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4 The Blues formed in late 2000.
The band
was born out of a shared passion for the blues. In fact, we'd all
been influenced by the great blues artists but had never considered
putting together a band to play just blues.
These liners from the old web site explain how it all started.
Just a few words...
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The foundations of 4 The Blues go back
a long way.
All the way back to 1968 when I was first
introduced to Daryl Eastcott. Actually I think I made my own
introduction - I'd been playing in a band that had been covering
material by Led Zeppelin, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Free,
Hendrix, The Beatles, Cream, The Rolling Stones and some more
unusual stuff like Neil Merriweather and Johnny Winter. The
drummer we had was contemplating selling his kit to buy a
panel-van, or something, and I was in search of a replacement.
Daryl was recommended so I rang him to see if he was interested.
We were both about 15 at the time. |
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Daryl hadn't really played drums in a rock
outfit but he became enthusiastic when he heard the type of
material we were doing. He had been listening to similar stuff
so decided to join and that became the start of a musical
relationship that has lasted over 30 years. (Mind, you, I've
spent a lot of time having to talk Daryl into stuff - he's
learnt, over 30 years, that the call-ins aren't always totally
hare brained). We've played in several outfits since then,
but nothing in the last 20 years.
Enter
4 The Blues...
Daryl's drumming comes straight from the
heart - it's part of the reason I dig playing with him. He
has an enormous repertoire of feels and he can pick the eyes
out of a groove faster than just about anyone I know. He is
the consummate sideman - everything he plays is intended to
make you, not him, look good. It's unselfish playing and the
product is always gritty, tight, and oozing with pent-up energy. |
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The second connection is Dave (Max). I've
known Dave Newton since we were about 14 and we suffered through
puberty and high-school together. Dave's laconic philosophy
and intellectual tenacity were the driving forces shaping
his involvement in performing live music. In the early days,
when I first started playing guitar, Dave would occasionally
pick up mine, or a mate's instrument and mess around. There
was never a real hint that he had any enthusiasm to be a player.
It wasn't until we were both doing higher education (and some...)
that I found myself in between bands. I had gone looking for
some players to play in a band doing covers and some original
tunes I had written. I'd been beating my head against a wall
with most other halfway-decent musos doing other things when
Dave innocuously suggested that he could probably pick up
bass if I couldn't find anyone else. I snapped it up because
the idea of having a mate in the lineup meant that the band
would have some longevity. |
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We got two and a half years out of it and,
since then, Dave has eclipsed even his own expectations of
becoming a player. His musical CV is way longer than all of
ours combined and he has gained considerable recognition as
a session player, fitting in effortlessly with almost any
style of material (except country - he hates country!). |
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This makes the third connection a little
puzzling. Ian Noyce and I met about 1974 when I became associated
with a local philanthropic production called Crosscurrents.
The Crosscurrents shows ran regularly between 1974 and 1978
and showcased a cavalcade of artists from all over Victoria.
Noycey started his Luthering business in 1975 and I even worked
for him, briefly in 1977. He's such an interesting bloke it's
hard not to become mates with him. Mind you, it took a while
for me to get enough credibility in the bank...
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Noycey's musical pedigree drew heavily
on country-blues influences and he played smatterings of harmonica,
saxophone, guitar and mandolin in a number of acoustic/electric
bands. I hadn't thought of him playing blues until I raised
the idea with him - out came the old Paul Butterfield and
Little Walter albums, Alan Lomax's Library of Congress history
and other blues paraphernalia. It seems that we had both converged
on a similar passion - we'd played all this stuff for years
without investing any of ourselves in trying to understand
the form. The band's alter-ego, 2 the Blues, provides a suitable
vehicle for us to consolidate that understanding and to cover
material not entirely suited to electric performance. |
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I suppose I make up number four. Since
hearing Spoonful, Born Under a Bad Sign, and other Eric Clapton
tunes with Cream I have always coveted the blues as a form.
The Allman Brothers Band also gave it a push. My musical path
has taken some odd turns since my first band in 1967 - from
Rock to Trad Jazz with heaps of "eclectic" stuff
in between. Most of my interest in recent years has come from
listening to Jazz, starting with the more recent fusion and
gradually moving back to the great innovators - Louis Armstrong,
Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard
and numerous others. I actually gave up my playing for about
7 years because of this. Way too hard. |
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It was while I was reading about Louis
Armstrong that I started to become interested in Jazz's stepdaddy
- the Blues. I really started to listen hard to Howlin' Wolf,
Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins and some of
the original Delta players. I already had albums by contemporary
players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, and Bonnie Raitt
but listening to the old artists like Big Bill Broonzy really
put it in perspective. I had to put together a band to play
this stuff!
The opportunity finally came when I ceased
living in Melbourne and moved to Ballarat. Within six months
the band was shaping up to play some serious blues. Initially
there was a little scepticism that just Blues might be a bit
dull - too repetitive with similar motifs and progressions.
It didn't take very long to realise that the Blues, like Jazz,
offers a wealth of diversity in feels, rhythms, tempos, and
style - more than sufficient to convince the most dubious
of punters. That's us - rhythm section you can't shove a Tally-ho
between, soaring guitar/harp riffs with growling vocals, all
steeped in deep homage to the original greats.
I feel like I'm fifteen all
over again...
Kim Sumner
May 2001 |
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