Stephen Cummings. Three dead passengers in a stolen second hand ford/ Why Me?

It was around 1990 when I ran in to Stephen and we talked about writing some songs together. I was in a post Fire records downer period, "I was the hunter and I was the prey" was not going to come out for another couple of years. We worked an a few songs although I found it hard to co write anything. "3 dead passengers in a stolen second hand Ford" worked the best. He came up with a nifty chorus and I brought along all the words and my kinks and weirdness ( to add to his kimks and weirdness) . We recorded the song for "night of the wolverine".
Stephen also did a song of mine called "why me?" on a b side of a single. Hes a great guy to know , a real lone operator.

Tex Perkins. Night of the Wolverine/ Somewhere in the world/ This is forever.
In late 1992, Tony Cohen had just finished the Cruel Seas "the moneymoon is over" as well as Nick Caves "Henrys Dream" and we were 3rd in line with "Night of the wolverine". Tex was an old friend from back in the early 80s when we were in the Moodists and he was in the Beasts and all his other bands. He was one of the first people I ran into when we stopped in Sydney on our return to Australia in 1988. We played with the Cruel Sea a lot and would do a lot more. I wanted to do "night of the wolverine" like Lou Reeds "street hassle" with different parts of a long song. Lou had Bruce Springsteen in for a cameo spoken word part in the middle section. I wanted to do the same thing with Tex. Amazingly, it all worked out as Tex happened to be back in Melbourne on the one day we were in the studio.
Later on Tex did a song of mine called "Somewhere in the world" on his first solo cd. We returned the compliment by doing a version of his "this is tomorrow" for a compilation on WMinc records called " where joy kills sorrow".

Peter Milton Walsh/ The Apartments.The Shyest time. Apart.
Milton had finished with the first Apartments and was in a band called "Out of Nowhere" when we were in the Moodists. He then joined the Laughing Clowns and then lived in the UK at the same time we did through the 80's. He did a great album for Rough Trade called "the evening visits" . (This Mortal Coil covered one of the tracks for one of their CDs) Milton then got a chance to put a song in a Hollywood movie so he recorded "the Shyest Time" and had a name producer in on the session. Clare sang BVs on the record. Later on, I read a Baudelaire poem over a musical track for his album, "Apart". A brilliant conversationalist and songwriter. A huge influence on me.

Stephen Cummings and Elly.

2004 saw Dave Graney collaborate on tracks with electro situationists the Emergency and Tiatto. He has also sung on three songs with the Sand Pebbles.

Clare Moore has provided strings for a song on the upcoming Wagons cd as well as further live and studio work with Stuart Thomas, the Sand Pebbles, Henry Manetta and the Trip, the Chris Chapple Method and Charlie Marshall and the Everyday People. There is also the occasional live set with Stephen Cummings' two drummer rockabilly rave up band and also shows with all girl rock action outfit, "Dollsquad". Studio work has also been undertaken with Kaye Patterson for a forthcoming cd release.
2006. Clare Moore appears live occasionally with flower punk band the Sand Pebbles. Dave Graney has also sung with them on record and written the lyrics for a song, Natalie, which appears on their album, Atlantis regrets nothing. Clare is also recording with Crystal Thomas. An album in production at Matt walkers Upwey studio.

October 2006 saw Clare Moore, Steve Miller, Chris Walsh, Dave Graney and Mick Harvey play 3 songs by the Birthday Party at a party for the Age EG music sections 21st year of publication.

There is also the rock / art rock thing that is SALMON. Five guitars and two drummers. All instrumental, towering , monolithic structure masterminded and built by Kim Salmon.
An album is to be released , on bvinyl, by Spanish label Bang.

1995 saw Clare Moore play drums and sing on Robert Forsters strange and wonderful covers records, "I had a New York girlfriend". This was quite a charming and unique record, like all of Roberts work. Everybody who was involved loved the experience.

2005 also saw Graney and Moore mix the second release by the outrageously great Melbourne female trio, the Muddy Spurs.

Kim Salmon. Record/ Snake Drive ( JJJ live to air)/ Rider in the rain.
We'd known Kim for many years and were glad to have each others company in the funny post Nirvana rock world of the early 90s. We got to do a live to air in 93 or 94 for JJJ. We wanted to do something different for the session so we got Kim in for a few tracks. We did "Snake Drive " (Panther Burns) as well as Randy Newmans "rider in the rain". For Snake Drive, we had 3 guitars going and everybody else, including our live mixer and Gordys wife , Rosie, bashing time on snare drums like a bunch of marching girls . As to the latter song , we also roped Kim in for a performance on a tv show by the Irish Aussie comic Jimeion. Kim came onto the set with a body shirt slashed to the waist and his hands cuffed together.
A later collaboration happened when Clare added several vocal and keyboard tracks to Kims album with the Business, "Record". I also co wrote a song called "I'll be around" with Kim and sang on the recorded version.
Around this time Kim played with us at the Nightcat. We backed him on Hank Williams "Ramblin' Man".

Lisa Miller. I'm gonna live my life.
I gave Lisa a tape of some songs in 1994. It was my first experience of hearing someone else really transform a song and bring it to life . She took the title of her album , "a quiet girl with a credit card" from it. She also appeared occasionaly with us as a backing singer, ( as did Rebecca Barnard) around this mid nineties period.

Graney, Hitchcock and Moore.

To Hal and Bacharach. Dave Graney and Clare Moore vs the Dirty Three.
In early 1997 we were waiting for the Devil Drives to come out and the Dirty Three were in Melbourne for a month or so. A young fellow wanted to do a tribute record to Bacharach and David. It sounded like something cool to occupy our time with. We went into the studio with Mick, Jim and Warren. Mick and I had worked out the chords, Clare was going to play vibes and Jim would play drums. Warren and Jim walked in and started on about how they wanted to do a really different version. Warren went over to the piano and started playing this one note figure, saying how we should do it ilike Nina Simone would. I said that the chords were really great and the words were there to really sell the great melody. If we took all that stuff away, the singer would have to invest so much energy and hot gospelling to put the (very simple and heartfelt) lyrics across. It would pretty much screw up the whole tune. Anyway, reason prevailed and we cooked up a pretty good version of the tune. The highlight was Jim White reading the paper across his snare between takes, you can hear him sliding it off at the beginning of the song. Warren and Clare sang some killer harmonies.

Frank Bennett-Tony Sinatra/ Biker in Business class/ rackin up some zeds/ you're just too hip.
We first saw Tony Sinatra ina a Sydney club some time in 1995. He opened for us over a few dates. Everybody really dug him. He was so funny to travel with as well. He made a record and, for some reason, changed his name to Frank Bennett. (Tony Sinatra sounds tougher and younger). Anyway, we kept in touch. He recorded "you're just too hip, baby" for his first CD "five o'clock shadow". When we made the Devil Drives I wanted to have him do a couple of monologues on the record. We had him do vocals on "Biker in Business class" and "rackin up some zeds". I also wrote two specific Sinatra monlogues. One was called "$2.00 Hookers". This was basically Sinatra holed up in a Sydney hotel room in 1974 when he referred to a female journalist as a "2.00 hooker!" The then ACTU leader, Bob Hawke, had the unions refuse to clean his hotel room or fly him from the country until he apologised.The other track was called "Sanctuary Cove" and was supposed to be the backstage ramblings of a septegenarian Sinatra as he waited to perform at a Queensland resort opening on his return to Australia in 1988.

David and Burt. He had just finished a two hour show and came out of his hotel room upstairs to find 30 or so people staring at him. (We had gone to the gig anyway, as civilians, but the young fellow behind the tribute record somehow convinced me to go and say hello to Burt.) He acted very graciously, under the circumstances and went along a line and shook everybodys hand. Peter Milne wanted to take a photo and had just said "Burt, why don't you put your arm around Dave and look like you're old pals". I was looking at Peter and just about to say "just take the fuckin' photo you ass!"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Murder Ballads. Keyboards.
It was around the same time that the Bad Seeds were mixing one album that Nick was wanting to do another. I don't know which record. Anyway, they had two studios running in Melbourne. (In the same building). While Tony Cohen finessed over a mix Nick was putting stuff down for his "Murder Ballads" next door. We lived nearby and dropped in one day. Their sessions had always had a social side to them. Back in the Birthday Party "Junkyard" sessions, it seemed to be a permanent party. Anyway, Clare and I are credited on the record for singing on "the curse of Millhaven". I also did a vocal for "Death is not the end" but ended up on the cutting room floor.
On the 2001 Bad Seeds Euro tour I played organ on "the curse of Millhaven" on the last date in Lyon. Two days after getting out of the emergency ward of a Paris hospital.

Kylie Minogue. Indie Kylie/ Hey Hey its Saturday.
When Kylie went Indie in 1997 she asked Mick Harvey to get a band together for her to do a tv appearance in Melbourne. Clare and Rod Hayward found themselves backing her up on "Hey Hey its saturday".They did "some kind of bliss" and "did it again". The set was all in turmoil as Bon Jovi was on the show as well. The PR hierarchy was in chaos. (Earlier there had been an incident at Austereo , home of radio stations MMM and FOX FM , when Kylie was upstairs in the station and Bon Jovi was downstairs. Only one lift serviced both offices in the building . Kylies people were holding it open upstairs so as to effect a quick getaway while Bon Jovis people fumed downstairs in the foyer.

Ian Turpie. Bad Moon Risin'/ Walk a mile in my shoes.
I appeared on the tv show 'Club Buggery" in 1995 and 1996. One of the appearances had me singing "bad moon rising" with Ian Turpie who was a regular on the show. Ian is a classic old skool tv light entertainment guy who belted everything out at the same full on volume. "Bad Moon rising" is a Creedence song with quite a dark undertow to it. Turps ignored all this and sang it in true Leagues Club style. It was great tv. Later we did "walk a mile in my shoes" and this was also recorded for his first CD, "talk of the town". Turps turned up at the studio with a sailors cap on at a rakish angle, straight from the golf course. It was about 11 am but he had a stubbie of beer happening already. We did one take and that was it, back to the golf and his mates.
When I won that damned ARIA award in 96 for best male artist, Turpie was there with some good advice as we stood in a room full of shallow showbiz types, drunk as maggots. He said "smile and wave , dave. It costs nothing to smile and wave!"

Barry Adamson. Moss Side Story.
We ran into Barry in Melbourne in the early 80s when Magazine toured Autralia. Later he was involved in The Birthday Party and was in the Bad Seeds for their first three CDs. "Moss side story" (1988) was his first solo CD and I wrote some liner notes for it. This was a major job as Barrys record was not only his first solo effort but also pretty much all instrumental so the words had to have some resonance with his life and general aesthetic. Barry returned the favour by producing our first EP, "with the coral snakes at his stone beach". We always wanted to do a whole CD with Barry producing but things have never really been clicking at the right time for this to happen.

Graney and Turpie, ARIAs 1996

Barry Adamson.

Matt Walker. Soul witness and more.
Matt is of course a superb guitar player and an even better singer who just happens to live down the road. His first CD' I listen to the night" (1997) was a live to tape affair recorded by Matt and his drummer, Ashley Davies. His second CD, "Soul witness" (1999) , was recorded very quickly but in a more conventional way with Ken Gormly on bass and Chris Abrahams on piano. Matt and I had put together two songs, "party town" and "you put a spell on me" for the sessions. They turned out so much better than I could've thought. Matts singing is in such a different league to pretty much everybody else. Its so ambitious and unpredictable yet controlled at the same time. Hes a supreme musician.
In 2003 he released an album with his trio,"the necessary few" . this inclued a track called "just add wine", Music by Matt and lyrics by Graney. The same song was given a second airing on the 2005 self titled release with Ashley Davies.

Jimmy Webb.
Here is the story of appearing on tv with master songwriter Jimmy Webb.

Robyn Hitchcock. Australian dates 2000.
Through mutual friends and agents we got to play in Melbourne and Sydney backing Robyn Hitchcock in 2000. Robyn was a superb solo performer and the show would have been just as good without us but we couldn't resist the opportunity to play with him. We did "madonna of the wasps" , "serpent at the gates of wisdom", "sleepin' with your devil mask", "the arms of love" , "alright yeah" and "beautiful queen".

Jim Bowman.
In late 1992, on the way to an acoustic performance at the Livid festival, David Graney dropped into the Sydney home studio of one Jim Bowman and laid down a vocal for a projected album . Almost ten years later, Jim has finished the cd and has it available for the public to buy. Other vocalists include Noah Taylor, Ian Rilen, Chris Wilson, Loene Carmen and Monica McMahon. The whole recording was done in the very old school, multi track tape style, not the modern day digital home studio which is in every musicians basement. Jim formerly payed with Ed Kuepper in "the yard goes on forever" as well as with Loene and Monica in "Automatic Cherry".

Matt Walker.