I love the
Hoodoo Gurus. Ever since Dave Faulkner conned a shirt out of me at a party in Melbourne in the mid 1980s I've had great admiration for them. It doesn't hurt their cause that they are responsible for some of the best power pop to come from Australia in the past 30 years - I've always maintained that if you put I Want You Back on at a party and nobody gets up to dance or drunkenly sing along then call an ambulance because everyone is either dead or unconscious. The Gurus are just that - gurus of the highest order.
 |
| Once we had hair... |
I have no idea where I got this magazine from or when, but I suspect that it was given to me when I worked in the electronic media as a part time tea towel. Since then I've had it in boxes and only just found it the other day when I cleared out the carport and threw away several dozen boxes of crap, keeping the cream - and before anyone wants to whine about me throwing stuff out, sure, if you want Peter Andre press release then I'll be happy to tell you what skip in which to find it. I'll keep stuff like this, along with the other press kits and bio sheets that I think are worthy of holding on to - including that Saints set-list that Nick The Bastard gave me back in the late '80s, that I also recently found, between a magazine signed by the Gallagher Brothers and a Cold Chisel bio sheet for Circus Animals and an INXS tour poster from the X tour, along with a pile of other tour posters from the '70s through to now. It's amazing what you can find when you begin to open boxes and look into them.
Along with this magazine I also found a cassette which contains an early 1990s gig by the Gurus at the Bridgeway. Taken from the soundboard it features Dave doing what he does best - trading shirts with people in the crowd in order to get something he wanted - a pattern most certainly was developing by then. For the record, the shirt he got from me was an awful paisley green long sleeved business shirt, complete with a Coles price tag on it from the early '70s. I found it in an op shop in Malvern and was wearing it to a 'Come As A Bum' party. It made an impression.
In the meantime, for all of those people who like these things as much as I do, enjoy this slice of life from the Hoodoo Gurus. The odds are good that you've not seen this before, and the odds are better that you won't see another one in a hurry. After you've read this fine, and free, magazine (in glorious 300dpi), do the right thing and
buy a copy of the Guru's latest release. Unlike a lot of their peers they're still out there, gigging away and releasing quality albums and you can't fault that. And also unlike Richard Stubbs, the Hoodoos don't hang about in front of their own CD section in record stores, they rely on the majesty of the music to sell it.* Anyway, back to the Hoodoo Gurus - don't be cheap -
buy 'em now!
----------
 |
| Ugly, unfunny and possibly a man |
* Why anyone would buy anything by Richard Stubbs is beyond me. And yes Richard, that was me that night, so long ago, in that record store on Burke Street at 8pm. You were standing, nay,
posing because a girl was walking by, in front of a display advertising whatever the hell it was that had your ugly head on it. I was the person who said, rather loudly, "Hey, isn't that the unfunny ugly bastard that used to be someone?" to my mate, who looked over and near pissed himself laughing as you turned bright red and pretended to look at an Iron Maiden CD which you were holding upside-down. The biggest laugh was the sign in front of the shit you were flogging that said you were a 'comedian'. I never knew that...and I'm sure that your status as a 'comedian' with 'biting wit' is news to an entire nation, but keep turning up to those corporate gigs - you'll soon be the Australian version of Jimmy Carr, if you're not already.
Comments