Recollections from the Show , Part 2

Jan 16 2008
Soundcheck rolls on. On and on, into the night. This band – who have played together once in 19 years and haven't played to a home audience since 1989  – are so determined to make this all work. This reminds me of theatre: going and going to all hours , until you're buggered, until it's RIGHT; working until you can reasonably demand payment from an audience by their means of money and time. Tonight Jill (Birt: Keys) and Alsy (McDonald: drums) filled me a little more on in the threat to The Cliffe, the McComb family home at Peppermint Grove where Dave often brought the band to practice (in fact the pic on the back of their final studio album The Black Swan was taken there). Dave's parents moved out in 1995. The new owner apparently refuses to entertain its preservation on the original site , although he's supposedly (?) offering to pay for the removal of the house to another location. A fascinating titbit from Alsy: the house was one of the first made of Jarrah, as opposed to brickwork, in an effort to prove that dwellings in Perth could indeed be built of wood; all apparently in the name of the people that started Bunnings, of all things. So, think of that next time YOU buy a useless father's day gift ok? The McComb family home helped create that combine...powerdrill... beer brewing, rat killing...implement of destruction you hold in your hand! However .... in all seriousness, we must shoot there before they ruin it all. Mick Harvey is singing The Seabirds. It suits his voice to a T. It is a a song written for storytellers.