CHOIR BOYS LIVE at The Inferno, Traralgon 2000

Desk Tape to be released on December 13th, 2024.

CHOIRBOYS LIVE at The Inferno, Traralgon 2000 is the 46th release of the Australian Road Crew Association’s (ARCA) Desk Tape Series.

The Series was created by ARCA to raise badly-needed finances for Support Act’s Roadies Fund to provide financial, health, counselling and well-being services for roadies and crew in crisis.

The live tapes are recorded off the mixing desk by a crew member – here, Shane Elson whose production company provided that service to the Inferno, and who did Front of House at the show.

The tapes are released on ARCA’s Black Box Records through MGM Distribution and on all major streaming services.

About 50 artists have now thrown their hats in the ring to help support those in need.

The ARCA Desk Tape Series is acknowledged in media globally for its historical importance in capturing great live music from great live acts.

Huge thanx to Mark Gable for the photos, Nprint for the artwork, Phil Dracoulis for the mastering, and especially CHOIRBOYS for their support of roadies and crew.

CHOIRBOYS LIVE at The Inferno, Traralgon 2000

BAND LINEUP

• Mark Gable        (vocals, guitar)
• Ian Hulme          (bass, vocals)
• Paul Wheeler     (drums)
• Rohan Cannon   (guitar)

ROAD CREW (From That Era)

• Pixie Michaels –               sound
• Peter Wainwright –         stage
• Paul Torney –                   lights
• Clint Braddock-               stage
• Phil Meltzer –                  sound

TRACKS

• 1 Home Free
• 2 Boys Will Be Boys
• 3 Never Gonna Die
• 4 Nothing Compares To You
• 5 Where The River Flows
• 6 I Was A Boy Then
• 7 Ride On
• 8 Bought And Paid For
• 9 Struggle Town
• 10 Don’t Say Goodbye
• 11 Midnight Sun
• 12 Going Solo
• 13 White Trash
• 14 James Dale
• 15 Blood Is Thicker Than Water
• 16 Bombs Away

CHOIRBOYS LIVE at The Inferno, Traralgon 2000 live tape and all the ARCA Desk Tape Series recordings are available through Black Box Records – ARCA (australianroadcrew.com.au) and the following:

https://ffm.to/liveattheinfernotraralgon2000  (paste into browser if it fails to work)

• Amazon
• Apple Music / iTunes
• Black Box Records
• Deezer
• MGM Distribution
• Spotify
• Tidal
• YouTube Music

Definite Motto

The Choirboys had a definite motto when singer/ guitarist Mark Gable and bassist Ian Hulme formed the original band with guitarist Brad Carr and drummer Lindsay Tebbutt in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Says Gable, “I don’t see a difference, never have, between the band and the audience. We are one of them, and they are one of us.

“The relationship is we’re up there to do something for you, you’re not there to do something for us.”

Gable agrees with Bruce Springsteen’s quote, “If you look out into the audience and don’t see yourself reflected back, you have a problem.”

Gable: “That’s it exactly. I’m a normal guy who happens to have a weird gig, I s’pose.

“Maybe I act a little different from others and I do sometimes get in trouble for being too forthright! But I’m nothing special.

“Some of the people in our audience had wonderful lives with all sorts of successes and happiness, while others had miserable lives, some had accidents, some were sick.

“You have to respect that. We’re all in this together. They’re looking to be taken somewhere by you, but that doesn’t mean you’re better than they are.”

On streaming services, “Run To Paradise” is The Choirboys’ most successful track, clocking up 79 million streams.

Written by Gable and Carr, it’s about the teenage wasteland of Sydney’s Northern Beaches in the ‘70s, “going on the dole and surfing instead of working, and getting wasted on dope and alcohol.”

It reached #3 on the Australian charts in in December 1987. It cracked the US Hot 100 and reached #33 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1989, and was also a hit in New Zealand.

Equal Enthusiasm

But as LIVE at The Inferno shows, the crowd at concerts lapped up half a dozen songs with equal enthusiasm.

The Choirboys had a terrific catalogue of hard riffs with strong melodies and soaring choruses, the best examples being “Boys Will Be Boys”, “Blood Is Thicker Than Water”, “Struggle Town” and “Don’t Say Goodbye”.

They were equally at home with jackhammer riffs and guitar crashes of “Never Gonna Die” (“I don’t need social standing”), “Bought And Paid For”, “Bombs Away”, “Midnight Sun” and “I Was A Boy Then” where Gable shouts, “I got no job, I got no money… I was a boy then, you should see me now.”

Shane Elson, who recorded The Inferno show, had seen The Choirboys a few times before that.

“I knew it was going to be a good night. I liked their music, and they were nice guys, not pretentious in the least.”

The Inferno fits in near 1,000 fans and, one of the bigger beer barns in Victoria, is a stop-over for major bands on their regional runs.

The venue The Inferno, was a client of Proud Sound production company, who Shane worked for, so Shane did front of house duties that night.

Elson had started out playing drums in bands in Tasmania, Brisbane and Sydney until the penny dropped that he’d make more money on the production side!

From 1982 he worked with major names such as Michael Orland, Julius Grafton, John O’Connell, Ian Couch, Steve Meltzer, Chris McKenzie, Peter Schwartz, Baldwins and Proud Sound.

He toured with Marcia Hines, Julie Anthony and The Models and after five years with Inferno, moved to Phillip Island in 2008 where he continued working but is now semi-retired.

Elson says he recorded the show on mini-disc, and forgot these only run for 74 minutes.

 As a result, it only captured the first few notes of the encore, “Run To Paradise”. “I was kicking myself!” he chuckles.

Surprise

However, the live tape had a surprise for Gable: it included the song “Where The River Flows”.

The singer admits: “I have no recollection of writing and playing it. If it hadn’t been for the desk tape, it would have been lost forever.

“The guitar riff is unbelievable, I was awestruck by that song.

“I ended up looking for, and finding, the demo of the song. I’m now inspired to go hunting to find more old songs, some were really good.”

“James Dale” was a poignant ballad that missed out on being a single.

It talks about a teenager in the summer of 1924 – “the boy’s only 16, how’s he going to start his dream?” – who works as a merchant seaman, and jumps ship.

It is about his dad James Dale Kitchen. “I didn’t like my father, and he died when I was 16.”

Dale was never working on a ship. Growing up in Belfast, Ireland, his parents were so poor that they had to give or sell him at 14 to the Salvation Army, which then sent him to Australia.

Another brother, Carson, met the same fate and ended up in Canada.

“My father lived a tough life in Ireland, and it was a tough life when he came to Australia.

“Myself growing up in the Lucky Country, I wished I’d known him more, been smarter, and I could have picked his brains.

“That’s where the song came from, I saw a working-class man struggling with himself, and struggling with life.

“’James Dale’ is very popular with our hardcore fans. It speaks to them.”

Big & Bad

On their title track of their second album Big Bad Noise, released in 1988, The Choirboys sing about “a place where the bar don’t close/ And there’s a combo up the back/ They play the sixties are back.”

It was about a wine bar called 1066, situated in the the Collaroy Hotel on Pittwater Road on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

This is where Gable and bassist Ian Hulme –with guitarist Brad Carr and drummer Lindsay Tebbutt – formed The Choirboys in 1979.

Hulme’s mum had bought him a guitar when he was 13 or 14, and a few years later he was playing in venues like the Royal Antler Hotel.

It was here where they developed a big bad Australian noise which took them into the charts and concert halls around the world.

The pub was part of the thriving Northern Beaches scene, from which INXS, Midnight Oil, Moving Pictures and Matt Finish.

According to Hulme, there was a great camaraderie between the bands, and there was a commitment to writing their own music and taking it to the heights.

Moving Quickly

Things moved quickly for The Choirboys, with their strong songs and hard-hitting playing quickly finding them a following.

Herm Kovac, drummer with the Ted Mulry Gang, whom they had opened for a number of times, asked them for a four-track cassette demo which he could pass on to others in the music industry.

This led to an unexpected phone call from George Young, one of Gable’s idols who helped form The Easybeats in the 1960s.

After that mighty band broke up, Young and his musical partner Harry Vanda began working at Albert Records as their A&R heads, building up a remarkable roster with AC/DC (with George’s brothers Malcolm and Angus, of course), The Angels, Rose Tattoo and JPY among others.

“I think we need to talk, come down to the studio,” Young suggested.

Signing them up in 1983, after a few years of cutting demos and giving career advice, George announced, “We’re going with an album.”

The self-titled debut album, produced by Jim Manzie of Ol’55, reached #26, and “Molly” Meldrum on Countdown said it was “destined to become an Aussie classic.”

The single “Never Gonna Die” reached #30, and they toured with The Angels and Rose Tattoo.

Cold Chisel invited them on their legendary Last Stand Tour.

But just before, Gable ruptured his vocal cords, and The Choirboys sat out waiting for him to recover.

When they returned with the Big Bad Noise album in 1986, they were bigger than ever.

Now signed to Mushroom Records, “Run To Paradise” was a monster, the album (produced by Peter Blyton and Brian McGee) reached #5 and certified double platinum, and “Boys Will Be Boys” and “Struggle Town” were also hits.

During this time, guitarist Brad Carr was replaced by Brett Williams of Brakes.

The band line-up saw 13 changes, including Bob Spencer (Angels, Rose Tattoo), Brad Heaney (Screaming Jets), Steve Williams (Wa Wa Nee), Barton Price (The Models), and Paul Wheeler (Icehouse) joining just before LIVE at The Inferno.

Throughout the ‘90s, The Choirboys released Midnight Sun (recorded in Los Angeles), the live Dead Drunk Live Hangovers, Yo-Yo (recorded in Germany) and Evolver, and played massive shows like the AFL Grand Final and the Gold Coast Super GP race.

Mark Gable hosted a Sunday radio show in Sydney and Melbourne.

Ian Hulme did accounting and bookkeeping courses as a sideline to his music, and got an Advanced Diploma in Accounting.

Original drummer Lindsay Tebbutt, who left in 1992 but returned between 2010 to 2021, died in December 2021 from cancer.

The Choirboys posted on social media: “Lindsay was loved by all who knew him.

“He was funny, intelligent, and very talented not just as a drummer but as a singer and song writer.

“He will be immortalized on our recordings and on the many videos out there.”

For more information on ARCA, go to https://australianroadcrew.com.au/ and to check out the 41 other Desk Tape releases, go to The Desk Tape Series – ARCA (australianroadcrew.com.au)

ARCA would like to thank the following sponsors of The Desk Tape Series:-

Sponsor                            Industry Roles

• Showtech                         Rigging                           
• CMI                                   P.A and Production                     
• Clearlight                          Lighting                                    
• DSE Trucks                       Transport                                  
• Scully Outdoors               Outdoor Production          
• Gigpower                         Crewing and Staging                            
• Lock and Load                 Crewing                          
• Chameleon Touring        Production and Lighting                        
• JPJ                                      P.A and Lighting                                            
• Novatech                          P.A and Lighting    
• Phaseshift                        Lighting                                    
• Show FX Australia           Pyrotechnics                    
• Event Personnel Australia   Crewing                          
• Norwest                           P.A and Lighting Production
• Nprint                               Artwork

Ian Peel and Adrian Anderson

ARCA Co-founders and Directors.

Note from founders:-

“ARCA and The Desk Tape Series is a small way we can help our mates get some self-worth and recognition for their contribution to the Aussie music industry and help if they are in crisis. It is a great honour for us to be able to present these memories to all.”

All Hail Roadies and Crew

“Looking after OUR OWN with FEELING and a WHOLE LOTTA LOVE”

All ARCA enquiries contact :

• Adrian Anderson                          0409 789 440
• Ian Peel                                          0415 667 221
• Michael Matthews (Media)         0418 536 637