Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission has covered The Saints’ ‘Shipwreck’ for the new EP ‘Back In The Day’.
Mick’s cover pays tribute to Chris Bailey of The Saints who passed away in April this year.
“Amidst all the high-profile industry people leaving us the past year Chris Bailey’s passing seemed to go almost unheralded. But for many of us he was a significant source of inspiration and someone I had looked to for guidance at various points in my career. People are always quick to celebrate the Saints role as punk rock pioneers, but I felt it was what he did after their initial arrival that made them (and him) so special. He refused to get bogged down in the pointless posturing of the commercial punk rock movement and was quick to move on to new styles and formats in his songwriting.
“He just had a way of attacking a song that was so self-assured and confident, and original. ‘Shipwreck’ is a great example of his willingness to turn his hand to a new genre while still remaining true to his method. I’d always (erroneously) thought the song was too much like a Weddings, Parties song for me to warrant covering it but it was only as I started to learn it properly that I realised just how very different in writing style it is from anything I have ever written.
“I love our recording of the tune if for nothing else, it was the very last song recorded in my back yard studio at Bent Street Northcote – where so many songs had been built through the past thirty years. Vale Corrugated Sounds and Bent Street – but more importantly, vale Chris Bailey.”
‘Back In the Day’ features something old, something new, something borrowed and some Cold Chisel blues.
Despite the retro title, Mick says it is not all about that. “Even though the whole theme of the EP seems to be about looking back, it’s really great to be doing it as a means to move forward,” Thomas said in a statement. “The whole album that we’ve done which is coming out next year is about people being focused on what came before. I was originally going to call the album Solastalgia – which is just a term I read in a book which refers to this existential recognition of being attached to a time and place that you can never really attain, like something that’s in the past – but then I found out that Missy Higgins already had an album called that!
“But it just meant that I became really interested in songs that were about looking backwards to some degree, and I had some covers that I knew would fit around the theme, so it all came together really quickly and easily.”
Tracklisting
Back In The Day (new song)
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory (Johnny Thunders cover)
Days That Used To Be (Neil Young cover)
Houses (Mick Thomas remake)
A Tired Old Hat (Mick Thomas remake)
Home and Broken Hearted (Cold Chisel cover)
Shipwreck (The Saints cover)
Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission upcoming dates:
NOV
Wed 2 Arcobar – Heatherton (VIC) + Kerryn Fields TBC
Wed 9 Ararat Live (VIC) + Kerryn Fields TBC
Fri 11 Bennets on Bellarine Winery (VIC) + Kerryn Fields
Fri 18 Pig and Whistle (VIC) + Dave Wright and the Midnight Ramblers
DEC
Thu 1 Smiths Canberra (ACT) + Full Power Happy Hour
Fri 2 Great Club Marrickville (NSW) + Full Power Happy Hour
Sat 3 Baroque Room Katoomba (NSW) + Full Power Happy Hour
Sun 4 Leftys (QLD) + Full Power Happy Hour
Sun 11 Longley International (TAS) + Teresa Dixon
Tue 13 Grace Emily (SA) + Cookie Baker
Wed 14 Grace Emily (SA) + Tom Redwood
Thu 15 Grace Emily (SA) + Mark Curtis and the Flannelettes
Fri 16 River Hotel Margaret River (WA) + Carla Geneve
Sat 17 Navy Club Freo (WA) + Carla Geneve
Sun 18 Oxford (WA) + Carla Geneve
Fri 21 Shotkickers Thornbury (VIC) + Skyscraper Stan
Sat 22 Shotkickers Thornbury (VIC) + Alana Jagt and the Monotremes
Sun 23 Shotkickers Thornbury (VIC) + Maggie Alley Band
JAN
Sun 1 Archies Creek (VIC) + Sherry Rich and the Grievous Angels
All tickets at mickthomas.com/shows
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