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August 18, 2006

A Summary Of I’d Rather Jack’s Radiothon Show.

This is going to be a halfarsed post of epic proportions but I’m afraid I’ve had about ten hours sleep in the past fifty six hours and Dave the Scot is due to turn up at my place any minute for Thursday Friday Breakfast Club so I must bang this out as quickly as possible…

How’d we go? Pretty fucking well, actually! The show was wonderfully haphazard and shouty and excitable, and we got a surprising amount of subscribers so it’s safe to say we’re pleased as punch! For those of you curious, here’s what the musician guests who were able to come in and perform live to air belted out for RRR-fans’ pleasure\amusement.

Dan Kelly and Dan Luscombe - Huey Lewis & The News “If This Is It”
Triple J album-of-the-week-ers, the startlingly handsome Dan Kelly and Dan Luscombe from Dan Kelly & The Alpha Males, came in to croon along to a karaoke backing track of the Huey Lewis hit “If This Is It”. Highlights of their time on air include the two minutes of pre-sing along discussion regarding Huey’s cock size (he’s notoriously packing heat, by the by), and Luscy - for the whole last minute of the song - asking in a deadpan voice “Is this it? If this is it… this is it, isn’t it? OH! So this is it?” whilst Dan Kelly worked some falsetto magic. A right laugh. And god love ‘em for coming in to the studio for a midnight til two am show considering they had to leave for a tour at seven the following morning. CHAMPEENS!

Jess McAvoy - Pat Benatar’s “Love Is A Battlefield”
Another one who went above and beyond in the name of all things community (and, erm, radio). Jess is moving to Sydney today and had been up since four am on Wednesday morning organising removalist trucks, etc. Despite a dastardly lack of sleep, the lady strolled into the studio and worked some deadset magic on the Benatar hit as Clem and I swayed appreciatively along. She also threw a RRR rubber chicken at my head when I walked by her later on and called me bad names. So essentially it was like spending time with an old friend. Jess McAvoy? We salute you!

Mandy Kane - Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back!”)
Another delightful RRR supporting performer who had the honour of howling along to a karaoke backing track live on air - AGAIN, NO EXPENSE WAS SPARED FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE, RADIO LOVERS! Mr Kane was very sweet and also, liked to refer to monkeys a fair bit. This confused me at the time but with reflection, I think it might actually be a nickname his fans have given him. I dunno. Maybe he just digs simians? Regardless, Clem and I got to pretend we were in a recording studio when we provided the back up vocals to his performance (“Yeah!” and “Ooooh!” from memory) and that’s all that counts. Danke to the very sweet Mandy Kane!

Jess and Clem - Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”
We fulfilled a promise to do this one a capella after managing to get five new subscribers in a ten minute period. Were we in tune? Did we know the lyrics? Friends, I hardly think that was the point. What was the point? We don’t know. It was a confusing night. But fun! FUN!

Angie Hart - Michael Bolton’s “How Can We Be Lovers”
Oh. My. Lord. Where to start? Well, first I’d like to give Ms Hart, on behalf of Clem and myself, a big fucking thank you for arriving at the station at 11:30pm and sticking around til the very very very very end. THAT IS HOW MUCH SHE LOVES RRR, PEOPLE! But back to the “performance”… Now, Angie and I had discussed the possibility of covering quite a few songs - Nelly Furtado’s “Maneater”, Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” (Ang’s impersonation of Shakira singing “Mbaby meh heeps don lai…” is frighteningly and hilariously spot on) - but what can I say? The woman is partial to Bolton. Dare I say it… obsessed with Bolton? So “How Can We Be Lovers” it was. AND WHAT A TRULY TOUCHING RENDITION OF THE OLD CLASSIC! We’d practiced the song together, oh - I don’t know - about three times ever? I was a bit festive from wine and forgot the chords halfway through, we all got confused about the lyrics - but did this stop Angie, Clem and I from delivering a blistering “set”? Nay. Because we are professionals. Horrifyingly, a fan of our dear guest actually captured the on air rock balladry in .wav format and has already popped it online but you’ll have to seek that out yourselves, folks. I heard about thirty seconds of it last night, doubled over with laughter and then hit delete. I think I’d prefer to keep it a blurred, joyous memory than relive it through the magic of technology.

We also had FUCKING AMAZING pre-recorded covers from the likes of the handsome Dynamo (who did the Haddaway classic “What Is Love?”), Children Collide & Midnight Juggernaughts (who collaborated to record a version of Michael Sembello’s “Maniac”), and possibly my favourite cover evs was The Blow Waves (aka Matt from The Mavis’s and Jamie from Love Outside Andromeda) doing Dannii’s “I Begin To Wonder” acoustically.

Thanks again to all the guests who came in or contributed something for the show, and even MORE thanks must go to the listeners of RRR who have been subscribing over the past week. I recognised the names of a few bloggers who rang up to pledge money (big ups to Bucky, MSKP and… oh lord, there was someone else and I’ve forgotten because I am so tired which makes me DREADFUL but do know we adore you) and hey, it’s not too late to do your thing if you haven’t been able to subscribe yet! Just head to this address and you can do it over the net. Huzzah!