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Life As A CHOIRBOY With MARK GABLE · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hi, I'm Mark Gable from Choir Boys and I'm introducing myself and you know,
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  let's get heavy baby, how he is the only way to go.
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  Mark, thanks to join us today. Thanks for having me, Chris,
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  much appreciated, mate, My pleasure for our old mates. Now this is
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  the second time in six weeks. It's almost like a relationship. Well it
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  is, you know, and it's like it's like a marriage, you know,
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  and it's like we've had or maybe ten children and you know, the
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  horse twice, several houses. Yeah, it's gone. Well, good dear,
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  the happiest I've beat in my life. Mate, thank you, Yeah,
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  goody. I'm here. I'm here to help. Five Boys have announced
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  the run of shows called Why Boys The Stories of Australian Rock and Roll,
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  which debut is in Wagga Wagga on October twenty eight and runs for almost twelve
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  months through New South Wales and Victoria before finishing in Queensland next October. Like
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  that's a long stretch on the road, brother, Well it is, but
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  it's I think it's considering the condition of the Australian music industry at the moment
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  and how I feel about doing pubs and all the rest of it, and
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  it was Tim Friedman I was talking to with the area was Tim, you've
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  inspired me. He goes, how can I go, you know, blow
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  up the pokeyser. I just don't want to do pubs anymore because all they
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  do is have people go in and gamble, you know. And of course
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  the Pokis was about the Whitnam's bass player who ended his own life because he
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  gambled and he couldn't deal with it anymore, and that's why the song was
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  written and so and Tim goes, that's a bit extreme, isn't it,
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  Mart you having to so I was just thinking, I'd rather do interesting things,
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  you know. So hence we're doing lots of festivals and stuff, and
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  the theater show is part and parcel of that because I don't know, I
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  just I think that rather than just reuterrate the same old same, i'd,
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  you know, rather make it interesting. And the theater shows at the beginning
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  of that, you know, telling you know, the stories that were the
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  stuff that we've seen on the road and the things that have happened, the
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  legendary stuff, and talk about that, you know, in the theater show,
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  and also celebrate the music that we've seen which still exists, but a
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  lot of the bands have come and gone and and you know, it's a
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  different world out there now, and so I wanted to celebrate the way it
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  was. Actually I'm enjoying a new world, you know, the uh,
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  the the internet world of of of new Australian bands who are breaking all over
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  the world. Be course of what we have now, which are very difficult
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  in the past. It's an interesting concept of theater show mate, Like I
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  did something recently with Akadaka, an ac DC tribute band, where they did
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  theater shows telling the story of the band and performing songs live. But the
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  big difference here is it's actually you guys are telling your own story and going
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  along with it. So it's not like second hand information. Yeah, well,
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  you know, it's we're we're we're we're telling our own side of things
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  and the stories you know that you know, whether it's a c DC you
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  know, Rose Tattoo, uh, you know, the Angels and all the
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  rest of it. We're talking about the way that we've seen the Australian music
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  industry and you know part of it, you know, the international music industry
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  coming over here back in the day. Yeah, and so has the whole
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  process, mate, Like you go, you're going to be playing live on
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  the night or is it pre recorded music? Oh no, no, it's
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  all live, you know, so the band is actually playing live, you
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  know, like uh, you know, whether it's a dragon song and whatever,
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  you know, and it's all the songs that we grew up with and
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  that influenced us. And we only talk about the artists we like. We
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  don't talk we don't talk about the acts that we don't like a lot of
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  them as well, but we don't mention them. So just just to get
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  it, say, you're not just performing five Boys songs, you be performing
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  songs from other bands as well. Yeah, yeah, we you know,
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  we do choir boys songs, but we don't do that many, and they're
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  usually relating to, uh, the artists that we've known of the circumstances that
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  you know that we were involved with. You know, for instance, Rose
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  Tattoo, we actually did backing vocals on one of their albums just for a
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  bit of a joke. You know, don't ask me which album. I
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  can't remember. And you know, so you know, we were there when
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  they were doing their thing, and they were there when we were doing out
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  there, and you know, same with the Angels and all the rest of
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  it. So it's kind of it makes sense, if not a tribute,
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  that we should play their music, you know, because it's always been there
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  well. And interestingly enough, Angels Rose that too were recorded, all that
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  early stuff was recorded in the same studio the Choir Boys recorded our first album
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  back in nineteen eighty three. So I've taken there's going to be narration in
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  between the music. So is that going to be done live on the night
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  by one of you guys do or is that going to repat It's all live,
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  you know, and it's all me talking about my interpretation and our interpretation
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  of the things that we've seen. And some of the stories are tragic,
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  some of the stories are hilarious, some of the stories are dirty, some
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  of the stories are angry, and you know, some of the stories are
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  just risk guay. Yes, So it's I mean, it's not everything we've
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  seen Backstone, but you know, there's a lot of stuff that we you
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  know, you can't really talk about, you know, like, oh,
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  there they were, you know, they only just met ten minutes ago and
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  they're trying to have babies, you know, so we don't really talk about
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  that so much, but you know it gets into that a little set the
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  scene for us, mate, Like I'm assuming it starts with the birth of
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  the band in nineteen seventy eight, Well it's it starts, yeah, like
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  when we were first on tour with Ted Mullery Gang, and you know,
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  that's the first story that I talk about, and it was really our introduction
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  to rock and roll on the road. You know, we'd never been on
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  the road with a accepted, successful Australian rock and roll band and that was
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  the first time we went out to Orange and we considered it a tour and
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  so much happened on that little tour that you know, that's where it starts,
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  and then it moves through progressively, you know, from you know into
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  Drag and even though I met Dragon before I met tamg and you know,
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  the first stories of my interactions with Paul from from Dragon keyboard Player and you
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  know his wonderful behavior toward me. But I won't tell you what the stories
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  are. You have to go to the show to see it. Did you
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  actually have you kept diaries all these years to remind you about these stories made
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  or is it all from memory? Now and it's like I've actually got a
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  shocking memory. But Lindsay Tebbitt, who passed away, our original drummer passed
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  away a couple of years ago. He had a great memory. So he
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  would reiterate the stories and say that this happened and that happened. And you
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  know, like the Michael Chug story that I talk about, And if you
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  don't know who Michael Chug is, he was probably Australia's most Australia's most successful
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  promoter back in the in the eighties going into the nineties and still doing it.
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  And so you know, it's like the happenstance is that we moved through
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  history and life and we eventually run into deal with these people. And the
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  Michael Choked story is a very funny story. And you know, chugging it
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  if he heard it, he out, Ah, I never did that.
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  It's a lot of fuck a bullshit. You know, as a matter of
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  fact, you did because I was there as well, chugging Lindsay. Lindsay
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  reiterates the stories, reiterated the stories to me clearly and very precisely, you
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  know, with a great memory, and you know, you know, because
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  the stories were so funny and extreme. I didn't have any trouble remembering them
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  at all, you know, the iggy pop one which goes into what happened
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  backstage and all that kind of stuff. When the story was told to me,
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  I remember it as clear as a bell, you know, all right.
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  I wasn't there, but it was told to me by someone who was
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  there, speaking about the early days of Choir Boys. Mate, Like you
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  said, worn back in nineteen seventy eight. So it wasn't music your climate
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  like back then that gave birth to the band? And where did you fit
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  in back in the early days, Ah, you know it was. We're
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  on the northern beaches of Sydney, and so this is the usual, right.
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  You had you had moving pictures, right, you had midnight oil,
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  you had any excess, right, and you also had a band called oh
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  god, I've forgotten their name now, it'll come to me in the course
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  of it. But you know, you had these bands who were you know,
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  Matt Finish was another one, who were coming up and all over the
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  northern beaches of Sydney as well as all over Sydney, and so I guess
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  we were influenced by that. But mainly, you know, I I don't
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  know what we were going to do till I got a call from George Young,
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  you know, which I talk about in the show. George Young being
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  a vander and Young being from the Easy Beast and of course producing ac DC
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  Angels, Rose Tattoo and you know, George called me up and you know,
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  got me into Alberts, and you know, that's how we really got
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  into the rock and roll thing. So it was more these idiots from the
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  Northern Beaches who who went over to Alberts and went, oh, rock and
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  roll, this is amazing, you know, And so that really had a
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  big influence on us. Oh. I don't want to sort of ask too
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  many stories that will be in the show because I don't want to spoiler for
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  anybody. But your first big break was with the song Run to Paradise.
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  Now, a lot of people that's just a feel good, hackening sort of
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  up vibe beside the song, but there's actually it tells a bit more of
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  a serious story, doesn't it It does, you know. And I don't
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  talk about this in the show, but you know, one of the influences
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  for the song, and there were several, was a guy that I knew
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  in the seventies called Tony, and you know, this guy was super intelligent
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  and you know, very creative and very impressive. Anyway, he got high
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  on acid one day, right all night and was walking down Pittwater Road somewhere
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  naked, and he got arrested, right, and so they took him to
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  the Psite asylum at Ride whatever, and I went to visit him, right,
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  And I don't always admired Tony because the conversation I had with him was
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  incredible, and you know it was you know, because then we didn't have
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  much television. We certainly didn't have internet, so we had to you know,
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  had verbal intercourse, and you know, he was a great conversationalist.
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  And anyway, I'm standing over him and he looks up at me and goes,
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  I bet you think I'm a funck with don't you? And I go
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  pretty much, but like he was one of many, and I just go,
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  I couldn't understand it, but I go, well, we got everything
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  here on the Northern Beaches, aren't we. You know, nobody else to
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  struggle, Nobody thought about money, and there was none of that ship.
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  It was just you know, free life and the beach and bikinis and speedos
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  and beer and you know, but then there were all these guys that were
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  getting megastoned and you know, taken drugs and and they just seem to be
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  wasting their lives, and so I got you know, that was part of
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  the inspiration for the song, was that they really lived in paradise, but
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  they, like I didn't seem to be happy with it pretty much all.
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  Even like there's some of your newer songs that I heard it a kick Assie,
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  they're all they're not throwaway popcorns and the rock songs are they They've all
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  they've all pretty much got basis in reality and then stories. Yeah, well
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  it's funny. I listen to it now because I'm trying to get back into
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  writing, and I've really been inspired by Tame in Parlor because there's this guy
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  who lives in Perth who's got an act called tam and Parlor and it's just
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  him and you know, it's not everybody's cup of tea, but he just
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  sounds like he's just doing what he wants. And that's kind of inspired me
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  again because I listened to the old songs that have written over the years,
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  so and I go, how the hell did I do that, you know,
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  just all these words right, talking about different subject matters, you know,
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  and I go, that's really interesting. And particularly the lesser known albums
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  that we've done, I listened to lyrics and I go, wow, that's
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  really interesting. So I've been trying to get back to that, you know,
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  just letting it flow out thing, and I think that's what happened back
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  then. And it was just like talk about life, you know what I
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  used to see very much Psycholtis all used to do. It was like,
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  you know, it's like Don Walker would just write songs about, you know,
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  what he'd seen in Australia and you know, life in Australia. Inspirational
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  time. So I'm trying to get back to that. Obviously. Would actually
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  a bit of research just before the thing to say, what was it like
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  sort of going back through your career and relive in some of those moments.
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  Were there any cringe where the episodes? Was? Was it sort of was
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  it fun looking back at it? Was it nostalgia? It's look, it's
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  fun, you know, and it's like and I don't I don't really live
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  in the past, right because you know, you know, when the Internet
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  hit, I really embraced it. I'm a tech nut, you know,
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  and you can't see around here, but I've got like, you know,
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  there's there's year everywhere, right, you know, and it's like all this
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  audio gear and internet gear and what have you. And I just love it,
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  right, But I don't think that I've embraced it like a lot of
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  the younger artists have. But I didn't live I'm not living in the past
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  going oh, you know, I miss the pubs, and you know,
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  I miss people going to the pubs and that was the that's gone. But
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  the times thinking back about it, we're just you know, just amazing that
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  you know, all these people used to go there and they'd make their future
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  ex wives and future ex husbands in the pubs, right and you know,
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  there there'd be these bands or artists writing original songs back then, not like
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  it is now where there's like a duo or a cover act or a tribute
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  band in there. And like I said before, or a local artists are
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  breaking overseas, like you know Red Hook or a Central Coast band, and
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  you know, little quirks and things like they're writing original music, but they're
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  not doing original music so much in the sense that we used to do it.
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  So I look back on those times and they were incredible. They got
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  to the Manly Vale Hotel, right and you know, midnight oil would have
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  been on and there was a line of people around the block waiting to get
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  in, right. You don't see that anymore. And the clothes they used
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  to wear, and you know, it's like the attitude of Australians with rock
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  and roll music and that romantic time was quite incredible. Great to be a
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  part of the subject. I guess may like you would have seen a long
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  period of sort of phases coming go in the industry. So what do you
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  think we can do to get it back to those days where people were lining
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  up to see live bands again? What can we do to get back We
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  won't get back to those days. Those days are gone. They've been replaced
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  by you know, a new scenario. Look at us. We're doing an
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  interview right through the internet, right and Chris, I don't even know where
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  you were, right and Chris, you don't even know where I am right,
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  so you know, and we were doing live streams from this very studio
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  during COVID and it's it's just getting back to that won't happen again. Except
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  when you think about all the performing bands, right, the great performing bands
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  that came out of that time. I'd love to see more of that,
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  you know, where you know the performance was, you know, like the
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  Angels back in nineteen seventy eight. We're talking nineteen seventy eight here right when
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  I first saw them, when I went, holy shit, this is Australia.
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  This is unbelievable. You know, it was like just the most amazing
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  thing. I'd love to see people still doing the entertaining thing like bands used
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  to back then, or artis used to back then. Will it get back
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  to that. I don't think it will, and I think that it's a
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  cultural thing. And also, you know, culture all over the world is
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  internet driven, and back in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties,
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  we will all going to the pub and invariably people started making music in pubs,
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  and I guess, I don't know why they started writing songs, you
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  know, they wanted to be the Beatles or I don't know whatever, and
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  they started writing about their lives. Fortunately, there are local acts that are
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  writing original music. You know, the Lazies for instance, another local band
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  up here, and you know, writing good songs, but I don't think
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  it's going to get back to that that time again. I think that's gone.
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  Well, that's said. Maybe well one things up. But where can
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  people find out more information about the stories of Australian rock and roll and get
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  tickets from bro Well if they go to Choirboys dot net they will that's choir
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  Boys one word dot that is a little dot and n e t they will
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  find out all the information. There's all the links to all the shows that
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  are coming up. And the next one is, well, when is it
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  Wogga or something? Hey, twenty eighth of October and Wagga Waga, Yeah,
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  yeah, yeah, Wagga Wogga you know so which is almost sold out.
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  It's I got to tell you, it's a great show. It's really
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  worthwhile seeing and it is very reflective and romantic. But go to Choirboys dot
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  net and don't buy your check it's today, Wait a couple of days,
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  right or even you know. I hate it when people go get your tickets
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  now? Why get a cow get him in a week, get him in
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  six months? Come on, Oh, been a pleasure speaking with your maid.
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  As for usual, I can't wait for you to get to Brisbane with
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  a show, or come down and check it out and catch up. Thanks
• 21:25
  a lot, Chris, be good to see your mate.