Reckys BIG show Flashback: NARARA 83...I WAS THERE (I think)

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....

ANYWHOO...that night when we got back to tent city some prick had cut the ropes off our tent, presumably for his own use, luckily some nice young ladies had some spare rope and we joined our tents up...KEEP IT CLEAN...it has been alledged that Jeff found the bloke and ruined his weekend but I can niether deny or confirm this.

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

ITS A BON JOVI THING

G'day

SO...a Bon Jovi blog...I must admit to being a big fan first time I heard them, Runaway  and Tokyo Rose,  are still in my top 20 Jovi tunes...then came bloody "Slippery" ...geez,  what a album , 20 something million in the first couple of years, critics hated it, but that  only shows that crtics know a darn site less than f**k all really, now dont it?

I bought a copy of Slippery, wore the damn thing out too, just quietly,  as well...hell, went  to see the boys at the Sydney Ent Cent on the Slippery tour...unlike a few of my mates  who went, who were determined not to enjoy, and I quote, the bloody poof's..I went with  ears open, as is my usual state of listening to music, which is probably why I can listen to  Bon Jovi, Motorhead, Slim Dusty , Poison and Metallica all in the same song list...

anyway  by the time the Choirboys and Bon Jovi were done with the lads, the boys was amongst  the converted,  sadly the rest of the world aint as forthcoming and if memory serves, me  and the boys had to fight our way out of a pub near the centre that night after the gig,  thats something i'll never understand EVER...why just because somebody likes a band  that some bogun f**khead doesnt ..said first person deserves an arse kicking, if anyone  can explain that too me, give me a hoi and explain it to me....

ANYWAY, BON JOVI ..right?....here is a fun fact that I only just found out...you know  Skid Row , right?...the other New Jersey band ...

well their founder Dave "Snake" Sabo  was the guitarist on Runaway...he got replaced by Ritchie by the time the first album  proper came out , but Jon remembered his mate and helped get Skid Row signed...nice  fella that Jon....ANYWHOO..... after the Slippery tour, rest assured that regular  purchases of Jon Bon Jovi product was a regular occurence, and I seen him a few more  times as well, Sydney on the New Jersey tour and at Olympic park on the Lost Highway  tours and I caught him in the states and Holland a couple of times as well, probably the  only good thing (for the fans) was the way Doc McGee managed the band, he worked  'em till they almost dropped, us out front didnt know it, cause Jon and the boys dont half  arse it EVER...anyway, they flicked Doc after 29 months straight of touring...f**k me,   they woulda been seeing triple by that stage I reckon...so the boys took a well deserved  break...about all we heard from Jon during his holiday was the Young Guns soundtrack  which gave us "Blaze of Glory"..

.the boys re-grouped for the recoding of KEEP THE  FAITH...but bass player Alex decided that his state of mind and his physical well being  could not and would not handle anymore touring andhe retired, Jon reached out and got  another mate Huey McDonald to take up the bass position, which he still hold's till this  very day.

The resulting release, Keep the faith is a brilliant frikkin slab of rock as well..except the  press focused on Jon haircut instead of the tunes...WTF!!...frikkin media, drooling  dickheads sometimes, really.. a great album the length of his hair got more page inches  that the songs...amazing waste of fkn talent there muso reporters

I sorta lost track of Jon and the boys after Keep the Faith , what with divorces and other  shit going on in ReckyVille....then came the album called CRUSH...and my faith in Bon  Jovi was still intact..what a great fkn album, probably the best since New Jersey...but  thats all subjective I guess.

Have you seen the doco "When we were beautiful" ?....I only just watched it when the  Madison square gig came out on dvd, and I didnt realise that Jon is truly the boss and all  the band members are employees and they seem quite fine with that set-up so who am I  to question corporate formation.

Seeya next time

Well Dunn..Its Sam Dunn

If there is one thing that I really...Really...REALLY like , its a well made music documentary....and so, this blogaroo, where music docos is concerned, is about one of the single most talented cats walking the face of the earth ...the only death metal fan I've heard of with a phd in anything ...SAM DUNN...the guy behind Banger Films, well, one of the guys anyway.

I've got all his efforts on dvd and to say there is a broad scope of music on them is a more than reasonable statement..Sam himself, likes a big helping of full blown thrash kinda guys, Slayer, Slipknot etc etc...but he started out with Iron Maiden( UP THE IRONS) and has been the filmographer for the band on a couple of occasions now

He also has done a couple of doco's about Metal...a couple about the history of, and one going around the metal world checking out how various country's play their metal.

The Global Metal one was pretty good, showed a wide variety of styles and bands...stuff from X-Japan to Sepaltura to Tang Dynasty.

Iron Maiden: Flight 666
Dunn co-wrote and co-directed the 2009 documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666 with Scot McFadyen. The film chronicles the band's 2008 tour in which a converted Boeing 757 was flown from country to country by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson.

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage
Speaking of single band docos...Sam, also did a biopic on the Canadian masters of prog, RUSH,  they say if your Canadian your genetically disposed to like RUSH stuff and this appears to be true

 Metal Evolution
Dunn produced the Metal Evolution series for VH1 Classic on various metal genres. and is also farkin brilliant...Sam gives each "genre" its own episode plus early and pre-metal from both sides of the pond....cant say I liked his take on hair metal..but everybody cant agree on everything now can they.

Rush: Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland
Is a concert DVD, Blu-ray and double CD by Canadian rock band Rush released on November 8, 2011. It was filmed on April 15, 2011 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio during the band's Time Machine Tour.

Iron Maiden: En Vivo!
En Vivo! is a live/video album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Filmed during The Final Frontier World Tour at Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile on April 10, 2011, it was released on March 26, 2012 and March 27 in the United States and Canada.

Seeya next time