Charisma is that elusive gift, a compelling charm which inspires devotion in others. Some people walk in the room and boom, all eyes fall on them, their presence is so powerful they dominant the space. Rock’n roll is full of these highly resonant humans, when you get around the top 1% of the talent pool it gets other worldly. When we opened for Johnny Winter, we were hanging out back stage, you could just feel that he was in the building, of course you know he is there somewhere but it is clear everyone is affected by his energy. It had a huge affect on all of the band when we got to see the man. After our set his manager gave us a glowing introduction and let us stand at the door of his dressing room and say hello, he looked our way and waved, no words. We knew he was going on stage soon so we hung out to watch him walk on.
They turned all the lights out back stage and then we saw the dressing room door open, his band leading the way out. His manager walked out of the room backwards holding a torch at the brim of Johnny’s hat. Johnny walked slowly with his hands held forward. For those of you who don’t know Johnny was albino and had 10 to 15 % vision. He was a very rare and powerful looking human being, we were all thrown into a kind of silent reverent shock at the sight before us ,he looked like he has risen from the crypt. He got to side stage and the manager helped him put his guitar on and he seemed to double in size and energy, then he turned toward the stage and off he went, he put on a fantastic high energy show. He was of a whole other level.
Meeting Peter Haycock of the Climax blues band was another interesting experience, it was at the Workers club in Canberra, they were a world class band and sadly nobody came. Before the gig Peter Haycock and the band walked into the empty room, Haycock he was a very handsome Englishman, he had a crazy orthopedic brace on his right fore arm and hand. He was quite a sight, he oozed a sophisticated cool, he was so comfortable in his own skin, he just looked like a super star. He casually walked up to us and started chatting, I asked him about his hand and he said he had fallen asleep when drunk on the plane over to Australia, he slept for hours with his hand in a upright position, the blood drained and his hand fell asleep big time. An orthopedic surgeon put the brace together for him in Perth, the brace had light sprung metal rods on each finger attached to the arm brace that helped his fingers move enough to pick the strings, he told us the band had just finished a big European tour and thought they’d come to Australia to unwind. Peter Haycock was one of the best guitarist I have ever seen play and he could also really sing. The Climax blues band were a brilliant modern blues band, they had such a contemporary take on the Blues and they played like the place was packed, they were awesome. Hanging out at the end of the night was such a blast as they were really cool relaxed people, in Europe where they playing to 20 or 30 thousand people every night and here they were at the Canberra Workers Club playing to a handful of people. Lucky us.
One of the more interesting greats we got to open for was the fabulous Doctor Feelgood, one of the great British R’n B bands. Along with my other heroes The Sensational Alex Harvey Band they were a huge influence on the generation that brought the world Punk Rock. Both these bands had a theatrical cartoonish image, Lee Brilleaux and Wilco Johnson were one of the great front/man axe man teams in rock music history. In the same vain as Alex Harvey and Zal Clemons and then Bon and Angus borrowed heavily and carried on this British tradition. By the time we opened for them Wilco Johnson had long gone off to become a Blockhead but that didn’t diminish the thrill of opening for them.
It was a packed night upstair in the ANU refectory, there was a really great vibe happening. By this stage we were in our groove and we slayed it. During the show Steve was doing his own shtick of flying around whilst playing a driving riff in the Big City Song, he lept so high he slammed his head into a steel girder and fell off stage, quite a hilarious thing to watch, he quickly regathered and bounced back on stage and we kept playing through it all, we didn’t miss a beat. He had quite a lump at the end of the night.
Back stage after Doctor feelgood finished their set there was a real party happening. Out of nowhere Lee Brilleaux came up and put his arm around my shoulders and said “You’ve really got it mate, that’s a big voice you have and you really have a great presence up there, you’re a fabulous band and I love the name, keep it up and who knows, you may make something of it”. The biggest compliment I’d ever received during my time and it was straight from one of my biggest heroes. I knew a bit about Dr Feelgood so I had a great chat with Lee about his band and career, they had a young guitar player with them, Johnny Guitar, who Lee said first auditioned for the band when he was 14 and they could have hired him then, he knew all of Wilco’s licks inside out. So when Gypie Mayo left they grabbed him, it was quite a night for us, quite a night for me.
But the one we enjoyed the most and the one that still brings a smile to our faces was the night we got to open for the Blues great Lonnie Mack at a packed Canberra Workers club. Lonnie Mack was a mentor to the great Stevie Ray Vaughn, along with Freddie and Albert King he was instrumental in the rise of virtuoso blues rock guitar soloing with early instrumental hits in the early sixties. A true Texas Blues giant. Unfortunately Lonnie missed our set but one of our local heroes didn’t, the great Gunther Gorman who had carved himself out a career as a guitar sideman with stints in Daddy Cool and Sherbert. Gunther loved what he saw and was all over Steve and his playing, he came out back after our set and told us so, it was a blast for us all as we had been watching Gunther do his thing for years and he was the real deal. Suddenly the door to the band room swung open and in walked the man himself, Lonnie Mack, he stood there and all the oxygen left the room and that reverent silence returned, the man had a huge cool presence. I couldn’t speak, Gunther broke the silence and told him he really missed out on seeing our set. Lonnie stood there and slowly, cooly looked us over, then in his cool Texan drawl responded with “y’all look like y’sound real good anyhow”.
Boom! Yes indeed,we’ll take that! Karazma!