NEIL, CHRIS AND PETE JAM UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS

Couple of weeks back we played back some early PBGB recordings while packing up apres Sesh.   

Neil's song ' Under The Southern Cross' popped up. It must have been five years since we last heard it. Neil's ears pricked up. We thought it sounded pretty smart. We chatted............... realised we had never posted it on the PBGB blog.

'Why not ?' we wondered. Buggered if we knew.

"Well let's do it" .

So Neil dug the Logic files up and had a bit of a fiddle. Added a dash of this and dab of that. Fine-tuned the mix as it were.

THIS  is how it came out.

We recorded it back in 2011.

Neil wrote the song in response to the then recent Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi  which seriously lashed the coast of Queensland. It also drove some beautiful lines of swell down to Pambula.  Good for us, not so good for Queensland !

Back then, Neil, Chris Ralfs (once aptly described by Jenny Halper as ' the Grizzled Bass Warrior' )  and Pete jammed regularly as a threesome in The Shed. 

So that's Neil singing and playing guitar and some keyboard overlays, Chris on bass, and Pete on drums.

Still not sure why we didn't post it back then !

GRAHAM BROWN GETS IT ON WITH HIS ODE TO GEORGE

This one is Graham

Graham has been a regular and enthusiastic Shedder since mid 2016. He is now happily ensconced in his corner of The PBGB Shed surrounded by things he hits and a maze of microphones and leads.

Graham has contributed his percussion chops to a few of our songs now, but 'Georgie' represents Graham's second 'original' offering. That's 'original' in inverted commas......... on listening you might realise that we pinched the groove from T-Rex. More on that later.

When Graham first turned up at The Shed he, like everybody else, was warmly welcomed by George. George and Graham established an instant rapport that soon became a solid bond................they have become best mates.

George of course has been grooving along to music in The Shed all his life. He loves to mosie in, say hello to everybody, then curl up in or under the wagon and drift off............no matter what sort of cacophony is going down.

Wasn't long before Graham decided to put his fondness for George into words. At the same time, the rest of us were kicking around a few grooves that might teach us a thing or three about syncopated funk.

One such groove was that which Marc Bolan used in T-Rex's number 1 hit of the early 70s "Get It On". T-Rex and funk ? A funky glam band ?  Really ?  Well, in fact, Marc Bolan, author, poet, and creator of T Rex, actually had a deep knowledge of, and respect for a huge range of musical styles and artists. He saw going glam as an extension of a long tradition of showmanship.... all part of the show. And why not ?  It's all entertainment after all. And it worked............T-Rex, arguably the first ever glam band, had eleven consecutive UK top 10 hits. 'Get It On', along with another three T-Rex songs, went to number 1 in the UK, and scored top 10 in the US. All this in direct competition with The Beatles. Not bad.

Meanwhile..........back in The Shed we were kicking the Get It On groove around when Graham fronted up with his lyrics for 'Georgie'. We decided to see if we could put the two together.

Listen to Georgie and see what you think.

And this one is George

What we can  tell you is that George approves. Woof ! He digs it, and that's good enough for us.

Graham wrote the lyrics, sang the song, and hit various percussive things.

Steve Faggotter played electric guitar.

Lou Nadin played acoustic guitar.

Mick Nadin played the harp and sang back-up vocals.

Kerry Hynes sang back-up vocals and made appropriate canine noises.

Neil Porter played the bass, as well as doing all the recording and production work.

Pete played the drums

It was a great fun project from start to finish, and what you hear is very close to a totally live take.

Good one thanks Graham !