Uncombed Dope
Almost thirty years before Bruce Springsteen paid him the rare compliment of covering ‘Just Like Fire Would’ for 2014’s High Hopes, Chris Bailey paid similar tribute to Perth’s own David McComb. While interviewing him for 6UVS-FM’s Zootime about The Saints’ forthcoming visit to Western Australia in March 1984, DJ Marshall Martin played The Triffids’ new single ‘Beautiful Waste’. “That is a damn fine song”, Bailey observed, “Who’s it by?” A couple of weeks later, after sharing a bill with the band at the Old Civic Theatre in Inglewood, The Saints performed the last gig of their tour at the Wizbah in Hay Street. McComb was in the audience. When Bailey lead his band through a rousing version of ‘Beautiful Waste’, Dave’s surprise stretched from ear to ear.
Paying it forward avant la lettre.
Screenshot drawn from Richard Lowenstein’s documentary Australian Made (1987) shows the camaraderie the pair developed three years later during their stint as backing vocalists for Michael Hutchence, Jimmy Barnes and INXS on their show-capping cover of Vanda-and-Young’s ‘Good Times’, Endeavour Field (Shark Park), Woolooware, Sydney, NSW, 26 January 1987.
Thanks to Simon Doyle, Graeme Attey, Pat Monaghan and Jeffrey Baker.
15 April 2022
A sheaf of posters celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of David McComb’s birth has wung its way to Sydney – copies now available for purchase on the merchandising page. The anniversary itself was marked by a group of British musicians (and Louise Elliott), most of whom knew Dave only through his music. They gathered at the Betsey Trotwood (a small, music-friendly pub in Farringdon, London, not far from Smithfield Markets) to pay tribute to Dave’s unique voice and plangent vision. Their choices – as the set list below shows – reveal how keenly his songs were and are still felt: for one surprising thing, slightly more songs (7) are drawn from Calenture, the ‘over-produced’ major-label debut from 1987, than from the acknowledged, self-financed classic Born Sandy Devotional (6). For another, Michael J Sheehy’s version of ‘Beautiful Waste’, available on Soundcloud, demonstrates that a ‘proper’ song clings to no apron strings.
Posters printed on 250 gsm paper (practically card), suitable for – designed for – framing. Limited, numbered edition.
Rosevel The Country Widowers
Life of Crime The Country Widowers
Jesus Calling David Westlake
Estuary Bed David Westlake
Day of My Ascension Gary Robertson & Bob Collins
Trick of the Light Gary Robertson & Bob Collins
Too Hot To Move/American Sailors Mike Perrett
Wide Open Road Mike Perrett
The Seabirds Pete Astor w/Jack Hayter
I’ve Heard Things Turn Out This Way Pete Astor w/Jack Hayter
Raining Pleasure Michael J Sheehy and Simon Breed
Beautiful Waste Michael J Sheehy
Bury Me Deep in Love Michael J Sheehy
Blinder By The Hour Trent Miller
In the Pines Trent Miller
Hometown Farewell Kiss Dead Ponies
Jerdacuttup Man Dead Ponies
Unmade Love Dead Ponies
Property is Condemned Dead Ponies
Tarrilup Bridge Murphy-MacLean
Save What You Can Murphy-MacLean
Tender Is The Night Murphy-MacLean
(The Dead Ponies are Simon Breed, Louise Elliott, Jon Fell, Nick Allum and Michael J Sheehy; The Country Widowers are Joe Doveton and Norman Walker)
1 April 2022
None of us, no matter how vast our brainpans, can compass the world. Most of us don’t even try. It’s too big, too complex, too diverse, changeable and evanescent. Understanding slips through our greedy fingers and melts away. Some of us, bolder perhaps, make a fair stab at nailing experience down, grabbing hold of our fleeting impressions and turning them into unceasing song. Or poetry. Or… Or…
David McComb was one such. His songs grasp pain or elation, doubt, sorrow or lust, and give them resonant form. Twenty-three years since his death, I’m surprised that no nouveau Hal Willner (RIP) has seized on this genius and restaged it to catch the ears of the whole wider world. His work is that sturdy. It will endure, no matter what.
But today is no day for lamentation. It’s Dave’s birthday, a time to celebrate the fullness he achieved in the brief span he was granted. In London tonight, in a small pub not far from the put-upon and all-but-buried river Fleet, a gang of mostly strangers will gather to celebrate Dave’s memory. Let’s hope they embrace his irreverence, too.
17 February 2022
A veritable Wessex of hardy Brits is planning to gather at The Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon, London, this coming February to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of David McComb’s birth. Whether their plan bears fruit depends, as so much else, on the vagaries of the government (led, if that’s the right word, by a feckless 57-year-old) and the continuing ability of a capricious virus to elude immunity. Among those who’ve declared an interest in paying their respects are Shropshire lad ‘Evil’ Stewart Graham Lee, Peter Astor (of The Loft, The Weather Prophets, Ellis Island Sound, The Wisdom of Harry), Simon Breed (Breed, The Birthmarks, The Friends of David McComb), David Westlake (The Servants, employer of Triffids Martyn Casey and Alsy MacDonald for his 1987 solo album), Michael J Sheehy (Dream City Film Club, Miraculous Mule), Trent Miller (Skeleton Jive), Mike Perrett (Dog Roses), Murphy MacLean (Sergeant Buzfuz), Dreamytime Escorts and The Triffids’ UK publicist and Sandy Denny’s biographer Mick Houghton. An elegant suffix of more circumspect souls have also expressed interest but remain as yet uncommitted: “ask me again nearer the time”.
19 December 2021
Ceci n’est pas un loup
(Après René Magritte et Don Bronstein)
Photograph of Howlin’ Wolf taken by Don Bronstein during the session which yielded the cover for The Real Folk Blues (1965). The legend “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” is drawn from René Magritte’s 1929 painting La Trahison des images (The Treachery of Images).
Rob McComb, Martyn P Casey and David McComb photographed at the Klub Foot, Hammersmith Clarendon, London, on 20 September 1985, shortly after completing the recording of Born Sandy Devotional.
Photograph © Bleddyn Butcher