The other day, probably the greatest event ever to hit my beloved Central Coast, happened when our A-League team The Central Coast Mariners won the Hyundai A-League Grand Final...the joints buzzing, let me tell you...
and...that got me thinking about other events that have occured on the coast and naturally, I thought about the first Narara festival..(which wasn't at Narara but whose being picky) the order of bands may be off kilter..but, it wasnt last weekend O.K
It was nowhere near friggin Narara to be honest...it held on the site next to Old Sydney Town, which is now defunct, shame it was a hoot of a place.
THE CHURCH - UNGAURDED MOMENTS
I went with a couple of mates from Aussie Post, Me, Rocky and Greg jumped in Jeffs falcon, went to Roselands and bought some tickets and proceeded north ( for I wasnt on the coast then, I was in Sydney working)
We got to the place at Somersby and parked the car , grabbed the tent and headed over to tent city and set up...THEN we hit the bands ...and got on the piss ....I do vaguely remember some hippy chick handing out coffee ...much to my chagrin, the wank had laced it with mushies, which she forgot to mention..so I sorta watched faces appear on the flaps of her tent for a bit and wasnt she in a world of shit when i came down..fuckin idiot
...so the boys got me some actual coffee and sparked my synapsis into action..we wandered over and watched the bands and checked out the shops...I did buy a new bong actually...luckily some chap, we didnt know had some wacky tabbaky to go in it ...and we settled back and downed some beeries and had a fun meeting people we didnt know.
MARK GILLESPIE - Small Mercys
We had a fine time rocking along to the Choirboys, Aussie crawl, Jon English, Moving Pikkies and the Diviynls...cant say I was a fan of Chrissie and the boys but f**k they could rock, the Zoo played as well but I cant say I remember them even being there....
A NARARA ROSTER POSTER I KNOCKED TOGETHER
Saturday was the big day...fark moi, we drank a heap, and rocked hard, pretty much all day, I must say that I found while doing this blogaroo that I had a single of a bloke called mark Gillespie ..once again, cant say I remember him playing but its a great friggin song, its called Small mercy's....
.and it was on this particular day that I discovered THE ZARSOFF BROS...yeh I know what had I been doing right...what a great friggin band ..a true aussie classic ....The Rads had a play, so you had umpteen thousand people singing " I like drugs, I like sex"..yep The Fess Song was the hit of the avo..couldnt expect any less.
MARSEILLES - THE ANGELS
NARARA 83
the Fess Song - The Radiators
The boys from Men at Work had a blast, once again the crowd gave them the welcome they deserved...I wasnt sick to death of Downunda just yet....Dynamic Hepnotics, INXS and The Church also had a hit out on Saturday, once again none are real favourites BUT you cant be a music snob at a festie HUH?...I gave them the respect they deserved
THEN came The Angels..WOW...just fkn WOW...the gig of the weekend, it was that good they released it on red vinyl...and you know I had a copy...the highlight ..Doc climbing the lighting truss and leading the converged masses in a group singing of Marseille...
30 very odd years later I can still shut my eyes and see Doc giving it what for...get well soon brother....anyway, after much beer, billies and rock n roll we called it quits for the night..well, some of us did ...I've no idea how people stayed up for that long "wink wink nudge nudge"
SUNDAY.. rolled around and after a wicked breakfast of a bacon roll or seven...we jumped in the lake for a tub and got set to do it all again..people were still buzzing about Doc and his efforts of the previous night ..f**k , i'm still buzzing about it...ANYWHOO......
Mi-Sex , Jo Jo Zep, the Uncanny X men and Rosey Tatts all got up and gave it what for on the Sunday .. Goanna showed up and played Solid Rock and a very early version of let the Franklin flow...pretty cool.....Dickie Clapton got up and gave us what for, lotta people didnt like the Clapton set ...I did...nuff said...
MOVING PICTURES - BUSTIN LOOSE
Dragon showed up as well...Marc Hunter and boys were in full roar, I think they were pretty much smack free at this stage ..I could be wrong, but they didn't play like strung out junkies....BUT... for the life of me I can't remember Chisel getting up and having a blow...must of passed my cone limit or something...but by all, accounts they was the good's
MONDAY...was spent getting straight HAHAHAHAH..nary a drop of beer or a pipe was intaken...especially by Jeff he had to drive...seemed to be bush music day both Bullamakanka and the Bushwackers showed up, apparently No fixed address played , but I cant say I even remember No fixed address even existing..if someone can help me out with them it would be good
and thus came an end to one of the wildest weekends I had..all good fun, except for that bitch with the mushies and the rope thief....
Narara 84 blog coming soon.
seeya
Thanks for sharing your wonderful memories of yet another Classic Aussie Rock Concert Recky - and I'm very envious. A fantastic list of Aussie bands
ReplyDeleteHope Jeff beat the crap out of the bloke that stole ya guide ropes (what a low act)
Looking forward to the Narara 84' post !
That was the weekend my lovely lady and I got engaged.
ReplyDeleteThat happened on the Friday night at the Woolshed Dance at Old Sydney Town, or it might have been the Saturday night. I got blind.
We spent Sunday at the Music Festival. For a Festival that was supposed to have no alcohol brought in there was a lot of alcohol brought in.
We were looking for friends. They said go in the gate, turn right and look for the blue tent. There about 4000 blue tents.
We hung around the bar and waited for one of our friends to come for a drink, which they did. That's how we found people before mobile phones. Arthur was at the bar to buy a 5 litre wine bladder for about $20. Try doing that at a featival now!!
I still remember the kites flying, even after sunset and the full moon was up.
Austin Tayshus, the MC, was asking the kite flyers to bring the kites down to 300 feet because they were interfering with the flight paths.
The bikies were all pretty cool and didn't stir up any trouble. At night they put their Harleys in the tents and they slept outside. Their wake up call was, "Mull up", at about 7am.
I remember the security guys were a lot of black belt, martial arts guys. They didn't care what many people did but I did see them give a guy a hiding that pushed them too far.
The music was great. A lot of the bands we used to see at The Florida, at Terrigal, before they became famous.
It was the best days music I had seen up to that point in my life and it's still in the top 5.
Steve
Austin Tayshus was an awesome MC and that's where he introduced Rodney Rude. He cracked up everyone.
Cheers..Steve
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment...did you help yourself to the music?
I was at 84 and loved every minute of it, even sinking a bong as a police helicopter hovers overhead.
ReplyDeleteStill haven't found any footage of any of the bands in particular Talking Heads.
Has anybody found any footage at all of Narara 84
cheers
Luis
there were cameras there at 84, cause scott carne nearly got donged by the camera with the big swing arm on it
ReplyDelete