“SOMEBODY CALLED ME Sir on the bus the other day:’ oh, excuse me Sir’.
Oh very nice. They must have recognised the reigning, if unofficial, monarch of Marrickville, the eminence of Erskineville, the king of King Street, the writer of such timeless/ageless gems as Miracle In Marrickville, King Street, Big Country (as in the prescient, “it’s a big, big country, but it’s a small, small world”) and, well, The Singing City.
“We’ve been away for 18 months, initially in Berlin where my wife’s family lives, bought a mobile home, drove it for a month across France, then Spain and Portugal for a year before settling in Spain.”
Welcome home then Mr John Kennedy, sir, from your Spanish base, and welcome to this King, Street, Newtown establishment on a seriously hot afternoon where a local beer in a local pub for local people is perfect for any league of gentlemen.
But pleasantries aside, having left Australia in 2023 when the world seemed only mostly mad rather than its current status as certifiable, what is he doing back here?, you ask. Making hay, metaphorically.
“By chance to some extent” the discovery of a high-quality live recording from his last show in Sydney before decamping overseas – the May 2023 show billed as his “Farewell” at the Marrickville Bowling Club – and its subsequent refinement by Kennedys bass player and co-producer, Phil Hall, meant there was a new record to release to play around it. Or “mixing pleasure with pleasure”, as he put it, given he had one daughter in Berlin and another in Sydney who could now have him for Christmas.
The recording at the Bowlo by the band credited as John Kennedy And The New Originals – Hall, Kennedy, drummer Peter Timmerman, and guitarists Murray Cook and Matt Galvin: indie rock luminaries and children’s TV favourites among them – captured multiple strands of Kennedys career, from earliest days as an upstart Liverpool-inspired pop writer from Brisbane (via Liverpool), through various incarnations of rock/country rock/pop styles, to his reimagined slices of Australian indie favourites of the 1980s from his two Raining Treasure compilations.
As might be clear from the fact he did some shows in December as well as this current run in January culminating (though not finishing) in Saturday’s show back at the Marrickville Bowlo before he heads back to Spain, the “farewell” shows of 2023 may not have been quite as definitive as it seemed.
“Well, some people have mentioned Dame Nellie Melba,” Kennedy says dryly. “Others say John Farnham. I say, fuck you, it’s called marketing baby. If there are any disgruntled fans who came to the farewell thinking they got rid of me, I say sucked in. I’m just doing it for the kids.”
That kind of selflessness must be an inspiration to current and future generations. As is the simple fact of Kennedy maintaining a multi-platform/multi-continent career for some four decades now, as this is not the first time he has based himself in Europe (and before that he spent six months in the United States; and after that, some time in Hong Kong), making use of both the lingua franca of guitar pop and his architecture training.
How does this peripatetic nature sit with a writer whose songs tend to draw very specifically on his locale, most frequently and generously the area in and around Sydney’s inner west? Well, Erskineville was home for 20 years, so it does seep in. And as they always say – or maybe they don’t but should – see Erskineville and you’ve seen the world.
“I don’t foresee that I will be writing any songs about Spanish towns in the near future, though I’ve been thinking about doing a cover of John Cale’s Andalucia, and the urge hasn’t hit me to start picking up flamenco guitar,” says Kennedy. “But here’s the thing that gives me hope: I don’t know what to expect and I am completely comfortable with that.”
And of course the proof of that hope in the unexpected is this live album.
“The secret to the quality I think is Peter Timmernan’s drumming: it is like a masterclass in indie/Aussie rock drumming. I can throw any style at him and once it’s done, it is locked in,” he says. “From an architectural perspective, a building is only as good as its foundations. If its foundations are sloppily built, it will fall down, cracks will appear. A song’s performance, is only as good as the drum track that you base it on.”
With or without architectural metaphors, Kennedy can wax lyrical about the rest of the band as well if given the opportunity. He’s had many a band, and many many musicians in those bands over 45 years, but he’s not looking to trade this lot in, even if they’re not in Seville or Barcelona. Or even the old Spanish quarter of the CBD.
“I’m the facilitator, I set the framework, but without their input it would just be pretty music-by-numbers,” the self-deprecating singer says. “I always use the analogy that an independent band is four people or five people in a car: you’re going somewhere, somebody owns the car and one person is driving, one person’s got the map in the passenger seat, you can listen to the other people behind you who have suggestions but ultimately if they don’t like where you’re going, they can just get out.
"Happily, the guys I have been playing with over the last few years have chosen to stay in the car.”
The gratitude is international. Kennedy is wont to describe himself and Cook as “the Morecambe and Wise of Australian indie music), for a number of reasons, but let’s go with one. “I will say at every gig, ‘it’s good to be here’, and he will use the Keith Richard response ‘it’s good to be anywhere really’. And it is.”
Si, seguro que lo es señor.
Si, seguro que lo es señor.
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John Kennedy And The New Originals play Marrickville Bowling Club on January 18.
Live At The Marrickville Bowl is out now through 1-94 Bar Records.
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