 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
An Extensive History of The Cannanes
|
Draft insert for CD version of Communicating |
GET IT TOGETHER
The CD art by Phoebe Besley in August was a triumph of design; and the 12" picture disc format (featuring original art and design by Andy Coffey) saw two pressings, good luck finding one! thanks to 555 Records of Leeds
Our old mate and occasional Cannane Greg Wadley helped us with the mixing and then Mastered it all for us at his front room in Melbourne.... more to this story later
The CD was released in October of 2000 by YoYoRecords of Olympia. Check out our cds page for info and reviews. Was also in October in beautiful 12" picture disc format (featuring original art by Andy Coffey) for two pressings, good luck finding one! thanks to 555 Records of Leeds.
12" version of Communicating with Art by Andy! |
MID-YEAR ~ FLAT OUT
Mid year we did a live to air on Sydney radio station FBI for our good friend Chris Wu and played a bunch of shows in Sydney and Melbourne, despit being flat-out getting the Communicating album together we also managed to get around to putting the finishing touches to the album Living the dream which we had begun work on back in late '98.
 |
Living the Dream A good rockin collection we recorded in Sydney. Also released in October 2000 and now into it's 2nd pressing courtesy Chapter records of Melbourne. Go to cds for more info and reviews or check out the April 2001 issue of Rolling Stone for a critics review.
Oh yeah, and the William c/w Miserable 7" - and the Electro 2000 CD/EP (also released in October 2000)... Phew...
New Jersey, just before or after our WFMU live to air |
OCTOBER US TOUR
To celebrate the October releases of Communication at an unknown rate CD/LP and Living the dream CD and the Electro 2000(aka Insound) EP... we returned to the US for an East Coast tour with Guy Blackman on bass and Stewart Anderson on drums + numerous guests including Chris Coyle from UK. band Empress and Mary Wyer from Australian band Even As we Speak.
We didn't keep a tour diary for some strange reason ( seems everyone assumed someone else was doing it! ) so we'll have to collectively rack our brains and try and remember some stuff and slot it in here some time in the future. The tour consisted of eight dates starting in Easthampton MA and ending at The Galaxy Hut Arlington VA.
We do however have an archived live to air we did for New Jersey station WFMU mid tour on the 16th of October. You can listen to it online if you have RealPlayer or something of the sort. Many thanks to Douglas Wolk for arranging the session and archiving it. To listen click Rhubarb cake.
CANNANES.COM: THE BEGINNING
2001 began with perhaps our hugest project since we published our book, we finally registered the domain cannanes.com which is now the "official" Cannanes website, bringing together our old darnet site run by our dear friend Jerome Gaynor of St Louis for a good long while, & our homepage.com site set up in 2000 as a testing ground for our website skills. It should also be mentioned here (if it hasn't elsewhere) that the first Cannanes website was set up and maintained by Neil Johnson on a very early Australian band specific site called Wood & Wire many years ago.
Stew & Fran hard at work on the new album March 2001 |
The new website was cleverly designed by our own Andy Coffey, and is maintained by Cannanes past and present (and you too!). We should also thank here David Major from Melbourne who provided hosting for the site throughout 2001 + helped us get it up and running by ourselves in 2002.
In May we recorded live in our kitchen for a "Live to air" which was broadcast on the Osmosis programme on 2SER (107.3 FM) here in Sydney.
Meanwhile back in Sydney mastering was completed for the Crank it up! Live in Frisco CDEP as well as The Cannanes with Explosion Robinson and Steward! Felicity EP, work also continued on the new album (working title - Nobody Loves an Albatross).
Frances in Tian'anmen |
In May Frances had the honour to visit China and experienced rather extraordinary hospitality...
 |
JULY
We returned to the U.S. to play The Yoyo A Go Go Festival in Olympia (WA) and the San Francisco Pop Fantasy and decided to add a few extra shows to justify the distance travelled! Shows took in: Olympia, Seattle, San Francisco & Portland as well as a couple of live to airs in San Francisco . [ we hope to provide a more detailed account of this mini-tour some time in the not too distant future...].
 |
Some highlights were hanging out with mates old and new everywhere; our live to air for Mitch Lemay on KFJC in Los Altos, (he also interviewed us for a 5 hour! Cannanes special which went to air on New Years Eve ie. Dec 31st); attending a bonfire at Ocean beach SF; attending most of the YoYo festival; getting close to glaciers at Mt Rainier; discovering Long Island iced teas in San Francisco and weird peach concoctions in Portland; a musical feast in Walnut Creek; sighting the Seattle Troll; a skunk, marmots and chipmunks, and, as always getting home to our beds (a huge thanks to everyone who offered us theirs on our travels).
Also on our return we were delighted to receive a package from one M. S. of Melbourne which included 10 cassette tapes of 18! of our Melbourne performances, which must be most if not all of them, guess this means the live album is even more likely to eventuate some time. Thanks M.S. you have certainly earned a place in our Roll of Honour.
ROCKUMENTARY
Some time around September we were approached to take part in the filming of a Rockumentary on The Cannanes, that's right documentary! and it's looking to be a pretty comprehensive one as well - the producers completed a 35minute edit which had some public screenings in recent years, and a 50 minute version around 2006 for planned DVD release which hasn't yet happened... looks like it may need some updating if/when this eventuates. In the meantime anyone who is interested in participating in the updated version... eg. with reminiscences, photographs, or any live footage ( and we know there is a fair bit of it out there! ) you can still contact us and we can put you in contact with the producers Neil, Thomas & Molly.
We all watched with horror the devastation in New York and Washington and Afghanistan. All we could hope was that there be no further killings. thanks to J Neo Marvin for the following thoughts; "They love explosions 'cause they never get burned." X-tal, "Happy Americans" Dear friends, Back around 1985, at the height of the Reagan years and as the Hollywood action movie began to reach new heights of pyrotechnical fabulousness, I wrote the song quoted above. At the time, I meant to make a point about how easy it is for Americans to talk casually about bombing one country or another because for generations we have been fortunate enough to have been almost completely spared from the reality of war within our own borders. Now that we are still reeling from yesterday's events, I hope that one thing we take away from this awful experience is the inability to ever again see an explosion anywhere without wondering who was in it, what their lives were like, and who they left behind. If the anonymous delusional fascists who committed these crimes accomplished anything besides damaging the Bill of Rights and the Palestinian cause beyond recognition, I hope they have given us a vivid reminder that war is something more than cool special effects and flashing blips on a video screen. Also Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez's son Greg is one of the Trade Center victims. > Copy of letter sent to NY Times:> > Not in Our Son's Name> |
HIT & RUN
Our October 5 show at the Vic on the park turned out to be lots of fun but not without it's hitches..........We were waiting for Andy to arrive so we could head down the venue when we got word he (and Kirsty!) were the victims of a hit and run! Turns out they were hit by a car (with a personalized number plate we're not sure we can divulge right here) as they were half way across a pedestrian crossing! The good news is they were both ok once the bruises subsided.
After Andy gave us the green light to go ahead with the gig we realized we needed a drummer or it was going to be a bit to "unplugged" for our liking. Luckily Bon from El Mopa was willing and able to help us out; we didn't realize it on the night but Bon would be 'helping us out' for some time to come! Later that night: thanks to a rowdy and supportive crowd, a generous rider, and fine entertainment provided all by Founder & Box Freezer Romance who we hadn't heard before, the evening that had started out unexpectedly stressful turned out to be a corker.
On October 20th our Stew tied the knot with our Jen and from what we hear it was a pretty wild and enjoyable affair. For their honeymoon they headed down to Australia where they of course did much gigging as well as well as releasing a truckload of records, check out the wedding song on our mp3s page if it's still there.
|
NOVEMBER
We participated in the filming of a video clip for the song "You Name It" to coincide with the release of the album Trouble seemed so far away, you can now see the finished clip on our videography page.
Chapter 10.6 The Cannanes |
Our old mate Bob Blunt had his eagerly awaited book released by Melbourne publishers Prowling Tiger Press - we congratulate Bob on this huge tome a bit of a must for anyone who was into the Sydney or Melbourne scenes from the early 80's to early 90's in particular. The book includes many interviews and recollections as well as tons of very fine and funny photographs & flyers. And for us best of all for us we get our own chapter! 10.6
To help Bob with his ongoing celebration of the book being so well received we performed at a launch at the Vic on the Park Hotel in Enmore on 28th DECEMBER 2001. It was our last show for the year and Stew managed to join us on-stage direct from the UK after arriving in the country about 2 hours earlier! It was also a farewell to Bob who was heading off to live in distant Melbourne.
5 HOUR CANNANES NEW YEARS EVE BROADCAST EPIC!
(we didn't have much notice of this but hopefully some of you had a chance to tune in - thanks to California radio station kfjc and in particular the wonderful Mitch LeMay)
DECEMBER 31, 2001 from 2-7:pm Mitch LeMay http://www.kfjc.org/netcast.html presents "LIVING THE DREAM - THE CANNANES SPECIAL" The songbook and stories of Sydney, Australia's inimitable indie pop legends (pioneers of DIY) from the earliest recordings to the latest releases (AJAX, YOYO, K, 555 RECORDS, etc.). Interview and commentary from Fran Gibson and Stephen O'Neil, plus Stewart Anderson. Rarities on record and an exclusive live performance recorded @ KFJC 89.7 FM in July 2001. Cannanes giveaways of CDs and vinyl celebrating 15 years of a band - and a genius for simplicity.
In FEBRUARY the legendary LOW asked that we support them for a couple of dates on their Australian tour. We wholeheartedly thanks them for that. We were somewhat daunted + a little excited to be playing such salubrious venues but had great nights in both Melbourne and Sydney. Low really are masters of their genre and along with their sound engineer Chris swell to hang out with.
MARCH was hectic but enjoyable - we managed to play Melbourne + twice in Sydney + make a start on a new album with Explosion (our NY member/writer/producer/genius) who joined us on our jaunts for a couple weeks + squeezed in some much needed holls at both the South and North coasts of New South Wales. We played Vic on the Park here in Sydney, it was, as always a hoot (and extremely well attended) thanks to Box Freezer Romance for asking us + our other Stateside visitor Neil Michka for helping us achieve that Blue Oyster Cult guitar lineup ! Also in March we had our Sydney launch for the Felicity CD which was getting some decent airplay on Melbourne radio station 3RRR as well as in Sydney on 2SER.
 |
Special guests on the night were the very smooth Sounds Like Sunset and the rarely seen A Goldstar Secret. We had the room looking beautiful thanks to Wadey who helped out on slides and lights, thanks also to Greg Wadley for flying up from Melb to pull a great mix and add keyboards from the comfort of the mixing desk. Thanks also to Katherine for shakering and congrats to the winners of the always popular "what is the worst Beatles song" quiz.
The Melbourne launch the Friday before was a lot of fun, we had a roisterous time on stage and as always nice to be at everyone's favourite Melbourne venue The Empress - tanks to Tugboat and Boyracer for limbering up the audience for us.
APRIL - JULY
Trouble seemed so far away was released on the Slabco label in the U.S. on Tuesday the 21st of May by which time the first pressing had already SOLD OUT in advance orders |
Fran and Stephen visit China and Melbourne, accidents, illness, shows + more accidents.
 |
AUGUST
The CD compilation all's fair in love and chickfactor was released and charted very well in the US - bands included on this comp were: low, the magnetic fields, dump, the pacific ocean, the clientele, gilmore tamny .. the list goes on and on. Our contribution was a stripped back mix of our song Astra; we never did get to the bottom of why this happened but our track appeared on the compliation twice! - we were hoping this would result in two Royalty Cheques! |
OCTOBER
To celebrate the Australian release of Trouble seemed so far away, on our own Lamingtone label, we began to play a series of shows on some less familiar stages; that we collectively referred to as the"Trouble seemed so far away tour".
In Sydney work continued on finishing off some songs for various compilation releases and the next album + preparing to launch our own Lamingtone record label!- we heard the chickfactor compilation was released in the States (our contribution being an alternate version of Astra), we travel to Katoomba to play two sets at the wonderful old Gearin Hotel for the launch of Trouble on Lamingtone, much fun + dancing was had by all and we got a taste of what it's like to play two long sets again (a taste to play three long sets! )( hey thanks to James and Brian for getting us up there).
BEST ALBUM OF 2002?
At the end of November National radio network 'triple J' placed You Name It from the new album on high rotation! + add it to their 'net 50' where it remained till some time around the Easter Long Weekend - As well as remaining on the 'net 50' Trouble was also a contender for triple J album of the year ~ the results seem to have slipped past us at this stage! Even stranger! Trouble was also featured! on the Radio National - Night Club programme - bizarrely sharing the spotlight with Meatloafs' Bat Out of Hell album - go figure!
Nov 29 we travel to Melbourne to launch the Trouble album at Rob Roy Inn with double-special guests, the recently re-formed Small World Experience and the twin Sitar onslaught of The Hi God people.
YOU NAME IT
In November our You Name It clip was completed and placed on our website for add free viewing.
|
You Name It - the video!
If you would like to view it just click here and you will be transported to our video archive |
KURTS JOURNALS
First we heard rumours - then we got hold of a copy!
"these are some of the Bands I like." ~ page 229 of Kurt Cobains Journals - published in November 2002 |
DECEMBER
Sydney album launch at our fave Sydney venue The Hotel Hollywood was packed to the rafters and very fun - then mid Dec we managed to make it down to Wollongong for the first time in a while and played to by far our largest turnout there at The Oxford Tavern.
About this time Trouble was added to the triple Js album of the year list !
Fran (who from July till December relocated to Melbourne - place of her birth) threw herself back into all the "Riviera of the south" had to offer - and supplied as promised a short series of Melbourne scene reports which have now been archived on the Fran vanity page our song You Name It remained on high rotation on National Radio station triple J.
END OF PART-SEVEN :
In September 2003 we returned to Japan for a string of shows in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka & Kyoto and had a very fine time doing it! Many photos + some video and fairly extensive diaries were kept ~ check it out in History Part Eight
 |
