Sometimes I get depressed at what has happened to the Internet over its 25-or-so-year history. At its outset it had the potential to be the greatest dispeller of ignorance in human history. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, it has come to serve as a megaphone for their ignorance.
Take, for example, Clay Djubal’s website have gravity will threaten. This is a pretty good and, from my fading memory, fairly accurate account of the Armidale popular-music scene from the 1960s to the 1990s. (I can vouch for some of it, at least. I was a medium-sized cog in the Armidale cover-band machine of the mid-to-late 1970s, and knew most of the people from that era who are mentioned on the site.)
Unfortunately, someone had to come along and lay a turd in the punch bowl:
Groan. Let’s go through this slowly…
(ca. 1979)
That’s the first hurdle, successfully stumbled over. The band existed from November 1977 to March 1978.
Personnel: John Dodd ; Paul Dushlack (guitar) ;
Nope. His name was Phil ‘Dishrack’ Dutchak.
John Iser ; Mick Porter ; Jenny [*] (vocals), Sue [*] (vocals)
Does “[*]” mean “I’m guessing here”? Because, we had one full-time singer. Her name was Helen Crapp, though she used the stage name ‘Helen Archer’.
(If you ever wondered why people whose parents have burdened with names like Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. or Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV choose to use stage names… But I digress:)
Fast Asleep formed in the late 1970s as a country rock-style band, influenced by such US West Coast acts as Little Feat, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, The Grateful Dead and Canadian legend, Neil Young. Although based in Armidale the band mostly played throughout the Northern Tablelands and other nearby regions – touring as far to the north-west as Lightning Ridge and Moree
Umm, no. We never got further west than Uralla.
and to Northern NSW coastal centres such as Bellingen and Coffs Harbour. Glen Michell, who was employed as its roadie,
Glen was more of an intern than “employed as [a] roadie”. We didn’t actually pay him – not because we were exploitative slave-drivers, but because we didn’t make that much money.
remembers that fast Asleep’s few hometown gigs included the UNE Bistro, the Grand and St. Kilda hotels and several benefit shows.
The Bistro, yes (one-and-a-half shows); the Grand and St. Kilda, no. Maybe Glen has confused the St. Kilda with the Manchester Unity Hall on the other side of the St. Kilda carpark, where we used to rehearse.
We didn’t play any benefit shows, either. Again: not because we were hard-hearted money-grubbers or whatever, but simply because none came up during the band’s five-month career.
The band’s personnel comprised New Zealander John Dodd (who had connections with Mother Goose in Dunedin),
John Dodd’s “connections with Mother Goose” consisted of playing with Craig Johnston, who later formed Mother Goose, in a pre-Goose band. I’m pretty sure that he (John) never appeared on stage in a tutu or a bee costume. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)
Canadian Paul Dushlack plus Armidale musicians John Iser and Mick Porter (who were also both in Sweathogs).
At that point I had lived in Armidale for less than four of my twenty-three years and Mick for a total of about two of his twenty-four. It’s gilding the lily somewhat to call us “Armidale musicians”.
The two female vocalists, Jenny and Sue are believed to have been from Armidale, too.
Helen (for that was indeed her name) was originally from Sydney, if memory serves. She came to Armidale as a student at UNE.
In correspondence with HGWT, Mitchell further recalls that Fast Asleep was much in demand throughout the region for B&S Balls (Bachelors’ and Spinsters).
Didn’t happen. The 1978 version of the Sweathogs played one B&S down near Walcha in October of that year. Maybe Glen was thinking of that.
Although these were typically well-paid gigs (most often set up in barns or sheds on rural properties with limited security), bands also typically had to watch out for themselves as the alcohol consumption (for both males and females) would rise exponentially as the evenings progressed. At one ball, held in a woolshed out of Moree, for example, an audience member requested Fast Asleep play “Running Bear,” which the band obligingly did.
Again: wrong band, wrong time, wrong location. The Sweathogs, I’m ashamed to admit, did play Running Bear on occasion – but not Fast Asleep.
The trouble was that the rum-soaked mob wanted the band to keep on playing it and set up a chant of “We want ‘Running Bear’!” In such moments diplomacy and/or a well-conceived exit strategy were generally well-advised in case of mayhem.
Nice bit of creative writing there, but yet again: didn’t happen.
Source: Glen Michell (correspondence, Mar. 2010).
To say that I’m annoyed with Glen for writing this drivel is like the number 143: a gross understatement. I had cut off contact with Glen a few years before he wrote this, over the issue of my being bullshitted to (surprise!). But that was a case of not going for catch-ups/drinkypoos with him, not “I nevah want to talk with you, evah!” Maybe I sent the wrong signals…
Whatever; as of 2010 we lived about four blocks apart. I could have corrected some of his errors, and not just by relying on my failing memory.
The thing is, I’m a bit of a record-keeper. Buried at the back of a concertina folder I found this:
So there you have it. Eighteen shows over five months. There aren’t any surviving photos or sound recordings that I’m aware of.
As for “where are they now?” Mick runs a business in Victor Harbor and plays in a band called The Executives. John Dodd is a music teacher in Dunedin and still playing, apparently. Good on him!
I lost track of Helen and Phil not long after the band broke up. Google doesn’t have any useful suggestions regarding where their lives may have led.
And, saddest of all, the Manchester Unity Hall where we rehearsed and presented our “Buck-a-Head” shows has long since been “re-purposed”:
Eyesore In Armidale 