I agree with everything of Lee Hazelwood

Letztes Wochenende habe ich einem sehr guten Konzert beigewohnt. Zwei der drei Bands, die da in meinem Lieblingsschnapsloch gespielt haben, kamen aus Australien. MIDNIGHT SCAVENGERS und FRAUD BAND, beide aus Melbourne, haben mit den Berliner Noise-Rock-after-Punk-Rockern DEAD SENTRIES einen ziemlich stimmigen und abwechslungsreichen Abend gestaltet.
Also Australien: Toll.

Ich war noch nie in Australien. Hat sich nie so ergeben. Für jemanden, der noch nie in Australien war, kenne ich allerdings recht viele Bands von da unten. Das sollte man nicht als selbstverständlich hinnehmen. Ich war ja auch noch nie in Kasachstan. Oder in der Mongolei. Aber mongolische oder kasachische Bands kenne ich viel weniger als australische. Nun muss ich aber sagen, dass australische Pop/Rockbands im Laufe der Jahrzehnte hierzulande immer präsenter waren als welche aus Kasachstan. Oder der Mongolei. INXS und Midnight Oil kennt jeder. Das mongolische Pendant zu INXS ist mir bisher noch nicht untergekommen. Und das kasachische zu Midnight Oil eben auch nicht. Davon abgesehen fallen mir spontan elf australische Bands, die sehr gut sind. Hard-Ons. Dirty Three. The Saints. The Trilobites. TISM. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Pisschrist. Cosmic Psychos. The Living End. Snake Oil Charmers. Jet. Ok, ja, wir nehmen auch noch AC/DC dazu. Also zwölf.

Und eben die eine Band, um die es im Folgenden geht. THE BEASTS OF BOURBON. Beste Blues-Punk-Swamp-Rock-Combo überhaupt. Warum wird es im Folgenden um THE BEASTS OF BOURBON gehen?

Als mir nämlich gewahr wurde, dass ich am letzten Samstag ein Konzert mit zwei australischen Bands veranstalten würde, musste ich an jenes BoB-Interview denken, das in Renfield Nr. 19 erschienen ist. Lange her, in der Tat.
Aber zu schön, um es als Datei auf irgendeiner Festplatte dahinrotten zu lassen.
Nach mehrmaligem Lesen und aus der Distanz von ungefähr sieben Jahren muss ich sagen: Da hätten wir einiges anders machen können. Aber andererseits wäre es dann wohl nicht so lustig geworden. So rau belassen und nur zart von schlappen elf Seiten Skript auf sechs im Heft redigiert bekommt dieses Gespräch im Rückblick einen wunderbaren Hörspielcharakter. Vielleicht machen wir das nochmal.

Außerdem sind der Herr Nals und ich auch ein bisschen stolz drauf, das letzte Interview mit den BEASTS OF BOURBON geführt zu haben, bevor sie sich erst mal aufgelöst haben. So steht’s zumindest im englischsprachigen Wikipedia-Artikel. Haben uns natürlich auch mal gefragt, ob unsere damalige unkonventionelle Interviewführung ihren Anteil daran hatte. Aber ehrlich, damit haben wir absolut nichts zu tun. Total unverständlich, wie man sich nach DIESEM Interview als australische Rocklegende auflösen kann. Das folgende Intro gehörte zum Originalabdruck in Renfield Nr. 19. Zur besseren Darstellung der Interviewsituation lassen wir es einfach drin. Wenn alle durcheinandergequatscht haben, wurde das mit - kenntlich gemacht

Irgendwann, als wir den U-Bahnhof am Platz der Luftbrücke verlassen und am Flughafen Tempelhof entlang schleichen, beginnt diese kleine Diskussion. Darüber, was wir eigentlich machen, wenn Tex Perkins nicht da ist. Wir sind sehr gut vorbereitet, Herr Nals um einiges besser als ich, schließlich ist er der Experte für die Beasts of Bourbon und kennt alle ihre Platten. Kennt sie nicht nur, sondern wurde maßgeblich von ihnen musikalisch sozialisiert. Ich bin da ja eher der BoB-Laie, kann aber mittlerweile auf ihre Version von „Psycho“ (im Original von Leon Payne) und einige andere Knaller von ihnen nicht mehr verzichten.

Als wir auf die Frage kommen, was wir machen, wenn Tex P. beim Interview nicht zugegen sein wird, sind wir etwas von Ratlosigkeit befallen. Nicht, dass wir den vier anderen nicht zutrauen würden, ein gutes Interview abzugeben, aber die Fragen sind eigentlich auf eine Interviewsituation mit Mr. Perkins zugeschnitten.
Natürlich kommt es so, wie wir kurz zuvor gedacht haben – alle Beasts sitzen für uns im hinteren Teil des Tourbusses bereit – bis auf Tex Perkins. Der ist irgendwo anders. Vielleicht was essen oder eine rauchen. Oder er hängt vielleicht mit Toody und Fred von DEAD MOON, ich meine, den PIERCED ARROWS rum, die heute Abend ja auch spielen. Vielleicht hat er einfach schon zu viele Interviews gegeben und nimmt sich die Freiheit, mal eins auszulassen. Nehmen wir uns also die verbleibenden vier vor. Die sehen etwas verknautscht aus. Ähnlich verknautscht ist auch ihr australischer Akzent, aber was anderes würde auch gar nicht passen.

Spencer Jones (SJ): Is this a cigarette lighter?
Herr Nals (HerrN) That’s the recorder. This is your last gig of your European tour because you cancelled Oslo. Why?
Charlie Owen (CO): It’s a bit hard. There was meant to be a gig between here and there and ... in Copenhagen ... in Gothenburg ... it didn’t get confirmed and the hack was to get enough money for the bus to get there and back.
SJ: We risk loosing money if we go to Oslo. And it’s a shame because Carl, the promoter, is a good friend of ours.
HerrN: You played in Mallorca also which is usually a fun place in summer where many German tourists that are very infamous for not behaving well ...
SJ: The English go there and do the same fuckin’ thing.
Gary (G): And the Germans and the English always fight for the best place at the pool with their towels...
SJ: I know! And there were five Australians there and did exactly the same thing and did downgrade the opinion of their country. If the English can insult everybody here and the Germans can insult everybody here the WE can insult everybody here! But they liked us, we were on their local TV show ...

HerrN: So it was not an unusual gig somehow?
SJ: It seemed like that when we arrived, but now it’s just like another. It could have been anywhere in Spain. There are some good Bands in Spain too, you know? There’s a lot of Rock’n’Roll going on there all the time.
HerrN: Why did you cancel your last European tour in autumn 2007? We were awaiting you in Vienna but you didn’t come.
CO: It was not quite organized properly. So we said: you organize it properly and we’ll come back and they sorted it out for us and so we came back. Well, we got the coach. We’re still recovering from that ... from that loss of income.
SJ: Why didn’t we go? There was no money in it.

HerrN: Am I mistaken or is there in Australia a very strong tradition to like the slide-playing guitar?
SJ: No, I think the Americans have a very strong tradition to like the slide-playing. We don’t have it anymore. Every fuckin’ man and his dog plays fuckin’ slide. When we were playin’ slide guitar in 1993 nobody was playin’ slide guitar except some Americans. Now everybody. Two-piece, one-piece, one-man-band, two-piece ...
HerrN: Rose Tattoo had it from the very beginning also.
CO:Yeah, sure. That’s Peter Wells. That’s a different ... Peter Wells is dead. As we all will be ...

HerrN: Lee Hazelwood made a great song with a guy, with Bela B., who is very famous in Germany. It is about the point, that the first song of the day, you hear isn’t always the best one. Do you agree with that?
CO: I agree with everything of Lee Hazelwood.

HerrN: Maybe, we’re gettin’ a little bit closer to that. f it wasn’t for the music would you have survived the 80s and if yes how?
- Aaah, yes, I’d say I would have gone back to architecture.
- Hang on. Maybe no. Did music save us?
- No ... music fucked us up in the 80’s.

HerrN: If you say life is about winning and maybe even a bit more about losing what do you think about the Olympic motto that participating is everything? The question of life: Is participating everything?
CO: Oh, the Olympic connection again. I feel qualified to answer that. I represented Australia in the Olympic marathon. Carrying the flame along the Thessalonici beach. It’s on youtube. I was actually running with a little girl in a wheelchair who was holding the torch. Anyway. What was the question again?
Tony Pola (TP): Oh christ, don’t ask me! I think so; I think that’s true. You should participate in everything.
- No, win!
- Participate!
- Win!
- In order to win you have to participate.
SJ: Charlie is a total winner. Me and Tony we are participants.

HerrN: What do you think Tex is?
SJ: Tex is a very successful artist in Australia.
- So we hate him!
- What was the question?

HerrN: You played at the Sidney Rock For Rights Festival against the Industrial Relations laws of the former government.
TP: No, I refused to do that!
SJ: They’re gone now. We got rid of them. This fuckin Nazi fuckin government is gone. Well, there’s a lot of people in Australia that disagreed with them and fuckin’ got rid of them.
TP: These guys were workin’ all of their lives.
CO: I never worked a fuckin day of my fuckin life.
SJ: Your job is curator of [...] gallery.
CO: Aah! That’s not workin’. That’s standin’ around and pointin’ ... It was about worker’s rights. And we got that government that stripped all these rights and pay and sick benefits and blablablabla. And the right to .... without raise. So there was a big concert in Quicker Ground with a bunch of bands. A union kinda political movement thing.
HerrN: Like Thatcher did in the 80’s ... Once you were asked why there is a new Beasts Of Bourbon-album after nine something years now and Tex answered: “Because we are a curse!” But if that’s so: Who sent you? Who do you aim at with that curse and are you cursed yourself?

CO: The curse affects us; it’s not aimed at the outside world ... that’s about the collective we’re in.
SJ: I don’t think we’re cursed. I know some of us are jinxed.
CO: Sometimes it feels like that. It cannot be spoken about it while you’re here [?], you know.

HerrN: If music was a garden, what kind of vegetable or fruit would the Beasts Of Bourbon be?
- Potatoes.
- Parsley.
- Death lily.
- All the major food groups are represented in the Beasts Of Bourbon.
HerrN: So one is the potato, one is the cucumber ... is that what you’re saying’?
G.: So, you’re some kinda salad?!
- No.
- Something like that.
G.: You’re the Beasts Of Salad?
TP: A fruity salad. You can’t disappoint Irish stew radishes and say that’s my favorite.
- We appreciate everything that has gone down in the garden.
- No, not everything.
- Ask that question again.
- See if you can get a different answer.

HerrN: What was the last good record that you found?
TP: The 500 meters backstroke at the 2000 Olympics ... oh, record! I think the Burlingtons [?] latest album is my favorite.
CO: They supported the Beasts, OK. This all got a Beasts connection. The last one I enjoyed was Kim Salmon and Ron Peno’s new record.
SJ: Fiery Furnaces, Amy Winehouse...
Brian Hooper (BH): Boris Sujdovics is my latest acquisition. The ex-bass-player of the Beasts has a solo record.

HerrN: You played in Vienna a couple of days ago. How was it?
CO: Fantastic. The best! They love us in Vienna. I think, they think we’re Austrian but...
BH: Vienna has always been the same, it has always been strong for us.
SJ: We have friends there.
G.: Did you play with the Pierced Arrows?
- No, a Viennese band.
- Wolfgangfinger ... Rewolfinger
- cooky [?] stuff.
SJ: They covered one of our songs on their record “The Hate Inside”.

HerrN: There is a very famous German Rock-musician, Udo Lindenberg...
G.: Do you actually know German Rock-musicians?
BoB: Some. Blixa Bargeld, Alex Hacke. Nena. Scorpions. "Dai Toten Hosen". Absturzende Brieftauben. Can. Kastrierte Philosophen.
G.: Udo Lindenberg is a quite old guy and he’s wearing always the same hat, for years…
SJ: Now, this is my advice. You must get rid of the hat every couple of years. Very important thing. Anyway, what’s the question?
HerrN: The question is; I’m citing Udo Lindberg who said: “All those young folks in their grey suits that seem to be test-lying in the coffin already during their lifetime you gotta oppose them with Rock’n’Roll.” Can you relate to that? BH: I understand what he’s sayin’ but I don’t think it’s one way or the other. I think that some people who test-drive for the grave play Rock’n’Roll too.

G.: In my opinion, he is referring to all the Emo-kids ...
TP: That’s Rock’n’Roll. It’s all fuckin’ Rock’n’Roll.
HerrN: You think so? I think, he’s talking about bank clerks ...
SJ: Just see, Pierced Arrows, they are 60 now...
BH: Rock’n’Roll has been around for nearly 60 years now. Of course there’s gonna be old Rock’n’Rollers.
- Next!

G.: I just know some old Australian Punk bands. Can you tell me if they still exist? What about Bored? Are they still around?
SJ: Kind of. They are actually doing a gig soon with the original line-up, except maybe Buzz won’t do it but I think they’re gonna try and make that happen. Dave Thomas’s band just recently broke up so he’s not doin’ shit, he’s painting. John Nolan, the original guitarist from the Bored is playing in my group at the moment. Well, it is not like Bored. It’s songs but he makes them sound great.
G.: Do you know this record with the 24 versions of Stairway to heaven? There is this one version of Rolf Harris. Do you know if he is still alive?
BH: I was born where he was born. I lived down the river. He’s in London. He’s from Perth where these two guys are from. He used to swim outside my parent’s house in the river.
SJ: In the 60s. But he’s an old man. I mean real old. Older than this. That album was a marketing idea somebody gave to him that he made a lot of money out of. A well-known speed-painter. In three minutes he can paint something really good.
G.: So he makes a lot of pictures a day.
HerrN: At least he got cool working’ hours. If you make one picture a day you work for three minutes and then you take the rest of the day off.
G.: And a picture a day keeps the doctor away...
CO: Did you guys smoke the joint or did we?

HerrN: Usually you would ask bands about their future plans. But I sense that this is a bit difficult with the Beasts of Bourbon. Is it possible to ask the Beasts Of Bourbon about their future plans or is it just like when you’re in the mood or when you’re in the same town...
SJ: What we’re planning is like getting home tomorrow. That’s our latest plan. We’re working on it as we speak.
CO: The Beasts just seem to slumber for a while, then wake up again. You know, when all the wounds have healed up and all the scars have settled down and the rashes have gone away ...
BH: I heard Tex describe it once as getting your old car out of the garage for a Sunday drive. I like that one.
HerrN: So which car would that be?
SJ: 55 DeSoto. Chrome shark’s teeth on the front
- ... a smashed up one.
- 63 Chrysler Royal.

HerrN: The last song of your current album is a “Thank You”-song. You’re thanking somebody for many things and right now almost after the tour, do you have the feeling that you have to thank somebody?
TP: Not at all.
SJ: That song is ironic. Irony. Brian, you’re very good explaining irony.

HerrN: It was kind of irritating on the homepage about the annoncement of the gig. Your name was the third one. I think everybody knows that Dead Moon somehow retired. That’s what you could read on the homepage. Nobody knows the name Pierced Arrows. So, you are the headliners today, right?
SJ: A lot of people don’t know about the Pierced Arrows. People who are Dead Moon-fans don’t know it. The guy was saying that if it was Dead Moon advertised there would probably be 800 people there. But no one knows they exist and they’ve started again from scratch.
- We still have our brand name a little bit of dignity. Not much, just enough.
G.: I wonder if they will only play Dead Moon-songs.
SJ: No, they play a lot of different things. They played this version of Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul” which I didn’t recognize till right near the end. Perhaps they do maybe “54/ 40 or Fight” in the encore. Maybe two or three. It’s good to see them again. Those fabulous 60-year-old husband and wife. They’re a great jewel.

Text: Gary Flanell, Hr. Nals