the dean

Earthlings! We The Dark Clouds don’t care who you are! If you like polls, surveys and lists or if you think Shannon Noll is the pits. You’re all going under The Thunder.

1) You know that guy. The keyboard warrior, the one always going on about there is no good music these days. The guy with Brian Mannix as his profile pic. Well strike me lucky and call me Shirley you Putz. Here’s 10 bands in ten seconds: Port Royal, Legs Electric, The Lazys, MASSIVE, Aberration, Grindhouse, Dead Set, The CRAW!, East Coast Low, Electric Mary. See how easy that was. 10 ripper bands in ten seconds.

2) To the sound guy of 2018. You! Yes you! You’re the bomb! Without out you, we’re nothing you hear. Nothin’. P.S Colin Abrahams is the H bomb!

3) Best venue in Australia? Well that’s an easy one. The one that has us playing.

4) Best quote for 2018. “Some people our age play golf. Some play Bridge. We play Rock n Roll “(me in the green room sipping Turmeric Latte and nibbling cucumber sandwiches)

5) What’s was hot for 2018? HELLO. That would be the Artic.

6) 2018. Denim Diapers are out. Our fashion scoop for 2019 is “tie dye”. You’ve heard first here. Closely followed by the bib and brace. Overalls are the new black. Big Pig and Dexys Midnight Runners T-Shirts will flood your Facebook stream.

7) Bloody Nora. The keyboard warrior just posted again on the Ol’ Skool ’55 Facey page about how good the Allniters were at Brandon Park showground back in ‘82. Smell these roses sunshine: Dr Bombay, Tokyo Beef, Ablaze, Heavy Roller, On & Ons, Tracer, The Numbered, Iron Horses, The Final Word, The Re-Mains… There’s another 10 in 10 seconds and they are awesome right now.

8) 2018. So many departed. Who will be the next icon to leave the building? Sadly, I’d say it will be the private dancer. (The Nut Bush will be big again in 2019).

9) Best FB post of 2018? Way too many to mention but I know it wasn’t the gaffer taped light pole post.

10) We saw the rumblings in 2018. So here is our final prediction for 2019. The over 45’s are going to come to terms with the fact that they are over 45. They are going to embrace where they are on the age spectrum, their time line. They will start saying to themselves “Yes, I might be getting older but I ain’t staying home to watch Goggle Box anymore. I will have a nanna nap and then get out there and support the music I love, the arts, the culture”.

Back in the day, when we were mere whipper snappers following the Painter and Dockers all over the country side, the oldies back then followed the local jazz bands. My local Jazz band was the Belmore Basin Jazz band. We followed the bands we connected with, and the oldies supported their bands. They still do. Well guess what? We are the oldies now and they, are the even older oldies. Face the facts, we are this centuries Belmore Basin Jazz band. Rock n Roll is, the new jazz.

So Earthlings… it’s time to stand up and shout “I’m sick of reminiscing about the Uncanny X men, Dynamic Hypnotics and the Allniters. The only place I’m going to find the music I like is just like the old days. At a live venue. Some places in Australia get this. We know, we have been there. Hell, even some of the alternative youngans sneak into these venues.

There is no ageism in Rock n Roll. It’s in your head. Like the great Lemmy said “If you think you are too old to rock…you are”. We ain’t got Donny Sutherland, Basia, Simon Townsend anymore. We got nothing ya hear. Nothing. All we got is you and The Barman. So get out there and shake those bones. Rock n Roll ain’t dead. It’s on life support with a one-way ticket to Scandinavia and if it lives or dies is purely up to you; the consumer.

Peace, Love & Rock N Roll
theDean