| Author | Message | ||
     Eugene Unger Member Username: Blureu Post Number: 8 Registered: 05-2006 |
Can someone enlighten me on how Amanda became a member of the band? Were they looking to add someone or was it fate? I recently purchased the reissue of Tallulah and think their sound was given an added dimension with her playing. Shame they only lasted for two LPs with that lineup. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 201 Registered: 05-2005 |
ISBN 1-891241-16-8 | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1944 Registered: 10-2004 |
As fsh cheekily implies, you can find all of this in David Nichols' excellent biography: http://www.amazon.com/Go-Betweens-David- Nichols/dp/1891241168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8 &s=books&qid=1273169162&sr=8-1 And make sure you get the second edition as it's vastly superior to the first (although I'm really hoping a third and final one is in the works). Personally, I think the Go-Betweens did their very best work before Tallulah, but Brown's contributions were definitely a good thing, and they sometimes took the songs into some lovely directions. Even her backing vocals added quite a lot to certain songs. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1776 Registered: 01-2005 |
The last chapter of the original band was rather sad. They have their most successful selling album and toured a year supporting it including playing in large venues as the opening act for REM, and then end up back in OZ playing small venues barely covering expenses. In hindsight maybe they should have shrunk back down to a four piece band after they fired JW with Grant going back to bass. Or maybe even a three piece if they had trouble meeting payroll? They could always hired extra folks when they went on tour that wonuld't have drawn a regular salary. | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 188 Registered: 10-2006 |
..its kind of strange really, Amanda was such a vital cog in the Band, however the 'Band' was always Robert and Grant, there were several players, that came and went... I have learnt to accept this...even now with Robert's solo gigs, no Adele or Glenn, as there is no JW or Mr Vickers, or Lindy Morrison. I loved what Amanda brought as I did all the others. Think I got a bit lost with this comment, however its done.. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 556 Registered: 04-2005 |
Excerpt from interview with Grant (Edinburgh 1987) IS AMANDA A PERMANENT FIXTURE IN THE BAND NOW ? Yes she is WHEN I SAW YOU LAST YEAR IN MELBOURNE IT WAS A REVELATION. I THOUGHT IT WAS SO BRILLIANT TO HAVE A VIOLIN PLAYER. ESPECIALLY ‘DRAINING THE POOL’ That’s how we met her actually. This is a true story. Amanda was playing in a café with a friend of hers playing guitar and she was playing violin...we knew the friend...so we went down to see them playing ‘Draining The Pool’. And it was a revelation. We had always thought about keyboards or another guitar or something. She worked so well on that song that we asked her to join, to play a few dates with us. And then before we went back to England we asked her if she would like to leave university (her first year at university) and come to England. Which she did. It works out well ‘cause she can play the guitar, she can play oboe, she can sing, she can play a bit of piano. The classical music people really give me the shits, I can only do one thing... WAS IT MUSIC SHE WAS DOING AT UNIVERSITY ? No it was an arts course... DON’T CALL ME GONE IS REALLY REALLY NICE Yeah, I’m glad you like it... THAT’S ONE THAT SOUNDS LIKE A BIT OF A DEPARTURE Well it’s only a departure for the band, in playing country. But I’ve always written country songs that I’ve never shown to the band. I wrote DCMG for a friend of mine, a singer in Australia, she just sings in a pub and she’s got a really good country voice. She was doing all these covers and one night I just picked up a guitar, just started playing this song, wrote it in about half an hour...to an hour maybe. I was going to say 5 minutes.. And said you should sing it but then I realised that it was perhaps...a little good. So sold it to our publishers and we did it. She can cover it... No it’s good, I’ve always wanted to do a duet, a proper duet and fortunately Amanda got a good country voice actually. She’s just got that not-quite-the-Texan twang, the Australian twang, its quite noticeable and it does work. I like it. (FOLLOWED BY DISCUSSION ABOUT JOHN BYRNE'S TUTTI FRUTTI AND WHAT A WONDERFUL TV SERIES IT WAS...) | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1789 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'd like to see Oz country singer Kelly Chambers cover DCMG. I wonder if she is aware of it? |