Neil Richardson

6/15/2017 Chucking Selfies not beer cans – Creating, Kippers Creating, Kippers  UNI Chucking Selfies not beer cans Gone are pub rock’s glory days in Newcastle, when its tough working class men burned cars on the streets and lobbed a tidal wave of beer cans at the police officers that tried to arrest them. A riot not seen on the streets of this steel city before, kicked off when the cops asked The Heroes to stop playing at the Star Hotel as it was due to shut down for good on that infamous night in 1979. This prompted the BBC in the UK to haughtily sign off their evening bulletin with, “And this is what happens when you try to close a pub in Australia.” Nowadays the live music scene is no longer rumbustious, it’s a genuinely tough gig with a lack of venues and bands for any of that malarkey. It’s tough in Newcastle ‘Working hard to make a living’ Barnesy sang and local band King Shakey (https://www.facebook.com/King-Shakey-/) couldn’t agree more with their hero. https://awkcmedia.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/newcastle-music-scene/ 1/5 6/15/2017 Chucking Selfies not beer cans – Creating, Kippers Guitarist James Martin, 44, says it’s tougher now to get work than it was back in the 90s. “You could go out any night of the week and see a live band. “Tuesday night was massive . . . everyone was trashed, there were pubs everywhere with live bands playing, and you could do a pub crawl and see them,” Martin says. It’s belting down with rain outside the Wickham Park Hotel as King Shakey finish their final sound check of a Friday night, the day drinking crew of the bar clutching meat trays as they stagger out the door. On the small stage lead singer Paul ‘Nicko’ Nickerson looks at the lone punter in the front bar and laughs as he says “thanks for coming out on a miserable night.” It’s 8.30pm and dead, something unheard of 30 years ago. Disappearing live music scene https://awkcmedia.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/newcastle-music-scene/ 2/5 6/15/2017 Chucking Selfies not beer cans – Creating, Kippers So what happened to the vibrant music scene that saw Cold Chisel, The Dingoes, AC/DC and The Angels tour the city with its packed pubs and bars, complete with sticky carpets of alcohol, sweat and vomit. Dave Burgess, 57, currently lead-singer of Loko, (http://system.myepod.com.au/sys/epodartistchecksingle.asp?ID=loko) remembers it all very well as the vocalist for some of Newcastle’s biggest live acts in the 80s and 90s, singing for Radio Ga-Ga, Nightshift, Incognito and Roadhouse. For over 30 years he did the circuit, rotating through the bars in Newcastle. “It was a fantastic scene in Newcastle, it was easy to work, to be honest, I could have worked five days a week with the band in those days and now you struggle to get one,” Burgess says. He loved the Newcastle Workers Club: “The old auditorium used to hold 600 people and one gig we had 600 jammed in there with 500 people out in the hallways who could not get in. That’s how big [live music] was in those days,” he says. That evening Nightshift took the record for money taken over the bar at the Workers Club. “We were getting $1100 a night for a 90-minute set, doing support for bands like The Divinyls,” Burgess says. Burgess believes there are many mitigating factors for the live scene dissipating in the city with money being one of the main issues. “The money is equal now to what you got then, we are still getting paid the same now as we were 30 years ago,” Burgess says. Lack of money King Shakey are beginning to earn their pay as the storm howls outside. https://awkcmedia.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/newcastle-music-scene/ 3/5 6/15/2017 Chucking Selfies not beer cans – Creating, Kippers The rain beats a steady rhythm on the window and the drummer looks over his shoulder, mid-song, fearful that the pane will smash and he will get drenched. Watching King Shakey is Ross Benton who wears a 60s beard and moustache combo which is slightly tainted with a hint of red from the Tooheys with a dash of raspberry he sips. He sports a cowboy hat, coupled with a smart fawn coloured hunting suit, looking somewhat like a modern day Adam Ant. The solo guitar-playing Benton believes a lack of money is to blame for the demise of live music in Newcastle, citing the same reason as Burgess, that you earn today what you earned 30 years ago. “The reason I am not in a band is that if I am in one I get paid $120 for three sets. As a soloist, I get $300 for 3 sets and there is no one to argue with,” he says. He recalls the good old days when boozers were packed out with clients up for a good time. “I saw Cold Chisel and The Dingoes at Newcastle Workers Club. “In those days you were jammed in and when the place finished you couldn’t see one timber on the floor, it was covered in cans.” It sucked the breath from you The timbers on the ‘Wicko’ floor are starting to disappear as the front bar fills up and young girls in stilettos side-step staggering schooner clutching lads in hoodies, who sing along to the Beatles covers. The King Shakey boys remember the rock and roll mad days of the 80s and 90s. ‘Nicko’ explains that there are functional reasons for the decline, pokie rooms for instance and that for pubs to make money they have to get people through the door, but this is at a cost for today’s generation. I remember it was hard to breathe in venues as everyone was taking the oxygen and the bass would pound through your chest and you’d go outside into the fresh air and feel such a sense of relief. “This is all part of seeing live music and kids today just don’t understand this,” Nicko says. James Martin pinpoints his love of live music to one exact point back in 1985. “It was Spy v Spy that got me into rock and roll, I saw them at Port Macquarie in a night club. “We were 15 and they let us buy a ticket, we probably looked 13, but we went in bought bourbons and coke at the bar and listened to the band. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever and I loved rock and roll.” No support Marcus Wright from Big Apachee (http://www.bigapachee.com.au/) booking agents says a lack of live music in the city is a crying shame. https://awkcmedia.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/newcastle-music-scene/ 4/5 6/15/2017 Chucking Selfies not beer cans – Creating, Kippers “Pokies, local politics, a lack of support from Council and licensing police is the main reason our music scene is not where it should be today. “We need to support, respect and nurture our musicians,” Wright says. King Shakey swap acoustic for electric while round the front bar people lean, stand, stomp, tap and laugh while up on stage Nicko and the band play as one and grin at each other. This is what it’s all about, it can be the same now as it was back then even if you imagine it for just one night. Burgess recalls those glory days, “you could draw a crowd of hundreds of people and nowadays if you have a few tables you are doing a real good job.” King Shakey doesn’t have a few tables they have a full bar and it’s not just forty-somethings clinking beers with arms around shoulders howling at the stage. The young set is in here too, not chucking beer cans but chucking selfies with the band playing behind them. AWKCMEDIA  Blog at WordPress.com. https://awkcmedia.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/newcastle-music-scene/ 5/5