The Hoodoo Gurus almost had to call it quits this year. But today, writes Larry Schwartz, they’re well and truly back on the road.
THE BAND had intended to do an encore. They finished their set at Launceston town hall earlier this year little realising they might have already played their swansong.
Only now, months after Hoodoo Gurus drummer Mark Kingsmill leapt up from his kit and toppled backwards, severing tendons and nerves in his left arm, is the celebrated Australian rock group able to resume a tour that will continue through Australia into the new year, taking them to Brazil and the US.
Kingsmill has recuperated after emergency microsurgery and is playing again. But the band might not have played again had he not recovered, singer-songwriter Dave Faulkner says.
He was in Melbourne last week with Gurus’ guitarist Brad Shepherd to perform an acoustic version of their single Waking Up Tired at the Grand Hyatt, where it was up for best song at the Apra (Australasian Performing Right Association) awards.
Shepherd remembers reaching for a glass as the last song ended, then turning around to the rear of the stage to see two legs “doing the chicken” from where the drummer flailed about in pain. Faulkner remembers his horror at the sight of the blood-spattered backdrop. The tour manager fainted. Ambulance officers rushed to the scene.
“It was frightening,” says Faulkner. “It could have been our last ever show.” The incident forced the band to pull out of a tour to publicise its seventh album, Blue Cave, probably hurting sales.
“If I was worth a fortune/ I’d never leave my bedroom./ I just want to stay right here, safe and sound.” When I arrived at the Grand Hyatt’s Savoy Room for an interview, the two were rehearsing the song with acoustic guitars for the night’s event.
It was to be a rare “unplugged” performance, says Faulkner, pictured above, who strummed rhythm and sang to Shepherd’s lead fills. The song had been mostly written by Shepherd, a late riser, who handed it over to Faulkner, who says he did little more than “cross the T’s and dot the I’s”.
Technicians bustled about as they played on a stage flanked by images of the cricket Test against the West Indies, which would be replaced hours later by the image of Tina Arena, accepting in absentia the Song of the Year award, for Wasn’t It Good, which she co-wrote.
Outside the hotel, fans await Michael Jackson. We sit down to talk over coffee. Faulkner, in striped shirt and jeans, is an early riser and the more talkative. Less forthcoming, Shepherd, in leather jacket and brown trousers, would appear to have woken up tired again. Today it’s Monday and Melbourne, by Wednesday it will be Broome, the first stop on their Circus Maximus tour.
In more than a decade since the release of their debut, Stoneage Romeos, the Hoodoo Gurus have won a committed following, here and in places as diverse as Canada, Spain, Scandinavia and South Africa. They have fond memories of the roar of crowds in Brazil, for instance, singing along without necessarily understanding the lyrics. “So you hear this weird singing, moaning sort of noise, not making sense,” says Faulkner. “All garbled.”
The band was founded in Sydney in January 1981 with three guitars, drums and no bass. These days, bassist Rick Grossman completes the foursome.
They are looking forward to visiting some of the more remote venues. Faulkner knows the feeling from the other end: growing up in Perth, he remembers the frustration when bands failed to cross the Nullarbor.
His first instrument was a violin. Jealous of the attention lavished on an older sister who played piano, he took a year’s lessons at the keyboard, then taught himself guitar. An older brother’s record collection was a big influence. Passionate about songwriting, he can chat easily about artists as diverse as Lou Reed and Burt Bacharach. He volunteers his theory on how Bob Dylan creates some of his more unusual rhymes (writing the less expected second rhyming word first) and insists John Lennon never wrote a bad song.
Shepherd was born in Sydney and raised in Brisbane. As a teenager, he listened to the Stooges, Radio Birdman, Alice Cooper, MC5. These days, he’s open to all genres, from opera to Artie Shaw. Within a week of moving to Sydney, he was playing in a band. While both musicians reveal an endearing passion for others’ music, they have inspired many young bands. Artists from the Boo Radleys to Aimee Mann cover their songs. They have made their mark.
“I think our records will endure,” Dave Faulkner says. “We’re out there somewhere (even if) we haven’t got the INXS big bucks and clout.”
The Sunday Age, 01-Dec-1996
Larry Schwartz Writer 