This was the first time I’d been to been Parramatta for a long time and it was even longer since I’d been there to a see a band: 1995, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs on the Lock Up Your Mothers tour. If Radio Birdman can go out to the ‘burbs, so can I. Getting there was fun because I don’t do the car thing: I go everywhere by bicycle. It took an hour and a half to get there; so Rob, Deniz and the boys this is dedication for you!

Firstly, a word about the venue. This is a sit down theatre with a dance area up the front. It has a high, wide stage that seems a little shallow. The PA was at either end of the stage and back in the seats sounded pretty clear. The view from the seats was very good, too. Another thing I liked about it was that it was no smoking! Hooray! If people want to smoke they had to go out to the bar. There’s only one improvement I’d suggest. Can we please have a bar in the room where the band is? Oh and do something about the front row. I wasn’t the only one to disappear into the trenches. You should see the bruise on my leg.

Opening the show was the inimitable Rocket Science. When I first heard Welcome Aboard the 3C10, and describing it to a mate with the only way I could describe it was to say imagine if Radio Birdman mugged Emerson, Lake and Palmer in a dark alley and stole their instruments. While that still stands, there’s a bit more range in the ‘60s thing about it now. I reckon that if the Spencer Davis Group was to form about now, they would sound a lot like Rocket Science.

The great thing about them  is that while they are as tight as a fish’s date and have really clever arrangements, yet they don’t take themselves too seriously. There’s a lot of humour in their music. It was a good mixture of old and new, including personal favourites such as Burn In Hell and Six Foot 4. I still love the Theremin. It’s wonderfully theatrical instrument.

They’re touring the ‘States soon and we should wish them well. They’re a fabulous band and their ability to take a little of something from lots of different old stuff, use it as a base, mix it up and make it their own. Good work, guys, even if the guitar was little under mixed.

How cool is this? In between Rocket Science and Radio Birdman, someone had the good sense to play Beggar’s Banquet in its entirety. The Stones were so good back then. Radio Birdman hit the stage a little after 10pm and gave it a serious belting for the best part of two hours. This was the first time I’d seen the new line up with Nick Reith on drums. I’ve seen Nick over the years with the Celibate Rifles, The New Christs and The Deniz Tek Group. Like Jim Dickson, he’s played with most of them and it makes sense that he he has joined the band. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen them since they changed my life at La Trobe uni one lunchtime back in 1977. The best praise I can it give it to say that was a typical Birdman gig, that is, a good one. The guitars are still weapons. The band still doesn’t take any prisoners. Rob is still like a moody angst-driven teenager. Deniz’s Epiphone guitar is still demolishing everything in site. Chris is always waiting to set up an ambush, while Pip, Nick and Jim are providing solid support by ensuring that supply lines are maintained.

Songs like New Race, Aloha Steve and Dano, Non-Stop Girls, Do the Pop are still as fresh as they were back then. The songs from the (then) disappointing Living Eyes record now sound much better. Perhaps they’re playing them with a bit more conviction than they did after the terrible tour through the UK tour all those years ago. They played songs off the new album and given that I hadn’t heard them before, I was pretty impressed. The new album should be out later in the year and I can hardly wait.

By the end of it all we were all pretty exhausted and a big debrief had to be had in the front bar. Vive le rock! Vive Radio Birdman! Bring on the revolution!