on the dropped D tuning - "All the songs on DTTAH are in that tuning" - thanks Bill.

He has been airing the "Don't smash up McDonalds, organise a union in McDonalds" rap most nights, as well as introducing St. Monday with a rap about reclaiming the two day weekend. Not wanting to suggest not going to work on Monday, rather Bill suggests we just 'be there', and picks out an audience member who he suggests is at "the vanguard of that movement".

I caught the new lyrics to Rumours Of War as he rehearsed them:

Now that we know our buildings can fall
Who can sleep soundly ?
When war is declared on life itself
And all our hopes are confounded

Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, 18th October - Getting upstaged by the soundman and the roadie (Mark)

Bill never really got settled into things in Canberra - late for the soundcheck, a rush to get dinner and then 5 minutes before he's due on stage Grant Showbiz (soundman to the stars) points out that a setlist would be useful. So we got quite a strange one - a rehash of the other shows on the tour so far (see Geoff's post below)...I mean when's he ever started a gig with "Dolphins" and "Cindy" ??

The raps changed too - Bill seemed to be keen to talk about other things, but when the Burns went out of tune he sucked himself into the whole "my flight to Oz and the Qantas underpants" thing...and when Baldrick (real name Kelvin) the roadie (sorry, guitar technician) returned with a retuned Burns (Baldrick regularly delivers Bill's tea onstage) the roadcrew started to take over. Through the evening Bill had been making brief exchanges with Grant who was up the back of the cavernous music hall at the mixing desk. When Bill had a crack at "Take Down The Union Jack" (formerly Millennium Song) and lost a chord somewhere (I think it had been eaten by a misplaced capo) there was a long exchange between Bill and Grant...Bill commenting "What worries me is that you don't need a microphone for me to hear you" (think about it !). Grant's most useful remark "It's just that one fucking chord !". During the encores Baldrick made his bid for stardom - Bill asked him to come out on stage with the two "official bootlegs" for Bill to promote...and he came out wearing a genuine Blackadder "Baldrick" t-shirt ! (Kindly donated by Geoff "underpants" Wilson...).

Meanwhile - that's the last regular gig for Geoff and I on this tour, but I will be heading for Sydney on Saturday for the "Talking Woody". Have to take Geoff to the airport now. Back later.

Setlist – Thursday 18^th October, Canberra (Geoff)

Dolphins
Cindy Of A 1000 Lives
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key
The Price I Pay
Man In The Iron Mask
Yarra Song
Little Time Bomb
The Space Race Is Over
St. Monday
Everywhere
Distant Shore
Levi Stubbs' Tears
Myth Of Trust
There Is Power In A Union
A New England
------
Ingrid Bergman
Jeane
Rumours Of War
------
She Came Along To Me
Take Down The Union Jack*
Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards

* notice 'Millennium Song' has been renamed. It also has had a minor lyric revision in the bridge:

Gilbert and George are taking the piss, aren't they?
Gilbert and George are taking the piss
What could be more British than "Here's a picture of me bum"
Gilbert and George are taking the piss

During the soundcheck heard a few warm-ups for the Saturday night "Talking Woody", including Birds & Ships, Eisler, and Another Man's Done Gone. Also two Faces songs - Debris and Richmond – and Helen requested 'Greetings' and was treated to a ballad version. It didn't help when during Millennium Song there was a chord Bill couldn't find, and after a number of attempts asked Grant "Why wasn't I rehearsing this in the soundcheck, instead of taking requests from those three fuckers who were there?". Whoops. Guilty!

Sadly, after five shows in eight days, that's it for me and your roving Braggscapade reports. Next week its back to work, back to Uni and back to real life. *sigh*

"Talking Woody" at the Bar Broadway, Sydney - 20th October (Mark)

The venue - just south of Central Station in Sydney - a floor above a pub with room for a small stage, four pool tables, a well stocked bar and about 200-250 punters.

Shortly before the support comes on I turn around to look across a filling room and Darren Hanlon (well known to some people around here - he supported Bill in Toronto 2000 and also on the last Irish tour) is standing right behind me. We were introduced by Geoff at the 2nd Sydney show and we chat about the work of Mr. Bragg. A bit of exclusive news - Darren is going into the studio in three weeks time to record his first full length "proper" album. He said he'd email me when it's ready.

The support act - Jodi Phillis - strong voice, some good lyrics, mostly dull tunes and an uninspiring acoustic plugged guitar.... Bill's warm up music is the Long Player album from The Faces. Grant Showbiz took advantage of a special offer available in Oz at the moment - 3 Faces CDs for $29 (that's less than 10 quid). And that also explains why Bill played "Richmond" at the soundcheck in Canberra.

I've heard a couple of "Talking Woody" shows on bootlegs and in the USA they have tended to be in venerable venues such as museums. However tonight it's really different type of crowd/location - more the kind of place Bill was playing back in the early 80s.

I started off leaning against one of the pool tables but a blonde with big hair keeps bouncing from side to side in front of me so as Bill comes on stage I hoist myself up and find the perfect perch sitting on the table. Bill's had the same idea too - some kind of elevated barber's chair for him to sit on and a music stand for his Guthrie notebook which includes copies of the original lyrics and Woody's comments.

The Burns replica is the preferred weapon tonight (although the National comes out later for a bit of bottleneck slide) and Bill's almost immediately running into trouble with a stoned groover - she calls out to Bill "I want dance music" and Bill comes back "Well, you've come to the wrong fucking place then !". A shortwhile later people tell her to sit down and shut up but Bill grumbles "Hey, leave that to me - one of the few pleasures I have in life is sorting out hecklers !". Fortunately she soon left....

"Talking Woody" downunder was the same as elsewhere - all Guthrie songs with Bill giving long raps about how the project came together and what particular songs are all about. Bill seems much more relaxed - it must be much more his kind of place. "Black Wind Blowing", "The Unwelcome Guest", "Way Over Yonder", "I Was Born", "Aginst Th' Law" and many more including unrecorded tracks such as "Psalm" and "Song About A Bear". Here's another snippet of news - Bill : "We did record enough tracks that didn't get on the first two albums but there won't be a Mermaid Avenue 3. Instead I think there'll be some kind of combined thing like a box set or something which has all the tracks on it". The absolute standout was the finest and most emotional rendition I've heard of "Another Man's Done Gone" that was a million miles from the album cut.

Exactly two hours on stage, Bill finished at midnight and then spent over half an hour chatting, signing and posing for photos. He even said the rest of the tour wouldn't be the same without Geoff and I being there. Thanks Bill !

So, 6 Bragg gigs in 10 nights plus two soundchecks, several post gig chats and the great privilege of a long personal chat pre-gig in Canberra. What a time ! Thanks to everyone I met at gigs - especially Geoff who was a very welcome travelling companion and who knows all the scams for getting into soundchecks ! Thanks to the Bragg crew too - I will email Toby with your instructions !

ROLL ON THE NEXT BILLY BRAGG TOUR !