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McGRINGOMANIA |
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THE BANDS |
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MINING TOWN COWBOYS |
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Formed in the months after my exit from the world of advertising, Mining Town Cowboys remains one of my favourite bands. Although this band took forever to achieve very little in terms of fame and fortune, it provided a showcase for some of my best songwriting ever and a platform for the considerable singing talents of Jo Rowlands and Sandi Schultz, who, besides having awesome voices (and being gorgeous to boot), still number among my favourite people. |
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At Jo's suggestion, we began by recruiting Wayne Raath, a guitarist/bassist/singer who had played with, among others, 70's new wave bands Illegal Gathering and Corporal Punishment whence would emerge the prodigious talents of James Phillips in later years). Wayne's songwriting complemented my own and so we started practising. The drum stool became a musical chair, occupied alternately by Rear Window drummer Garth van der Walt and Live Jimi Presley drummer, Derek Davies. Sandi joined as singer and co-songwriter and, taking our name from a song about a Jo'burg "breker" we launched The Mining Town Cowboys at a house party in 56 St George Street, Yeoville - not coincidentally, Wayne's residence! This was followed by the recruitment of drummer Steve Howell (also from Illegal Gathering, The Dynamics and, more recently, the Cherry Faced Lurchers) and violinist, keyboardist and beautiful singer (although we didn't know it at the time) Antoinette Malherbe. Gigs followed at the Dawsons Hotel (at one of these I was almost overawed into fleeing the stage when I peered into the audience and spotted the scarily talented Genuines grouped at a nearby table) and the Tandoor (formerly the Harbour "Horror" Cafe, beloved wee-hour hangout of old time Yeoville jollers). |
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In the meantime, the all-important demo was pencilled in at the studio of SA's seminal independent music company, Shifty Records. |
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(clockwise from left) Wayne, Alistair, Sandi, Antoinette, Jo |
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Shifty occupies a very important place in local music history, producing on a shoestring budget some of the best bands I've heard, which the big record companies were too short-sighted (or blind stupid) to push. Among my favourites were the Cherry Faced Lurchers, the Kerels, the Genuines, Simba Morrie & Wasamata, Sankomota and the Kalahari Surfers. In December 1992, we spent the day with Shifty co-owner Lloyd Ross (yet another ex-Corporals/Illegals veteran - notice a pattern emerging?), producing 11 songs. The songs were performed "live" (no overdubs) and back to back. Highlights for me were Diamond In The Rough, Love Is A Dead Dog and Sandi's haunting Cartwheels (perfomed with just a single acoustic guitar backing). |
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The demo met with very little interest from the record companies we approached, not surprising really considering how unpolished the band and the recording were. Then Sandi went overseas to work on movies and the band faltered. In Sandi's absence, we recorded another demo, this time at Gateway Studios, of Love Is A Dead Dog - with Antoinette taking Sandi's part - and Mining Town Cowboy. The latter features a "massed chorus" - Ant and I overdubbed repeatedly on the outro to create a cheesy Ghostriders In The Sky backing. |
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Irit Noble, a feisty and very very funny performer (who went on to make a name for herself as both as a stand-up comedienne and solo cabaret singer) stepped in, but the personal dynamics of the band were no longer complementary. |
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Our last gig, with the same line-up as the demo (minus Sandi, plus Irit), was in a marquee at a huge Northern Suburbs (i.e., yuppie) party with a Western theme complete with mechanical bull. Live Jimi Presley went on before us - scaring the shit out of the WASP audience with their wall of noise/industrial sound - complete with a real angle grinder. They were ignominiously cut short by the host. We went on and played two songs, starting with Mining Town Cowboy, the spaghetti Western guitar intro of which seemed in keeping with the party. Then the party host walked on stage and cut the sound. "You guys are just too loud," he said, "I'll pay you anyway, but that's enough music." Irit succinctly summed up all our feelings. "You touch my mike, I'll fucking KILL you!" she snarled. We played one more song, as loudly as possible. The sound was cut again. We stormed off, got the money, stayed long enough to get drunk on the beers we had liberated from the bar and left. It would be nice to say that we rode off into the sunset, but more accurate to confess that we weaved an unsteady exit into the black, pissing rain. |
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McGRINGOMANIA |
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