The story of Memphis musician Van Duren is a story next to no-one knows. That is because Van Duren never became famous. Then along came two Sydney music people, Greg Carey (manager of The Rubens) and musician Wade Jackson who set up to travel half a planet away to tell this story.
‘Waiting: The Van Duren Story’ premiered at the Memphis Film Festival in November and now it is being introduced to Australia.
When I asked Greg Carey why Van Duren never took off he explained, “It was a different era. It was the late 70s, independent labels were just starting. The first album had some mild success for an independent record and it created a live base for him to play. There was a lack of resources from a promo thing but when you scratch the surface of the story, there was a lot more going on. Scientology started to creep into the whole business dealings and it took the focus of the music and what they were trying to do. From there it all unravelled”.
When you listen to the soundtrack album you will discover just how good the music of Van Duren is but that still wasn’t enough to make him a star. “I don’t think Van’s story is that uncommon,” Greg says. “You’ve got someone with immense talent and great songs. As a music manager that has always been my mantra. But it’s good to have a strong team behind you, resources and an engaged team isn’t going to give up. There were signs of all that but unfortunately for Van things didn’t go his way”.
Van Duren surfaced in the late 70s. Music was going through a massive change. Sex Pistols-punk was a few years, Talking Heads, Blondie and Patti Smith were breaking through, the New Romantic movement (Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet) was bubbling and then there was Van Duren. “His music wasn’t quite in vogue,” Greg says. “In that world, it was led by major label influence but in today’s world, it leverages on relationships. Streaming has opened up access today but as they all say, good music tends to rise to the top, sometimes 40 years later in Van’s case”.
Here is the snapshot according to Greg Carey. “The first record comes out … mild success. Scientology infiltrates, he records the second record, the record never sees the light of day. He has a falling out with the studio owner and the record label over the Scientology. He is forced to get a bank loan but can’t because he is 23 years old and broke. He goes back to Memphis, tail between his legs. He forms another band which pops up in the documentary. They record one album financed by a banker but he was a big fish in a small pond and it never breaks outside Memphis. The second record made him a failure in his eyes then he never had any more drive or trust. He had a stroke at age 48, his right side of his body was paralysed and he had to learn how to play again and sing again. He is a full-time musician still but in terms of national or global success he is not even touching the sides”.
Greg Carey wasn’t even born with the Van Duren record came out. “I was born in ’82 a few years after these records were made. Wade Jackson, a friend of mine, put out a record in 2015. The craziness of this story is he put that record out by himself, a guy called Drew on the other side of the world from England with 39 followers on Twitter and tweeted how he loved Wade’s record. Wade started to follow the guy. A month later he was on the ferry on his way to work and this guy Drew tweeted ‘Van Duren, I can’t believe no-one knows this guy’. For whatever reason that day he was bored on the ferry. Fast forward about a month, we were going through some hard times. My business partner had up and left the industry just after The Rubens had won the hottest 100 and I was by myself. Three days later I broke my leg. Wade at the same time was going through a divorce, we got together and played the music. I got obsessed and we pledged we would make a doco. We set off from there”.
Then began the trek to find Van Duren, much like the plot to the movie ‘Searching for the Sugar Man’. “We started doing research to see if he was alive. Three weeks later we looked for him on Facebook, an obvious one really. Wade friended him, wrote to him and said he loved his music. We built up a relationship over two months,. It was great music, we knew it had to have a story so we got enthusiastic about the music and earned his trust. Van says himself he was sceptical of us but gave us the benefit of the doubt. When we booked our tickets he knew we were serious. Soon after we had a phone call with him and he told us his life story”.
‘Waiting: The Van Duren Story’ is screening around Australia this week. Van Duren will perform in Australia next week.
WAITING: THE VAN DUREN STORY SCREENINGS
Monday 8 April – Gold Coast Film Festival (Australian Premiere)
Tuesday 9 April – Blue Room Cinebar, Brisbane QLD
Wednesday 10 April – Event Cinemas, George Street, Sydney NSW
Thursday 11 April – Cinema Nova, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 13 April – Presented by High Tide, Central Coast, NSW
Friday 26 April – The Gum Ball Festival, Dashville (Hunter Valley) NSW
Saturday 27 April – Bendigo Autumn Music Festival, Bendigo VIC
VAN DUREN – AUSTRALIAN PERFORMANCES
Thursday 18 April – The Curtin, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 21 April – Boogie Festival, Tallarook VIC
Tuesday 23 April – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Thursday 25 April – Baroque Room, Katoomba NSW
Friday 26 April – The Gum Ball Festival, Hunter Valley NSW
Sunday 28 April – Bendigo Autumn Music Festival, Bendigo VIC
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