ARCA releases Dead Livers Live at the Espy 1986 desk tape. — CX Network

Band to be released on September 1^st 2022

Outlaw country rockers, the Dead Livers, are the 27^e act to lend their support to Support Act’s Roadies fund through the Australian Road Crew Association (ARCA) Desk Tape series.

The series was created by ARCA to raise funds to provide financial, health, counseling and welfare services to roadies and crews in crisis.

These rare and amazing recordings are made from the soundboard by a member of the crew – in this case Simon Glozier – and released on ARCA’s Black Box Records via MGM Distribution and all major streaming services.

Thanks to Michael Schack, Craig Reeves and Fred Negro for the photos, Nprint for the artwork, Phil Dracoulis for the mastering, and especially the Dead Livers for their support for roadies and crew in crisis.

VSnew

Simon Glozier (sound)

Possum (ribs and turfs)

Band members at The’ESPY” 1986

Marty Atchison (vocals) (1978-1983, 1984-)

Richard O’Keefe (drums) (1978-)

John Berto (guitar) (1979-)

Rodger Delfos (guitar) (1980-)

Craig Reeves (piano) (1984-1988)

Les Gough (bass guitar) (1984-1988)

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GROUP MEMBERS

Brendan Mitchell (guitar and steel guitar) (1978-1980, 1984-)

Michael Schack (bass guitar) (1978-1984, 1985-)

Edward Mitchell (guitar)(1978-1978)

Tony Pizzi (drums) (1978-1978)

Warren Keats (guitar) (1979-1979)

Peter Thorne (guitar), (1979-1979)

Andrew Charles (drums) (1980-1980)

Randy Broughten (pedal steel guitar) (1979)

Bob Suffern (pedal steel guitar) (1980-1984)

Ross Nicholson (guitar and vocals) (1983-1984)

Chris Shanley (keyboards) (1995-2001)

Ron Mahony (drums), (2002-2012)

Don Farrell (guitar) (2002-)

Jack McKinnon (keyboards) 1979-)

Mark Meallin (guitar) (2014-2014)

TRACKS

1. Call me the breeze

2. The end is not in sight

3. Blue Ribbon Blues

4. One more shot

5. This is an American dream

6. The bottle let me down

7. Take me to the river

8. One more for the road

9. Mediterranean Moonlight

10. All in one working day

11. Lucretius

12. Lonely Nights

13. The Waymore Blues

14. Some of Shelley’s Blues

15. We Can’t Send Them To Play

16. Hard Doin’ Ken

17. A Stallion Like Me

18. Knock on Heaven’s Door

19. Grandfather

20. Battle of New Orleans

21. Rosemary

The DEAD LIVERS LIVE at ‘Espy’ 1986 live band and all the ARCA Desk Strip Series recordings are available via Black Box Records – ARCA (australianroadcrew.com.au) and the following:

https://ffm.to/thedeadliverslive (paste in browser if that doesn’t work)

Sponsors:

Amazon
Anghami
Apple Music / iTunes
Boomplay
Black box records
Deezer
MGM
pandora
Shazam
Spotify
TenCent
Tide
ICT Tac
youtube music

It is quite appropriate that Live Dead Livers at “The Espy” 1986 should be checked in at the Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne’s St. Kilda.

They had a Friday night residency there. It was a wild venue, with crazy people singing and dancing and where the sight of bikers and drag queens dancing together was not uncommon.

Glozier recalls, “I used to live around the corner from Espy, and myself and a Samoan friend ‘Tex Nobody’, the Bing Crosby of country who was perfect, helped get the music started there.

“It was a great place, very desperate people who all wanted to have a good time.

“But I felt safe there. If someone started a kerfuffle, the public would kick them out!

Bassist Michael Schack added: “We played mostly in downtown hotels. So it was people our age, between 20 and 30, looking to have a good time.

He remembers doing the Prince of Wales in St. Kilda for a live show on PBS, and the publican approached them afterwards, inviting them back.

“Our jazz nights have three times as many people as you had tonight but your audience drank three times as much.”

The ‘outlaw’ image appealed to cyclists. At a show for the Motorcycle Riders Association, a couple married an officiating section leader.

The foundations of the Dead Livers were laid in country Victoria, when Schack and singer Marty Atchison were in school together.

They performed gigs together and in 1978 officially formed the band.

Simon Glozier knew them through good friend Craig Reeves, of Spot The Aussie, another Espy regular whose line-up intertwined socially and musically with the Dead Livers.

He did sound for them at their biggest shows and sometimes played with them at parties.

Inspiration for the Dead Livers came from the “redneck rock” sounds of the US West Coast and Austin, Texas, sourcing records from import stores and swapping tapes with friends Americans.

The members dug up original Melbourne country rock bands, catching Saltbush and Hit And Run during their residencies at the Polaris Inn in Carlton, and the Dingoes at the Station Hotel in Prahran.

The station hotel’s weekly leaflet announcing next week’s numbers is said to have a caption inviting guests to drink heartily: “Come to the station where dead livers live!” Hence the name.

Glozier: “They developed a following because they wrote a lot of their own songs. Some of them like “Grandpa” would play on the radio and people would sing along to them.

LIVE at “The Espy” 1986 features hard boogies like “One More Shot”, “The Bottle Let Me Down” and “We Can’t Send Them Out To Play” to singles like “Grandpa” and “A Stud Like Me”, and originals like Atchison’s Ambitious Rosemary” and “The End Is Not in Sight” by Russell Smith.

Covers included Al Green (a riff-high rendition of “Take Me To The River”, Bob Dylan (“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” underlined by a whirling Hammond organ).

One of the Dead Livers’ most ardent fans was famed journalist David Dawson, an outlaw country music champion, and promoted the Melbourne band through his Nu-Country platform and country column High. In The Saddle juke magazine.

Dawson was also responsible for one of the band’s most popular moments.

He convinced the band to record a parody of Slim Dusty’s “I’d Love To Have A Beer With Duncan” and called it “I’d Love To Have A Joint With Willie” just before a Willie Nelson tour. in 1981.

Michael Schack tells how it happened. “Marty and I went to Tamworth as spectators, and we met the head of merchandising from David and Willie who had come before the tour.

“David wrote the lyrics on the way back to Sydney and we recorded them for free.”

There was appropriate outrage with “drug” headlines in the newspapers and a DJ was reportedly suspended for playing it.

Nelson loved it, adopted it as the unofficial tour anthem, and played it over the PA system before each show.

The band were invited to meet him backstage, and Nelson fans picked him up when he was sold in the parking lot in the back of a station wagon.

Dead Livers caught the eye of music executives, including future manager Keith Urban and an early AC/DC manager, who offered to record but the planets never aligned.

They made it to the finals of band competitions, opened for Leon Russell and the Amazing Rhythm Aces, performed to 20,000 people at country music festivals and were nominated for best band at the Tamworth Country Music Festival awards.

But, Michael says, “We were the band that never really hit it off (at the big time). Maybe we weren’t ambitious or confident enough.

“Looking back, maybe we should have tried a little harder. But we were having too much fun!

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ARCA would like to thank the following sponsors of The Office Tape Series:-

Sponsor industry roles
Showtech rigging
CMI PA and Production
Clear lighting
DSE Transport Trucks
Scully Outdoor Outdoor Production
Gigpower Crewing and Staging
Lock and Load Crew
Chameleon Touring Production and Lighting
JPJ sound and lighting
Novatech sound and lighting
Phase shift illumination
FX Australia Pyrotechnics Show
Australia Crewing Event Staff
Norwest PA and Lighting Production
Nprint artwork

Ian Peel and Adrian Anderson
ARCA Co-founders and administrators.

Note from the founders: –

“ARCA and The Desk Tape Series are a small way to help our friends to raise their profile and be recognized for their contribution to the Australian music industry and to help them in times of crisis. It is a great honor for us to to present these memories to all.

All Hail Roadies and Crew

“TAKE CARE OF US with FEELING and a WHOLE LOTTA LOVE”

All inquiries contact:

Adrian Anderson 0409 789 440
Ian Peel 0415 667 221