Credit: Found On Internet

This week bought to an end my first month in Melbourne, a week where things started to click into place and move in a promising and interesting direction. It was also the week I finally realised that the ‘Indie’ Circle in Melbourne is not very large and the degrees of separation very close indeed, and a little, shall we say, incestuous.

I have been attempting to fuse my passions for music and social change for the past few months, slowly working on songs, ideas and projects and Melbourne seems a place I can put that into operation. I attended another lecture in the ‘Art of Change’ www.whatson.rmit.edu.au series this week, which again reinforced the point in my mind (and so encouraging to hear people sharing the same view) that any message directed at the public needs to be accessible and enjoyable. In contrast Saturday saw a small but dedicated peace rally held in the city with the old guard left wing groups in attendance, talking vast amounts on the back of a truck and then shouting profusely whilst parading through the CBD. The small turnout reflected the dwindling interest of Joe Public in some contemporary Political issues and reinforced the need to keep the doors of just causes open and the message clear for the enquiring layman. After the rally I caught an afternoon set from The Conch (www.theconch.org), a 9 piece group who’s music may be laid-back, mellow and family friendly (if the children playing in front of the stage were anything to go by), but lyrically posses a strong, passionate and clever political streak.

The end of the week saw a mini residency at a secretive little venue called Gertrude’s. Thursday was the turn of the sparse instrumental epics of Readers Wives (www.myspace.com/readerswives1), and in the best tradition of such bands, the awesome noise they create emanates from a wiry three piece. Finishing the short two-band bill were Borkum Riff (www.myspace.com/borkumriffband), another three piece, but this time fairly straightforward, good fun Punk rock.

Friday saw, well, me (www.chinchilla-music.co.uk), footing the bill in my first solo show since I returned, I tried a lot of new material and all went pretty well, a good start to hopefully the first of many more. The brilliant Aleks and the Ramps (www.myspace.com/aleksandtheramps) followed with their eclectic sound and energetic stage show including x-rays, lounge lamps and synchronised dancing. Finally we were graced with the presence of the Faux French (strangely tthe third band I’ve seen with the ‘gimmick’) Les Fancy Boys (www.myspace.com/thefancyboys), the music was reminiscent of the Ramones, the stage costumes, backing films and phoney accents were not, quite how French they were is tenuous. Keeping a foot in Europe, I also faced a slab of ego soaked rock in the form of Ireland’s The Answer (http://www.theanswer.ie/), seemingly channelling every classic rock band form the past 4 decades, the crowd were in the bands hands, bearing more than a passing resemblance to a certain Australian rock band, one member of the audience was even heard to remark, “Welcome Home!”