Emails. Easy to read. Harder to read into. Some make your heart leap, others make them sink. And, happily, some make you think. They’re the best ones. Off to Sydney this weekend to visit one Sally Collins, former Triffids manager. Stay tuned for reports…
Jan 17 2008
And onto the second Blackeyed Susan of the day , Mr Phil Kakulas ; possibly the coolest double bassist ever. Today though, we’re starting with Phil’s role as a first and last Triffid – he was in a very early lineup of the band, and then played on a few tracks of their final studio album. Phil was part of the original triumvirate of trouble: comprising himself, Alsy and Dave; Phil brings this sense of history into perspective by casually dropping into conversation that he had photos of David at his 7th birthday party – in 1968. The year of The White Album, Beggars Banquet, the Paris Riots, the Tet Offensive …sorry, I have no idea who won the premiership that year. Four decades ago. The band went for ten years and Dave’s music career 15 or thereabouts. His life ; though far shorter than it should have been, spans so much frantic , energised sheer… TIME. Phil remains a great interview: he’s always been very considered, slyly funny, and rather astute. Take 1 is abandoned due to noise in the venue, so we decamp, at Phil’s suggestion, to PK Towers, floor 55 just around the corner; overcast Sydney stretches around us. Phil – a music teacher – relates a wonderful thought when considering his reaction to hearing the Dalsy tapes for the first time in 30 years , the previous evening, wondering aloud if “anyone should ever have music lessons” because the tapes are so ‘free”. We get more on the story of Dave’s involvement with The Susans and particularly the superb and highly under-rated All Souls Alive (get it if you don’t already own it) ; and some discussion on co-writing takes us only into the fundamentals before time is called and Phil has to report for soundcheck duties. We decide a second interview is in order to delve further into this specific subject. On the way down in the lift I remember my fave Dave show with BES, outside Flowers Vasette in Fitzroy; Dave sort of mooched around during songs he didn’t play on snapping pics of the band. He seemed so breezy and laconic that day. But that’s just a memory. And they are always selective.
Today is dress rehearsal day for the Triffids and friends. Sydney is itself. Indifferent, busy and still captivating to look at the odd moment you have spare to raise your head. I’ve been here so often now over the last decade it’s just like …. urban furniture. Sydney is a place people come to I suppose; they move here from other places to try and reach its people, penetrate their strange superficial ether. The Triffids did – somewhat inevitably – before they decamped to London. It’s wonderful watching this band feel one another out a little bit musically again, hitting their straps as they do it… ; its rehearsal; some notes aren’t hit, some notes are fluffed – ironing these things out are is what rehearsals are FOR. The moments come when a song is tired again a while later and those notes are hit, the solos are nailed, the melodies sing. For all the absence of Dave hanging over the band – that they must surely be feeling somewhat – the brilliance of his songs is driven home run through after run through. In this way, Dave will live longer than a lot of us. Cold comfort to those who’d just rather have him back around no doubt.
So…. to today’s interviews. Rob Snarski. Someone I’ve interviewed a lot over the years. A truly, wonderful singer; it is no exaggeration at all to say that Rob is geuinely gifted; the guy just sings like an angel. Rob knew David in Perth when was in a band called Chad’s Tree and Dave was in The Triffids, and eventually they made records together in The Blackeyed Susans. Rob has forewarned me that he is prepared to speak to us about Dave, but is not keen to answer questions connected specifically to music. This will make this one a little harder, but not impossible. My feeling as we roll is that Rob wants to do a good interview for the film, to perhaps play his part in ensuring an accurate and fair account is given of Dave to the audience. We’re not long in and we break for Rob to have a minute – one we’re perfectly prepared to give him. 9 years on from David’s passing and the emotions float to the surface like that. We must be ever mindful of this with our subjects. I am thankfuk to Rob for his honesty; it’s helping the film already; and it’s a good reality check for us; these people are here because Dave’s not, playing his music. A celebration of him and songs? Certainly; but absence tinges it all with an inevitable sadness. So all we can do now is create a captivating hour and a half that depicts why he was special, unique, timeless and brilliant. And that, is what Danielle and I are going to do.
Thursday January 17
Yesterday we had a bright idea. We know we’re going to get several Australia voices and perspectives on Dave in our film. It’s a given. But given Europe’s apparent infatuation with the Triffids/Dave we’re going to need plenty of those persectives too. We’re asking Fergus Linehan from Sydney Fest, but the guy’s just opened his event; he’s going to be just a tad busy. Then I remember a name: Lynden Barber. I knew Lynden for several years because I used to plug DVDs for a living, and he reviewed them in The Australian newspaper. I kept him well stocked in Hong Kong cinema among other things. Lynden was the director of the Sydney Film Festival for a time, but in a previous life, was a journalist on the Melody Maker and the N.M.E.
Yes: he was agent for the scurrilious agents of villiainy that fuel the UK MUSIC PRESS. But, we forgive him this ; he was one of the first scribes to recognise the sheer greatness of Dave’s songs, and as he put it, the ‘vim’ of the The Triffids. Out of the blue we rang Lynden, and asked if we could pop around and chat to him about his recollections of speaking to the band at their dilapdated London flat in about 1984. I was rather delighted when he said yes.
So, here I am in a back st of Paddington, one of my favourite parts of Sydney. But, they grow VERY big mosquitoes here. Mutant ones. They’ve been to the Lucas Heights reactor for drinks and bloated to the size of winged tennis balls , and now they’re biting me. Anymore of this and I’ll be in what Dave used to call Club Sickup. I hate these bastards. Don’t react well to them. After a minor heart attack caused by a non existent cab Ms Dan arrives camera on back to capture the thoughts of Barber on Dave. LB invites us in ; he’’s got his Born Sandy Devotional vinyl out. I tell him the re-master is well worth his time. (get it if you haven’t already). Outside in Lynden’s back garden we mike him up. And suddenly a little moment arrives. The very first shots of our film on Dave McComb. Oooh. This is… a time to take a wee breath and get on with it. Important people are waiting! Lynden does have some genuinely riveting insights into Dave’s manner; and particularly the advancement of the band’s stagecraft between their 1982 selves and their brocked up 1984 UK press darling rock star selves. Well, they moved a bit more and had better shirts. Lynden also unwittingly provides a superb DVD extra/outtake by telling us about being on a plane with a journalist who was flying back from Elizabeth Taylor’s funeral. I momentarily considered pedantically telling him Liz is still with us (at least in body), but knew it would ruin a moment; this proved correct as he twigged a minute later, realising the funeral must have been for one of Elizabeth’s numerous husbands. Lynden had some quite unique comparisons to make: Echo and the Bunnymen I was expecting. But Julian Cope and the Teardrop explodes? Interesting one… He also made it clear; in no uncertain terms, that the Triffs, Gobies and Cave and his Birthday Circus truly DID create a real wave of interest and inspiration to the moribund UK music scene in the early ’80s. All I had to do by way of thanks was help Lynden move his ancient old telly out into the street. And with that, the first interview for Love and Bright Landscapes, is in the can.
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