On Friday 10th July 2026, Andy Bickers passed away after a battle with cancer.
I had the privilege of sitting down with Andy for this conversation in 2025. Although we had only just met in person, it quickly felt like two old Kiwi bros catching up over a coffee.
We talked rugby, growing up in New Zealand, moving across the Tasman, and, of course, an extraordinary life in music.
Andy’s career took him from the New Zealand live music scene to stages around the world with Jimmy Barnes, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, Don Henley, the Eagles and many others.
But listening back to this conversation, it isn’t only the incredible career that stands out.
It’s Andy’s humour, his warmth, his humility, his intelligence and the genuine gratitude he carried for the life music had given him.
At one point Andy described himself as “the luckiest saxophone player I know.”
The many tributes shared since his passing make it clear that the musicians around him felt just as lucky to know him.
I’m incredibly grateful that this conversation exists, and it is an honour to share it with you again
Thank you for the music, the stories and the laughs. Rest easy, my bro
Stevie.
My guest today is Andy Bickers.
Andy is a saxophone player, originally from New Zealand and now living in Australia.
From NZ bands Backdoor Blues Band, Smokeshop and Netherworld Dancing toys, to a long time association with Midnight Oil, a few Eagles gigs here and there, to just recently coming off the road with Cold Chisel on their 5-0 tour…Andy is a session saxophonist, jazz to the roots but a rock n roll attitude. This was an awesome hang. Hope you dig this conversation.
[00:01:33] Stevie: Oh, I wasn't giving you shit, mate. You're actually, you're actually, you're Canes, Canes, Hurri- Hurricanes through and through. You're just pretending to be a Crusaders supporter, right?
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[00:01:41] Stevie: pretty- 'Cause you ended up back in Wellington. Come on, mate.
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[00:01:53] Andy: Yeah. There's no doubt about it. And I think, uh- Yeah ... you know, I think nothing sort of drives me mental more than people who just support a winning side. [00:02:00] So I'll just, I'll just pull my head in on that one. Yeah. Uh, but, and that's definitely not the case now. You know, of course. No. You know, and, uh, look, the mighty Canes are looking fantastic and, uh, you know, there's been a, there's been a big resurgence in both.
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[00:02:23] Andy: Oh, man.
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[00:02:26] Andy: There you go.
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[00:02:28] Andy: I was kind of, I was kind of fascinated in that sort of, um, resurgence in Waikato.
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[00:02:42] Stevie: that's cool.
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[00:02:49] Andy: That's kicking ass. Yeah. That's fantastic. I love it.
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[00:02:54] Andy: Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, in, uh, Las Vegas this weekend, right?
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[00:02:57] Andy: Yeah, yeah. There you
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[00:03:01] Andy: rugby league team? Oh, don't ask, don't ask me this. Uh, 'cause I, well, I mean, I always say I don't have one.
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[00:03:05] Stevie: we're in the eastern suburbs, so you, you're-
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[00:03:08] Stevie: Are you Souths or are you Roosters or...?
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[00:03:19] Stevie: Right.
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[00:03:35] Andy: Yep. Really. But-
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[00:03:38] Andy: Oh, look, Stevie, I'm, I'm not that kind of guy. I'm not that shallow. Um- No, in real, in real terms, uh, it's, it's, it's allowed me to sort of enjoy the whole league, you know? Yeah. Like, uh-
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[00:03:49] Andy: know. I'm not, I'm not Souths ... I, I'm as, I'm as happy watching Manly versus Parramatta as I am watching whoever else.
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[00:04:01] Stevie: Mm ...
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[00:04:09] Stevie: Yeah, yep
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[00:04:11] Stevie: you, um, go in tipping consoles? With that kind of thing with rugby league? Yeah. 'Cause what I find with that, what I found with that for years, we, we were actually doing like a, it was a fantasy rugby thing-
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[00:04:21] Stevie: for the Super Rugby. And what I ended up doing, what I, I would find myself doing is actually...
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[00:04:42] Andy: yeah, yeah.
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[00:04:43] Andy: D- different spot- What is going
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[00:04:46] Andy: Different little spot to be in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I, look, man, I, I, I've got great memories of being a kid growing up in Christchurch and going to Lancaster Park when- Yeah ... Christchurch had that sort of, you know, that domination through the '80s, you [00:05:00] know, and you had, um, Canterbury had that domination, sorry, not Christchurch, but you had, you know, Deans and all that crew, and there were just so many fantastic players came through in those days.
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[00:05:19] Stevie: Yep ...
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[00:05:26] Stevie: Jumping on that?
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[00:05:28] Stevie: it's the Sw- the Swans?
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[00:05:40] Stevie: Packed ...
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[00:05:43] Andy: seriously, these people are into footy. You know? Yeah, yeah. It's great. Yeah. It's really good to see, you know, because it's just got that real tribal fricking, let's go, you know? Like, it's, it's great. You sort of get in there, man, you know. I love it. I really do. It's great.
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[00:06:01] Andy: Yeah
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[00:06:10] Andy: Yeah, look, no, I, I, I've played with Chisel, f- uh, I've been, uh, uh, lucky enough to be their touring saxophone player, uh, for about 20-something
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[00:06:23] Andy: That's the one I didn't do. Oh,
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[00:06:26] Andy: Oh, okay. No. But- That was the one I didn't do. That was, um, you know, another, another gent, and that, uh, that was f- for, for whatever reason, that was, um- Uh, you know, whatever, they, they, uh, they called me after that, and I s- I started at the ringside-
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[00:06:42] Andy: tour, so about 20-
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[00:06:46] Andy: 2002, 2003- Yeah, right ... or something, I think, and have done all the stuff beyond that. No, The Last Wave, I saw The Last Wave of Summer tour, I s- uh, tour as well. I saw that at, um, Sydney Entertainment Center. Uh- Yeah, yeah, too, I
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[00:06:59] Andy: yeah.
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[00:07:02] Andy: Whoa
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[00:07:03] Andy: Really?
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[00:07:04] Andy: What was that called?
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[00:07:06] Andy: Fantastic. It
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[00:07:09] Andy: what sort of places are you playing?
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[00:07:12] Andy: Yeah.
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[00:07:13] Andy: Like-
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[00:07:18] Andy: Yeah.
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[00:07:24] Stevie: Don't rem- don't remember a hell of a lot of it, but, um- Yeah,
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[00:07:29] Stevie: I played... I don't, I don't know if they were playing the songs in the original key, but- Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just always, always- I try, I tried to do my best to, to play Steve Prestwich.
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[00:07:40] Stevie: Every fill, you know, e- every, um, uh, should I say iconic or, or that's probably not the right word, but, you know, the, uh, it's, it's, it's the air drumming fill.
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[00:07:52] Stevie: yeah. That's an air dru- you know, when you're playing, when you're listening to them- Everyone knows it ... you can air drum it. Yeah, of course. You gotta play that.
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[00:07:59] Stevie: Yeah.
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[00:08:09] Stevie: We're, we're on the-
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[00:08:11] Stevie: bourbons, mate ...
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[00:08:13] Stevie: mate. Oh, yeah.
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[00:08:15] Andy: Um-
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[00:08:16] Andy: oh, cheers. Um, the bands that I saw playing Chisel, uh, covers tended to bring the keys down.
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[00:08:24] Andy: Cause, you know, it's, Jim's kinda superhuman- Jim's big. ... and, uh, you know, they, they, you know, you can go it as hard as you want, but, you know, there's a big difference between sort of s- s- like, like screaming them and not being able to talk for two weeks- Yeah.
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[00:08:56] Andy: a couple of venues, and, uh, I mixed a couple of Cultures or covers [00:09:00] bands for quite a while, and, uh, you'd always be like, "Oh, man, that's, you know, that's a tone and a half down from where it should be." Yeah, right. 'Cause you can hear it straightaway, you know? You just sorta go, "Oh, okay. You know, we're gonna do this and that key," right?
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[00:09:10] Andy: Yeah. Oh, you know. But, but like you say, they're kind of pretty imprinted, you know, in, in people's, um, psyche in the, in the pubs in Australia- Mm ... and they, they go really well, those tunes, you know? Uh, uh, Steve was something pretty special, you know? My gosh. You know? Mm-hmm. And swung like that, and no one had drums that sounded like that.
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[00:09:31] Stevie: Cause he had the, had the Sloshman drums, didn't he?
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[00:09:46] Andy: before or since, you know? Um, he just had this, this kinda touch and this thing and this sorta swing, I think. Mm. He was just, he was s- really something else.
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[00:09:59] Andy: Well, Charlie brings [00:10:00] another band-
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[00:10:01] Andy: Yeah ... another thing altogether, right? You know, like, he's, uh...
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[00:10:05] Stevie: I just recently saw a, um, uh, like a short, a video pop up on, I think my Instagram or something like that, um, of, uh, Keith Richards playing on, I can't remember. Was it The Arsenio Show? The Arsenio Show or something like that. Mm. Keith Richards, um- S- uh, Steve Jordan playing drums- Mm ... and Charlie playing bass.
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[00:10:30] Stevie: Yeah, and then they swapped.
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[00:10:48] Stevie: that's what I'm-
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[00:10:50] Stevie: Oh,
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[00:10:53] Stevie: Right.
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[00:10:55] Stevie: Right
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[00:11:01] Stevie: Right.
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[00:11:07] Andy: There's another guitarist.
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[00:11:08] Andy: And it's so outrageous. Yeah Like, 'cause you just kind of go, holy mother. I mean, Charlie's that guy, you know, you, you just, when you really kind of, uh, hang with him and talk and, and do, you know, as you do when you're away and whatever, you spend some real time with people and, you know, I, I...
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[00:11:52] Andy: Mm-hmm. And, you know, Charlie's eating, and he's never, he doesn't, and I'm not gonna say this 'cause he's not being a bragger. He just says, you know, 'cause we're kind of [00:12:00] mates, he just kind of goes, "Oh, man, I'm on this." And I'm going- Yeah, yeah ... I'm listening to it knowing, I think it doesn't sound like you. Like that's- Yeah And he goes, "No, I'm not on drum.
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[00:12:10] Stevie: Yeah, yeah.
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[00:12:34] Stevie: Yeah
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[00:12:47] Stevie: Yeah.
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[00:12:53] Andy: Yeah.
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[00:13:14] Stevie: Are you listening to the bass? Are you l- are you led by the singer? Well- Because I, I know you would have to be, of course, you have to be watching the singer 'cause- ... you know, if you, if you get a cue or something-
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[00:13:25] Stevie: yeah ... solo, whatever. I think- But what is your point of reference?
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[00:13:33] Stevie: Not necessarily
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[00:13:35] Stevie: there's Chisel, Oils,
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[00:13:37] Andy: there's, there's things with You know, like, like if I go running out and playing a bit of baritone, like Charlie's really mad on baritone.
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[00:13:45] Andy: So he gets the thing turned up like, like insanely in his wedges. I don't use monitoring, and I can actually ... I'll go over to the drums, and I can hear me through his fill.
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[00:13:59] Stevie: Cause it's a [00:14:00] lower frequency, right?
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[00:14:01] Stevie: resonance and ... Yep ...
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[00:14:09] Andy: You know, it's like it's, it's with a reedy sound, if that makes any sense. Oh, yeah,
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[00:14:14] Andy: Uh, but definitely, um, for the more, uh, like, like say with Chisel, there's a couple of, um, kind of major solos to be delivered, which is, you know, My Baby or Saturday Night or those tunes, and it's, it's all around Ian.
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[00:14:32] Stevie: Right.
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[00:14:49] Andy: And it's a, it's a f- it's a foolish man that turns his back on Jim Barnes, I'll tell you that right now.
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[00:14:58] Andy: no, I mean, like, uh, it's a silly [00:15:00] thing to say. He's, uh, you, you keep your eye on Jim always. Right. 'Cause he'll, he'll, he'll drive where that's heading, you know. Um, uh, you know, he'll drive, particularly there's a few kind of jammy boogie things the band does that, you know, despite maybe what an audience's experience of it is, are actually kind of loose- Mm
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[00:15:46] Andy: Um, so you know, you keep an eye on Jim.
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[00:15:51] Andy: Make sure you're in tune and just be ready to go at the end of the gig. Mm. I reckon. Mm. But definitely on stage it's, it's, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's all about [00:16:00] tuning, and I think, I think listening to someone like a guitarist is the way to go, especially someone as strong as Ian, you know.
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[00:16:20] Stevie: Mm ...
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[00:16:24] Stevie: like get through it.
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[00:16:27] Andy: Yeah. But they are very different to Chisel where it's not- Right ... really a soloist thing. You're sort of replicating a horn section thing. And, uh, and quite often you're lucky enough to have a horn section there, so that's very much, uh-
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[00:16:43] Stevie: is that just, just the one saxophone?
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[00:16:46] Stevie: Okay.
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[00:17:06] Andy: Right. Uh, there was a, there was a tune particularly off the last record that we recorded that had a, a baritone part on it they wanted me to play. But generally it's just get up there and play Power and the passion, freaking, um- Mm ... you know, uh, uh, best of both worlds. And, and those sort of songs and just head down, ass up.
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[00:17:29] Andy: Play strong. Play strong and play in tune, and, and don't be a pain in the ass. And that's the whole tour. Yeah. You know? Right. Um, essentially.
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[00:17:49] Andy: Mm.
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[00:17:54] Stevie: hangs, hangs down one side.
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[00:17:57] Stevie: Have you, do you have issues with your- Yeah,
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[00:18:00] Stevie: shoulders, your back?
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[00:18:02] Stevie: you do now, right.
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[00:18:10] Stevie: period- Like, in your, in your s- is it in your spine or
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[00:18:12] Andy: No, it's more to do with under the shoulder blades
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[00:18:32] Andy: gotta go for.
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[00:18:43] Andy: Yeah ...
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[00:18:50] Stevie: We set up our drums.
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[00:18:52] Stevie: So it's, um ... What's the word I'm looking for? Um, what's that flash word when everything's flash? Uh- Yeah, yeah. [00:19:00] Um-
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[00:19:02] Stevie: Ergono-
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[00:19:03] Stevie: Ergonomic. Yeah. Cymbals aren't too high. It's all sort of- Oh,
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[00:19:06] Stevie: Yeah, yeah.
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[00:19:09] Stevie: Yeah,
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[00:19:27] Andy: And that, I think that's fantastic that they- Mm ... they did that. Uh, but I remember from the word go, they're like, "Oh, you're, you know, you're a basket case," you know? And I remember 'cause, you know, my left shoulder was pointing forward and-
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[00:19:37] Andy: I stand, you know, like ... And that was just when I was playing tenor.
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[00:19:56] Stevie: Yep ...
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[00:20:06] Andy: And, and I hope it's changed now, but I think the nature of carrying X amount of kilos around your neck and just blowing the crap out of it, you are gonna find yourself with a certain amount of sort of s- uh, muscular stresses and non-stresses- Mm ... and things making up for other things. Exactly what you said, where you c- you can't just sort of, you know, push it to one side and it'll, it'll all even out.
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[00:20:55] Stevie: Mm.
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[00:21:15] Andy: So that was a real lesson for me. I'm like, "Oh, my gosh," you know. Like, I remember coming off that tour, like, feeling like I was Quasimodo, you know? Like just- Yeah, right, right ... what's going on? This isn't so good. I'm taking handfuls of painkillers and, uh, you know, just flipping hell, Disprin or whatever and-
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[00:21:29] Andy: you're just, like, going, "Oh, man, this isn't so flash," you know? Mm. And, uh, yeah, you see those, see those Dudes from years ago did seven nights a week, you know? Like, you know, well, I think you just used to do it
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[00:21:42] Andy: You know what I mean? Yeah. Now, now we've got a name for it, and it's called back pain You know?
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[00:21:55] Andy: That's right.
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[00:22:02] Andy: Uh,
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[00:22:07] Andy: Oh, we're never dropping that
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[00:22:15] Stevie: Yeah, yeah. You
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[00:22:17] Stevie: Yeah.
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[00:22:19] Stevie: That's right.
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[00:22:24] Andy: He swears like a marine. Honestly.
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[00:22:29] Andy: Oh. Well, I don't know what to
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[00:22:39] Andy: Well, you know, certainly not in front of my folks. Not fuck yeah.
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[00:22:47] Stevie: Yeah, well, it's funny you say that ...
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[00:22:50] Stevie: I used to, you know... Well, my dad, I never heard my dad swear in front of a woman at all, as, as long as I can remember. Yeah. Even, even today.
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[00:23:07] Andy: Doing what?
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[00:23:18] Stevie: at home- ... he's letting it rip in the workshop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm going, "Jeez, I've never heard my dad, you know,
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[00:23:24] Stevie: that before."
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[00:23:37] Andy: She was like- Where'd you get
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[00:23:38] Andy: Yeah. You know, oh, I blame school, mate. You know, that's, that's- Yeah ... that's, that's where I got it from. Mum was like, "Nah, you're just being a lazy bastard." Yeah. You know? Like, "Just stop, stop doing it." Yeah. I was like, "I wish, I wish my son would pull his head in a bit with it," but you know, the cat's out of the bag now, you know?
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[00:24:04] Stevie: Yeah. All right. Let's roll right back now to the early days. And we, you know- Yeah ... we briefly, briefly mentioned that you, you, um, were born in Wellington.
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[00:24:19] Andy: to Christchurch, uh, when I was six. And, um, um, my old man had got a job down there, you know. Uh, so I did, I actually only ever lived in Christchurch for 10 years, so s- six to 16.
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[00:24:46] Stevie: yeah.
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[00:24:50] Stevie: Yep.
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[00:25:14] Andy: And back in those days, of course too, Stevie, you know, it was, it was the days of completely egalitarian education. So y- you know, you weren't lumbered with it. You know, it was- $40,000 education bill by the end of it. You just, you got your degree and you moved on, you know. Mm-hmm. Uh, the government was still fortified.
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[00:25:36] Stevie: Right.
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[00:25:49] Stevie: Yep.
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[00:25:58] Andy: I fell into a really cool kinda [00:26:00] group of... Of course, in those days there was a lot of playing around all the cities. You know, it was a, you know, it was, uh... As a 16-year-old I was playing You know, in real terms, probably more than I ever did. Mm. You know, like, you know, there was a couple of gigs in town, uh, that you could play five, six nights a week, you know, and you'd do another one after that.
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[00:26:41] Stevie: Mm. Yeah.
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[00:26:43] Stevie: just- See, with us it was, yeah, you can become a musician or, you know, my brother wanted to be a professional motocross rider and-
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[00:26:51] Stevie: my younger brother wanted to build computers or s- you know, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates type sort of set up.
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[00:26:58] Stevie: And but mom and dad said, "Yep, [00:27:00] sure, you can do that stuff, but you gotta get a trade first."
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[00:27:04] Stevie: That, that was... I don't know if that was, uh, a little bit of a New Zealand thing.
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[00:27:10] Stevie: maybe not, but, but yeah.
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[00:27:17] Stevie: I- is that maybe because that's what was told of us?
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[00:27:28] Andy: of course. Uh, I think there was that idea where, um, people would, would, uh, you know, or you can get your ticket-
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[00:27:36] Andy: and off you go. Mm. You know, once you've got that, whether it's nursing or- Yep ... or, or, you know, whatever. World's your
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[00:27:42] Andy: That's right. And, you know, you know, my mum still, still says how, you know, the great thing about you getting that degree is you can always teach, you know?
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[00:28:00] Stevie: Yeah.
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[00:28:09] Andy: So I left school, toured all summer, you know, and, and, and just I keep saying this, and I d- I don't mean to sound like an old broken record, Stevie, but in those days- Mm ... you could, uh... I was at a friend's house in, in Melbourne not... a couple of months ago, and they had a photo, a poster of that band that we were in on the wall-
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[00:28:30] Andy: from at- the summer of '86 into '87, and literally that band went out on the road Uh, late November, and didn't come back to town till early February
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[00:28:40] Andy: And it was one-nighters except for when the pubs were closed, like, you know, Christmas Day or New Year's Day. And we just played and played and played. We played every possible, you know...
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[00:28:55] Stevie: Yep ...
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[00:29:09] Andy: 'cause I was 16, which I was like, "Dad, you fuck." Yeah. You know? And now I'm like, "Oh, man, you saved my ass, man." Yeah. You know, if I came over at 16, I'd be, you know, all sorts of trouble now. Um, and so I stayed in Wellington and, and, and studied and fell in with, with, uh, Chicago Smoke Shop, which was the band I was sort of all the way through my studying years I played with them.
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[00:29:33] Andy: Um, and that was a, that was a great band in its own way. You know, had some great players in it, and, uh, we did a lot of touring. And it was just right at that end where the pub touring was starting to tail off into '88, '89. You know, but we got a couple of albums away and, uh, they, uh, I think they've s- they've left somewhat of a legacy, particularly for Darren Watson- Yep
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[00:29:57] Stevie: Yep.
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[00:30:14] Andy: Yeah, right. You know, you know, he's still... Y- you know when guys are, like, really immersed in the jazz thing? He's completely immersed in the, in the blues thing. In the blues, yep. And my God, he's a freaking great guitar player. Yeah. And a
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[00:30:31] Andy: Yeah.
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[00:30:38] Andy: that, that's- The- That has been so big,
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[00:30:45] Andy: Yeah, totally.
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[00:30:46] Andy: of New Zealand. I, uh, it's almost like you can't, uh, do something without having gone through that process.
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[00:31:01] Andy: you know what I mean? Like, it's just something that you finally find out, oh, s- you know, what year did you do the Rock, you know, the Smokefree Rockquest? Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. Everyone's done it,
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[00:31:10] Andy: right. It is what it is.
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[00:31:17] Andy: Yeah, sweet. In Wellington,
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[00:31:27] Andy: Oh,
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[00:31:29] Andy: But I, I had a moment. We, we, we went through, uh, this, just this last tour, we went down through, um, gosh, the band...
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[00:31:48] Stevie: Yep.
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[00:31:56] Andy: It was- Yeah. Wow ... massive.
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[00:31:59] Andy: [00:32:00] Dude, you know,
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[00:32:01] Andy: w- Or Taupo. D- uh, you know, excuse my, my lack of ability to pronounce it. I'm not even gonna try to, uh, 'cause I'm-
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[00:32:08] Andy: I've been over here way too long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, hey man, you know, so you know where the shops are, like on the waterfront there- Yep
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[00:32:30] Stevie: Yeah. Yep.
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[00:32:48] Stevie: Yeah, cool
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[00:32:50] Stevie: Oh, really?
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[00:32:59] Stevie: Right
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[00:32:59] Stevie: The [00:33:00] same three guys?
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[00:33:01] Stevie: No, okay. Okay
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[00:33:04] Stevie: right,
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[00:33:08] Andy: another drummer. And they're kind of like, you know, like, uh ... You know, they're kind of, uh, I, I don't want to sound dismissive 'cause they're so fantastic- Yeah ... but they were like, uh, you know, just kind of, kind of LA rock guys, you know? Oh, okay. Yeah. You know?
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[00:33:21] Andy: Blacks and tats and the whole kind of kit and caboodle.
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[00:33:24] Andy: Uh, but they smoked through those tunes, and you stand there going, "Oh, man, I, I really know a lot of these songs," you know? Yeah, and And they were really nice guys, you know? So it was, it was, uh, yeah, so we played Taupo, and then we played Whitianga
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[00:33:36] Andy: It's, sorry, and back to what we were initially talking about.
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[00:34:00] Andy: "He's an idiot." Yeah, "He's an idiot." He's But that's because I've been away from New Zealand too long. But, um, but we did go through Tokoroa, you know, and Smoke Shop used to play. That was, like, one of those gigs you do on the way up to Auckland- Right ... or, or, or the way up to Hastings or Napier or whatever through that area.
[:
[00:34:19] Andy: And that pub we used to play is kind of ... I, I'm, I'm, you know, I, I remember pulling up there 1,000 times and playing that room, and it was like a Wednesday or Thursday night, you know? And, and, and it was, I'm not gonna say rough, but it was just steaming. You know, dudes'd, dudes'd get pissed and love the blues, and it was fantastic.
[:
[00:34:51] Stevie: really?
[:
[00:34:52] Stevie: I thought you were gonna say the other, g- yeah, it had gone the other way.
[:
[00:34:57] Stevie: done up and- No,
[:
[00:35:06] Andy: so, which is gonna be, like, a real- That's no good ... tough thing for those people, you know? But I just, you go through those small towns in New Zealand that are so f- so flipping great, that, and, and back in the late '80s, you know, bands would go through. It was a real thing, you know? Mm It was great fun, and, and we used to have a ball, man.
[:
[00:35:38] Stevie: Cold place to play a winter too.
[:
[00:35:41] Andy: Going south, man- Yeah ... freaking heck, you know? Yeah. Oh, man. Masterton for you, eh?
[:
[00:35:47] Andy: You still got family there?
[:
[00:35:50] Andy: Excuse me ...
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[00:35:56] Andy: Oh,
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[00:36:00] Stevie: Oh, cool. My, my best mate. Yeah, so he's still there. His family's still there. S-
[:
[00:36:08] Stevie: Yeah. Yeah,
[:
[00:36:10] Stevie: Yep. So, um, we won't get back there this year but, uh, yeah, hopefully back there again next year.
[:
[00:36:19] Stevie: Oh, it's always good to get back.
[:
[00:36:22] Stevie: Reground myself and-
[:
[00:36:24] Stevie: Yeah,
[:
[00:36:30] Stevie: Yeah. We, we
[:
[00:36:31] Stevie: couple- Caught, caught up with a mate of ours, right?
[:
[00:36:36] Stevie: Yeah.
[:
[00:36:37] Stevie: Yes. Uh- Hey, K- hey, Kerry.
[:
[00:36:39] Andy: Hey, man. How are you, bro? Um, yes. Yeah, no, Kerry and I, um, had a quite unexpected meeting-
[00:37:03] Andy: Of course. Yeah. There, there would be few people in this world that would be m- you know, more knowledgeable about Jeff Porcaro- Oh, yeah ... than the great Kerry Buchanan. We bumped into each o- well, not bumped into each other. We had a few drinks on, uh, last week in Christchurch, which was fantastic, you know.
[:
[00:37:28] Stevie: Yep.
[:
[00:37:32] Stevie: Yeah.
[:
[00:37:35] Stevie: Right.
[:
[00:37:42] Andy: Uh, Stu was a very, very influential, um, motivator and, uh, inspiration for a lot of young players that came out of Christchurch through a certain period. And both his sons went on to having fantastic, [00:38:00] you know- Mm ... lauded careers, you know, a- and were both, are both terrific drummers, you know? Um, yeah. Yeah. Fam- you know, family, those guys.
[:
[00:38:13] Stevie: So Kerry asked me to ask you-
[:
[00:38:18] Stevie: No? I'm gonna say it. I, I have to say it. Okay. He told me, told me to, so he said there's, apparently there's a story Um, rehearsals for Marcia Hines at Selena's. Do you wanna, you wanna dive into that, touch it, or no?
[:
[00:38:59] Andy: And we [00:39:00] just, for a period there, completely unexpectedly, we just played sort of a lot of stuff together. Mm. And one of those things was Marcia's band, and it was a great band. Kerry was on drums, Victor Rounds, uh, the great John Bettison. Um, for the most part, initially it was, uh, Jay Stewart, and then after him was, was sadly, sadly, sorely missed, uh, Paul Gray on piano.
[:
[00:39:51] Andy: And her manager, Pete Rix, uh, had put a, a, I think a package together for all the [00:40:00] press involved around... Now, cor- you know, please someone correct me if I'm completely wrong. My memory might be shot to bits, but, uh, and every night we'd do this gig, you know? So it was, it was Marsh. And this, this band would back Marcia, I think Tanya Doco from Bachelor Girl's involved, and, um, Wendy Matthews.
[:
[00:40:37] Andy: Why I'm telling you the whole story is 'cause it sort of gets to the Selena story. And we ended up in there for like six or seven years. You know, totally, you know, went to China, traveled the country relentlessly, you know, every weekend. 'Cause Marsha at that time was, had had a, a resurgence in interest around her Australian Idol.
[:
[00:41:16] Andy: We went to New Zealand with her. We had all these fantastic experiences. And then it came to this point, and this is fricking Kerry telling us, yeah. So we got to this, she just wanted to change things up essentially, and, uh, you know, she, as people do, you know, it's like anything, it's generational. It moves through players, it moves through crew, it moves through management.
[:
[00:42:09] Andy: Uh, and, and that was the end of us.
[:
[00:42:14] Andy: Yeah, so-
[:
[00:42:17] Andy: No, no. Not- Oh, okay. Right ... no, not at all. Not at all. Okay. It just, it just sort of, it just was the start of an end process-
[:
[00:42:23] Andy: where I think... And, and this, please don't get me wrong. There's absolutely no bad blood. Yeah, no, no. There's nothing wrong about it.
[:
[00:42:30] Stevie: sound like one of those stories at all. No, no. And it's- But I get what you're saying. I'm just pic- when- I'm just picturing you dancing.
[:
[00:42:38] Stevie: Cause, I mean, and, uh, 'cause the way... Yeah, we, we talked earlier about, um, you know, what the, the baritone's sort of done to your body and stuff.
[:
[00:42:47] Andy: Look, you, look, you're right. But, um, you know, other than, uh, perhaps a, uh, you know, some kind of version of a, of a dodgy box step- ... uh, which was Ca- uh, Anthony's favorite step, that was about all we had going on. Yeah, right.
[:
[00:42:59] Andy: [00:43:00] And, uh, yeah, I, a- a- and, you know, all, all jokes aside, you gotta, you know, inside that knowledge is that there are people that will go and do that.
[:
[00:43:30] Andy: Now I watched that thing of, of them and, you know, doing that fire benefit thing. Man, how good does Earth Wind and Fire sound? Yeah, yeah. And look, you know, I was, I was, you know, I was talking to my, my partner, it's like, man, you know, like- It, it just doesn't look forced. No. It doesn't feel bad. The music lends itself to that.
[:
[00:44:09] Andy: let's have a wee dance here." You know,
[:
[00:44:27] Andy: having brought up that story. That's fantastic. Uh, yeah, so, um, that's that story.
[:
[00:44:42] Andy: Oh, man,
[:
[00:44:49] Stevie: phenomenal.
[:
[00:44:50] Stevie: So good to watch ...
[:
[00:45:06] Stevie: Yep. Uh- And his brother was playing drums in
[:
[00:45:10] Stevie: Yep.
[:
[00:45:19] Andy: they're Americans, and there's this incredible... The way those guys do stuff is so fricking brilliant, you know? Yeah. And there's a thing of that band mid-tour, and they're playing a small room in Paris. And they do, like, a, you know... They're in the middle of a stadium tour, and they're doing this little room just as a, I don't know, like, a, "Hey, hey, Paris, let's rock," you know?
[:
[00:45:44] Stevie: Yep.
[:
[00:46:05] Andy: And the horn playing's absolutely spot on. And you just look at it and you go, "Man, that's the shit." You know? That's, for that style of music, that's, that's- That's it ... top shelf. Yeah. Absolutely top shelf. And I, you know, anything beyond that's just a bit of a-
[:
[00:46:23] Andy: Hooligans. Good, yeah, good- Am
[:
[00:46:25] Andy: Yeah, good memory. That's it. That was that band, that touring band. The
[:
[00:46:28] Andy: Yeah. With the, with the, uh, with the horn section. Mm-hmm. And they, and those horn players are freaking happening, you know? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's a, there's another great thing of them online doing their rehearsals for Grammys or something, you know, and they do that Prince thing.
[:
[00:46:40] Andy: Fricking heck. You gotta be on for that stuff, man. Yeah. It's not just about the playing.
[:
[00:46:45] Andy: It's everything, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's, it's, you know. But, you know, anyway, that's, uh, dancing and music. Yeah,
[:
[00:46:58] Stevie: Always,
[:
[00:46:59] Stevie: Always, [00:47:00] right. Totally. And so did you see someone play or did you hear someone, or- Yeah,
[:
[00:47:16] Andy: And he, uh, yeah, he's, he's older than me, so he was going through the band system before me. And, uh, I saw him go and do a gig, you know, and I was just a little kid. I was pr- fricking... I was real little, actually. I was about maybe nine or something. And he walks out on stage and, you know, with this, this kind of school big band, this combined school big band in Christchurch.
[:
[00:47:53] Stevie: Was it, was it 'cause of how it looked
[:
[00:47:55] Andy: I think so. Yeah. I, I think so. I think it was just, it was like, "That's me. I wanna do..." Well, my brother [00:48:00] was already playing trumpet. Right. But also- In those days, you know, there's that term. Excuse me, I've done it again. But you know, everywhere you looked there was saxophone players on every band and every- Right
[:
[00:48:30] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[00:48:35] Andy: Back in those days- For sure, yeah ... of course it was, it was, it was just, you know, everybody you turned on, you know, turned on Ready to Roll and all those shows and you're just like going, oh man, this madness and Spandau Ballet- Mm ... and Flipping- Wham ... you know, Specials and Wham and- Yeah ... everyone- Yeah ... had a horn section and it was just like, yeah man.
[:
[00:49:18] Andy: The moment the, the star- you know, right at the start of Star Wars where the words come up, I stood up at seven years old and held the back of the chair and didn't sit down until the movie finished.
[:
[00:49:29] Andy: No, not massively so. Oh, okay. Cool But apparently that's, uh, that's my, that's my mum's story.
[:
[00:49:33] Stevie: out of here ... saxophones
[:
[00:49:45] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[00:49:49] Andy: You don't wanna go back
[:
[00:50:03] Stevie: and they, they have their thing. Um, I don't sort of understand that... I don't know if there is that for saxophone.
[:
[00:50:12] Stevie: Um, so sort of fill me in on, you know, are there sort of vintage saxophone- I'll try. Yeah Yeah, tell me ... that have a, that have a thing like a- Totally ... vintage Lud, you know. Yeah. Um, do you sort, do you sort of own instruments like that or?
[:
[00:50:44] Andy: Yeah. And for whatever reason, uh, Selmer Paris, which is a French saxophone company-
[:
[00:50:53] Andy: made a... What commonly, you know, everyone sort of refers to the Mark VI, uh, which is, [00:51:00] mine's a 1965 Selmer Paris Mark VI, um, which, uh, are, are the- The title
[:
[00:51:10] Andy: Considered to be, but also a lot of people play variants of, of course, you know, SNLs and, uh, a lot of people are playing newer horns now.
[:
[00:51:19] Andy: But definitely when I was growing up, you know, every time you saw a picture of Branford Marsalis or John Coltrane or, or Michael Brecker or Joe Henderson or Sonny Rollins, uh, they were all playing Selmer Mark VI's. Right. So as a kid- Right ... you're just like going, "Well, there's only one horn really," you know?
[:
[00:51:38] Andy: But, uh, and that, again, that's that kind of golden period. Mine's later in the piece. It's 121,000, stamped, and it was 6- 1965.
[:
[00:51:47] Andy: Whereas I know horns, I think the 6's seriously might have started in the early '50s or what. I don't, I don't 100% know. Right But I know they went through the early '70s.
[:
[00:52:18] Andy: God, there's just so many of those great players. Yeah.
[:
[00:52:24] Andy: gonna go
[:
[00:52:25] Andy: Oh, I'll send you some photos. I'm really, yeah, I'm really
[:
[00:52:28] Andy: stuff. Yeah, I, I know. You know- Yeah ... um, it really was...
[:
[00:52:40] Stevie: Oh
[:
[00:52:46] Stevie: Yeah,
[:
[00:52:47] Stevie: know? Right
[:
[00:52:54] Andy: He kept pawning them, I understand, and then- Yeah,
[:
[00:52:56] Andy: didn't stop him playing like he did. My gosh. [00:53:00] Yeah,
[:
[00:53:01] Andy: You know? Mm. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, man.
[:
[00:53:06] Andy: Mm.
[:
[00:53:11] Andy: Mm.
[:
[00:53:17] Andy: Not much
[:
[00:53:19] Andy: Not
[:
[00:53:25] Andy: exactly the same ...
[:
[00:53:26] Andy: okay. Yeah, yeah, exactly the same. Yep. And, you know, other than probably weights, there's not much. Right. You know, you gotta make sure you set up on the right mouthpieces and reeds.
[:
[00:53:53] Andy: Mm. Get, get your head around that in a night, you know? Yeah,
[:
[00:53:56] Andy: Um, whereas saxophones are exactly the [00:54:00] same.
[:
[00:54:00] Andy: Um, and if you, I guess like anything, if you practice on them, you, you're all over it. I, I'm more than happy to just go from instrument to instrument without a- Right ... th- they are inherently slightly different, you know, so far as how much air you wanna push through them to get the sound you want or- Right
[:
[00:54:18] Stevie: Okay. I understand. Yeah. I understand. Yeah. A- and I suppose, um, I mean, they've got their different frequency ranges, so that would be, you'd, you'd be having to... Say if you're, from an improvisational- Yeah
[:
[00:54:30] Andy: Yeah.
[:
[00:54:37] Andy: Excuse
[:
[00:54:40] Andy: Oh,
[:
[00:54:41] Andy: Yeah,
[:
[00:54:51] Andy: Y- yeah. I'm, look, mate, I, I'd like to I'd like to pretend I'm much more creative than, you know, than I actually am. But at [00:55:00] the end of the day, you know, the way that my playing and the jobs I've done of, of the last Bulk of my playing has- Mm ... has just basically been playing other people's stuff. It's all there in front of me.
[:
[00:55:12] Andy: Gotcha. I don't really need to, I don't really need to be thinking too much about that. You know, it's either playing solos that are already been, been played on certain instruments or, um, playing horn section parts that are, um-
[:
[00:55:25] Andy: already written, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's just actually the way it is.
[:
[00:55:39] Stevie: Okay.
[:
[00:55:51] Andy: that I've done, you know, the guy's standing there with a, a version of a horn part that he wants broken down into certain places. Right. And I can say, "Well, that's a great idea. That's not the best [00:56:00] idea. Let's do this." Mm. Um, but essentially it's, it's all kind of done for , for me. Interesting. You know?
[:
[00:56:07] Andy: You know?
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[00:56:08] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[00:56:09] Stevie: Oh, thanks for that. That's good.
[:
[00:56:11] Stevie: Um, okay. So we've got to, uh, we've got to... You're in Sm- you're in Smoke Shop. You left Smoke Shop and you joined Netherworld Dancing Toys.
[:
[00:56:28] Andy: And, uh, we, you know, we just felt like, you know, they'd finished with us and we'd finished with them, and it was just the right time to move on. And, uh, uh, quite, uh, quite, uh, openly went into the abyss of no work, you know, whatever. And The Toys had decided, uh, that they were looking for a new section for a bit.
[:
[00:57:06] Andy: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And, uh, yeah, it was great. It was so much fun. It was such a great rock and roll band, and the first band that I was ever playing with that played all originals. Terrific people, terrific management. Um, really, really great relationships, and really people that really gave a shit about each other.
[:
[00:57:41] Stevie: Yep,
[:
[00:58:04] Andy: Mm. And, uh, went through the pubs, went up to Glue Pot, you know, went through all those sort of rooms that were f- f- The Toys were, The Toys were something very, very special, you know, a great rock and roll band, and for me, a real shot in the arm. Um, in fact, a couple of tours ago, I caught up with, uh, both Malcolm and Nick, the lead singers.
[:
[00:58:41] Andy: Mm. They were something else. Their shows were fantastic.
[:
[00:58:45] Andy: yeah.
[:
[00:58:52] Andy: Melbourne. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in my last year of, uh, the c- uh, uh, the Con, um, I was [00:59:00] living... Have you ever come, like, y- you know how you've talked to Lance Philip- Mm-hmm
[:
[00:59:09] Stevie: you know Ev? I don't know him personally.
[:
[00:59:21] Andy: You know, I've been over there a couple of times and always catch up with him. He, he plays with a fantastic artist called Nadine Shah, and he plays with, uh, the Neil Cowley Trio. Great, great drummer. And we were living together in, um, in Wellington, in Mount Victoria, and, uh, his parents had left town, and they'd moved to Perth And in 1989, Perth seemed like flipping Mars, you know?
[:
[00:59:52] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[01:00:11] Andy: Uh, one of the things they sent us was, uh... Have you ever seen the Australian Made tour?
[:
[01:00:18] Andy: yeah.
[:
[01:00:19] Andy: Yeah. They sent us the whole video of that. Yeah, right. And from the moment that went on, you know, when INXS are playing that thing, melting in the sun and, you know, all the Jans- Yeah ... road cases are being pushed up, and they're putting the- Yeah, yeah
[:
[01:00:36] Stevie: We, we want that." "
[:
[01:00:54] Andy: Mental As Anything, but they weren't on the video. And the Models, you know. And inside those bands were these [01:01:00] players. You're going, "I know who that is." Mm. "Oh, that's that guy from" fucking... You know. And we, we just basically wore that tape out, you know, like just were so infatuated with it. And we were like, "Right, Australia.
[:
[01:01:32] Stevie: Right.
[:
[01:01:40] Andy: And I got a, I got a, I, I was lucky enough to get a call-up to go on, um, a cruise ship. You know, at the time I was broke as, as broke could be, you know. And through a couple of New Zealand contacts, um, I ended up on the Fairstar working out of Sydney. Uh, I joined [01:02:00] the Fairstar in '90, I think late '91 '92 or something, and then, uh, worked on that for 18 months, and that was a fantastic experience- Mm
[:
[01:02:31] Stevie: Right.
[:
[01:02:42] Andy: It was, it was fantastic, and, uh, saved up enough money to move to Sydney as a soft landing. You know, like I- Mm ... a lot of guys got off those boats with not much more than a hangover.
[:
[01:02:53] Andy: I was, I was kind of, uh, you know, I had a great time, but I, at the same time, I sort of, um- [01:03:00] You know, saved a lot of money, so when I moved here, I, I...
[:
[01:03:10] Stevie: Yeah. I was gonna say, did you have your f- have your hands in some-
[:
[01:03:14] Stevie: things- Well,
[:
[01:03:15] Stevie: when you got
[:
[01:03:16] Andy: Yeah. You backed all these people on the boat, you know? Yeah. And you sort of get to know them, and, you know, they know so-and-so, and so-and-so knows such and such, and flipping, "Give us a call when you're in town," you know. Yeah. And I wrote all the names down and took all the numbers and got off the boat and called everybody, you know, and just started playing, you know.
[:
[01:03:51] Andy: I think it must have been '94 or something like that. '93, '
[:
[01:03:56] Andy: And, uh-
[:
[01:03:59] Andy: I bumped [01:04:00] into you, man.
[:
[01:04:12] Andy: you come, who did you come over with?
[:
[01:04:14] Andy: Fantastic.
[:
[01:04:30] Andy: Yeah, of course. Yeah,
[:
[01:04:37] Andy: So those and jean- They're what I had as a
[:
[01:04:41] Stevie: yeah, jeans. Um, you know, uh, you had your woollen socks on and it was co- it was cold, man, when we left.
[:
[01:04:49] Stevie: So yeah, so we get to Wellington Airport. W- um, we're o- we're over the limit of baggage, so we play the old, you know, we- we're leaving and this is, you know, this is all we have, and we don't have any money.
[:
[01:05:00] Andy: bailed with you?
[:
[01:05:01] Andy: Fantastic.
[:
[01:05:02] Andy: That's cool, man.
[:
[01:05:11] Andy: Oh, bro. Fucking
[:
[01:05:14] Andy: Same thing happened to me in Melbourne.
[:
[01:05:17] Andy: I know. Seriously.
[:
[01:05:27] Stevie: Yeah.
[:
[01:05:38] Andy: I remember we got a f- we, we had a place in Caulfield, m- the bass player and his wife, who I was living with And I had the room out the back I was leaned to. You know, it was like, um, it was a, it was a, it was a, you know, like a windowed-in, uh, veranda.
[:
[01:05:53] Andy: And, uh, and I'm in there, man, and all I remember at night is just ng, ng, ng-
[:
[01:06:12] Stevie: Yeah, 'cause we were, the four of us were living in a,
[:
[01:06:16] Stevie: in a one-bedroom apartment in Merrylands-
[:
[01:06:20] Stevie: for the first three months.
[:
[01:06:26] Andy: Oh, man. It
[:
[01:06:27] Andy: Yeah.
[:
[01:06:28] Andy: You just, you just don't know what to expect, right? You're just like-
[:
[01:06:35] Andy: Yeah ...
[:
[01:06:43] Andy: Yeah.
[:
[01:06:45] Andy: Yeah.
[:
[01:06:47] Andy: Yeah, it's-
[:
[01:06:49] Andy: just thick. You know, the whole thing- Yep ... is just like, oh, my lord. Yep. Yeah. No, we... Yeah, I just, oh, same, mate. I just walked straight into it.
[:
[01:06:58] Andy: Straight out of the airport and straight into that.
[:
[01:07:03] Stevie: Yep.
[:
[01:07:14] Stevie: Right.
[:
[01:07:21] Andy: Just take an ice to Eskimos, mate, at the end of the day. The-
[:
[01:07:23] Andy: you know, the Melbourne rock scene in those days was so f- uh, as I'm sure it is. God, I've gotta say, stop saying, "In those days." Excuse me. That is so lame. Yeah. Like,
[:
[01:07:34] Andy: Yeah,
[:
[01:07:35] Andy: You know, now that I'm 28 now, it's like- You're 28
[:
[01:07:39] Stevie: Um,
[:
[01:07:58] Andy: No. He was in Dance [01:08:00] Exponents and- No ... uh, great bass player, Andy McIver. Guitarist from New Zealand called Brian Harley, and a singer, Ted Clark. And, you know, we were just kind of giving it some. Like, we were just a five piece that would just, you know, turn up and play Elvis Costello and just give it a... But, you know, it's just a fucking covers band at the end of the day.
[:
[01:08:34] Andy: We, and, and that every time I walk into Prahran now, 'cause my, my girlfriend's house is up in R- Richmond, you know? We spend a lot of time in Melbourne and like, uh, you know, every time I walk into Prahran I still remember it. And down, down, do you know that Station Hotel down in Prahran there in-
[:
[01:08:51] Andy: heard of it
[:
[01:09:08] Andy: There's cars everywhere and it's like, "Oh, thank Christ. After all of this, there's a, there's a gig," you know? We're gonna fucking brain, maybe it's full of Kiwis or something, we're gonna brain the joint, you know? It's gonna be great. And, uh, and we walk in and I remember Andy, you know, the bass player, and I standing either side of stage, and what we were watching, what it was is we were booked in there by, uh, you know, that booking arm of Mushroom.
[:
[01:09:44] Stevie: Right.
[:
[01:09:48] Andy: And, but it's the original one with Chris De Bone and Irish and fucking Tony Featherstone and Jack, are they-
[:
[01:09:55] Andy: Jack Housden.
[:
[01:09:56] Andy: Incredible. Yeah. Like, just-
[:
[01:09:59] Andy: gobsmackingly [01:10:00] good. Yeah. You know? And Andy and I walked in the pub, and I remember opening the door and we've just both gone, "Oh, fuck."
[:
[01:10:11] Stevie: Yeah, yeah.
[:
[01:10:16] Stevie: call.
[:
[01:10:24] Andy: Yeah. My gosh, they were, they were something else, you know?
[:
[01:10:28] Andy: On to, for me-
[:
[01:10:30] Andy: uh, we, Sydney, I suppose the next sort of thing for me would've been, uh, Jim Barnes's band. And-
[:
[01:10:36] Andy: which we, we just got a call out of the blue. Uh, there's a, there's a bit of few things lead up to
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[01:10:43] Andy: I'm just trying to put- Uh, this is, this is kinda '97. Okay. And Jimmy had decided to go out and do a secondary run at the Soul Deep thing. Uh, he'd obviously just wanted to do a different sort of style of tour. And, [01:11:00] um, it'd be far better for me to say what he's thinking. I have no idea. But he had, uh, was looking for a new bunch of horn players, and the trumpet player that I was playing with had done a couple of things with, uh, with, with Mark LaZotte.
[:
[01:11:30] Andy: And, um, and, uh, yeah, and, and, uh, Jim's MD, uh, the great Michael Hegarty. You know Michael? Yeah, yeah. He's, uh... So he came and checked us out and said, "Oh, these guys are okay, you know? The- maybe we'll take them out." And it was, it was the same tour that, uh, Clayton Dolly first got involved- Okay ... with Jim's band.
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[01:11:53] Andy: Uh, and we did a, a run of shows over summer that were like, [01:12:00] he, I think he called it, like, Soul Deep 2 or something. And, you know, all horn, you know, like all the old soul things and- Yep ... and then it kind of moved into, uh, the, the band stayed on the road, and somehow Stu and I just sort of morphed into the band again.
[:
[01:12:33] Stevie: yeah ...
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[01:12:39] Andy: Michael was playing bass. Dave Leslie was playing guitar. And he'd have a floating second guitar player that might've been, you know, Mick Cox or, uh, Malice Dick or, you know, any of these kind of dudes that would come through that were- Mm ... just mofos, you know. Great BV section. Clay, you know, and the horns.
[:
[01:13:06] Stevie: Mm.
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[01:13:27] Andy: Mm. So that was that.
[:
[01:13:32] Andy: Well, yeah, it was, it was, it was a, that was a funny one.
[:
[01:13:37] Andy: Well, yeah, I guess so. You know, I, I was expecting to stand there with a lineup of, you know, 25 sax players,
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[01:13:44] Andy: But, um, I was the only guy there, you know.
[:
[01:14:03] Andy: He goes, "No, man, Cold Chisel." And I'm like, I remember putting the phone down. It was that moment of like, oh yeah, fuck yeah, this is... You know, imagine landing this band, boy, this will be great fun. Yep. You know? So, uh, learned everything I could learn, and they still threw something at me that was a real curveball.
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[01:14:24] Stevie: Right ...
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[01:14:37] Andy: Jim and Jane were living in this beautiful house up there in those days, and you know, everyone's playing sort of acoustically, and uh, we just sat down and had a blow and a, you know, and just, and every- by the end of it, it was, "Oh, we'll get the management to call you," and- Awesome ... freaking no dramas, man.
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[01:15:06] Stevie: Yeah. You know, so. Yeah, yeah. So I, um, I interviewed Ben Rogers-
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[01:15:11] Andy: Yeah, yeah,
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[01:15:18] Andy: D- down, oh, down at Jim's
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[01:15:20] Andy: Jim's
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[01:15:21] Andy: Down at Botany ...
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[01:15:26] Andy: Yeah ...
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[01:15:33] Stevie: So I come through and I wa- I walked in, and then, yeah, Jim and Jane were standing in the kitchen. Oh, cool. And I went off, "Hello." Oh, fuck, this is their studio. I was like, "Wow, this is, this is cool."
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[01:15:45] Stevie: then anyway, we're walking through the, this is like that, um, the, I guess the, the li- the live room.
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[01:15:54] Andy: yeah. Cool.
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[01:16:08] Andy: Oh, fantastic.
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[01:16:18] Andy: yeah ...
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[01:16:21] Andy: Fantastic. Yeah, yeah.
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[01:16:29] Stevie: Yeah.
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[01:16:31] Stevie: No ...
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[01:16:42] Stevie: Awesome. Yeah.
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[01:16:44] Stevie: He is, yeah.
[:
[01:16:47] Stevie: So The Oils, how did, how did you get on the Midnight Oil train?
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[01:17:00] Andy: Like- Right ... but we just sort of, again, struck up a pretty cool vibe. And, uh, particularly with Jim and Rob, you know, they were just kind of a couple of people that we sort of... Well, and again, I say we, I mean myself and Stuart and, and Anthony, who was the trombone and trumpet player I was playing with a lot.
[:
[01:17:38] Andy: around then, and excuse me. And, um, and it just sort of worked, and it was cool, and you know, you know, Rob's such a great vibe, and everyone was, like, great. And then, uh, there was a record they wanted to do, uh, called The Real Thing, and they, uh, uh, were back in the old festival studios, you [01:18:00] know, like way back then.
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[01:18:23] Andy: Uh, but we, you know, there was nothing but a great vibe with them. It was always really cool if you'd ever bump into anybody, it was always really cool. Mm. And, and then when the band did that, uh, thing at, um, the tsunami benefit at the Sydney Cricket Ground, we did that with them.
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[01:18:41] Andy: Which was cool 'cause that was when we sort of met Silverchair, and that went off in another direction with those guys as well- Right
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[01:19:11] Andy: And, you know, we'd done all those. I mean, we did a, man, I tell you, we did a gig with them, a warm-up for that SCG gig at Manly Leagues. Mm. I mean, honestly, Stevie, this is one of those bands that I, I literally went from the punter at Selena's to standing on stage with them. Yeah. And it's happened a couple of times.
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[01:19:46] Andy: I saw Midnight Oil at Selena's one time that just, you know, supported by a great band from Melbourne called Horsehead, who just blew my mind too. And The Oils that night were just fucking a force to be reckoned with, you know. [01:20:00] Right. Um, so that was in itself from, from fanage to saxophage. Yeah. You know. Uh, is, is, is, is, is, is a total blessing.
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[01:20:34] Andy: And, uh, and I did, uh, I was lucky enough to record both Macarata and Resist. And there was a whole sort of, I think there was a whole rollout program probably sent out around that, which of course as always, COVID sort of- Right ... fucked everything up for everybody, and everyone just goes into this holding pattern.
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[01:21:16] Andy: these great artists. They were really different to normal Oils shows. They were really fantast- fantastic shows.
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[01:21:25] Andy: Well, because the band had guests on stage. Right. Okay. And it's not, it wasn't really a guests on stage kinda band. Yeah. It's not a band you get up and jam with, you know-
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[01:21:48] Andy: just fantastically. And, uh, you know, Leah Flanagan was with us, and w- with the band, excuse me, not us. I'm part of that band. Just with the band. And, uh, uh, you know, there were just these [01:22:00] terrific artists just kept getting up, and Dan Sultan, and you know who-
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[01:22:03] Andy: So it did, it felt like it, the band was sort of presenting this whole lot of other artists that were, you know, obviously pertinent to that record.
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[01:22:41] Andy: Yeah,
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[01:22:41] Andy: Yeah. You know? But, but such an incredible experience. I, I, I've, I've, I've seen gigs and done gigs with them that are just white hot, you know? A really great rock and roll band. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and a real, uh- You know, that, that period where in Australia you could see them and Cold [01:23:00] Chisel and, uh, you know, Hunters and The Goos and fuck, how many others do you know?
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[01:23:28] Andy: Yeah. Well, what do, what do you reckon, you know?
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[01:23:42] Andy: Yeah.
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[01:23:46] Stevie: But as, as Declan Kelly once said when I interviewed him, he said, "But, but everyone's out there creating their own situation."
[:
[01:23:55] Stevie: Yeah, for sure ... maybe not so much about bands, it's just about everybody [01:24:00] creating their situation. They might have a band, but there's something else.
[:
[01:24:04] Stevie: yeah. Lots of hands in different pies. You
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[01:24:11] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[01:24:24] Stevie: Mm
[:
[01:24:34] Stevie: So you're, you're actually a, you're a proper musician now. You're on Instagram now. So you're an actual musician now. You-
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[01:24:46] Stevie: Yeah
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[01:24:48] Stevie: Sept- I had a look today. September 2024 was your-
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[01:24:52] Stevie: was
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[01:25:09] Andy: Yep. Um, and I spoke a lot to, um, to some people about it who are really involved in the way it's moving forward.
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[01:25:19] Andy: And you just, you're kind of gonna, you gotta be involved at some level. You gotta have some reference point, you know? Yeah. So for all intent and purposes, I, I haven't found any problems with it yet, you know?
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[01:25:50] Andy: But, uh, definitely it's cool to be involved with a bunch of people like you, you know, or all these other friends you have who are there, you know? And if [01:26:00] you can sort of curate it at a level where you're not just getting overwhelmed with-
[:
[01:26:05] Andy: kind of... I mean, how do you run it that works? Are you just gig life?
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[01:26:10] Stevie: yeah. Yep. Um, I, I, I do have my own sort of private Instagram, but I don't use it. I, I just- Yeah, yeah ... the, the things that I wanna follow, there's a lot of... I follow a lot of cat videos 'cause we've- ... we've got, we've got four cats at home. Yeah, okay. And a couple of, I think a couple of the things that I follow are, like, people getting hurt coming off skateboards and- Oh, I love-
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[01:26:34] Andy: So it's like I'm utterly hooked on, uh- ... justice, justice being served. That's my favorite one. Oh, yeah. I
[:
[01:26:40] Andy: know. Like, I love that stuff. Yeah, yeah,
[:
[01:26:45] Andy: Yeah, yeah.
[:
[01:26:46] Andy: No, I love all that.
[:
[01:27:06] Andy: Mm.
[:
[01:27:27] Andy: Yeah
[:
[01:27:29] Andy: I, I felt like, I mean, like I heard Adam on the, on the, uh, podcast that you'd done with him, and he, he, you know, he- I love the way he said, "Oh, you know what, what do you mean you've fucking breaking up? I've just got here." Yeah.
[:
[01:27:42] Andy: exactly, yeah. It's like, uh- Ah. If there's one thing I know for sure, mate, is it's not gonna, nothing's gonna do what you want it to do.
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[01:28:25] Andy: You know? I, I just, you know, no, no, no bad blood or anything. It just- Yeah ... maybe it had done its course quite naturally, as bands do. I, I don't, I mean, fuck, I don't, I don't, I don't know. Um, but definitely at the end of that, that run, I, I think everyone was just like, "Oh, crikey, that was a that was a whole lot of time away."
[:
[01:28:59] Stevie: Mm. [01:29:00]
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[01:29:09] Andy: And they had a hotel in Montmartre for us, and they said, "Okay, we're gonna take a week off. You guys can do whatever you wanna do." It's the middle of a P- Parisian heatwave. It's the middle of summer, right? Like, it's 32 degrees every day. And I, I don't know what other people think about Paris, but I don't think, oh, heatwave, you know?
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[01:29:33] Stevie: Mm ...
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[01:29:47] Andy: I hadn't, you know? Yeah. I mean, I was literally jumping out of bed in the morning, opening the curtains and going- ... "Paris." Yeah. You know, like I just, it just, it was such a big vibe and- That's cool, yeah ... and you sort of go, you know, so I said, "Oh, I'll be out in the [01:30:00] street every day. I'll jump in the metro and do everything," you know?
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[01:30:26] Andy: Fair enough. But that's just not the way it's gonna be. Yep, yep. You know? So, um, I'm pretty used to that idea. Um, and, uh, you know, when The Oils pulled up stumps, I think I had, uh, you know, I had a couple of months just to sort of twiddle my thumbs, and I think I went back to work and, you know, uh, my day job.
[:
[01:31:03] Stevie: Mm.
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[01:31:25] Andy: I mean, whether you're in, you know, jumping out of your bed and pulling the curtains back in Paris or if you're in freaking Armidale- Yeah ... it's actually the same- That's cool, yeah ... because it's so much fun. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well said. I'm, I'm very, very lucky. Yeah. Incredibly so. Um, and, and, and it have been for a lot of years, you know.
[:
[01:31:46] Stevie: Yeah.
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[01:31:50] Stevie: Yeah, yeah. So you, you said go back to your day job. What's, what was your day job?
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[01:32:01] Andy: I, I was- Yeah. Right ... I was lucky. I was teaching at a, um... As my son went through high school, I, I, I started teaching at a, a wonderful high school down south, um, with a great music department. Uh, and they had, you know, they were a private school. There was quite a bit, you know, it wasn't wanting for money. Uh, it was a great situation to be in.
[:
[01:32:22] Andy: And very supported. And very, in one of those situations where, uh, they were very open to the idea of me disappearing away to go and do, you know, I'm away with so and so for three months or whatever. They'd support me through that. That's awesome. Blessed. Absolutely blessed job, and it was, it was, it was...
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[01:32:44] Stevie: I'm blessed, you know. Oh, I'm blessed. Yeah. You know, back in my day, you
[:
[01:32:53] Stevie: Still blessed.
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[01:32:56] Andy: Yeah. What, what a right royal fuckwit. Yeah. Um, [01:33:00] you know, uh, so I was very, very lucky to have been in a situation where if that was my day job, they were very supportive of whoever I went and played with.
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[01:33:19] Stevie: You talked about the, the sort of the hotel stuff that, you know. And that, that kind of scene. You got, you know, you've been working with Chisel but, you know, when we talk about the Eagles, the Eagles is, you know, that's sort of top echelon stuff.
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[01:33:31] Stevie: So when you worked with them, is, was it, is this when they were here?
[:
[01:33:38] Andy: doing? So- Yeah, they did a, um... Well, we, I got involved with the Don Henley tour before that
[:
[01:33:46] Andy: Uh, and played with, they brought over a fantastic saxophone player from Los Angeles. Again, through Jim Barnes, you know, they had a keyboard player in the band that had worked with Jimmy in LA, and he rang Jim and said, "We're after [01:34:00] a bunch of horn players.
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[01:34:29] Andy: Mm. Like, 'cause the band were just top shelf, you know? Yeah. Top shelf American session musicians. And it's a great experience to stand there and see an American management work like it does, and crew work like it does- Right ... and stage, and band, and it, and those, those fucking songs, man, you know? Yeah. And then that, we were so lucky that that, uh, that then, um, bounced into an Eagles tour.
[:
[01:35:04] Stevie: Right ...
[:
[01:35:12] Stevie: Who's been with them forever.
[:
[01:35:16] Andy: He's fantastic to travel with. And yeah, we did a New Zealand-Australian tour with them- Mm ... um, which was, uh, a really fantastic experience. You know, again, songs, songs, songs. And, uh- Yeah ... oh, there's not a lot of horns on their stuff, but you kinda shot out and just played these key things again.
[:
[01:35:36] Andy: Um, and man, we, you know, people just, you know, those...
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[01:35:53] Stevie: Yeah. Yeah.
[:
[01:35:55] Stevie: one of- Where do we- Most, most of it, right?
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[01:36:14] Stevie: Yeah.
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[01:36:16] Andy: So that's 2019 that was. Okay. Actually, I just remembered. It was my first chance to go to Europe with Midnight Oil, and I went-
[:
[01:36:23] Andy: Fuck yeah, I wanna do that," you know? As well, as well as, obviously I wanted to do them both, but you never can, you know? Mm. Um, but they were, yeah, they were something else.
[:
[01:36:57] Andy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. You know, you just go, "That, that's that guy." That's it, yeah. You [01:37:00] know? It's just, holy Jesus, you know? He's the guy.
[:
[01:37:03] Andy: Um, so yeah, a- a- again,
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[01:37:17] Andy: God, fucking hell.
[:
[01:37:22] Andy: it. Yeah.
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[01:37:29] Andy: Yeah, I mean, like you sort of, um-
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[01:37:33] Andy: Well, that's right. That's right. But those- It's
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[01:37:36] Andy: look, I remember as a kid, you know, like h- honestly, Stevie, I remember sitting on a f- I used to go down and stay and work on my, uh, aunt and uncle's farm when I was a kid in a place called Drummond, you know, which is out of Invercargill at the bottom of the South Island.
[:
[01:38:10] Andy: Mm. And it was the first time I ever heard that, you know, that great sort of blue, uh, blue scale thing they do in the solo. And I remember just going, "Oh, man." Like it just blew- Yeah ... my fucking mind, you know? Yeah. And you sort of go back and you look at it, and there's Joe Walsh, you know? And I was just like, um, oh, man, it's just...
[:
[01:38:31] Stevie: Mm ...
[:
[01:38:40] Stevie: yeah, okay. That's kind of what I was get- When I, before I, as I was getting to the, you know, to ask about the Eagles. I, not, not trying to compare, like, like, you know, who's better or whatever, but, you know, you've got the, that Oils machine, the Chisel machine-
[:
[01:38:56] Stevie: and the Eagles machine. So, and, and [01:39:00] yeah. I- is it, is, is the thing that makes it different maybe a bit of an aura of the people that are in the room?
[:
[01:39:09] Stevie: Do you think that's-
[:
[01:39:14] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[01:39:16] Stevie: I suppose time would tell as you, you sort of-
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[01:39:18] Andy: But I think- Yeah ... I think, uh, like, like anything, I think Australian bands have their own identity- Yeah ... very much so. I think they do things a certain way. I mean, I- Yeah ... um, you know, I think the Eagles w- I, f- for what I know of them, you know, they're just, they're like just d- you know, in the nosebleed section of American music ro- royalty, you know?
[:
[01:40:02] Andy: And, and what we're used to is so fantastic, you know? Sure. So fucking amazing. Um, uh, yeah, it's a, it's, it's a, it's a very d- And they just keep going and going and going, you know? But if you've got a, if you've got a, if you've got a raft of songs like that-
[:
[01:40:17] Andy: why would you stop?
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[01:40:18] Andy: You know?
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[01:40:26] Stevie: yeah ...
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[01:40:38] Andy: A- anyway, uh, and he just plays that fucking beautiful el- alto solo on the way out just to finish the album. The Last Cafe. I was, fuck, sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm making so many mistakes. No, you're all right. Um, it's just like, you know, man, Sanborn's on their fucking records. Yeah, right, right. You know? Like, Jesus.
[:
[01:41:08] Stevie: that's cool,
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[01:41:13] Andy: Mm. Um, yeah, fanta- fantastic experience.
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[01:41:21] Andy: Mate, I'll tell you, um, I am gonna basically, uh... We've just obviously moved into this place. Yep. Um, so we're sorting that out. Um- I'm literally looking down a year of trying to get my playing back together.
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[01:41:42] Stevie: I'm glad you brought that up. I was gonna... I've got some questions here about how do you, uh, you know, do you still practice and what do you practice and- Oh,
[:
[01:41:49] Stevie: so you finish and then I'll, I'll-
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[01:42:06] Stevie: Mm.
[:
[01:42:28] Andy: um, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't in super match fit form.
[:
[01:42:32] Andy: okay. Um, and so this year's intention is to sit down and really get, get it back together.
[:
[01:42:37] Andy: Only because I was, I was away from the horn 'cause I was just cro- I was, you know, I had surgery and all sorts of malarkey.
[:
[01:42:43] Andy: Uh, so now with that fantastic tour done, I'm home- I'm gonna spend a year in my office upstairs, uh, at least working in her office, and I'll sit in the one upstairs and- Yep
[:
[01:43:14] Andy: I've, uh, there's a couple of bits and pieces on, like I did a great thing with Kirri Jacobs in, a couple of weeks ago, you know.
[:
[01:43:21] Andy: Um- The
[:
[01:43:22] Andy: Yeah.
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[01:43:24] Andy: What a dude, man. He is,
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[01:43:25] Andy: Seriously. And, and Paul De Marco- Yeah,
[:
[01:43:28] Andy: and Dave Leslie of great band. Awesome. So much fun, you know?
[:
[01:43:54] Stevie: yourself
[:
[01:43:56] Stevie: That's
[:
[01:44:10] Stevie: I agree.
[:
[01:44:11] Andy: saying ... I'm not really sort of, I don't feel like I'm playing great.
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[01:44:14] Andy: You know, I don't, uh, I can't sit in a hotel room and play saxophone 'cause someone's gonna thr- throw a Molotov cocktail through your r- door. Go to the gig, you know, it's always, you know, you're sort of kinda rushing in and out and- Mm
[:
[01:44:44] Andy: You're on. But, you know, couple, you know, a month of it already, I'm starting to feel a bit better. I just felt like a pile of shit yesterday. I felt okay today, so I'm starting to- That's good ... you know-
[:
[01:44:54] Andy: get through it.
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[01:44:56] Andy: Oh, mate. Oh, that's- Yep ... that's always the way, mate, you know?
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[01:45:07] Stevie: Yeah, gotcha. No, off, off we go. Gotcha. You know.
[:
[01:45:11] Stevie: um, so my question specifically-
[:
[01:45:15] Stevie: all right, so yeah, okay. So this is what, this is what I've got here. So, you know, do you, do you have a mark you wanna reach?
[:
[01:45:26] Andy: Yeah.
[:
[01:45:44] Stevie: 'Cause, you know, or, or is it just always a progressive, progressive thing? Um- Or, uh, I mean, b- uh, what it sort of sounds like at the moment is you're gonna be trying, you're trying to... Well, not, it's not maintenance. You're gonna rebuild yourself.
[:
[01:46:00] Andy: It's always gonna be wanting to be a better soloist. Yep. You know, I think. And, um- I, I, I, I listen pretty well. Like I, I listen to a lot of stuff or, and still do always. Mm-hmm. You know, always, always have and find a lot of inspiration, some, some killer players. Uh, but yeah, so far as that's concerned, I just...
[:
[01:46:29] Stevie: Yep.
[:
[01:46:44] Andy: They're always, you know, that's, that's match fit, you know? I really dig that. Like I dig that those guys... And I haven't really done that for a lot of years. You know, I really think, um, I'd like to be back on my toes again and, you know, like, and just sort of feeling like I can [01:47:00] play with anybody-
[:
[01:47:01] Andy: and do anything, you know, as opposed to kinda, you know, just sort of feeling like you're, you're sort of good at one t- one particular skill set, you know?
[:
[01:47:24] Stevie: Yeah. Right.
[:
[01:47:27] Stevie: Yeah, that's cool.
[:
[01:47:40] Andy: Um I
[:
[01:47:41] Andy: Yeah.
[:
[01:47:42] Andy: Yeah, yeah, or just at least, you know, stand back and dig it and know that it's not an impossibility, you know? Mm-hmm.
[:
[01:47:49] Andy: Um, so yeah, you know, that's, that's the, that's the intention.
[:
[01:47:53] Andy: But, but the, you know, the absolute, you know, how's, uh, you know, how's the luck I've got, man, to be able to sit at home [01:48:00] for a year and just kind of feel like I'm pulling my health back into s- shape and my playing, you know?
[:
[01:48:09] Stevie: Yeah, I mean, it sounds- To- You've earned it, man
[:
[01:48:24] Stevie: Yeah, yep.
[:
[01:48:37] Stevie: Can't
[:
[01:48:39] Stevie: know?
[:
[01:48:47] Andy: Yeah,
[:
[01:48:50] Andy: You know, like, and, and that's, that's a, that's a real joy, you know?
[:
[01:48:57] Stevie: Right.
[:
[01:49:15] Andy: Yeah, yeah. I'll have a
[:
[01:49:21] Stevie: You know, there's probably is areas around here where you could do that. You could do that and you could pull it off.
[:
[01:49:35] Andy: Oh,
[:
[01:49:36] Andy: Yeah, he just, he was around for years. I mean, probably a while back now, but I was always... He used to play out to the sea, you know? Oh,
[:
[01:49:43] Andy: He'd stand there and just play and play. Every time I'd go down and have a, have a couple of beers with mate of mine, we always used to go down to the Bowlo there, you'd always hear this guy playing saxophone.
[:
[01:50:04] Stevie: Yeah, that's cool.
[:
[01:50:06] Stevie: All right, Andy, this has been cool, man. I'm, I'm stoked we, uh, got to sit down, have a chat.
[:
[01:50:13] Stevie: Um, yeah, I think we've covered everything. Oh, I mean, yeah, we have.
[:
[01:50:22] Stevie: Andy. Legend. Thank you very much,
[:
[01:50:28] Andy: Awesome.
[:
[01:50:52] Stevie: Um, links are in the show notes on your app. That's it for me for now. Catch you next time, guys. [01:51:00] Cheers.
