PBS 106.7 FM • Member Magazine DECEMBER 2016 From The Vault Divide and Dissolve Cross Pollinate Be Suburban BRIAN NANKERVIS introduces THE LAST WALTZ REVISITED THE WAIFS EDDI READER (IRE) PAUL KELLY & CHARLIE OWEN COOKIN ON 3 BURNERS with TEX PERKINS & STELLA ANGELICO VIKA & LINDA THE WARSAW VILLAGE BAND (POLAND) GAWURRA YIRRMAL MELODY POOL KARMA COUNTY and many more TICKETS ON SALE NOW www.portfairyfolkfestival.com A Note from the General Manager Gender equality and representation have been While it’s important to look to the future, much in the news of late, and rightly so, from the it is also informative, not to mention heaps awfulness of Donald Trump’s recordings on that of fun, to celebrate the past. PBS has been bus to the announcement that the Australian systematically restoring old reel-to reel tapes Football League; bastion of blokiness, is that have languished out in the back storeroom, Adrian Basso with 2016 Radio Festival major prize winner, George Loram introducing a female competition – despair collecting dust and sometimes mould. Among and excitement in unequal measure from them are many gems that are being prepared many quarters. for rebroadcast for your listening pleasure. We call it: From the Vault. Details on page 4. At PBS, we’ve been taking our own action to always emotional, it does allow us to attract new address gender inequality, and we’re pretty Also inside this edition are details about a talent to the station. Welcome aboard: Adriana excited about it too. fairly new initiative for the station, our Bequest Lazaridis (Opalakia) who is filling in while Jess Program. There is a pamphlet inside with details Our gender diversity training program is designed Fairfax (All our Stories) is on maternity leave; Tull for those considering including PBS in their will. to gradually improve our on-air mix to more reflect Alred (Android Discotheque); Lloyd Briggs (Deeep A few passionate PBS supporters have taken the community we serve by providing specialised Space); Ruby Soho (Garageland); Father Midnight that step. If it is of interest to you, please let announcer training and opportunities for those (Interstellar Overdrive); Rick Howe (Riddim Yard); me know. who currently are under-represented. Patrick Furze (co-hosting Homebrew) and Walla C (co-hosting Fresh Produce). We also welcome It is time now to acknowledge and thank Our gender ratio is 33%/67% female-to-male, back Crispi Winsor (Radio City). announcers who have departed the PBS airwaves an improvement of about 50% in four years, recently: Moses Iten and Lewis Cancut (Space but we know we can do better. Certainly we The warm weather is on its way, so kick back, is the Place); Joshua Hodson-Smith (Peeking have and will continue to have scores of enjoy the sunshine and let PBS be your soundtrack Through the Wool); Ken Eavel (Go For Broke); outstanding male announcers on air – but think to summer. Prince Jimmy (Cocoa Butter); Stryka D and Top what an incredible contribution the likes of Emma Rankin’ Yoni (Break the Chain); and Vanessa Hill Peel, Miss Goldie, CC Disco, Helen Jennings and (The Witching Hour). While saying goodbye is others make to the station. What might the future Adrian Basso hold? Find out more on page 22. PBS General Manager [email protected] PBS 106.7 FM presents the EASEY PBS PBS 106.7FM can be found at: PBS’ vision is to nurture, inspire and champion Member Magazine December 2016 Issue. 47 Easey Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066 Melbourne’s diverse music community. Editor: Meg Butler Post: PO Box 2917, Fitzroy MDC, VIC 3065 We strive to achieve this through the following goals: Phone: +61 (0)3 8415 1067 Writers: Adrian Basso, Cam Durnsford, Alexander · A thriving, diverse music scene, particularly for Email: [email protected] Sims, Jan Dale, Sylvie and Takiya, Ian Parsons, under-represented music Web: www.pbsfm.org.au Sarah Occhino, Bethany Atkinson-Quinton, Madeline · Content with integrity and quality Wright, Mitch Booth Magazine Coordinator: Meg Butler · An engaged and involved music community [email protected] Artwork/Layout: Simon O’Halloran Design · Sustainable operations [email protected] Phone: 0413 703 215 Advertising and Sponsorship: Sarah Blaby [email protected] If you share the vision and goals of the station, you may Front Cover Photography: Melissa Cowan consider becoming a shareholder of Progressive Membership enquiries: Sarah Pratt Magazine Proofing: Josie Smart Broadcasting Service Co–operative, owner and operator [email protected] of PBS. To find out more, please email [email protected] Bequest enquiries: Adrian Basso [email protected] EASEY content may contain coarse language. Opinions expressed in EASEY are not necessarily those of the publishers or PBS. No material may 3 be reprinted in part or whole without written authorisation. PBS will not be liable for incorrect use of the information published. FROM THE VAULT The Restoration Of Sound PBS Music Coordinator, Cam Durnsford, visited Gil Matthews’ studio to witness tapes being brought back from the brink. Have you ever heard of a thing called ‘sticky shed We’re fortunate enough to have an expert in syndrome’? Neither had I. It’s a blight on the this area here in Melbourne – recording and recording industry, like a black plague for tape mastering engineer Gil Matthews (also former reels the world over. The magnetic tape that was drummer in the Aztecs, among many other the stock-in-trade of producers and engineers things), who has got the baking, remastering and Covers from Scientists’ fan club cassette Rubber Never throughout recorded music’s golden, pre-digital digitising of degraded tapes down to a fine art. Sleeps..with thanks. age (and is still the preference of those who reject Gil’s preference is a dehydrating oven – the kind digital recording technologies) is prone to an used for apricots and semi-dried tomatoes – over There are more curious historical bits of info to affliction that sees the binding agents in the tape your regular fan-forced variety, and for the last few be found both on the tapes themselves, and in absorb moisture and deteriorate so badly that the years he’s been lovingly saving these recordings the boxes they are housed in. To coincide with tapes become unplayable. What was once precious from extinction. the release of a new Scientists retrospective, PBS’ recorded signal is left as a sticky mess all over the tape heads, and lost forever. Think of all the invaluable and obscure music that’s disappearing! The binding agent temporarily regains its structural integrity and you can play – and digitise – the tapes and save their contents from this Luckily, there is a cure – but like Eminem in 8 Mile, you only get one shot. Fortunately audio terrible malaise. nerds are, well, nerds and have figured out that resident historians dusted off a blistering 1983 set if you cook the tapes in an oven at just the right In 2016, the vault doors have finally opened. from the band (also recorded at the Prince), and temperature you evaporate the offending moisture. We heard excerpts of two Go-Betweens sets on had a chat with the band’s frontman Kim Salmon. The binding agent temporarily regains its structural Junkyard back in June, with one from PBS’ first A hand-written note from Au Go Go Records’ integrity and you can play – and digitise – the home the Prince of Wales in 1981, and another Bruce Milne in the tape box reveals that a few tapes and save their contents from this terrible from 1985 from The Venue – long since songs (covers of ‘The Other Place’ by 60s garage malaise. demolished on the current site of the Novotel. band The Seeds and ‘Gonna Make You’ by The In a recent interview with the Go-Bs’ Robert Troggs) from this night’s set were used for a Forster it emerged that the back cover shot of Scientists’ fan club cassette Rubber Never Sleeps, their 1982 debut LP Send Me A Lullaby was in with a few others ending up on the recent fact taken by former PBS volunteer Jim Goodwin retrospective compilation A Place Called Bad. at that 1981 show, when the band was still in its primal three-piece incarnation, with the late GW And we’ve barely scratched the surface. Expect McLennan on bass. History! more nuggets on your radio soon. Cam Durnsford is the PBS Music Coordinator The Go-Betweens 1982 debut LP Send Me A Lullaby taken by former PBS volunteer Jim Goodwin 4 Gil Matthews digitizing PBS tapes Sound Discovery PBS volunteer, Alexander Sims, has been listening back to recordings From The Vault. For the past three years PBS have been The first official outside studio broadcast at Dallas Untouched for a number of years some tape trawling through their reel-to-reel tape archive Brooks Hall in August 1980 has an opening boxes had mould and fungus growing on them. from 1980s Melbourne. While paddling through monologue by television identity Peter Russell Thankfully this has not affected the sound quality the tape archive, it has become apparent that Clarke. It also provides a guide into what type of too badly as initially thought. 1980s Melbourne had a vibrant culture that radio programs were on air during the St. Kilda It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to blended the sonic power chords of AC/DC, chaotic days, which featured iconic acts such as Iggy be able to listen back to recordings that haven’t noisiness of The Birthday Party as well as many Pop, Freddie Hubbard, Kerrie Biddell and The seen daylight for more than 25 years and learning blues and jazz greats.