Was part of the RocKwiz crew at Pyramid Rock Festival, Phillip Island, 29 Dec so stayed o/nite with my teen daughter to catch some fresh acts 30 Dec.  Best of the bunch that morning was Ball Park Music from Brisbane. 

New Year's Day 2012 found us comped for tix to Summadayze at the Myer Music Bowl - huge crowd - managed to catch Scissor Sisters & Snoop Dogg (everybody loves Snoop) before the heat sent us underground backstage to drink the promoters' champagne (thanks Future Music) then head out again to scope the DJ stages scattered around the site & catch up on what the dance crowd is into right now. My verdict? Too much doof & not enough funk.

Which brings me to last night (1 Feb).  I don't own any albums by Feist but had heard enough to intuit that booking tix for her Palais show might lead to a good night out. Feist is from Canada & has that upper Nth American sound I hear as a mixture of Arcadian & Canadian - so let's called it Canadia.  Early practitioners include Neil Young & Joni Mitchell & in some ways Feist is a mash up of those two; she's got a powerful, accurate voice & some kinda baditude. Her music is melodic & primal & dynamic; like Esther Phillips said  'from a whisper to a scream'. Feist, first name Leslie, fronts an excellent 3 piece male band (drums, keys, & gtr/bass/trumpet/percussion/weird noises dude) augmented by a young female trio of backup singers (Mountain Man). The oddly named Mountain Man opened the night with a set of their own, mainly accapella, songs using tightly grouped harmonies & made beautiful music which often incorporated strange angles & deliberate use of dischord. Excellent. Feist opened her set with a couple of attention grabbing highly dramatic pieces that for a lesser act would have been saved for the finale. Over the nearly 2 hours they were on stage the level of performance & musical arrangement was startlingly good. Feist lives up to her name - she has attitude, great songs with melodies, can blast it out, knows her way around the guitar & ain't afraid to hit it hard & grunge up. She has been nominated for a Grammy 4 times & has scored well in the Canadian equivalents the Junos. Her most recent album is 'Metals'. Her next appearance is this week in Footscray (Arts Precinct) as part of the multi-state Laneway Festival. Love that Canadia Music.

Back on the gig trail mid-January with a bunch of shows in NSW (see 'Dates' page)

http://www.greataustraliansongbook.com/  /  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ-H3YiWFoY

The album contains Eagle Rock which has been going great guns lately.  Eagle Rock and Bom Bom are both featured in the new movie Red Dog which has been getting excellent reviews and opened this weekend with the biggest gross for an Australian movie so far this year ($1.78mill).  And we just returned from Perth playing at the West Coast Eagles 25th Anniversary Ball.  The WCE love Eagle Rock & had us play it twice at their ball - we opened & closed our set with it.  Couple of days later we partied with the WCE supporters at Subiaco Oval where they defeated Richmond & we had em singing along to Eagle Rock again (twice) - yep, "good old Eagle Rock is here to stay". Glad I penned that line, it has turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If my memory serves me correctly August 8th 1971 was the day Daddy Cool played at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood & landed ourselves a deal with Reprise Records. I wrote a song about that for our 2nd album.        

"We flew across to the USA / And played for the kids down in LA / Please please America hear my plea / A million bucks that'll do for me / That'll do for me"                                                                                                      

(Please Please America written by R.Wilson c.1972 Mushroom Music) We didn't make a million but we sure had a good time.

I've got plans to update this website with a new look & more pages & features.  This might take a while so don't be alarmed if, once the reno is started, it takes more than a day or so to complete and adjust the new look site.

The Same Moon is the 3rd track from my I Come In Peace album to go to radio and, building on the good airplay given to the previous two (I Come In Peace, I Got You), is off to a good start. It was picked up immediately by the Hot Country Network in Queensland and is on High Rotation.  Hot Country broadcasts over a large area that takes in Goondiwindi & St George in the south then north to Roma, Dalby & Emerald.  The National Indigenous Radio Service (NIRS) has come on board again too. Servicing 120 community stations around Australia from their flagship 989fm they are programming The Same Moon & have given the album a lot of support since its release last year. (I'll continue to update the Airplay List on the Homepage)

If you check out my Tour Dates page you'll see a whole lot of new gigs.  We off to the areas where I've had airplay & making appearances in most states plus the Northern Territory.  Along the way we'll be participating in a couple of flood relief related shows and the lyric of The Same Moon really strikes an extra heartstring now; when I sing Swallowed up by the earth / Drowned by a tidal wave I can't help thinking about recent natural catastrophes, particularly those in our own backyard. More dates will be added but already there's not much breathing space between now & the end of July. See you soon!

Sony:  'The Essential Daddy Cool' update

I'm happy to report that a problem that was bugging me (see 22 Jan 2011 news item below) has been fixed.  An intra record company licencing glitch had meant that you couldn't download the entire 36 track The Essential Daddy Cool album from iTunes as an 'album', only one track at a time.  After pointing this out to Sony they got cracking & the entire double album is now available to be downloaded in one hit & at a sensible price. Bewdy...

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/thelatesession/watchonline/page/i/1/show/thelatesession

And while you're here check out I Got You live in Deisel's garage...

http://vimeo.com/channels/garagesessions#15314476