Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What's Skyhooks', The Angels' and Rose Tattoo's Bob Spencer been up to lately? OR Did his new studio ever get gyprocked?
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Today we share a recent zoom room chat with Australia's go to guitarist and all round nice guy, Bob Spencer.
We chat about his time with Skyhooks, The Angels and currently Rose Tattoo, his solo endeavours, his brush with the big C (cancer not covid), and his unique and generous charitable escapades.
All this from his makeshift bedroom set up while his new studio is built around him, so please excuse the occasional building site noises.
Includes Songs:
Finch - Short Changed Again
Skyhooks - Women In Uniform
The Angels - Take a Long Line
Rose Tattoo - One of the Boys
Rose Tattoo - Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw
Rose Tattoo - Sweet Love (Rock 'n' Roll)
What's Bob Spencer up to at the moment?
Let's find out .....
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That Radio Chick, cheryl Lee, here with you. Welcome to the Still Rocking at podcast where we'll have news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today I share a Zoom room chat I had recently with all round nice guy Bob Spencer, aussie rock guitarist for Finch Sky Hooks, the Angels and currently Rose Tattoo. We chat about the Australian tour just finished, the massive European tour, about to start his brush with cancer, his unique and generous charitable escapades and his favourite tat song to play at the moment, but, most importantly, whether he prefers to wear a tour jacket or an hoodie. All this from his makeshift bedroom set up while his new studio is literally built around him. So please excuse the occasional building site noises. What's Bob Spencer been up to lately? Let's find out. You're always, cheryl Lee, that Radio Chick. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm really excited to tell you that we have got the legendary Robert F Spencer in the Zoom room with us today.
Speaker 2:I like to say that anyone becomes a legend when we've been in the business for this long, regardless of whether we are or not.
Speaker 1:That's right Known, as of course, to us all, as Bob Spencer, aussie rock guitarist, founding member of the rock band Finch, which we'll get to in a little while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, alright.
Speaker 1:I'd ask you a little bit about Bob first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, you ask pretty much whatever you like.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of our legends we sort of adopted from overseas. But, bob, you're actually born in Australia, born in Sydney.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was. My parents are from Egypt and wear wogs, so we're Italianies and Greek and the family before me. They're all born in Egypt, but they're not Egyptian. It's a long story, and my dad came here in 1949 and I was born in 1957 in Sydney.
Speaker 1:Bob, are you from a musical family? When did you? Know, that music was in your DNA or in your future.
Speaker 2:I don't come from a musical family. My family enjoyed music. My dad had a collection of 78s and was a big fan of the typically wog singers, frank Sinatra in particular. So I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra and little bits of classical music not a lot, but predominantly Sinatra. When I was younger, I remember hearing the radio from our little house in Pagewood in Sydney. From the time I was probably three or four. In fact I think my earliest memories are those of listening to the radio. So I just enjoyed whatever was on, and I in fact I don't know what station my parents listen to, but it was probably something like 2GB, if it existed back then. So I heard the pop music that was around at the time. So now we're talking 1960, 1961 maybe. So whatever was on the radio was what I heard. I enjoyed music, but I didn't become a musician till I was nine. What happened at nine? Well, at nine I told my dad that I wanted to play. We lost you there for a second Saxophone.
Speaker 2:And he said no, you're too little, Choose something else. That was my loving, supportive father. So I chose guitar, but it wasn't my first choice and I've told this story before, so forgive me, but to this day I still prefer the sound of a saxophone over the sound of a guitar. I've mentioned it quite a few times, but I have a love-hate relationship with guitar. So I started playing when I was nine and I was very fortunate that I had an incredibly supportive brother, Maris brother at school one of the few supportive Maris brothers, I might add and he really helped me. His name was brother Edward and I've tried to find him of late. It's been very difficult to thank him. So I started with him when I was nine, blowing in the wind and hey there, Georgie girl and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:How did you guys form the band? Your very first band, finch. That was in 73.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't form the band. There was already a band in existence called Stillwater I think that sort of sounds right and I probably answered an ad in the paper. You know, guitar player wanted audition, something like that. So mum and dad drove me to the keyboard player. There was a keyboard player, matt, who was the loveliest guy, drove me there and I don't recall, but I now know that I passed the audition. They threw things at me that like sunshine of your love and you know that sort of stuff which I could play when I was 14 or 15. And I got the gig in the band.
Speaker 2:Very soon after we decided that we didn't want a keyboard player because we were enamoured by Free in particular, and Led Zeppelin, the who, those sorts of bands. So Matt, who was, as I said, a lovely human being, he well, yeah, I didn't, you know, I was 15. I didn't make the call. It was probably Owen who made the call, who was our singer, great singer and still a good friend. We became a four piece and developed a bit of a reputation around Sydney as a good rock band.
Speaker 1:I think we might play a song from Finch oh my God, what have you got yeah. Yeah, I've got short changed again, so let's listen to that and we'll be right back with Bob Spencer and hear what happened after Finch straight after this. All right, okay, I bought the drinks and I gave you my money. I was hoping to get you money. We're here with Bob Spencer, ozzy rock guitarist legend.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Now he's been everywhere, man. He was with Skyhooks and the Angels and the Choir Boys and Party Boys. Oh, I've got a feeling all that stuff You've not been with the Party Boys, yeah that's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the short list would be guitar players who haven't been in the Party Boys.
Speaker 1:Correct and currently touring with Rose Tattoo. In fact, you've just finished an Australian tour just last weekend. I came home yesterday yeah.
Speaker 2:So touring is very different from what it was when I was young. Touring these days really compromises flying somewhere on Friday morning and playing somewhere and then flying home on Sunday or Monday. So the things used to engage like a 40 foot semi and you know half a dozen or ten row crew Lighting gear from you know everywhere. That doesn't happen anymore. So these days you see your friends at the Virgin Lounge on a Friday morning At a very sensible hour where we're all drinking coffee. We're not up at 4am drinking shots of B-52s in a club somewhere. Those days are gone. It's really quite funny.
Speaker 2:And then I spend the rest of the time at home doing home body things, in my case finishing a studio out the back of the house. The plasters are here today, in fact finishing off the plaster. So touring is really different from how it was. When we go to Europe it's touring kind of like the old days, in that we play five, six nights a week and it's pretty full on. But touring Australia, those days are gone. You know, in the old days you'd play from Tuesday to Sunday and have Monday off and that was it. But that finished a long while ago.
Speaker 1:I know you were here in Adelaide as part of that tour and I'll just ask Angry was not looking too well that night. Is he fully recovered?
Speaker 2:No, he was really sick. He is A friend of mine says that Angry has caveman jeans and he will survive the next nuclear holocaust Like an Uprach. I didn't say that, I don't condone that. Yeah, so he really was sick and he's really quite a trooper. He loves obviously he loves performing. That's his outlet. But he really was quite sick on that day. I think it was a Friday, I'm not sure, yeah, but he was sick at the airport that morning, which worried me, and we thought that he had the recurring lung and chest infection. Anyway, he's fine now. Good, he's fine now.
Speaker 1:And you're right. He was such a trooper in that he spent the time afterwards and chatted to every single fan there that had something for him to sign or wanted a photo, which he should not have done.
Speaker 2:No, he should have gone straight home to bed. That was our agreement before the gig. Right, we had an agreement, you are going straight home to bed. Did he listen? No, of course he didn't.
Speaker 1:No, well, thankfully he's got a bit of time to fully recover. Yeah, before your overseas tour, because, goodness me, I'm just looking at the dates here. Over July and August, 24 dates all over Europe. Yeah, what an amazing journey that's going to be. So you're all going to need all of your strength for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we fly up. Five weeks from today, we go.
Speaker 1:All the best with that tour. We'll be watching the social media to see how that's going. Hope it's a great success for you all.
Speaker 2:I'll start doing videos again to my stupid, stupid on the road, videos which I can't believe anybody likes except me. They're just the dumbest things, but that's life inside my head.
Speaker 1:Oh, entertain us, don't entertain Very easy to entertain or entertain me Still off in the podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. We'll be back to speak some more with legendary Ozzy guitarist Bob Spencer After this song. First there was Finch and then there were Skyhooks. How about Women in Uniform from Guilty Until Proven Insane from 1978, one, two, three, four Left your lap. Two, one, two, three, four. As mentioned, you replaced Red Simons in Skyhooks. I did Replace John Brewster in the Angels, so you're the go-to man.
Speaker 2:I'm the go-to man. So the Skyhooks thing came about because Finch supported Skyhooks at a couple of gigs and I struck up a friendship with Greg McCage in particular. Hang on, we've got somebody at the door. I'm doing a zoom thing, Can I? It's our plasterer Chris Project.
Speaker 1:Hello World, Chris sorry, we're talking about plastering.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just doing an interview, alright, so I assume you're cutting that out. You can leave it, I don't care. Oh, where are we? So Finch supported Skyhooks at two or three gigs, I can't remember, and I struck up a friendship with Greg McCage and Greg and I stayed in contact for well, we're still in contact and Greg used to come to Finch gigs and we used to write to each other in the days of writing letters and postcards, and he would send me postcards from America when they were touring with Cheap Trick and ZZ Top and whatever, and I would write to him, you know, to his home address in Melbourne, and we just kept in contact.
Speaker 2:And then one day, quite out of the blue and completely unexpectedly, I received a message. I was on the road with Finch and I received a message to call Greg when I got back to Melbourne. We were living in Melbourne at the time, which was a complete disaster and a mistake, but which is partially what led to me joining Skyhooks. I was very unhappy. So I received a message to call Greg, which I did, and I thought it was just a I don't know asking me about guitars or strings or you know, I don't know and he said oh Red just left the band, do you want to join? What? So? The next thing I was in Skyhooks, it was all, as most things in my life have happened. It wasn't planned. It was very much how I joined the Angels. It was just a phone call and the next thing I was in the band and that the Skyhooks experience was, to this day, the most informative and educational experience I've had.
Speaker 1:Still a roughening podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. Back to talk more with Robert F Spencer. Stayed after this song but I thought we'd better play an Angels song. How about take a long line After the Angels? You were part of the choir, boys.
Speaker 2:I did play with the choir boys for a while. This camera thing is weird, isn't it? It's like, excuse me, while I play with the camera for 10 minutes. That's so wrong. Yeah, I played with the choir boys. I don't know, it must have been a couple of months or a few months, I don't really remember. But I consider myself a, I just helped them out for a couple of months.
Speaker 2:I don't consider myself as being part of the band and when you at the beginning of this interview, when you spoke about the bands that I've been in, I haven't really I don't really consider the choir boys or the party boys with no disrespect to them, but I consider myself just sort of helping out for a little while. I've done a few things like that. But the bands, the big obelisks on the horizon, have been Finch and Skyhooks and the Angels and, to a certain extent, rose Tattoo. I think it is, but remember the two of those were during COVID, when we weren't working. So I think I'll feel more a part of Rose Tattoo when I have a larger creative involvement, which may be a new album, and I will probably feel more a part of the troop when I have the latitude, the ability to add more creatively to the band. I already add creatively to the band is.
Speaker 2:Anyone who's seen the Joes would know I do, bob. I don't copy the parts, like someone playing in a Pink Floyd tribute band, for example. I honor the parts but I don't copy them. There's a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And in the same way that I added Bob to speak of myself in the third person, which is weird, I added Bob to Skyhooks and I added Bob to the Angels, while also respecting the parts and the songs and what came before me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's important to not just burn the village.
Speaker 2:You know, With those bands, the reason that I was asked to join is not because I simply copied what happened before me, but because I added to them. That's the reason I was asked to join the bands to build on the platform that was already there, which is something that I'm not certain that fans understand, and that's fair enough, because they're not in the business and they're not in the band. So that's been my thing to build on and use the platform of what came before me and to move forward with that and progress.
Speaker 1:Well that's right. Maybe after 24 dates in Europe Is that a scoop when you get back that maybe there might be some new material coming?
Speaker 2:out, did you hear?
Speaker 1:that first here no.
Speaker 2:There's been a loose talk of this for a few years. A lot of things have to come into alignment before a new album is attempted Budget timeframes, who's writing the material, who has the time to write the material. Is there a reason to write the material Again? The public perception is well, we just do what we do because we love it, and that's, to a certain extent, true of me. I also like to help pay the bills.
Speaker 2:That's handy sometimes Well, yeah, I'll be 65 in a couple of months and I do enjoy what I do, but I wouldn't do it if I were not able to buy strings or repair my equipment. So things need to be put in perspective. My perspective, that is. So there may be an album I spoke with Angry about this again last week maybe, or the week before. But a lot of things need to come into alignment and do this. New albums don't just happen overnight. There's a lot of groundwork and administration planning. There's a lot of stuff that goes on beforehand.
Speaker 1:Well, you did hear it here first. There might be a new album.
Speaker 2:Yes, totally country and western. We're going to do a Taylor Swift tribute.
Speaker 1:You've got all types of music here, both types country and western.
Speaker 2:Country and western Nice bar. You've got here, Bob.
Speaker 1:Yeah, still rocking a podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. Well, sorry to say, I don't have any brand new Rose Tattoo music for you. Yes, but let's have one of our favourites, one of the boys, rose Tattoo. Back to speak with Bob Again shortly. We'll chat about his cancer diagnosis, amongst other things. Now, how is Eric the freeloader? You've had your moments with health and you're on one kidney, is that right? How are you going?
Speaker 2:I'm fine. In fact, I have another checkup next week. I think I got that email yesterday. Yeah, Eric, the tumour has gone and Eric took my kidney along my left kidney with him. Disappointingly, I was not permitted to bring Eric home in a jar. They don't let you do that anymore. Something to do with OHS, so. But thank you, I'm fine. I had the normal three monthly checkups, six monthly checkups. Now I'm on to yearly checkups and I'm fine. I do have blood tests semi-regularly and I'm you know. Thank you, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:That's good. Well, you look good, that's the main thing. Thank, you. That's from a woman's perspective. Now I just also wanted to thank you. You are one of these guys who do give back. You're very generous with your time on social media for your fans, which I think they all appreciate, and you also give away some random merch, which I think the fans really do love. In fact, I've been on the receiving end of one of their t-shirts.
Speaker 2:Did you? I have another t-shirt which I need to go off tonight because I keep forgetting about it. Well, I thought I have things that I don't need, as we all experience, and I don't want to sell them. It's not trying to get, you know, 20 bucks or 50 bucks or 100 bucks, even though all that stuff helps when you're, you know, putting food on the table and I thought, well, this will be cool. How about I just make an arrangement where the person who receives the item pledges that they will give something to the homeless, and I don't want to know what it is, I have no interest. It could be a dollar, it could be $1,000. It could be their old car, it could be, you know, a hat that they don't need anymore. I don't care. But that's the arrangement I give you something and then you give something to the homeless. Pay it forward. It's a pay it forward thing. I just I didn't get the idea from anywhere, it just appeared in my head, you know, and it grew organically.
Speaker 2:Well, I would hope that other people take it on. I'm not the kind who starts a movement. I just I'm not that kind of person. But if other, if other musicians choose to take that on, you know they have a I don't know open invitation, open invitation, old tour jackets. Because we accrue all this stuff, I'm never going to wear a tour jacket again, probably I don't. I, you know, I walk around in my hoodie when it's cold and my pajamas, and when I go out I wear Uniqlo jackets. So I'm never, I'm probably never, going to wear a tour jacket again. And so they clutter up your wardrobe or you put them in storage and what good are they doing in storage? So I prefer to.
Speaker 2:I have another few little things that I'll try and give away before we go to Europe. They're just little things, but they might come in handy for somebody, and if that's, somebody gives $5 to the homeless, well, and the arrangement is I pay for postage, so I'm not after anyone digging into their pocket. If a little bit of money or energy or kindness goes to the homeless, then I think that's a great thing. It's win-win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, it is win-win. So you feel good, you've made the recipient, who's probably a fan, extremely happy and, as you say, something's been given to the homeless. So with mine, I'm the fund raising coordinator for Support Act South Australia. Right. You probably know about the Oz Music T-shirt day we have every year.
Speaker 1:So my ticket has been added to the collection and for the last three years I think, I wore 20 something band T-shirts the first year, right 30 something the second year and last year, due to a slight miscalculation, I wore 49 band T-shirts.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And then take them all off to the wow. The bands on the T-shirt song is just plays in that moment.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yep. So I've got to crack 50 this year and your T-shirt has been over the line.
Speaker 2:Oh right, that's wild.
Speaker 1:I know, and it's not easy to wear 49 T-shirts. Let me tell you yeah, good work, thank you. Still rocking a podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. Let's have another Rose Tattoo song. How about Rock and Roll Outlaw? I don't think Bob is a Rock and Roll Outlaw. I think he's big softy with a very generous heart. We'll be back to speak to him shortly about some of his solo pursuits.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start recording for myself again in September. I hope that's a scoop, is it? Oh, and you heard it here first. I've got an image in my head of what that might look like the songs or the projects. I'm mulling that over. I want to do a lot more stuff that's funkier. I don't mean funky town, I mean funkier. I really like. I love a lot of black music, so Sly and the Family Stone, betty Davis, stuff like James Brown. I love a lot of that stuff and I'm tempted to do a work, a project which is maybe ten, just really funky, solid, simple, riff based tunes. So still floating around in my head. And I also want to record more really pretty instrumentals. I love doing pretty instrumentals. I'm a big sook but I'm still throwing those. I see them as images. I'm still throwing around those in my head as to how they'll look. Hopefully I'll start those about a month after getting back, so around September.
Speaker 1:How exciting. That is great news. We saw you here, as I mentioned, at the Gov and prior to that, we saw you here in our beautiful town as part of the Under the Southern Stars tour. And I want to say you guys look like you're having a great time. I guess it's no brainer to say that you are enjoying being able to get back out on the road in front of the fans.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I've always loved performing and regardless of the context or the environment of the band, what sort of band it is, I always do my best and I love it. For me, playing gigs is therapeutic. I really enjoy it, but it's also it satisfies a lot of things. For me, it satisfies a lot of things. It's very, very enjoyable and it's very rewarding. And it's a good night. A fun night is hard to beat. And those two Adelaide we did two in Adelaide, did we not? Yes, did we do two in Adelaide? Yeah, maybe three. They were really good fun Two Under the Southern Stars and one at the Gov, I think. Yeah, oh, they were really good. The Under the Southern Stars thing was good because it gave us a chance to play on a big stage with good production and we also got a chance to see some of the other bands, not always because of the COVID restrictions that were in place. It was a really good tour. We had a couple of really really good gigs and very vibrant, energetic gigs. It was great, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we can't wait till you get back from your big OS trip and we see you back in F-town again, because we love, you know, watching you guys play live. That's our favorite thing. I wish you all the best with both of your solo endeavors. When you get back, we'll wait with Bated Breath on the socials for the news of that, and good luck with the new studio. I hope you get your Jeep Rock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I've got to. I need to go and speak with Chris now. He said we're three sheets short. Yeah, like well, you ordered it. Okay, but I'll have a chat with him now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you said he was three sheets short, I thought of the wind, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, we don't do that anymore. No.
Speaker 1:No, all right. Well, thank you so much for being so generous with your time today, bob, and spending a bit of a chat in the Zoom room with us, and I think we'll go out with a Rose Tattoo song. Have you got a favorite, or is that, like you know, too hard to answer?
Speaker 2:There are some things that I really enjoy playing. I love playing Rock and Roll Outlaw. I love playing the new version of Sweet Love that we just recorded a couple of years ago, the Shuffle. I think that's my favorite at the moment. Sweet Love, all right, well, let's go over that. Sweet Love, sweet Love, rock and Roll, which was a song written by Ian Ryland, and we re-recorded that on the Outlaws album of a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1:Righto, let's play that right now. Thanks again.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you very much, thanks, bob.
Speaker 1:That was lovely. I'll see you next time you get across to our great town. Have a great and safe OS trip and I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 2:Thanks very much, cheryl. Okay, ciao, bye.
Speaker 1:You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. I hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.