Drawing close to the entrance to Fly By Night Musician’s Club, hearing the unmistakable sound of Queen’s Flash Gordon Theme Song blasting within; Some might have hesitated to enter, wondering exactly what they were in for.
Anyone entering the club was immediately transported into the somewhat surreal world, of adults in newspaper hats, a big blue TARDIS and Fly By Night’s ever-present, creepy, paper mache décor.
De Grussa Spaceship (billed as Mike De Grussa), a Perth-based, novelty two-piece, was on stage; the drummer sporting a shiny silver V-neck, complete with chest hair, long curly locks, unfeasibly large sideburns and a questionable skinny moustache… oh yes, Freddy Mercury has returned from the dead and is playing in Fremantle. They followed this Queen classic up with a bit of Inspector Gadget and oh so many TV-theme favourites, including a little tribute to Degrassi Junior High’s band, Zit Remedy. What at first seemed cringe-worthy, was surprisingly entertaining, comprising several costume changes, confetti bombs and a special guest appearance from Cookie Monster, who serenaded us with a bit of C is for Cookie. They also played a few pretty rocking originals, including Fuck I love Dancing, and The Man; a song lamenting the demise of Bubble-o-Bill.
When this perfectly selected, childhood-memory-wrenching prelude concluded, with a wonderful Bohemian Rhapsody sing-along, everyone was pumped for the imminent arrival of the star.
The Juicy Juciy Green Grass Band took the stage, and began with what can only be described as a haunting, Pink Floyd-esque intro. The crowd stirred in anticipation, straightening their newspaper hats and moving in for the chance to be close to greatness. Enter Peter Combe: the crowd goes crazy.
The show was nothing short of brilliant. Combe engaged the audience for the entire set, slipping in amusing anecdotes about some of the songs. He confessed that when he wrote Syntax Error, he knew nothing about computers. The set was a nostalgic rollercoaster; taking us through his multiple platinum, ARIA award winning albums: from slow lullabies, accompanied by twinkling fairy lights, to distinctly jazz and blues tunes that won new appreciation from audience members towards their mothers, who had let them listen to it as kids, because the music is actually quite complex and interesting. Combe was joined on stage by long-time back-up musician, Phil Cunneen and the remaining members of the band, who seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the crowd; one might suspect they grew up listening to Peter Combe tapes themselves.
All the hits were played: Toffee Apple, Newspaper Mama and Rain, to mention a few. The absolute highlight of the evening, was Mr Clickety Cane, described by Combe as his American Pie, though he was glad it was only about three minutes, rather than eight. As soon as the first ‘Wash your face in orange juice’ was sung, the entire crowd joined in the necessary responses with gusto, particularly when it came time to shout the final ‘Belly-flop in a pizza?! Eewww!’ At the finale of this song, Combe exclaimed, “I’ve sung this song 4105 times, and still can’t convince anyone to belly-flop in a pizza!” There probably really isn’t much difference between playing for a bunch of five year olds, and playing for a bunch of drunken twenty five year olds.
No other gig could elicit quite so much audience involvement, or contain so many smiling faces. There was no room for embarrassment over enjoying children’s songs, everyone danced and sang to their hearts’ content, vigorously exercising their ‘inner child’. Whoever’s stroke of genius it was for a children’s singer to perform for adults, twenty years after they had first enjoyed him, should be congratulated. At the finale, one punter announced, “I always thought he was a star, but now I think he’s a rock-star!” Those who were at the gig would be inclined to agree.
See all the pictures from the night HERE
williamb
said ages ago