Simon Day @ The Retreat, Melbourne (Sun 29 Aug 2010)
Surreal. It’s not often you meet a childhood hero at the local pub playing to about 40 people.
When I saw that Simon Day of Ratcat was playing at The Retreat, well, I just had to go. As any of my friends can attest, I’ve been a huge fan of Ratcat since I was about 15. The This Nightmare album was by far, the greatest indie album released at the time (1989). Go Go and Dead Dog Standing were my two faves, but the whole album is gold. Seriously- if you don’t know it- do yourself a favour. Even if you’re one of the many who didn’t get into Ratcat’s hits, this album is a winner.
When they hit the ‘bigtime’ in the early 90’s with Tingles and Blind Love, I was as chuffed as can be. The first time I saw Ratcat was at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre supporting [intlink id=”115″ type=”post”]INXS on their X tour[/intlink] in 1991. After that, I saw them at the Qld University of Technology cafeteria with about 5000 other screaming kids in ’92. I got a massive wall-size poster (seriously- it’s huge- doesn’t fit in my house so is in storage in Brisbane) signed at that show- Simon wrote “Hey Sam, stay cool.” I got it laminated and still have it.
So, onto the show…. He played 2 sets- the first was mostly non Ratcat material and fairly laid back. His voice sounded great and he seemed really relaxed and happy to be there. It was super weird seeing him up there doing his thing in front of so few people (most who unfortunately seemed pretty disinterested in the show), considering the last time I saw him, it was in front of thousands of screaming fans. Sure, that was 20 years ago, but still, weird.
The second set had much more Ratcat gear in there. Baby Baby, Don’t Go Now and That Ain’t Bad were obviously the points where the audience pricked up their ears a bit. The look of recognition on most was pretty amusing… “Hey, I know this song…. wait, isn’t that that guy from that band?…. oh yeah- now I know who this is…”
Some of the other Ratcat songs from the set included Don’t Go In The Water & My Bloody Valentine (both from Tingles). There may have been some stuff from This Nightmare, Insideout & Easyrider, but it’s been so long since I’ve listened to those records that I couldn’t say for sure.
It was a shame that more people weren’t there, but there was little to no advertising. I just happened to see it was on because I wanted to go to the pub and saw it in tiny writing in the street press. I had a bit of a fan moment after the show and had a chat to him, and got a photo. He was absolutely lovely. I really didn’t want to come across as a mad stalker fan, and was worried that he’d be a tool (aren’t most ex-famous people?), but he was great.
He was there playing support for Suzie Stapleton, who was pretty damn good. She came on and did the last few songs with him (including That Ain’t Bad), and then he got up with her band later and they did a version of Getting Away (From This World) that was originally on Tingles and then on Blind Love as well.
Baby Baby
Don’t Go Now
That Ain’t Bad
Getting Away (From This World) – with Suzie Stapleton & Band
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Hah
sweet
[..YouTube..] GREAT ASS SONG! NEED TO SEE ALL THOUGH.
GREAT ASS SONG! NEED TO SEE ALL THOUGH.
Dang! I used to love Ratcat. Ah, puberty! Good times…. I saw Suzie Stapleton at Old Bar last week – was awesome. Unreal band. Think they’re playing next week. Urgh another shabby Thursday at work…. Thanks Saminator – nice work.
[..YouTube..] Cool, he’s sounding even better now….and yeah, still so damn good looking…
[..YouTube..] Cool, he’s sounding even better now….and yeah, still so damn good
looking…
Cool, he’s sounding even better now….and yeah, still so damn good
looking…
[..YouTube..] best song ever
best song ever
he is hot
Simon Day playing at a local pub. Ouch. My teenage world wasn’t real.
[..YouTube..] Simon Day playing at a local pub. Ouch. My teenage world wasn’t real.
[..YouTube..] Simon Day playing at a local pub. Ouch. My teenage world wasn’t real.
Simon Day playing at a local pub. Ouch. My teenage world wasn’t real.
I first knew of RATCAT listed on the back of my 2012 BIGDAYOUT 20th
anniversary (1992) t-shirt in melbourne. Then found their ratcat alive cd
by chance at eumundi market QLD a week later…weird?! I dont think ill
find a better first track (getting away) to a live cd. (wouldve said
“school” by nirvana on muddy banks of the wishkah, but that was track 2!
track 1 was just kurt screaming lol)
sorry but this version is fucking hideous.
Have a look here if you want to see Rat Cat being videotaped on the Blind Love Tour back in 1991. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJI_8YlROlTywpxRLUbbp2Q
I remember Andrew asked me why I turned up & taped the band playing live free of charge no strings attached once they started to play to bigger audiences & gain a national following.
I replied You only get this time once , you should have some “home movies” made now to look back at in the future….
I thought they would have bought a compact broadcast quality Video Camera of their own in 1992 to keep with them & amuse , embarrass & film all all the “other private stuff” I filmed with my video camera & kept those special tapes stowed away from moisture inside one of my safes ;>
Broadcast Quality film taken on future tours both locally & overseas would give them plenty of “very cheap “stock footage” to use in video clips or use a bunch of it to make a docco or a tour / road movie , like the Doors did. in the 1960’s.
When I suggested this all I got was blank stares.
There are a few VHS copies of all the un edited footage I took of the band playing live , I handed them directly to Joe Segg at his Mosman office , where they went after that is anyone’s guess.
If you see this post , I hope you enjoy the bits & pieces I am putting together on this YouTube channel thingy , I wasn’t doing it for money back then & don’t expect to get any money out of it now. The films only tagged so that I can see where it ends up at & to keep any commercial internet vultures from making money off my video.