Live Review BY ALEC SMART 22/09/19
September 30, 2019
Enmore Theatre in Newtown played host to a memorial concert tribute to a much-loved character from Australia’s live music scene, Damien Lovelock, aka ‘Damo’, the late Celibate Rifles’ singer, on 22 September.
Damo passed away from cancer on 3 August at his Sydney northern beaches’ home, aged 65.
The packed concert, coined Damo The Musical, and upgraded from the nearby Factory Theatre, a venue it quickly outsold, was held on a Sunday afternoon with a queue outside stretching 50 metres before the theatre doors opened.
As well as ventures in sports broadcasting, yoga teaching and publishing a recipe book for single dads (What’s for Dinner Dad? Random House Australia, 1995), Damo fronted Sydney fast-rockers The Celibate Rifles – the name is a pun on infamous punk rockers The Sex Pistols – from 1980 through nine studio albums, four Eps, seven compilations and two live albums, and international touring.
He was renowned for his droll, acerbic wit and articulate lyrics that drew a range of influences, including personal experiences, social critiques and his mistrust of corporate capitalism.
Damo was a gifted raconteur with a natural talent for comic timing, and the band’s live performances were often interspersed with his amusing recollections of characters and situations that inspired the lyrics.
The afternoon began with hosts radio personalities Francis Leach and Steve Cannane, both former reporters for Triple J FM Radio’s The Morning Show, telling amusing anecdotes from Damo’s life. These included highlights from Damo’s alternate career as a soccer commentator on both SBS TV’s The World Game, where he presented a fan’s perspective, and Sky Sports Radio’s Football Fever.
In the background, celebrated surf-film maker Jack McCoy assembled photos and a few video clips of Damo for projection on a large screen.
The musical part of the event involved three bands, beginning with Damo’s cover band project, The Centerlink Surfers, which played a medley of his favourite songs, including The Stooges, Easybeats and his cherished Rolling Stones.
This was followed by Wigworld, a band formed from an amalgamation of musicians who played on Damo’s two solo albums, It’s A Wig Wig Wig Wig World (1988) and Fishgrass (1991).
The main event of the afternoon reunited The Celibate Rifles – current members Kent Steedman, Dave Morris, Paul Larsen and Jim Leone – with almost all their ex-members to play selections from their 40-year career, with a succession of guest vocalists.
The band hosted an array of talented singers, many of whom had to rapidly learn Damo’s often complicated lyrics in the few rehearsals beforehand, some relying on discreetly placed cheat-sheets.
Stand-in vocalists included: Celibate Rifles’ inaugural, pre-Damo vocalist, Ian Martin (who apparently turned up at the wrong venue just minutes before the show started!); flamboyant cabaret singer Jeff Duff, who performed in a shiny gold suit and gold Cuban boots; Ben Brown, formerly of The Hellmenn and perhaps better known as a gig poster cartoonist; Richard ‘Evil Dick’ Hunt from Brisbane band Hits; Amanda Easton, Lloyd Gyi and Floyd Vincent from The Centrelink Surfers but talented solo artists in their own rights; Newcastle vocalist Mark Roxburgh from 1980s Sydney underground band Decline Of The Reptiles; Bill Gibson, renowned bassist from Eastern Dark and The Lemonheads; and, lastly, like Damo, another articulate lyricist and (in)famous raconteur with a fierce intellect, Jello Biafra, formerly of The Dead Kennedys and latterly of The Guantanamo School of Medicine, who travelled from the USA to headline the tribute to his old friend.
Other notable musicians included Hamish Stuart, Brett Myers (Died Pretty guitarist), Rick Grossman (Hoodoo Gurus bassist), Rex Goh (ex-Air Supply and The Eurogliders), Stewart Cunningham (Leadfinger), Mikey Couvret and Mark Horne.
Celibate Rifles’ songs played over two sets included Johnny, Wild Desire, Tick Tock, Bill Bonney Regrets, Netherworld and Dancing Barefoot.
Highlights included a blistering cover of AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, sung by Lloyd Gyi, then Jello Biafra and the band ending on The Saints’ classic (I’m) Stranded.
–
View Alec Smart’s full gallery of images HERE