Cow-a-banger
The Age
Friday November 21, 2008
Nina Rousseau hears about the Re-mains' success.
THE devil can appear in many forms. For the Re-mains, it was as a cow. "It was like a missile hitting us. It was this massive explosion," says frontman Mick Daley. "I swear I heard Grant (Bedford) laughing when we hit it and then we careered off the road. The cow went one side of the road, we went the other."The "devil cow" - big and black - cut short a six-week tour for the country-rock band from northern NSW, who had scored a $10,000 Australia Council grant and had gigs booked from Darwin to Perth to Broken Hill.Guitarist Dave Ramsey crawled from the mangled wreck first. "Dave's hip was way out. I nearly vomited," says Daley. In true outback spirit, Ramsey put his own hip back in place; luckily, the Alice Springs nurses told him later, or he would have died."Grant was trapped in there, his left leg was smashed, his bowel was burst where the steering wheel smashed into it and he had other complications in the stomach," Daley said. "We were a day away from our first gig."That was July 4, 2007. A year and a bit later, after a bunch of fund-raising gigs (the one in Byron Bay raised $2000) and with an "I'm not going to feel sorry for myself" mantra, the Re-mains are back from a triumphant 15-week Canadian tour. "We had incredible luck in Canada," said Daley. "Everything went right."The tour took about 18 months to arrange, says tour manager Helen Wadden, who spent months chasing contacts and hunting venues, resulting in 50 gigs, including big-name festivals NXNE in Toronto and New Music West in Vancouver. "We arrived in Vancouver with virtually no money and had to buy a van, a drum kit, and a bass amp and keys. We were jet-lagged, in a foreign city, and had three days before the first gig," she says.Tales by Mick Thomas (owner of Croxton Records, the label to which the Re-mains are signed, and frontman for Weddings, Parties, Anything) added fuel to Daley's long-time vision to tour Canada. "Weddings had a really good run over there from about '89 to '93," says Thomas (so much so that Canadians dubbed the Weddings "the band who won't go home"). "It was a really defining experience for us."There is a real sense of live music in Canada that is astounding and a lot of their bands don't realise it. If you turn up with a van and a full intention to drive the Trans-Canada Highway, people are a bit shocked. I wasn't surprised the Re-mains did so well. I was chuffed, stroke, envious.""Our music really seemed to resonate," says Daley. "They loved the idea of rock banjo. Canadians are all very neat and polite but we looked like bushrangers and they seemed to find that really refreshing."As any touring band knows, the van is key. "We bought this van named Curtis, a 1983 Chevy V8. We bought it for $800 and it drove us for 16,000 kilometres around the country," said Daley. "We ended up doing 64 shows. We kept getting extra gigs. We were so lucky."The Re-mains play tonight at the Retreat Hotel in Brunswick.
© 2008 The Age
Share This