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April 2003
well Hotel Radio is now officially out in Australia, New Zealand soon to follow... other territories as soon as dust settles... tis a bit calmer round here... There has been a wonderfully messed up craziness over the past two months due to the Morning Star Concert... My house in Northcote has resembled little Melanesia... George Telek, Glen Low and Ben Hakalitz have all been staying here which has been fantastic. They have built a haus kunai in the backyard... a thatched open walled hut with bamboo floor, palm thatched roof, lanterns and poles... the most perfect place to sit in read the paper, drink a coffee or a glass of lagavulin depending on the time of day...
Telek's record is well on the way... all his vocals and guitar work have been recorded… thirteen songs in all. the highlights being Amette, Lima Ngalie, MaMa, Keravat and Song for West Papua. Tim Cole, once he's finished his work with Circus Oz is going to co produce it and mix it with me... I think its going to come up really well... quite simple in instrumentation... George's guitar playing has really improved (he'd be the first to say he's no guitarist… but on these recordings he's played a simple Tolais Stringband accompaniment style to many of the songs... and over Greg Patten and Benny Hakalitz' slow grooves it works really well. Some of the songs are accapella vocal over melanesian soundscapes, bush, conch shells. This record will sound very different to the other two… though if it comes up as well as Serious Tam, which I rate in the top five records I've ever been involved with, I'll be well pleased. The Telek project has been so rewarding over the years... I so enjoy George, Glen and Ben's company... their stories, their approach to life, to music, to family and their culture, their sense of humour...
and on this trip Pius Wasi, a man from Chambri lakes near the Sepik river who played on the Tabaran tour, was here for quite a bit of time. Pius is a very intense man, committed to PNG music… he's in the process of getting together a PNG arts factory behind Parliament House in port Moresby aimed at promoting and encouraging traditional and contemporary practice. he'll succeed too. Pius recorded a record in the Enormodome too whilst here... an hour of solo bamboo flute... an organic ambient record played by a master craftsman, very relaxing and haunting... nothing new age about it... But with Telek... the only things we'd like to achieve with that from here on are to tour PNG with the international show... show PNG what George has been taking to the rest of the world... no one else in PNG has done anything like what George has done, And if not an extensive PNG tour, at least the islands... Rabaul, Kavieng, Kimbe and Buka... And George would like to play Darwin and Alice Springs where it is hot and has heaps of blackfellas. George will retire to his village of Raluana after that, resting on his laurels, chewing betel nut. The final gig of his tour was in Cairns to a predominantly PNG audience. we played the Painim Wok hit, Mispaia (misfire) and you should have felt the audience reaction... it was as if Jimmy Barnes had started Khe San at a drunken football club party... they went off... to them, away from home, it is a PNG classic... and a killer chorus, great to sing a long to.
A gig highlight for me was the Telek/Bridie Coorabel hall gig in the community hall in Coorabel in the hills behind Byron Bay. The stage was decorated with flowers and vines , cakes and tea were sold, a dog joined George and myself on stage for 6 songs, kids laughed and played and cried and then fell asleep on their mothers chests, an amazing electrical storm provided visual accompaniment outside during the break between acts and one hippy bartered his way in with two massive breadfruits. (totally dud fruit, but how can u say no?)… twas a few gigs on this tour where George, Glen and I performed stripped back versions of the material very much concentrating on the vocal harmonies... twas a lot of fun, and good practice for me singing my Kuanuan... having a month of Telek shows was a useful distraction in the lead up to my nerve wracking album release which is now upon me.
The other highlight was watching Black Paradise perform at the Brisbane Social Forum West Papua do on the banks of the Brisbane river outside the Powerhouse Arts Centre... full of joy and confidence in their playing as they had played 25 gigs in 20 days. This 11 piece band rocked, enjoying their last days of freedom away from the Indonesian military , the crowd wooped it up, it was joyous , and I felt really connected in my gig, just piano and vocal on that night inspired by everything Black Paradise represented... the power of music... as mushy as that sounds. How good were the three women singers… and the bass player was wild... and a big rap for the band leader Feri Marisen
I'm having a meeting tomorrow with Ian de Gruchy about projecting the visuals for the live show... running them off lap top, using the films we made for Act of Free Choice and the new films that are being made for Hotel Radio. Tina Gonsalves has made a fantastic film for Canopy whilst spending three months at sea on a boat trip. Like with AOFC, her film brief was to make a film using the song as the soundtrack, and the film will be used as a backdrop in live shows and then placed on the DVD of the album. Lynne Hamilton is currently shooting elderly couples' dance hall nights in slow motion for a film for the Tender Trap and I am delighted to report that renowned filmmakers David Caesar and Rolf de Heer are currently choosing a song off the album for their films. James Littlemore is making the film clip for the next single, 100 Flowers in Bloom, whilst in Hanoi, employing Government of Vietnam animators to draw propaganda style images of men in Mao suits (myself included, amongst flowers and guns). James will also make some films for another couple of songs off the album for the live/DVD use… using some of the footage/slides that we took whilst on our road trip through mid west NSW making the Hotel Radio clip.
Whilst on the subject of the DVD, the Act of Free Choice DVD is slated for release this Christmas, maybe coinciding with a Hotel Radio DVD... and we'll sell them two for the price of one joint package. Rik Nicholson, the man who has designed the new Hotel Radio based David Bridie website has authored the AOFC DVD… and I can report he's done an incredible job.
The issue of Copy Protection has been raised by a few punters, especially those who listen to music predominantly from their laptops. Here is the word from EMI Australia's projects manager for new media. "The new David Bridie CD has been released on a Copy Controlled CD. It has an embedded player that will allow you to play the CD on the PC so it is not impossible to play the CD on a PC." This obviously doesn't apply to all and so is still a pain. I apologize in this. I'm not a big enough seller to determine policy. If anyone so desires, send me an email, and I'll burn a copy off the master and send out with the artwork in return for a cheque for the cost of the CD in the store so that you can still enjoy listening to music the way to which you are accustomed. Hopefully this will not get too out of hand, and I won't be spending 6 hours a day in the Enormodome burning CDs. I'm not over all of these issues (I'm not a boffin). Am I right in presuming that PCs are okay to play it, but Macintosh laptops are not? Anyway, I'll probably get in trouble for this so hopefully they (and they know who they are, don't read my diary!!!)
The Channel 9 Sunday programme in Australia are shooting a special on me at present to be aired in the coming weeks…
The JJJ Live at the Wireless broadcast of the Morning Star Concert for West Papua is going to air this Monday April 14th at 8pm... including Not Drowning, Waving.
I hadn't listened to Hotel Radio for a good while until earlier today when a friend came around who hadn't heard it before and wanted to listen to it in the studio (a bit spoilt listening to anything with subs and surround speakers) I still marvel at Ian Caple's mixes and craftsmanship... the bottom end in Safety Haven is brilliant… dub!!. I'm happy with this record... very proud of it... and to Nick Littlemore, I say once again, thanks heaps. Favourites for me today were Tender Trap, Epiphany (it isn't always), Nation, Wires and Hotel Radio... but as I'm sure it is to anyone, different tracks appeal depending on your mood. I think I might swap Looking After Ourselves and 100 Flowers In Bloom in the album order if I did it today…
LIVE SHOWS... hoping to have nailed Sam Dixon and Felix Bloxom as the rhythm section for the live shows... after Michael Barker unfortunately had to pull out to play for 3 months with John Butler (he'd be great playing that style of stuff... I wish him well... the bastard) Amanda Brown will accompany us as well, singing bvs, playing oboe and viola and additional guitar and keyboard work, Phil Wales, of course, will alternate between menace and finesse on his guitar… am tossing up whether a sixth member is necessary... Tim Milliken hopefully will mix... and Deb Hatton will handle lights and visual projections… no dates locked in as yet... see tour section for destinations and later confirmations... the grand plan is a couple of club tours followed by a show designed to appear in Arts festivals adopting a multi-arts approach utilizing sound and vision, thematically linked spoken word/sound tapes collages, visuals and performance... reference Laurie Anderson's United States Live
have been trying to forget the war. just depressing… the whole thing greatly saddens me, especially the death of the Kurdish interpretteer this week… killed by friendly fire. seemd to nail the pointlessness of the whole thing… and I'm sure half the US soldiers are wired on amphetamines...
have a read of Norman Mailer's article - a truly impressive overview. He nails the oil and empire argument... Channel 9 news reports the war like its a fucking football game... the news readers are almost barracking... and whenever Dubya rings up Howard or Downer its like they've met Mick Jagger... they name drop him as if it makes us important... hey, they even rang Australia...
...what's the story with Carl Hooper? Brian Lara must have severe personal hygiene problems... and well done ol Steven Waugh... a great record to break for an honorable guy…
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