Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians
A packed car, an early call time, and a map dotted with regional stages—that’s where today’s conversation begins. We catch Mick Thomas on day one of a 22-show run to explore how touring sharpens a band, why small-town rooms can outshine big-city theaters, and what it takes to nurture a local scene until it hums. From renovated halls to backroom listening spaces without a bar, Mick explains how the right people on the ground turn unlikely venues into destinations and why audiences will happily drive to hear a group stretch in a room built for songs.
We dig into legacy without getting stuck in it. Mick looks back at Weddings Parties Anything, the hits that still sing, and the temptation to lean on familiar bangers. Instead, his six-piece lineup rehearsed long-lost cuts and built a set around discovery. That same spirit powers GoComeBack, a vinyl-shaped album designed as a return journey: side one heads out, side two comes home with new eyes. It’s a simple, durable concept that restores what many of us miss—sequencing, cohesion, and an arc you can feel when you flip the record.
Numbers make an appearance, but they don’t get top billing. We talk about the illusion of charts, the mirage of streaming KPIs, and the real-world value of in-store performances where thirty people can create more energy than three thousand passive streams. Record shops, counter chats, and shared favorites remind us music is a community, not a dashboard.
Mick’s advice to younger artists is blunt and hopeful: play, enjoy the work, and choose the path that leaves memories, not just metrics. We close with the new single A Mighty Ride and the promise of a full-band tour that sounds like the record because it is the record—six players, one story, and miles ahead.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Still Rocki' Itpodcast, where we'll have music,
news reviews, and interviewswith some of our favorite
Australian musicians andartists.
To catch up on podcasts andother favourite articles, simply
(00:49):
go to that radiochick.com.
We'd like to welcome into theZoom room today Mick Thomas.
Thanks for joining us, Mick.
Mick Thomas (01:01):
How's it going?
Cheryl Lee (01:02):
Good, thanks.
These aren't very rock starhours, are they?
We're both up bright and early.
Mick Thomas (01:07):
No, but we we start our tour today and we're up up
the bush by about three hours.
So I've got to you know packthe car and and get moving,
really.
So yeah, no, it's good to beup, up and about.
Cheryl Lee (01:17):
Well, thank you for squeezing us in on such a busy
day.
That's all right.
Yeah, like you said, day one ofa 22-day tour.
Mick Thomas (01:25):
Yeah, and it's it's been a little longer if you
take it that for the last fourweeks we've been out and about
playing in record stores anddoing bits and pieces.
So yeah, it's a good size tour,which is good.
It's what it used to be.
And I s I still think yeah,rehearsing is great and I really
believe in it, but uh there'snothing like the the way a band
plays when they've just beenplaying for a while, you know.
Yeah.
Cheryl Lee (01:45):
That's right.
So you're kicking it offtonight at Shiraz Republic in
Victoria.
Mick Thomas (01:51):
Cornella, yeah.
Yep.
Cheryl Lee (01:52):
Heading our way this time in December, three shows
in our town.
Mick Thomas (01:57):
At this stage is there's two.
If if if people get off ontheir bikes and sort of buy a
few more tickets, we can add athird.
But there's there's twodefinites, and then there's
we've got the one up at Gulwa.
Cheryl Lee (02:07):
Have you played at the Murray Delta Juke joint
before?
Mick Thomas (02:11):
I haven't, and I've always liked the look of it,
you know.
I just uh yeah, I just likeyeah, I like the name of it.
I think it's sort of funny, andI just sort of see, you know,
what they're doing and who'splaying there.
And I I just kind of thinkthere are people in the regions
that want to hear it, you know,want to hear good music and and
do stuff, but you know, oftenit's just having the right
people on the ground tofacilitate it.
(02:31):
You know, look, we've we'veseen this amazing change down
here in the eastern part of thestate, talking like Gippsland,
Victoria.
All these gigs that are two orthree hours from the city have
really taken off.
And it's only because there'sjust a bunch of people on the
ground who've who've made themhappen.
So, like there was the CaravanMusic Club, which used to be in
town, and they moved down toArchie's Creek.
(02:51):
Now it's the most unlikely tolooking town you could ever
imagine, but it just works, youknow.
And then there's a bunch ofpeople down uh at sale that run
this thing called the BundyHall, where they've renovated a
hall, and you know, people turnout and people want to hear good
music.
And I I kind of think there's awhole thing that's probably
happened in the last say 20years, and it's you know, pe
(03:13):
people call it a sea change or atree change, but there's also
the phenomena of people whomaybe grow up in the country and
go into the city for a fewyears to go to uni or whatever,
and and and they get used tohaving good music on tap, you
know, and yeah, interestingstuff that's not just you know
your top 40 fudder on the radio,and uh they're an educated
people and but they and theymove back back to the country,
(03:34):
and there's just people in thecountry who've always liked good
music.
So they you know, add in thosetwo or three phenomena together,
and and there is an audiencethere in these places, but it's
just got to be found and andnurtured.
Cheryl Lee (03:45):
It's a funky little place, and they do get lots of
good acts there, and we from thecity will even drive down
there.
Mick Thomas (03:53):
Well, that's great, you know.
Like like I say with these uhvenues I've been talking about
in Victoria, some some of thoseare venues that people will
choose to go to rather than thebig city show, you know.
They know they're gonna see youknow the the bands really
turning it on in those placeswhere you know where they
weren't expecting it to get acrowd.
And yeah, I I I I think it'sit's great.
Cheryl Lee (04:14):
What about Wheatsheaf? Have you played
there before?
Mick Thomas (04:16):
Heaps, and it's great, you know.
I mean, they just run it sowell, and a little thing about
The Wheatsheeaf, but the themusic room's out the back, and
there's no bar in the musicroom.
So it just it means it's a bitmore kind of concert.
But look, they just run itreally well.
There's a really great soundsystem, great, great gear in
there, great people to run it,good people to deal with.
(04:38):
You know, you if you take thewheat sheaf and then then the
the Grace Emily's still kickinggoals.
We were last time we were intown, we went there to see
Dallas Crane, and you go, well,you know, Adelaide's sort of
got, you know, it's it's doingall right, you know.
Absolutely.
Cheryl Lee (04:53):
Where can we get the tickets?
Mick Thomas (04:54):
Go to mickthomas.com, there's tickets
are there, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (04:57):
We've got a new single to talk about.
That's why we're here from anew album.
But can we go back in time atiny little bit before we go
forward?
Mick Thomas (05:05):
Sure.
Cheryl Lee (05:06):
Weddings, parties, anything, 12 years with them.
Mick Thomas (05:09):
It's 15.
Cheryl Lee (05:10):
15.
Mick Thomas (05:11):
Yeah, yeah.
It's it's funny, but when youget older, it doesn't sound as
long as it did at the time whenwe were finishing up.
Well, I was going 15 years, soyou know, I was kind of like 40
years old, and it's like, oh,it's been 15 years of my life.
Weddings finished in 98, soit's 27 years ago that that band
finished being a a functioningentity, you know.
(05:32):
There's been some somereformations, I'll concede, in
in that 27 years.
But for the most part, youknow, we finished the band and
we finished it properly becausewe meant it.
What I'm trying to say is 15years doesn't sound that much to
me now.
Like I look at the currentlineup of the bands just coming
up for five years, you know.
So weddings had had a lot ofpeople through the band.
(05:54):
I think we had 14 or 15 peoplethrough the band.
So we tended to change line upevery year, even though people
have got their favorite lineup.
If people go, Oh, my favoritelineup is Mick, Wally, and Dave
Steele, and you go, All right,you take that that was the front
line, but the people behindthat changed quite dramatically
(06:14):
in that time.
So whereas, you know, at themoment we're sitting on five
years with pretty much the samelineup, which is really good.
Cheryl Lee (06:20):
Yeah.
You were one of the majorsongwriters of Wedding's Parties
anything.
Mick Thomas (06:26):
I was, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (06:27):
You wrote two of the main hits, the main radio hits
anyway, Father's Day andMonday's Expert.
People will remember you fromthose songs.
Mick Thomas (06:36):
Yeah, so you know what?
I I still play 'em, you know.
I mean, I'm still happy toplay 'em.
And I I always make the jokethat they fit so well alongside
the new songs that we we recordthat you know, we've traveled
very little distancethematically or stylistically
over the years, you know, couldI just it was the music I set
out to play and I I never feltrestricted by by it
(06:58):
stylistically.
I felt there was a it was a bigwide palette there to work
with, you know.
Even just for this currenttour, we we sat down and while
we were rehearsing stuff fromthe new album, I just said,
well, let's rehearse a wholebunch of old songs, really old
songs that we haven't beenplaying, because when you have
got this kind of an old yeah,like a large canon of music, you
(07:20):
tend to fall into the trap ofyou you know, of playing the
half a dozen ones that you knoware gonna work, right?
So but but really uh as yousaid, there was there's a couple
of bona fide commercial hits inthere, and beyond that, really
they're just the songs thatwe've kept playing, you know,
that that have that people thinkare the you know, they call
them the bangers or whateverthey call them.
(07:41):
Yeah, I don't even care whatthey call them.
But you know, they're songsthat uh they win by virtue of
their recognition, you know,live.
And so I just said, well, let'slet's maybe shelve a few of
those ones and just get a wholeup bunch of of other old ones,
you know.
And it it's it was kind of areally joyous experience, you
know.
And I sort of threw it up opento the band because I thought,
(08:02):
well, you know, they're gonna beplaying them, they've got to
enjoy them.
And to me, people go, What'syour favorite song?
And I go, Well, my favoritesong is if I'm talking
commercially, well, then I'mgonna say Father's Day, Monday's
experts, because they were thesongs that really got us a long
way down the track financiallyand commercially.
But beyond that, they're all mybabies, you know what I mean?
Like it's a I I kind of wrote80% of what what the weddings
(08:25):
played.
There's a lot of songs there.
You can draw this this distinctline in my career when I said,
well, it's not not going to becalled weddings parties anything
anymore, even though that bandhad had a heap of lineup
changes.
From this point on, it's notcalled weddings parties
anything, it's called MickThomas and the whatever, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
But there's so many of thesongs that, especially, say, in
the 10 years just after theweddings, that could have easily
(08:48):
been wedding songs.
Yeah, like that they were songsthat the weddings, you know,
probably did play, you know, andthe and the factors that that
led to them, you know, going oneside of that line, it's like B
C and A D, you know, uh, oneside of that line or the other
side of that line are kind ofmany and varied, you know.
And sometimes we still go andlook at a bunch of songs to do
(09:08):
an album like the album we'vejust done, or we did a year ago.
And I look at the songs on thatalbum and I go, well, some of
those songs are already 10, 15years old by the time you record
them, you know.
And so many of the songs that,you know, almost made it onto
weddings albums and didn't endup post-weddings albums.
What I'm trying to get at in myroundabout waffly way is that
(09:29):
distinction about, you know,whether it's weddings parties or
anything is very kind ofamorphous, you know.
Cheryl Lee (09:35):
Like it's it's not it's not a it's not a definite
line at the moment, it's adefinite line, no.
Mick Thomas (09:39):
Especially in terms of the writing of the songs and
and the impetus and theinspiration of the songs.
That line is very, veryblurred.
Cheryl Lee (09:47):
Let's talk about the most recent album.
It's called GoCome Back.
The meaning of that is it's uhpigeon Indonesian turn for a
return journey.
Simple but effective conceptfor a song cycle.
Mick Thomas (10:01):
Yeah, look, I I I just had this bunch of songs
that, you know, like about acash over about 35 songs, which
I could offer to the band, and Isaid, Well, yeah, we could take
this 10 or that 10 or yeah.
I think I've had about eightsongs.
I said, Here's eight songs thatwe could pick, and eight songs
sort of take you away, and eightsongs bring you home again.
And everyone kind of liked theidea, so it became a matter of
(10:21):
fitting the last few jigsawpieces in around that as a
concept.
I think the kind of resurgenceof vinyl as a medium for an
album, it sort of means that youknow you're gonna have a bunch
of songs that go on on side oneand a bunch of songs that go on
side two.
Yeah.
It really did lend itself to aconcept like this, which is like
a two-part concept, and it'spretty simple, but it's a lot
(10:42):
that goes in into the thought ofit as saying, well, if side
one's all about this, the bigjourneys and the long journeys
and and what you see and whatyou recognise as being valuable,
then side two, which brings youhome again, is maybe looking at
stuff that's a lot closer tohome, but with a different eye
after you've traveled, you know,maybe you s see them in a in
(11:02):
another way.
So that's really what thealbum's about.
Cheryl Lee (11:06):
I do love that because I do miss the fact, and
we seem to have lost that a bitin this digital age, is the
storytelling of an album.
An album gives you theopportunity, like you have done
here, in its entirety, it's astory.
Now we just get to hear one hitand then another hit.
Mick Thomas (11:23):
Oh, yeah, it's it's diabolical.
Yeah, I mean, the the waymusic's sort of created now, it
it's it's kind of weird becausein one sense, it's closer to the
way the album was conceivedthan it has been, say, for the
past 20 years.
Whereas initially albums werelike an artist would build up a
bunch of singles that would beenreasonably successful, then
they'd collect them all togetherand call it an album.
(11:44):
But then by the end of the 60s,even by early earlier than
that, early 60s, the whole ideaof getting songs that were
cohesive and that sort ofbelonged in the one place really
became a strong concept.
Whereas the way people aremaking music now, it's kind of
pretty much heaven forbid that Iwould ever use this term,
dropping singles.
I'm gonna drop a single.
And I just go, oh, really?
(12:05):
It's just such horrible modernspeaking, my my opinion, you
know.
So they click on a mouse and asong goes out to the world, and
when they build up enough, thenthey've got an album.
But it's a little bit backwardsbecause it's generally
speaking, they've got the albumdone first up.
Look, I was born in 1960, so bythe time I was really deeply
concerned about and listening tomusic, it was the 70s, and the
(12:26):
album re-rained supreme, youknow.
Cheryl Lee (12:28):
Yeah, that's right.
Mick Thomas (12:30):
The whole idea of the album.
So I'm pretty wedded to thatidea, you know.
That's my my way of thinkingand working.
Cheryl Lee (12:37):
The first single from the album, the first step
in a homeward direction, enteredthe air chart at number one in
June.
Congratulations.
Mick Thomas (12:45):
Yeah, look, it it is just interesting that the way
things have gone in terms ofindependent music.
If you'd told me that um a songcould enter the charts on that
few of sales 20 years ago, Iwould have laughed at you.
But but because sales are so uhso low, like physical sales are
record, it's pretty easy towork it that you you can sort of
(13:06):
chart a bit.
But yeah, it doesn't mean a lotwhen you know you you chart one
week and then you that's it.
It's a nice little kind ofspring in your step for a day,
but you really gotta be try andbe careful to not let that and
it's like people looking attheir Spotify figures and going,
Oh, I got this many streams andI in this many countries,
(13:27):
amazing.
And it just doesn't mean verymuch at all, you know.
They're very misleading KPIs,another modern term I've used
today.
You've got to be really carefulwith those things.
It was great.
Look, all I know is that enoughpeople sort of buy the stuff
for me to make another record,you know.
Cheryl Lee (13:43):
What I really love about after that single came
out, you went and did a bit of atour, then the in-store tour to
hang out with your fans,support the retailers, which is
really important, and highlightthe lack of the human connection
in today's music business.
I really love that you took thetime to do all of that.
Mick Thomas (14:06):
It was a really interesting exercise, and you
know, it it sort of forced meto, you know, to evaluate the
worth of it, you know, and it'snot just a commercial thing, but
I had had to really kind oftoss it up.
When I kind of think of it,that there just were some great
moments.
Moments that you don't even getat gigs, you know.
So you're standing in a recordshop, we did four.
We did Brisbane, Sydney,Adelaide, and Hobart, and you're
(14:28):
sort of standing there.
I don't reckon there was morethan 30 people at any given one.
I kind of had it in my headthat that they would be a bit
more like the ones that theweddings did back in the day
where they were reallyjam-packed and you could sell 30
or 40 albums.
They certainly weren't that.
There was something reallybeautiful about them, you know,
and really a good sense ofconnection there.
And and the fact is, everyinterview we did, people wanted
(14:51):
to talk about it.
Because I think it is hittinghome that the way music is being
made in in the modern era, itis so impersonal.
Impersonal, yeah.
And it we get a lot of peoplewho whose kids have sort of
grown up with their music whocome along, and so you get these
17, 18-year-old, nine-year-oldkids coming along with their
parents.
So they've grown up loving ourmusic, so that's fine.
(15:11):
You know they're gonna enjoy itbecause they're gonna get to
hear, you know, a bunch of songsthat they they know and really
like.
But one of the cross-the-boardcomments that we get off those
kids, those that secondgeneration kids, is that this is
amazing.
Like this is just amazing in away.
They said, our friends don'tknow how good this is.
And I thought, yeah, that'sbecause if you only go and see
Taylor Swift or ACDC or EdSheran, you're never gonna meet
(15:36):
that artist.
Whereas, you know, so I betalking to these kids at the
merch desk, and there's thatsense of like that music is
about connection or or it canbe.
And I think that the the recordshop thing really put it back
to that.
And one thing I can safely sayabout those four shops is none
of those shops really have muchof our our music in the racks,
you know.
They're places that they eitherhave big second-hand sections
(15:59):
or they function off people sortof who buy a lot of imports and
pay really big money for them.
So in every case, we had tosort of bring in our records and
say, well, you know, this ishow much you'll get, how much
we'll get.
They'll go through your cashregister, blah, blah, blah.
And in every case, they boughta few office to sell because
they're not in a position to bebuying loads of stock in the way
(16:22):
it was when say when theweddings were assigned to to
Warners.
In those days, like a rep wouldgo into those shops and sell
them 10 copies or 20 copies.
Or sometimes the reps wouldsay, My God, there's one shop,
you know, in such and such asuburb of Adelaide or Perth and
they're selling a heap of yourstuff.
And we'd probably go there anddo an in-store and find that
there was someone who was a realsuper duper fan who worked in
(16:44):
the store.
That was kind of how it worked.
Weirdly enough, it was allstill pretty personal.
We played in record shops alot, but the way music's being
made, you know, like with thisdropping a single and click a
click on a mouse thing, it itit's it's less and less
personal.
And and I know one band herewho just got signed to a major,
major deal in the States.
And this is really interesting.
(17:04):
But the first thing that thatlabel did was they flew that
band to the States for threeweeks of record stores.
Cheryl Lee (17:10):
Oh wow.
Mick Thomas (17:11):
Yeah, and that was I'm talking last month.
Cheryl Lee (17:14):
Yeah.
So I'm making things turningaround.
Mick Thomas (17:17):
I don't think I'm Robinson Caruso in making this
observation, you know, thatthere's still connections there
to be made.
And my example, I was saying,if playing in a record shop is
this really beautiful thing, andand we play like a little set.
Most days we play like maybeeight or nine songs.
We play, you know, six or sevenfrom from the new album, then a
couple of other bits andpieces.
(17:38):
And the connection was sogreat.
And you stand there with peopleand they'd buy the record, then
they'll buy some other recordor something they'd find in the
racks.
And yeah, just talking aboutmusic.
And I know, like in one of themin Egg Records in Sydney, we
finished, and the guy put onTeenage Fan Club songs from
Northern Britain, and I went,ah! And he went, What's the
matter?
I said, It's probably about myfavorite album, you know.
(17:58):
And he had no way of knowingthat.
And he just sort of thought, hesaid, Yeah, it's just kind of
really digging what you did.
And and I sort of thought,music's the winner here in in
the all these situations.
And it's the antithesis of theexchange where you find yourself
in a cafe or a pub and there'ssome music playing, and you
quite like the sound of it, andyou say to the to the waiter or
the waitress, you say, Excuseme, what are we listening to?
(18:20):
And they go, I don't know.
It's just Spotify, you know.
And you go, That's the worstthing ever.
You know, that's the worstexchange about music that I can
think of.
And this is kind of the best,you know.
So I'm not saying it's gonnawin me, you know, any any uh
great prizes, you know.
But I I kind of think that theway the way forward, I I don't
know if you're aware of a bookcalled Mood Machine by a woman
(18:43):
called Liz Palley, and she she'san American woman.
She was just in Australiarecently promoting it, and it's
about the rise of Spotify.
In the end of it, she talks areal lot about what she thinks
we can do to be proactive abouthow music's played, and and uh
it's a really scary book toread, but the parallel she draws
is with uh literature, and shesays, Well, somehow literature's
(19:05):
survived, you know, likebookshops have survived where
record shops haven't.
And she says, Well, what is it?
She puts it down to the authorswho are a lot bolshier, you
know, the the musicians, andthey they oppose things like
parallel import importing, andyou know, they've been much more
vociferous in their promotionof or their protection of of
their industry.
And but she just talks aboutlike book clubs and things like
(19:27):
that, and she says, Well, maybemusic's got to get back to that.
But I mean, it's it's not alldoom and gloom.
Like, don't forget that booksdon't sell what records sell.
Like, still say bookshops mighthave survived, but like you
know, I look I I don't knowwhere it's going.
You'd be foolish to beoptimistic.
I know, you've just got to trythings.
Cheryl Lee (19:45):
Keep on keeping on.
Mick Thomas (19:46):
You've got to keep on keeping on, and you've just
got to try new things, you know.
I mean, I I just said toeveryone, well, look, one of my
observations of the internet orspecial social media, I reckon
it's made people really fuckinglazy.
People just think, well, I'llbring it out and I'll, you know,
I'll just take out some ads onFacebook, or heaven forbid, I
might go to you know, a properperson who who d who does that
(20:08):
sort of Facebook advertising anddo a proper campaign and pay
some money.
I look at what I've just doneand I go, well, it and I look at
what it's cost, and it itwasn't cheap to get you know two
or three of us around thecountry for four weeks.
And I go, well, if I'd takenthat money and just spent it on
online advertising on, you know,Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, I
(20:28):
might have got a better result,but it would have been a really
lazy thing to do.
Cheryl Lee (20:33):
And you would have missed out on all those
wonderful experiences.
Mick Thomas (20:36):
Exactly, exactly.
All those things that thatreally kind of float your boat
and make you.
Cheryl Lee (20:40):
Like if you're an internet band and you're a real
band.
Mick Thomas (20:43):
Well, that's right.
You know, there's there's soyeah.
Well, and that's what'shappening on sp on Spotify is
there's bands that are just kindof being invented on the
internet, and you go, Well, Ijust don't want to be that, you
know.
And I and I kind of think also,you know, you want to enjoy
doing it.
I mean, the last interview thatthat I did, someone said, Well,
you know, I've got some kidscoming up through a music
(21:04):
school.
What's your advice?
And I said, Well, enjoy doingit.
Yeah, enjoy what you do.
Like, so therefore, playing forme is really important, you
know, like because I I likeplaying and I like making
records.
I've managed to make my livingplaying music for my entire
life.
It's not always been easy, andsometimes it's been, you know,
you you're scratching around andtrying to work out where your
(21:24):
next dollar's coming from.
So, a far more efficient wayfor me to do things would have
been just to keep some weirdversion of the weddings going
and just recycling the old hitsand spending all the money and
advertising on online.
What I'm trying to say is I'msure I could have done what I've
done a lot more financiallyefficiently.
Cheryl Lee (21:45):
Would you have enjoyed it as much?
Mick Thomas (21:47):
I wouldn't have enjoyed it, you know, and I'm
not saying every record I makeis as good as any other record
that I make, but I've got tobelieve that there's something
decent in every record that Imake, whether it's a commercial
hit or whether it just you knowgets someone where they live,
you know, like it it hitssomeone in in a strong emotional
(22:08):
way.
So if you take that out of it,then I probably should go and
get a job, you know.
Cheryl Lee (22:13):
I feel like maybe in some way, some fans are missing
out on that journey, andinstead sitting in front of the
computer watching the numbers goup at the end of their careers,
where's the memories?
Where's their footprint thatthey left here?
Mick Thomas (22:29):
That's right.
Look, look, I couldn't agreewith you more.
You know, I know there's alittle bar in Melbourne that we
I run with some friends, it'scalled the Merry Creek Tavern.
It's a really good littlevenue.
I really love working there,and and we employ a lot of
musicians, right?
And the musicians we tend toemploy are are younger because
they're the people who want towork behind the bar.
They're pretty embryonic interms of their career.
And uh I was talking to one guyand we're just chatting about
(22:51):
music, and he said, I've gotfriends who are in the band
Private Function who are justenormous, you know.
And I I had no idea about whothese guys were.
And he said, I'm pretty sure itwas private function, and he
said, the advice they gave himis said, don't play.
And I said, What do you fuckingmean, don't play?
They said, Don't play.
I said, just don't play.
Do your stuff online, blah,blah, blah.
And then when you come out, youknow, and you come and you do
(23:13):
this big show.
And I just said, I only startedin this business to play.
So if I don't play, then it'sridiculous, you know.
It's it's like telling afootball player not to play, you
know.
Cheryl Lee (23:23):
Yeah, but you don't play, you're not alive, right?
Mick Thomas (23:25):
It's what it is, you know.
I just kind of think that inthat regard, the the internet
just has sort of dominatedthings in a really weird way,
you know.
Like you know, I just sort ofthought that was the most
amazing thing I've ever heard.
Bizarre, really bizarre.
Yeah.
Cheryl Lee (23:39):
We need to talk about your new single.
You're a busy man, you've gotto get packing and get on the
road like a real band.
Mick Thomas (23:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (23:48):
The next single is A Mighty Ride, and we are gonna
play that as we leave you.
Are you taking the six-piecelineup we've recorded this on?
Is everybody coming?
Mick Thomas (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, all all all six of us.
Even got Hunter and Jesse Lee'sbad habits opening for us
pretty much for the whole tour,taking them around.
Cheryl Lee (24:06):
So just like the old days.
Mick Thomas (24:08):
Yeah, I mean, I just again, you know, it'd be
it'd be so much easier to to nottake everyone, but it's like,
you know, we're the six peoplethat we went away to record the
album, and you know, I mean, I'msure there would have been
session players in Auckland thatcould have come and done stuff,
but yeah, we've got a prettygood breadth of instrumentation
within the six people, and itwas really nice just to do an
album that was just the six ofus.
(24:29):
So yeah, it it's great to begoing on the road with that lot
of people.
Cheryl Lee (24:32):
Mick Thomas's Roving Commission's new album, Go Come
Back, is available on CD,limited edition LP.
Yay! Digital download.
So we wish you all the bestwith the tour kicking off
tonight, and we shall see youhere in Adelaide a couple of
times in early December.
Mick Thomas (24:52):
Yeah, yeah, micthomas.com slash shows is
where you can get tickets, andyeah, I'll look forward to to
just getting out there and doingit.
And and I'm gonna go and loadthe car now.
Cheryl Lee (25:00):
I'll see you down the front.
Mick Thomas (25:02):
Good on you, Cheryl.
Thank you.
Thanks for your time.
Cheryl Lee (25:04):
Have a good one, stay safe.
Mick Thomas (25:05):
Good on you, thank you.
Tommy Kaye (25:07):
You are listening to Still Rocking It, the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee (25:13):
All going well.
I'll be interviewing Mick whenhe comes to town early next
month.
So stay tuned to our weeklymusic show, Rider TV, on Channel
44 Adelaide and Channel 31Melbourne.
Here it is, as promised, thebrand new single, A Mighty Ride,
from the Go Come Back albumfrom Mick Thomas's Raving
(25:34):
Commission.
(29:50):
Thank you so much for joining me on the Still
Rockin' It podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can, supportAussie music, and I'll see you
down the front.
Welcome to the Still Rocki' Itpodcast, where we'll have music,
news reviews, and interviewswith some of our favorite
Australian musicians andartists.
To catch up on podcasts andother favourite articles, simply
(00:49):
go to that radiochick.com.
We'd like to welcome into theZoom room today Mick Thomas.
Thanks for joining us, Mick.
Mick Thomas (01:01):
How's it going?
Cheryl Lee (01:02):
Good, thanks.
These aren't very rock starhours, are they?
We're both up bright and early.
Mick Thomas (01:07):
No, but we we start our tour today and we're up up
the bush by about three hours.
So I've got to you know packthe car and and get moving,
really.
So yeah, no, it's good to beup, up and about.
Cheryl Lee (01:17):
Well, thank you for squeezing us in on such a busy
day.
That's all right.
Yeah, like you said, day one ofa 22-day tour.
Mick Thomas (01:25):
Yeah, and it's it's been a little longer if you
take it that for the last fourweeks we've been out and about
playing in record stores anddoing bits and pieces.
So yeah, it's a good size tour,which is good.
It's what it used to be.
And I s I still think yeah,rehearsing is great and I really
believe in it, but uh there'snothing like the the way a band
plays when they've just beenplaying for a while, you know.
Yeah.
Cheryl Lee (01:45):
That's right.
So you're kicking it offtonight at Shiraz Republic in
Victoria.
Mick Thomas (01:51):
Cornella, yeah.
Yep.
Cheryl Lee (01:52):
Heading our way this time in December, three shows
in our town.
Mick Thomas (01:57):
At this stage is there's two.
If if if people get off ontheir bikes and sort of buy a
few more tickets, we can add athird.
But there's there's twodefinites, and then there's
we've got the one up at Gulwa.
Cheryl Lee (02:07):
Have you played at the Murray Delta Juke joint
before?
Mick Thomas (02:11):
I haven't, and I've always liked the look of it,
you know.
I just uh yeah, I just likeyeah, I like the name of it.
I think it's sort of funny, andI just sort of see, you know,
what they're doing and who'splaying there.
And I I just kind of thinkthere are people in the regions
that want to hear it, you know,want to hear good music and and
do stuff, but you know, oftenit's just having the right
people on the ground tofacilitate it.
(02:31):
You know, look, we've we'veseen this amazing change down
here in the eastern part of thestate, talking like Gippsland,
Victoria.
All these gigs that are two orthree hours from the city have
really taken off.
And it's only because there'sjust a bunch of people on the
ground who've who've made themhappen.
So, like there was the CaravanMusic Club, which used to be in
town, and they moved down toArchie's Creek.
(02:51):
Now it's the most unlikely tolooking town you could ever
imagine, but it just works, youknow.
And then there's a bunch ofpeople down uh at sale that run
this thing called the BundyHall, where they've renovated a
hall, and you know, people turnout and people want to hear good
music.
And I I kind of think there's awhole thing that's probably
happened in the last say 20years, and it's you know, pe
(03:13):
people call it a sea change or atree change, but there's also
the phenomena of people whomaybe grow up in the country and
go into the city for a fewyears to go to uni or whatever,
and and and they get used tohaving good music on tap, you
know, and yeah, interestingstuff that's not just you know
your top 40 fudder on the radio,and uh they're an educated
people and but they and theymove back back to the country,
(03:34):
and there's just people in thecountry who've always liked good
music.
So they you know, add in thosetwo or three phenomena together,
and and there is an audiencethere in these places, but it's
just got to be found and andnurtured.
Cheryl Lee (03:45):
It's a funky little place, and they do get lots of
good acts there, and we from thecity will even drive down
there.
Mick Thomas (03:53):
Well, that's great, you know.
Like like I say with these uhvenues I've been talking about
in Victoria, some some of thoseare venues that people will
choose to go to rather than thebig city show, you know.
They know they're gonna see youknow the the bands really
turning it on in those placeswhere you know where they
weren't expecting it to get acrowd.
And yeah, I I I I think it'sit's great.
Cheryl Lee (04:14):
What about Wheatsheaf? Have you played
there before?
Mick Thomas (04:16):
Heaps, and it's great, you know.
I mean, they just run it sowell, and a little thing about
The Wheatsheeaf, but the themusic room's out the back, and
there's no bar in the musicroom.
So it just it means it's a bitmore kind of concert.
But look, they just run itreally well.
There's a really great soundsystem, great, great gear in
there, great people to run it,good people to deal with.
(04:38):
You know, you if you take thewheat sheaf and then then the
the Grace Emily's still kickinggoals.
We were last time we were intown, we went there to see
Dallas Crane, and you go, well,you know, Adelaide's sort of
got, you know, it's it's doingall right, you know.
Absolutely.
Cheryl Lee (04:53):
Where can we get the tickets?
Mick Thomas (04:54):
Go to mickthomas.com, there's tickets
are there, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (04:57):
We've got a new single to talk about.
That's why we're here from anew album.
But can we go back in time atiny little bit before we go
forward?
Mick Thomas (05:05):
Sure.
Cheryl Lee (05:06):
Weddings, parties, anything, 12 years with them.
Mick Thomas (05:09):
It's 15.
Cheryl Lee (05:10):
15.
Mick Thomas (05:11):
Yeah, yeah.
It's it's funny, but when youget older, it doesn't sound as
long as it did at the time whenwe were finishing up.
Well, I was going 15 years, soyou know, I was kind of like 40
years old, and it's like, oh,it's been 15 years of my life.
Weddings finished in 98, soit's 27 years ago that that band
finished being a a functioningentity, you know.
(05:32):
There's been some somereformations, I'll concede, in
in that 27 years.
But for the most part, youknow, we finished the band and
we finished it properly becausewe meant it.
What I'm trying to say is 15years doesn't sound that much to
me now.
Like I look at the currentlineup of the bands just coming
up for five years, you know.
So weddings had had a lot ofpeople through the band.
(05:54):
I think we had 14 or 15 peoplethrough the band.
So we tended to change line upevery year, even though people
have got their favorite lineup.
If people go, Oh, my favoritelineup is Mick, Wally, and Dave
Steele, and you go, All right,you take that that was the front
line, but the people behindthat changed quite dramatically
(06:14):
in that time.
So whereas, you know, at themoment we're sitting on five
years with pretty much the samelineup, which is really good.
Cheryl Lee (06:20):
Yeah.
You were one of the majorsongwriters of Wedding's Parties
anything.
Mick Thomas (06:26):
I was, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (06:27):
You wrote two of the main hits, the main radio hits
anyway, Father's Day andMonday's Expert.
People will remember you fromthose songs.
Mick Thomas (06:36):
Yeah, so you know what?
I I still play 'em, you know.
I mean, I'm still happy toplay 'em.
And I I always make the jokethat they fit so well alongside
the new songs that we we recordthat you know, we've traveled
very little distancethematically or stylistically
over the years, you know, couldI just it was the music I set
out to play and I I never feltrestricted by by it
(06:58):
stylistically.
I felt there was a it was a bigwide palette there to work
with, you know.
Even just for this currenttour, we we sat down and while
we were rehearsing stuff fromthe new album, I just said,
well, let's rehearse a wholebunch of old songs, really old
songs that we haven't beenplaying, because when you have
got this kind of an old yeah,like a large canon of music, you
(07:20):
tend to fall into the trap ofyou you know, of playing the
half a dozen ones that you knoware gonna work, right?
So but but really uh as yousaid, there was there's a couple
of bona fide commercial hits inthere, and beyond that, really
they're just the songs thatwe've kept playing, you know,
that that have that people thinkare the you know, they call
them the bangers or whateverthey call them.
(07:41):
Yeah, I don't even care whatthey call them.
But you know, they're songsthat uh they win by virtue of
their recognition, you know,live.
And so I just said, well, let'slet's maybe shelve a few of
those ones and just get a wholeup bunch of of other old ones,
you know.
And it it's it was kind of areally joyous experience, you
know.
And I sort of threw it up opento the band because I thought,
(08:02):
well, you know, they're gonna beplaying them, they've got to
enjoy them.
And to me, people go, What'syour favorite song?
And I go, Well, my favoritesong is if I'm talking
commercially, well, then I'mgonna say Father's Day, Monday's
experts, because they were thesongs that really got us a long
way down the track financiallyand commercially.
But beyond that, they're all mybabies, you know what I mean?
Like it's a I I kind of wrote80% of what what the weddings
(08:25):
played.
There's a lot of songs there.
You can draw this this distinctline in my career when I said,
well, it's not not going to becalled weddings parties anything
anymore, even though that bandhad had a heap of lineup
changes.
From this point on, it's notcalled weddings parties
anything, it's called MickThomas and the whatever, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
But there's so many of thesongs that, especially, say, in
the 10 years just after theweddings, that could have easily
(08:48):
been wedding songs.
Yeah, like that they were songsthat the weddings, you know,
probably did play, you know, andthe and the factors that that
led to them, you know, going oneside of that line, it's like B
C and A D, you know, uh, oneside of that line or the other
side of that line are kind ofmany and varied, you know.
And sometimes we still go andlook at a bunch of songs to do
(09:08):
an album like the album we'vejust done, or we did a year ago.
And I look at the songs on thatalbum and I go, well, some of
those songs are already 10, 15years old by the time you record
them, you know.
And so many of the songs that,you know, almost made it onto
weddings albums and didn't endup post-weddings albums.
What I'm trying to get at in myroundabout waffly way is that
(09:29):
distinction about, you know,whether it's weddings parties or
anything is very kind ofamorphous, you know.
Cheryl Lee (09:35):
Like it's it's not it's not a it's not a definite
line at the moment, it's adefinite line, no.
Mick Thomas (09:39):
Especially in terms of the writing of the songs and
and the impetus and theinspiration of the songs.
That line is very, veryblurred.
Cheryl Lee (09:47):
Let's talk about the most recent album.
It's called GoCome Back.
The meaning of that is it's uhpigeon Indonesian turn for a
return journey.
Simple but effective conceptfor a song cycle.
Mick Thomas (10:01):
Yeah, look, I I I just had this bunch of songs
that, you know, like about acash over about 35 songs, which
I could offer to the band, and Isaid, Well, yeah, we could take
this 10 or that 10 or yeah.
I think I've had about eightsongs.
I said, Here's eight songs thatwe could pick, and eight songs
sort of take you away, and eightsongs bring you home again.
And everyone kind of liked theidea, so it became a matter of
(10:21):
fitting the last few jigsawpieces in around that as a
concept.
I think the kind of resurgenceof vinyl as a medium for an
album, it sort of means that youknow you're gonna have a bunch
of songs that go on on side oneand a bunch of songs that go on
side two.
Yeah.
It really did lend itself to aconcept like this, which is like
a two-part concept, and it'spretty simple, but it's a lot
(10:42):
that goes in into the thought ofit as saying, well, if side
one's all about this, the bigjourneys and the long journeys
and and what you see and whatyou recognise as being valuable,
then side two, which brings youhome again, is maybe looking at
stuff that's a lot closer tohome, but with a different eye
after you've traveled, you know,maybe you s see them in a in
(11:02):
another way.
So that's really what thealbum's about.
Cheryl Lee (11:06):
I do love that because I do miss the fact, and
we seem to have lost that a bitin this digital age, is the
storytelling of an album.
An album gives you theopportunity, like you have done
here, in its entirety, it's astory.
Now we just get to hear one hitand then another hit.
Mick Thomas (11:23):
Oh, yeah, it's it's diabolical.
Yeah, I mean, the the waymusic's sort of created now, it
it's it's kind of weird becausein one sense, it's closer to the
way the album was conceivedthan it has been, say, for the
past 20 years.
Whereas initially albums werelike an artist would build up a
bunch of singles that would beenreasonably successful, then
they'd collect them all togetherand call it an album.
(11:44):
But then by the end of the 60s,even by early earlier than
that, early 60s, the whole ideaof getting songs that were
cohesive and that sort ofbelonged in the one place really
became a strong concept.
Whereas the way people aremaking music now, it's kind of
pretty much heaven forbid that Iwould ever use this term,
dropping singles.
I'm gonna drop a single.
And I just go, oh, really?
(12:05):
It's just such horrible modernspeaking, my my opinion, you
know.
So they click on a mouse and asong goes out to the world, and
when they build up enough, thenthey've got an album.
But it's a little bit backwardsbecause it's generally
speaking, they've got the albumdone first up.
Look, I was born in 1960, so bythe time I was really deeply
concerned about and listening tomusic, it was the 70s, and the
(12:26):
album re-rained supreme, youknow.
Cheryl Lee (12:28):
Yeah, that's right.
Mick Thomas (12:30):
The whole idea of the album.
So I'm pretty wedded to thatidea, you know.
That's my my way of thinkingand working.
Cheryl Lee (12:37):
The first single from the album, the first step
in a homeward direction, enteredthe air chart at number one in
June.
Congratulations.
Mick Thomas (12:45):
Yeah, look, it it is just interesting that the way
things have gone in terms ofindependent music.
If you'd told me that um a songcould enter the charts on that
few of sales 20 years ago, Iwould have laughed at you.
But but because sales are so uhso low, like physical sales are
record, it's pretty easy towork it that you you can sort of
(13:06):
chart a bit.
But yeah, it doesn't mean a lotwhen you know you you chart one
week and then you that's it.
It's a nice little kind ofspring in your step for a day,
but you really gotta be try andbe careful to not let that and
it's like people looking attheir Spotify figures and going,
Oh, I got this many streams andI in this many countries,
(13:27):
amazing.
And it just doesn't mean verymuch at all, you know.
They're very misleading KPIs,another modern term I've used
today.
You've got to be really carefulwith those things.
It was great.
Look, all I know is that enoughpeople sort of buy the stuff
for me to make another record,you know.
Cheryl Lee (13:43):
What I really love about after that single came
out, you went and did a bit of atour, then the in-store tour to
hang out with your fans,support the retailers, which is
really important, and highlightthe lack of the human connection
in today's music business.
I really love that you took thetime to do all of that.
Mick Thomas (14:06):
It was a really interesting exercise, and you
know, it it sort of forced meto, you know, to evaluate the
worth of it, you know, and it'snot just a commercial thing, but
I had had to really kind oftoss it up.
When I kind of think of it,that there just were some great
moments.
Moments that you don't even getat gigs, you know.
So you're standing in a recordshop, we did four.
We did Brisbane, Sydney,Adelaide, and Hobart, and you're
(14:28):
sort of standing there.
I don't reckon there was morethan 30 people at any given one.
I kind of had it in my headthat that they would be a bit
more like the ones that theweddings did back in the day
where they were reallyjam-packed and you could sell 30
or 40 albums.
They certainly weren't that.
There was something reallybeautiful about them, you know,
and really a good sense ofconnection there.
And and the fact is, everyinterview we did, people wanted
(14:51):
to talk about it.
Because I think it is hittinghome that the way music is being
made in in the modern era, itis so impersonal.
Impersonal, yeah.
And it we get a lot of peoplewho whose kids have sort of
grown up with their music whocome along, and so you get these
17, 18-year-old, nine-year-oldkids coming along with their
parents.
So they've grown up loving ourmusic, so that's fine.
(15:11):
You know they're gonna enjoy itbecause they're gonna get to
hear, you know, a bunch of songsthat they they know and really
like.
But one of the cross-the-boardcomments that we get off those
kids, those that secondgeneration kids, is that this is
amazing.
Like this is just amazing in away.
They said, our friends don'tknow how good this is.
And I thought, yeah, that'sbecause if you only go and see
Taylor Swift or ACDC or EdSheran, you're never gonna meet
(15:36):
that artist.
Whereas, you know, so I betalking to these kids at the
merch desk, and there's thatsense of like that music is
about connection or or it canbe.
And I think that the the recordshop thing really put it back
to that.
And one thing I can safely sayabout those four shops is none
of those shops really have muchof our our music in the racks,
you know.
They're places that they eitherhave big second-hand sections
(15:59):
or they function off people sortof who buy a lot of imports and
pay really big money for them.
So in every case, we had tosort of bring in our records and
say, well, you know, this ishow much you'll get, how much
we'll get.
They'll go through your cashregister, blah, blah, blah.
And in every case, they boughta few office to sell because
they're not in a position to bebuying loads of stock in the way
(16:22):
it was when say when theweddings were assigned to to
Warners.
In those days, like a rep wouldgo into those shops and sell
them 10 copies or 20 copies.
Or sometimes the reps wouldsay, My God, there's one shop,
you know, in such and such asuburb of Adelaide or Perth and
they're selling a heap of yourstuff.
And we'd probably go there anddo an in-store and find that
there was someone who was a realsuper duper fan who worked in
(16:44):
the store.
That was kind of how it worked.
Weirdly enough, it was allstill pretty personal.
We played in record shops alot, but the way music's being
made, you know, like with thisdropping a single and click a
click on a mouse thing, it itit's it's less and less
personal.
And and I know one band herewho just got signed to a major,
major deal in the States.
And this is really interesting.
(17:04):
But the first thing that thatlabel did was they flew that
band to the States for threeweeks of record stores.
Cheryl Lee (17:10):
Oh wow.
Mick Thomas (17:11):
Yeah, and that was I'm talking last month.
Cheryl Lee (17:14):
Yeah.
So I'm making things turningaround.
Mick Thomas (17:17):
I don't think I'm Robinson Caruso in making this
observation, you know, thatthere's still connections there
to be made.
And my example, I was saying,if playing in a record shop is
this really beautiful thing, andand we play like a little set.
Most days we play like maybeeight or nine songs.
We play, you know, six or sevenfrom from the new album, then a
couple of other bits andpieces.
(17:38):
And the connection was sogreat.
And you stand there with peopleand they'd buy the record, then
they'll buy some other recordor something they'd find in the
racks.
And yeah, just talking aboutmusic.
And I know, like in one of themin Egg Records in Sydney, we
finished, and the guy put onTeenage Fan Club songs from
Northern Britain, and I went,ah! And he went, What's the
matter?
I said, It's probably about myfavorite album, you know.
(17:58):
And he had no way of knowingthat.
And he just sort of thought, hesaid, Yeah, it's just kind of
really digging what you did.
And and I sort of thought,music's the winner here in in
the all these situations.
And it's the antithesis of theexchange where you find yourself
in a cafe or a pub and there'ssome music playing, and you
quite like the sound of it, andyou say to the to the waiter or
the waitress, you say, Excuseme, what are we listening to?
(18:20):
And they go, I don't know.
It's just Spotify, you know.
And you go, That's the worstthing ever.
You know, that's the worstexchange about music that I can
think of.
And this is kind of the best,you know.
So I'm not saying it's gonnawin me, you know, any any uh
great prizes, you know.
But I I kind of think that theway the way forward, I I don't
know if you're aware of a bookcalled Mood Machine by a woman
(18:43):
called Liz Palley, and she she'san American woman.
She was just in Australiarecently promoting it, and it's
about the rise of Spotify.
In the end of it, she talks areal lot about what she thinks
we can do to be proactive abouthow music's played, and and uh
it's a really scary book toread, but the parallel she draws
is with uh literature, and shesays, Well, somehow literature's
(19:05):
survived, you know, likebookshops have survived where
record shops haven't.
And she says, Well, what is it?
She puts it down to the authorswho are a lot bolshier, you
know, the the musicians, andthey they oppose things like
parallel import importing, andyou know, they've been much more
vociferous in their promotionof or their protection of of
their industry.
And but she just talks aboutlike book clubs and things like
(19:27):
that, and she says, Well, maybemusic's got to get back to that.
But I mean, it's it's not alldoom and gloom.
Like, don't forget that booksdon't sell what records sell.
Like, still say bookshops mighthave survived, but like you
know, I look I I don't knowwhere it's going.
You'd be foolish to beoptimistic.
I know, you've just got to trythings.
Cheryl Lee (19:45):
Keep on keeping on.
Mick Thomas (19:46):
You've got to keep on keeping on, and you've just
got to try new things, you know.
I mean, I I just said toeveryone, well, look, one of my
observations of the internet orspecial social media, I reckon
it's made people really fuckinglazy.
People just think, well, I'llbring it out and I'll, you know,
I'll just take out some ads onFacebook, or heaven forbid, I
might go to you know, a properperson who who d who does that
(20:08):
sort of Facebook advertising anddo a proper campaign and pay
some money.
I look at what I've just doneand I go, well, it and I look at
what it's cost, and it itwasn't cheap to get you know two
or three of us around thecountry for four weeks.
And I go, well, if I'd takenthat money and just spent it on
online advertising on, you know,Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, I
(20:28):
might have got a better result,but it would have been a really
lazy thing to do.
Cheryl Lee (20:33):
And you would have missed out on all those
wonderful experiences.
Mick Thomas (20:36):
Exactly, exactly.
All those things that thatreally kind of float your boat
and make you.
Cheryl Lee (20:40):
Like if you're an internet band and you're a real
band.
Mick Thomas (20:43):
Well, that's right.
You know, there's there's soyeah.
Well, and that's what'shappening on sp on Spotify is
there's bands that are just kindof being invented on the
internet, and you go, Well, Ijust don't want to be that, you
know.
And I and I kind of think also,you know, you want to enjoy
doing it.
I mean, the last interview thatthat I did, someone said, Well,
you know, I've got some kidscoming up through a music
(21:04):
school.
What's your advice?
And I said, Well, enjoy doingit.
Yeah, enjoy what you do.
Like, so therefore, playing forme is really important, you
know, like because I I likeplaying and I like making
records.
I've managed to make my livingplaying music for my entire
life.
It's not always been easy, andsometimes it's been, you know,
you you're scratching around andtrying to work out where your
(21:24):
next dollar's coming from.
So, a far more efficient wayfor me to do things would have
been just to keep some weirdversion of the weddings going
and just recycling the old hitsand spending all the money and
advertising on online.
What I'm trying to say is I'msure I could have done what I've
done a lot more financiallyefficiently.
Cheryl Lee (21:45):
Would you have enjoyed it as much?
Mick Thomas (21:47):
I wouldn't have enjoyed it, you know, and I'm
not saying every record I makeis as good as any other record
that I make, but I've got tobelieve that there's something
decent in every record that Imake, whether it's a commercial
hit or whether it just you knowgets someone where they live,
you know, like it it hitssomeone in in a strong emotional
(22:08):
way.
So if you take that out of it,then I probably should go and
get a job, you know.
Cheryl Lee (22:13):
I feel like maybe in some way, some fans are missing
out on that journey, andinstead sitting in front of the
computer watching the numbers goup at the end of their careers,
where's the memories?
Where's their footprint thatthey left here?
Mick Thomas (22:29):
That's right.
Look, look, I couldn't agreewith you more.
You know, I know there's alittle bar in Melbourne that we
I run with some friends, it'scalled the Merry Creek Tavern.
It's a really good littlevenue.
I really love working there,and and we employ a lot of
musicians, right?
And the musicians we tend toemploy are are younger because
they're the people who want towork behind the bar.
They're pretty embryonic interms of their career.
And uh I was talking to one guyand we're just chatting about
(22:51):
music, and he said, I've gotfriends who are in the band
Private Function who are justenormous, you know.
And I I had no idea about whothese guys were.
And he said, I'm pretty sure itwas private function, and he
said, the advice they gave himis said, don't play.
And I said, What do you fuckingmean, don't play?
They said, Don't play.
I said, just don't play.
Do your stuff online, blah,blah, blah.
And then when you come out, youknow, and you come and you do
(23:13):
this big show.
And I just said, I only startedin this business to play.
So if I don't play, then it'sridiculous, you know.
It's it's like telling afootball player not to play, you
know.
Cheryl Lee (23:23):
Yeah, but you don't play, you're not alive, right?
Mick Thomas (23:25):
It's what it is, you know.
I just kind of think that inthat regard, the the internet
just has sort of dominatedthings in a really weird way,
you know.
Like you know, I just sort ofthought that was the most
amazing thing I've ever heard.
Bizarre, really bizarre.
Yeah.
Cheryl Lee (23:39):
We need to talk about your new single.
You're a busy man, you've gotto get packing and get on the
road like a real band.
Mick Thomas (23:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (23:48):
The next single is A Mighty Ride, and we are gonna
play that as we leave you.
Are you taking the six-piecelineup we've recorded this on?
Is everybody coming?
Mick Thomas (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, all all all six of us.
Even got Hunter and Jesse Lee'sbad habits opening for us
pretty much for the whole tour,taking them around.
Cheryl Lee (24:06):
So just like the old days.
Mick Thomas (24:08):
Yeah, I mean, I just again, you know, it'd be
it'd be so much easier to to nottake everyone, but it's like,
you know, we're the six peoplethat we went away to record the
album, and you know, I mean, I'msure there would have been
session players in Auckland thatcould have come and done stuff,
but yeah, we've got a prettygood breadth of instrumentation
within the six people, and itwas really nice just to do an
album that was just the six ofus.
(24:29):
So yeah, it it's great to begoing on the road with that lot
of people.
Cheryl Lee (24:32):
Mick Thomas's Roving Commission's new album, Go Come
Back, is available on CD,limited edition LP.
Yay! Digital download.
So we wish you all the bestwith the tour kicking off
tonight, and we shall see youhere in Adelaide a couple of
times in early December.
Mick Thomas (24:52):
Yeah, yeah, micthomas.com slash shows is
where you can get tickets, andyeah, I'll look forward to to
just getting out there and doingit.
And and I'm gonna go and loadthe car now.
Cheryl Lee (25:00):
I'll see you down the front.
Mick Thomas (25:02):
Good on you, Cheryl.
Thank you.
Thanks for your time.
Cheryl Lee (25:04):
Have a good one, stay safe.
Mick Thomas (25:05):
Good on you, thank you.
Tommy Kaye (25:07):
You are listening to Still Rocking It, the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee (25:13):
All going well.
I'll be interviewing Mick whenhe comes to town early next
month.
So stay tuned to our weeklymusic show, Rider TV, on Channel
44 Adelaide and Channel 31Melbourne.
Here it is, as promised, thebrand new single, A Mighty Ride,
from the Go Come Back albumfrom Mick Thomas's Raving
(25:34):
Commission.
(29:50):
Thank you so much for joining me on the Still
Rockin' It podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can, supportAussie music, and I'll see you
down the front.
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