PERRY KEYES
"The Last Ghost Train Home"
(Laughing Outlaw Records)

www.perrykeyes.com

ww.myspace.com/perrykeys

ww.laughingoutlaw.com.au

 

To tell you the truth, I'm now already looking forward to playing "NYE" from "Meter" again in December! When "Meter" was released in 2005, Perry Keyes was compared to Springsteen. As reviewers often do, when somebody writes storysongs situated in blue collar neighbourhoods, playing them in a quite rocking way. It's not so bad to be compared with the early Springsteen though, it's an honor, as I never forget the country's toughest DJ literally sobbing on the air, after playing "Meeting Across The River", as it's so true and so damned beautiful. But... how convincing is a multi-millionaire these days? And Perry is convincing and most definitely for real! There's only one way to find out if a singer-songwriter is for real, when he comes up with something about working class heroes. Ask him or her to describe the smell... How did their father and big brother and uncle and neighbour smell, when they came home from a night shift at the factory or the ships repair yard or the blast-furnace plant? There's something so undeniable in that smell of oil, tar, grease and sweat! Hey, maybe it even comes off this new CD by Perry Keyes!

 

Some background info, quoted from his bio: Perry has been writing songs since he was a kid and has played in a variety of bands. Most notably, in the late eighties, he fronted "Perry Keyes and the Stolen Holdens" a band which everybody had heard of, but no one actually saw. Mark that down as just another of the many mistakes, made growing up.

No other Australian songwriter is writing about Matraville, the Barbeque King, the abandonment of working class suburbs or the way a kid loves a footy player - few other Australian songwriters are writing about anything with such honesty, heart or insight.

The world Keyes sings about is one of growing up in the Sydney neighbourhoods of Redfern and Waterloo, of embracing the working class culture that dominated the inner-city in those days, and of family. Of being at one with the winners and losers lurking at the TAB, the local pub and greasy spoon, the rugby league, the speedway, the boxing. Of chancing your arm amid the tawdry but endlessly romantic neon glitter of the Easter Show. Of love and drugs, sleeping rough and risking being incarcerated for things you may or may not have done. Of busting a gut driving a cab or slaving in a factory from dawn to dark to pay the rent, maybe buy the new Clash record and a feed of beef and black bean on Friday night with your best girl.

Keyes's scenes and rich gallery of characters are photograph-vivid and anointed with acutely-observed and brutally-honest detail that brings them roaring to life. His images and anecdotes, some poignant, others the stuff of nightmares, loom at you like sylphs and hellions from a ghost train gloom.

Once again, Keyes is backed by his band, Give My Love To Rose, featuring Edmond Kairouz on guitars and vocals, Earl Pinkerton on bass, and the extraordinarily talented Bek-Jean Stewart on drums and shimmering back-up vocals that tingle the spine. She recently released her own excellent and intriguing album "Junior Years". And Michael Carpenter, a familiar name on records by Australian artists, is also credited for some playing and recording. Oh yes, the front cover painting is made by Jon Langford, figuring that out takes only one glance!

I listened, like this was a long and spell-binding story, divided in several chapters. A gritty, realistic and yet poetic story. The kind of story cabdrivers and those other kids from working class families know all too well... Memories coming back: when the big whistle blew, go and wait for Dad, who walked through the factory gate smoking his self-rolled cigarette. And this story also features such grrreat music!!

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Written by Johanna J. Bodde, September 2007

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And how about the rabbit killers in old Ford  
Perry Keyes himself wrote an awesome "Glossary" of 
four pages small print. Here are some of the most interesting 
parts:

"The Last Ghost Train Home" is a collection of 
songs that have at their core the theme of community. The songs examine what 
happens when the cultural touchstones - work, sport, food, music, family, the 
neighbourhood - that are used to bind people together as a community are 
dismantled and dismissed in the face of a grab for real estate or just plain 
ignorance. The consequences of acting as if a people's culture is redundant are 
plain for anyone to see. To say that the things that they care about are not 
important is to say that the people who have invented, cultivated, passed on and 
shared these things with each other are themselves, not important. The culture I 
grew up in had tremendous worth, especially in its capacity to create a sense of 
community. It made people feel like they were a part of something much bigger 
and that, maybe, the struggle was a little less lonely... Most of it is gone 
from around here now, along with the people that made it up. In that way, these 
songs are a kind of ghost story.

THEY DAY JOHN SATTLER BROKE HIS JAW
"John Sattler was a Rugby League football player 
for the South Sydney Rabbitohs - the team actor Russell Crowe now owns. He 
played in the 1970 Grand Final. His jaw was broken in several places in the 7th 
minute. He played on for the entire game, refusing his team mates repeated 
requests to leave the field. He was the team's captain and he led them to a 
famous victory. His effort is often cited as one of the most courageous in the 
annals of Australian sport. When I was old enough to start drinking in pubs, it 
seemed that every hotel in the inner-city had the famous photo of John Sattler 
being carried off the field on his team mates' shoulders. Jaw broken in a couple 
of places, blood on his torn jumper but unbowed and defiant. It was like this 
photo had replaced the portrait of the Queen that some pubs used to have hanging 
over the bar."

The song mentions the Railway View Hotel: "It was 
situated directly across from Redfern Railway Station. In those days it seemed 
there was a pub on every corner thoughout the inner-city of Sydney. The Railway 
View Hotel was in a prime position for pulling in the workers just before they 
had to jump on a train on their way home from the railway yards and factories. 
It was usually teeming between 5-6 pm with men spilling out onto the footpath, 
cloaked in thick cigarette smoke and talking loudly. Kids would hang around and 
score soft drinks and chips. The pub shut down in the eighties as the area fell 
into a steep economic decline and the railway yards and factories were being 
shut down."
Falcons: "A man used to come around sellin' dead rabbits from the back of an old 
Ford station wagon. Folks would cook 'em and eat 'em. He would skin and gut them 
on the tail gate right there in front of you! I guess he was one of the last in 
a long line of men who were known as 'Rabbitohs' throughout the old working 
class areas of Sydney."

KIDS DAY
"At the annual Royal Agricultural Show - more 
commonly known as 'The Easter Show' - that was held at the Sydney Show Grounds 
every Easter, a day would be set aside for children to get in free of charge. 
Often this meant that the more socially disadvantaged families would be able to 
have a day at 'The Show'. It was also a day when some of the kids who slept 
'rough' - homeless children - would be able to escape from the inner-city 
streets and lose themselves for awhile in Sideshow Alley. Show Bags were bags 
sold to children at The Royal Agricultural Show. They were full of crap like 
mini-jars of peanut butter and rubber geeks on sticks and plastic cowboy pants. 
They were/are amazingly over-priced. They're pretty cool if you're a kid, 
though. My Mum and Aunties worked in the stalls every year and would bring me 
back show bags. My favourite was the World Championship Wrestling bag with the 
Brute Bernard mask! Brute Bernard was a famous Canadian Wrestler. The Brute. 
Incomparable. Favourite move was the 'Brain Buster'." Also mentioned in the song 
is 'The Wild Cat': "A roller-coaster. They would give you a badge that said 'I 
rode the Wild Cat!' I was a bit of a pussy as a kid and, therefore, can't claim 
to own such a badge of honor."

DOUBLE ON THE MAIN GAME
"Double On The Main Game Tickets were betting 
tickets sold at football grounds. If you got the first scorer for each team then 
you'd win money. They were often sold by guys who would wander around the 
football ground who were, kinda, borderline homeless alcoholics. Collecting your 
money was half the fun." And who was Jimmy Sharman? "Jimmy Sharman ran a 
travelling boxing troupe. Before it was banned by the government, he would set 
up at the Easter Show and put on exhibition bouts. Outside the boxing tent a man 
would beat a giant bass drum while the barker would shout 'Who'll take a glove?' 
Men in the audience could win money by taking on one of the Jimmy's fighters and 
lasting a round or so. Around this time you would see a lot of men walking the 
streets where I lived with black and blue faces. The answer to the Barking Man's 
question." "Folks often roll tobacco to make their own cigarettes. If they use 
Champion Ruby Tobacco it's sometimes called 'rolling a Ruby'." "Luna Park is an 
amusement park adjacent to the north pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was 
never real good at working out a place to take a girl out on a date. Luna Park 
always seemed like a safe bet and even though it was pretty much shut down when 
I'd go there, at least we got to ride across the harbour on the ferry... One 
night, the Ghost Train at Luna Park caught fire and six kids were killed... Big 
Dipper was the famous roller coaster at Luna Park. Some time in the 80's, 
apartments were built near the park and were soon filled with 'young 
professionals'. They complained about the noise - which had been a part of the 
area for fifty years - and the Big Dipper was closed down." And how about the 
Red Rattler Trains? "Old trains that were a distinctive red colour. I used to 
love riding red rattlers on the city circle when I'd go into the city to buy 
records and guitar strings."