This was our first gig as The Negotiators and our first at an RSL. It was a fiftieth for a fellow called Wayne who Steve knew from his swim club. He had first seen us at a show we had played for the club about 1 ½ years ago under a marquee in a back yard.
Playing an RSL was great. These are generally licensed facilities composed of bars and decent catering facilities, usually with a large sized hall a part of the set up. They are the physical infrastructure of Australia’s fraternity of Returned Sevice men and woman, the veteran community. They are as much a part of the australian landscape as Anzac Day (our national day of remembrance) and the egalitarian myth of the people. As such, they exist in most towns and suburbs as part of the social landscape connecting this country with its important and proud military heritage. They are also people’s organisations, and have thus been a part of the australian mucic scene. A lot of great aussie bands have played the local RSL on the road to professionaldom. Not that The Negotiators intend to become professional, but I did enjoy joining the tradition of playing an RSL.
Wayne had over a hundred people at his party, and a lot of them stayed through the night. We had upto 20 people dancing several times, and there was almost always someone up. The waltz kept showing itself, sometimes to the strangest musical accompaniment!
My favorite moments were having a Cloe (10 years) almost reverantly checking our gear out as we set up, and later accompanying Nancy on the vocals for ‘Not Pretty Enough’ and ‘Nutbush’, and Steves winding riff through ‘Satisfaction’. The audience seemed to all enjoy us, with most either obviously enjoying by the grins, claps and dancing, or the surreptitious toe tapping that is almost always a give away. In the corner, the most sceptical of the audience was a table of veterans in their fifties. But they stayed all night, and they seemed to like our balls (having a go at some pretty hardcore rock, and pulling it off both energetically and passionately). I thought, if we can win those blokes over, we can win anybody! Of course, it may have had something to do with the time of the evening?
Onwards and upwards…
Monday, July 11, 2005
Requiem for Requiem - The Negotiators emerge!
Those who have been following this blog for a while will remember that we have already tried to change our band name. The marking point for the start of this blog was when we agreed to call ourselves The Odd Sox.
That change of name was doomed from the start. The first publican we mentioned it to refused to book us under the name and insisted we retain ‘Requiem’ for her gig. I’m not sure why she did this, but it was an omen. Our followers were sceptical, and kept calling us Requiem. We produced no posters with the name, and kept playing as Requiem. The name change had even stopped being a vaguely funny in joke within a couple of weeks. Perhaps this blog IS the only permanent trace of this period of our band.
Anyway, since then we’ve had someone float proposed band names past us at every practice (which is pretty often when you add them up). The most persistent suggester was Nancy, but sadly no – one’s ideas seemed to grab everyone’s imagination at the same time, and Requiem remained our name by default. Without Nancy’s persistence in keeping the issue alive, Requiem we would remain until today. Now that that’s not the case, others have told me what Requiem evoked (wedding, funeral, serious music). I am glad Nancy kept plugging away.
Then, I was talking to my sister in Melbourne about my nephew, who’s nickname is ‘The Negotiator”, when the idea of “The Negotiators” as a possible band name struck. I tried it out on Nancy and a few friends, everyone had a positive reaction. It seemed an evocative, indefinably humerous name that drew a response from all. It seemed to ‘mean’ something without putting us in a box, and it sounds cool. The band all liked it when suggested at the next practice. No-one else was using it as a band name that we could work out from our internet searches.
So we became The Negotiators!
That change of name was doomed from the start. The first publican we mentioned it to refused to book us under the name and insisted we retain ‘Requiem’ for her gig. I’m not sure why she did this, but it was an omen. Our followers were sceptical, and kept calling us Requiem. We produced no posters with the name, and kept playing as Requiem. The name change had even stopped being a vaguely funny in joke within a couple of weeks. Perhaps this blog IS the only permanent trace of this period of our band.
Anyway, since then we’ve had someone float proposed band names past us at every practice (which is pretty often when you add them up). The most persistent suggester was Nancy, but sadly no – one’s ideas seemed to grab everyone’s imagination at the same time, and Requiem remained our name by default. Without Nancy’s persistence in keeping the issue alive, Requiem we would remain until today. Now that that’s not the case, others have told me what Requiem evoked (wedding, funeral, serious music). I am glad Nancy kept plugging away.
Then, I was talking to my sister in Melbourne about my nephew, who’s nickname is ‘The Negotiator”, when the idea of “The Negotiators” as a possible band name struck. I tried it out on Nancy and a few friends, everyone had a positive reaction. It seemed an evocative, indefinably humerous name that drew a response from all. It seemed to ‘mean’ something without putting us in a box, and it sounds cool. The band all liked it when suggested at the next practice. No-one else was using it as a band name that we could work out from our internet searches.
So we became The Negotiators!
Glanville Wharf, 3 June 05
This Friday night gig was a ripper. The audience came from about five separate social cirles, plus those who came because of their link to the pub rather than us. Had between 30 and 50 people through the evening, with the peak being the middle two of four sets.
Although it’d been a while since we played, a few things are memorable.
Firstly - The audience, besides being decent in size and demeanor, was noteable because it wasn’t dominated by any one particular social group. There was a nice mix which we knew had come to see us by various paths and connections. To be there of an evening, however, one would have noticed the 'diverse homogeneity' of our audience. Their age was thirty plus, the males were not somewhere on this side of the tracks, the women were all dressed up. They all seemed comfortable in each other’s presence. The only one who looked like he didn’t was the man from cambridge.
Secondly - Steve came into his own as a lead guitarist. The band as a whole was a bit disjointed in the first set, competent but not flowing. We were all aware of it, and those who've seen us before would have, but not too many of these there in the first set. We knew that things were only going to get better off an already solid base. The second and third brackets were amongst the best we’ve played.
And this was due in no small part to Steve’s work on the guitar. His leads were on time and in tune, and busy enough figurations that were at the same time solid because simple worked their way into much of what we played. I’ve always felt rock music needs a driving guitar, and we most certainly had it. Best of all, I think Steve was aware of the fact that he had passed a bend in the road.
Thirdly – we had a few very cool ‘dance’ moments from the audience. We had people up dancing from the second or third song, for a start, which is always good. We had the floor full of dancers at some point in each of the sets, and solidly so through the third and fourth. It was great when we played ‘500 Miles’ towards the end of the third. This always draws out the scots and party animals, and they tend to stalk stomp and sing their way through the song with the band. The display was exhuberantly passionate on this night – great fun.
The most memorable moment, however, was during ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, at the end of the Third. Steve was grinding away on lead, Nancy was totally lost in the hypnotic rhythms of the vocal refrains. And in the audience was one of our Stompers, a fellow who’d only been up for ‘500 Miles’ to this point. It was like the dance demon got him, and he started driving himself in a dhervish jumping light footed dance. There was energetic feedback between him and the band, one of those alchemical moments when the dancer drives the band drives the dancer and everyone has their eyes shut. I didn’t, and could watch what was happening and ride the wave that the moment graced us with.
Although it’d been a while since we played, a few things are memorable.
Firstly - The audience, besides being decent in size and demeanor, was noteable because it wasn’t dominated by any one particular social group. There was a nice mix which we knew had come to see us by various paths and connections. To be there of an evening, however, one would have noticed the 'diverse homogeneity' of our audience. Their age was thirty plus, the males were not somewhere on this side of the tracks, the women were all dressed up. They all seemed comfortable in each other’s presence. The only one who looked like he didn’t was the man from cambridge.
Secondly - Steve came into his own as a lead guitarist. The band as a whole was a bit disjointed in the first set, competent but not flowing. We were all aware of it, and those who've seen us before would have, but not too many of these there in the first set. We knew that things were only going to get better off an already solid base. The second and third brackets were amongst the best we’ve played.
And this was due in no small part to Steve’s work on the guitar. His leads were on time and in tune, and busy enough figurations that were at the same time solid because simple worked their way into much of what we played. I’ve always felt rock music needs a driving guitar, and we most certainly had it. Best of all, I think Steve was aware of the fact that he had passed a bend in the road.
Thirdly – we had a few very cool ‘dance’ moments from the audience. We had people up dancing from the second or third song, for a start, which is always good. We had the floor full of dancers at some point in each of the sets, and solidly so through the third and fourth. It was great when we played ‘500 Miles’ towards the end of the third. This always draws out the scots and party animals, and they tend to stalk stomp and sing their way through the song with the band. The display was exhuberantly passionate on this night – great fun.
The most memorable moment, however, was during ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, at the end of the Third. Steve was grinding away on lead, Nancy was totally lost in the hypnotic rhythms of the vocal refrains. And in the audience was one of our Stompers, a fellow who’d only been up for ‘500 Miles’ to this point. It was like the dance demon got him, and he started driving himself in a dhervish jumping light footed dance. There was energetic feedback between him and the band, one of those alchemical moments when the dancer drives the band drives the dancer and everyone has their eyes shut. I didn’t, and could watch what was happening and ride the wave that the moment graced us with.
Easter Sunday - Cumberland Gig
On Easter Sunday, March 2005, we played at the Cumberland Hotel in the afternoon. The day was quite okay as gigs go, pretty well attended with an audience that stayed basically until we were done. There were quite a few young bucks that were initially sceptical as they rocked up, but nearly all of them were at least singing along with us, if not dancing, by the final sets.
Competent, but not brilliant, is how I’d measure our performance. Though, once again, I’d say that the audience who had not seen how good we can be were not too upset at what they saw. I guess our performance is more dynamic than that of a lot of bands, and this is always a bonus in live gigs.
This was the last show we played at this venue with its wooden floors. I have heard that where the bands play now has a concrete floor. This should be good, as we have always had a bit of a challenge to keep the bottom end vibration under control with the floor set up.
Competent, but not brilliant, is how I’d measure our performance. Though, once again, I’d say that the audience who had not seen how good we can be were not too upset at what they saw. I guess our performance is more dynamic than that of a lot of bands, and this is always a bonus in live gigs.
This was the last show we played at this venue with its wooden floors. I have heard that where the bands play now has a concrete floor. This should be good, as we have always had a bit of a challenge to keep the bottom end vibration under control with the floor set up.
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