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October turned into a month of reunions -- one a surprise and the other planned. Firstly, former Java Jive regulars Ian Rawkins and Loraine Drake turned up at an Easts gig at the start of the month, and later my sister Sharlene, her hubby, Paul, their kids, Danica and Sophie, and my mum moved in for a hectic week of acting like tourists.
The big surprise was seeing Ian and Loraine, who had flown in from Auckland to see the Dixie Chicks at Brisbane and decided to catch us the night before. And they were bearing gifts. 10 years ago Ian produced a video for my song "Anzac Day", which I hadn't seen for about nine years, and he brought me in two copies on DVD.
The video was filmed at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland on the day of the 1996 New Zealand recording industry awards, for which I was up for three gongs, and we were there before dawn for a couple of dramatic outdoor shots, making it a very long day and night! There was a tiny band of helpers, including my mum and dad and Ian's dad, who played the part of the old digger.
As is the norm for locally produced country music in New Zealand, the major television channels ignored it, but it got a partial run on TV3's 'Nightline' and on a news show on the Auckland station.
It's bloody funny to watch now -- purely from the point of view of who the hell dressed me? Yes, I was to blame. Don't worry, you'll all get a chance to laugh along with me when I put it up on the web site and my MySpace site sometime over the next few weeks.
Speaking of MySpace, I've uploaded a demo of a new song called "Jackie's Song" written by former Dragon drummer Kerry Jacobson and myself. That's Kerry on piano. It's one we're pretty proud of. Click on the MySpace link to the left and have a listen.
And don't forget, the Tallboys are back at the Treasury Casino every Friday in November. Check in at the gig guide and rock on up to say hi.
Glen
Stability...stability...stability... I cannot say it enough. It really is the key to an effective and successful band. Thankfully, stability has returned to the Tallboys line-up after about a year of tag-team rhythm sections. Sometimes it would be a case of meeting the bass player 30 minutes before doing a four-hour gig with him.
Now we can learn a song and know that we'll still be playing it a month down the track rather than having to leave it out when a different player comes in because it's got more than four chords. And regularly introducing different songs into your repertoire keeps a band happy and fresh, which in turn keeps the punters interested.
When a band is happy and fresh its members start talking about the future, which is where we're at at the moment. What we've been talking about in our future is recording an album, something to sell at gigs and we'll see where else it takes us. Hopefully we'll be in the studio in the next few months.
We have some new original material we're working up and we plan to include two or three songs from my previous albums re-recorded for an Australian audience. I've been breaking my neck to get back into the studio since arriving in Brisbane in 2002, so I'm rapt!
I now have a MySpace Music site up and running with music and gigs. MySpace is an online community which revolves around adding 'friends' to your profile, enabling a readily accessible, endless network. Click on the MySpace link on the left to check it out.
On the gigs front, guitar wizard Michael Muchow and myself have an October-long residency of Thursday nights at Easts Leagues Club and the band is gearing up for Friday nights in November back at the rocking Premier's Bar of the Treasury Casino. Keep an eye on the gig guide for a performance or two in New Zealand during December and January.
Get along to a gig and come and say gidday.
Glen
I have come to believe life is a series of circles of all different sizes. Past encounters revolve 360 degrees in their own time to somehow complete themselves in the future before beginning another revolution. And recently some musical circles have done just that for me.
The most satisfying of those was the return to the Tallboys of bass guitarist Chris Haigh after 18 months away. Haighy played in the band for most of 2004 before heading back south of the border.
His spot was taken by Dash McIvor, but with Dash taking on shift work in the avionics field earlier this year he decided to lay his guitars down for the time being. Bass duties were taken on by Kym Willing for our June stint at the Treasury Casino (much obliged to him) and then we received word that Haighy was back in Brisbane and at a loose end. Timing is everything.
It was as if he'd never been away as he slipped back into work at RSL Caboolture at the start of July -- Don Rich harmonies and bottom-end precision intact. And he still remembers most of the original songs that, I'm pleased to say, are creeping back into the repertoire.
The Tallboys have also, finally, found a permanent drummer in the form of Leon Ernst. Leon is the son of sometime Kim Cheshire drummer Laurie Ernst, of Cairns, and is easily at home with any musical genre you can throw at him. He and Haighy have instantly formed a tight, driving rhythm section.
Another circle completed when the father-in-law Ian Thomson was filling me in on the latest exploits of the band he plays drums in, the Gary Harvey Band (formerly Gary Harvey and the Night Owls), and told me of their new piano player. "Oh, and he knows you, too," he said.
Their new man is Reuben Cutts, who played organ on my second album, 'A Place To Play', back in 1998. I met Reuben through Ritchie Pickett when we did a New Year's Eve gig in Coromandel, must have been 1997. The two-piano line-up did a couple of gigs in the town while staying at Kennedy Bay jamming and writing songs. But, no, it's not true Melissa and I named our youngest after him.
Circle number three. About a year ago, Aussie guitar virtuoso and producer Michael Fix asked me if I had any original songs for an album he was producing. I flicked a CD of material to him and thought nothing more of it.
That is until last month when Michael emailed me an mp3 of the completed track of Darryl Apps' version of "Here Comes Friday". It rocks. Look for Darryl's debut album to be on the shelves in the near future.
Circles, you see. Now I'm just waiting for the revolution that sees my path cross with the degenerate who stole my band gear in April '98!
On the gig front, it's been a busy couple of months. When guitar picker Michael Muchow was down at the Hats Off festival in Tamworth we were joined for a couple of gigs by Mick Martin of the Smokin' Crawdads. Mick's a fine singer and player and must know every Creedence riff there is. We rechristened ourselves the Smokin' Tall Crawdad Boys for the occasions. However, as Mick says, with the new Queensland non-smoking laws it will have to be the Smokin' Only In Designated Areas Crawdads.
Things have gone a bit quiet for the early part of August, but we will be appearing at the Stockmen's Bar and Grill during the Ekka, including a daytime gig on RNA Show Day, as well as regular gigs at Easts Leagues, Broncos and Greenbank RSL. Check out the gig guide and come say hi.
Glen
What can I say? What excuse can I make for not producing a newsletter since January? Things have been pretty hectic gigging, writing, rehearsing, working the day job and keeping it all balanced with family time. I wonder sometimes how I get anything done.
Life with those Moffatt boys has been running at well over 100km/h, as anyone who's been to see Glen Moffatt & the Tallboys at Easts Leagues Club on a Sunday afternoon can attest. With Quinn now five and Reuben two, this gig is the only one they get to come along to. Melissa brings them in about 15 minutes before the end to pick me up. And they go nuts!
To have them bopping away on the dance floor staring up at me full of admiration, when they're not doing the same to Michael Muchow on guitar, is a real privilege. I know I have to savour it now because it will be a look of something more approaching contempt when they're in their teens and think they know better than their mum and dad.
But it's when the gig concludes that they spring into action. I really should get them T-shirts with "road crew" emblazoned across the front. Straight away Reuben's heading for the faders on the desk with one hand and grabbing at my guitar with the other. Quinn's happy enough with a lead to roll up -- and one is enough because he does it with such precision that I can have everything else packed down and in the car before he's finished.
Does it sound like I'm blaming the kids for my lack of sitting behind the keyboard? Maybe to a degree. We've had Quinn learning piano on Saturday mornings this year and he's going great guns. What with getting him to practise that during the week, doing his reading homework from school daily and keeping tabs on Hurricane Reuben, by bedtime Melissa and I just want to zone out with a DVD. Bugger the dishes, folding the washing and doing the vacuuming!
But seriously I have another project on the go which has also been keeping me busy. For a long time I've thought I had a book in me and this year I've decided to go down that track. Of course, it is music related, and it is a biography, not an autobiography. It may be a case of biting off more than I can chew, but we'll see. More about that when things firm up.
Oh, and after 13 years and the two kids, Melissa and I are finally tying the knot in Auckland in December, so that takes some organising. But I would be lying if I didn't say I have mostly left that to Melissa.
So, what's been happening musically since January? Former Dragon drummer and current Mondo Rock member Kerry Jacobson and myself have been writing and demoing up some original songs to send to contacts in Nashville. It's been a new way of writing for me, as Kerry will email me almost complete melody ideas and I'll put lyrics to them. I don't even have to worry what the chords are! Then we get together and clean things up and record them. It's great.
On the gig front, the Tallboys are back in Premier's Bar at the Treasury Casino every Friday in June. The extremely talented Michael Muchow and myself have been getting back into acoustic duo mode with a run of Thursday nights at Easts -- where Ilona has christened us Glen Moffatt & the Tallboy -- and we have a smattering of duo work at Broncos throughout the rest of the year. Check the gig guide for details.
Hopefully it won't take me so long to compile the next newsletter. Get along to a gig and tell me not to be so slack!
Glen
A belated happy new year, one and all. It's been a nice, relaxing start to 2006 for me with four weeks of not performing, but we're about to get back into full swing with three Brisbane gigs this weekend.
Last year was rounded off with the return to my old stomping ground in New Zealand and a New Year's Eve party at the Tallboys' second home Easts Leagues Club.
The Napier City Country Music Club celebrated its 30th anniversary on the weekend of December 10 and I was invited back to the old home town as a special guest. I was honoured to take part in the celebrations as the club was a huge part of my schoolboy life.
It was great to catch up with club members from my time there in the 1980s such as the evergreen Mary and Sandy Wraith (I should say Sandy Nielsen), Jimmy, Glenis and Sue Thomson, Peter Moodie, Pat and Fred Wiley, Kinena and John Fletcher, Lesley and Kelly Merson, Goz and especially my former mentor Jim Toner. And Flo Thornton does still make the best tea in the southern hemisphere.
There were also newer members (to me) like Pat and Ingrid Hynes (old friends from a separate past), Bob Dyer, Derek Evans and Nic Hayes who are taking the club into the future. Pat does a pretty mean take on Phil Everly, not to mention that New Zealand song he does.
Special thanks to Paul Bryant for putting up with the influx of Moffatts besides the one he usually has to contend with. Yeah, my ma and pa also made the journey for the anniversary, and we were all put up in Bayview's finest B&B -- the sister and brother-in-law's place!
The Sunday afternoon club day was a highlight for me because I got to sing some Merle Haggard with Jim Toner. Jim has provided the launching pad for so many young Hawke's Bay singers to start their music careers.
He founded the Napier club in 1975, and when I was just new there in the early '80s he was nurturing the talents of John Fletcher, Kym Stanford, Donna Paramore, Brenda Thomson, Sandy Wraith (I should say Sandy Nielsen) and his eldest son, Pete, in country showband Ramrod.
A couple of years later, Jim drafted me into his band the Overtones alongside Pete and the youngest Toner, Adrienne. I was just 16 and it was my introduction to being a professional musician. I can't thank him enough for that.
The trip must have got me feeling nostalgic cos I came home and made a new page for the web site. It is called Pre-Guns For Hire and it details groups I was part of before my first album. You can find it under the Band link. Pity all my old photos are in a box in a garage in Mission Bay.
Back in Brisbane, we had the in-laws staying with us for the Christmas break so I made use of Ian Thomson to hit some drums at our New Year's Eve gig at Easts. It was good fun playing with Ian again and it was nice having Melissa and family around as the new year rolled in.
Speaking of family, a real surprise was my dad's appearance out of the blue from New Zealand for the gig. I was merrily setting up the PA when I noticed him trying to hide in the middle of the room. Surprise! He made it to three gigs while trying to dodge the Queensland heatwave during his stay.
While I didn't attend the just finished Tamworth festival, I can report that my mate Bill Chambers released his new CD 'Frozen Ground' there. It's a great-sounding album that rocks a bit more than his first, and it includes a song the two of us wrote together while in New Zealand in 2004. Order it now from your favourite retailer.
And as I say, we're back into it this weekend with gigs at Yeronga Services Club and Easts, so check out the gig guide and get yourself along!
Glen
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