Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What's Dave Leslie from The Baby Animals been up to lately? OR Touring with which band was his fan boy dream come true?
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Today I share a zoom room chat I had recently with founding member, songwriter and guitarist of The Baby Animals, Dave Leslie.
Baby animals were hot as from 1989 to 1996 winning three Arias in 1992 including Album of the Year, Breakthrough Artist and Breakthrough Single for Early Warning.
The reunited line-up includes original members Suze DeMarchi on vocals and guitar, Dave Leslie on on guitar and new band mates Dario Bortolin on Bass and Mick Skelton on Drums.
They’ve toured with international acts Bryan Adams, Black Crowes, Van Helen, Robert Plant and supported Aussie bands including The Angels, Jimmy Barnes, Hoodoo Gurus and Hunters & Collectors.
They are Australian Rock Royalty and Prince Dave is also playing for his new band Truck.
Includes Songs:
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - Be Bop A Lula
The Angels - One Word
The Baby Animals - Marseilles
Truck - Unconventionally Rising
Jimmy Barnes featuring The Baby Animals - Time Will Tell
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
The Baby Animals - Tonight
The Baby Animals - Early Warning
What is Dave Leslie from The Baby Animals been 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 it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today I share a Zoom room chat I had recently with founding member songwriter and guitarist of the Baby Animals, dave Leslie. The Baby Animals winning three Arias in 92, including Album of the Year, breakthrough Artists and Breakthrough Single. Three arias in 92, including album of the year, breakthrough artists and breakthrough single. The reunited lineup includes original member suze dimarci on vocals and guitar, dave guitar, dario bortolan bass and mick skelton on drums. They toured with international acts brian adams, black crows, van halen, robert plant. They are australian rock royalty and prince dave is also playing for his new band, trupp. What's Dave Leslie from the Baby Animals been up to lately? Let's find out. Hey, cheryl, hello, thunderbirds are go.
Speaker 2:Thunderbirds are go. That's an FAB.
Speaker 1:I love that. How are you, Dave?
Speaker 2:I'm very well thanks.
Speaker 1:We better get started, because so many questions, so little time.
Speaker 2:Okay, I hope I've got all the answers to all your questions.
Speaker 1:I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today legendary guitarist Dave Leslie from the Baby Animals. Yay, welcome, Dave.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Cheryl. It's a nice Zoom room you have here.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, yours is nice too, mine's very sparsely decorated, but anyway. It's doing the job. We've got a lot to talk about the current Baby Animals Tour, your new venture with Truck A Fistful of Rock. But can I just for a moment take us right back to the very beginning and find out a little bit about Dave Leslie Sure? Were you born into a musical family? Was it in your DNA? When did you find out that you were going to be a guitarist?
Speaker 2:Oh well, my mum played organ and stuff like that. We had one of those old pump organs at home and my dad was a bit of a you know an original hipster and played bongos. And I remember growing up listening to kind of Dave Brubeck and his jazz kind of stuff, you know in the late 60s, early 70s sort of thing. But I didn't get the bug until I saw Billy Thorpe on GTK one morning, evening I should say, and just watching those sort of programs. We used to watch Bandstand all the time, six O'Clock Rock, I think there was another one. It was Johnny O'Keefe used to host that, so there was always music going. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Was the guitar your first instrument.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I saw Thorpey playing I think they had some footage of Sunbury on GTK and Longhair and Les Pauls looked really loud I said, yeah, that's what I want to do, I really want a piece of that. And I had this acoustic guitar for a little while, sort of thing, and learned for a couple of years and then graduated on to electric and then down the steady slope I slid, you know.
Speaker 1:Do you have any siblings, Dave? Any other musicians in the family?
Speaker 2:My brother was a drummer. We always grew up with a drum kit in the house, so that was good fun. We used to jam a lot and everything you know. I grew up with the sound of a boom-pa, boom-boom-pa, boom-pa coming through the bedroom wall. There's always that sort of stuff going. My parents took us out to see the police and Fleetwood Mac and all this sort of stuff. In the 70s we were big concert goers.
Speaker 1:Very cool mum and dad.
Speaker 2:They were very cool. Yeah, my mum managed to score these front row tickets to the Horton Pavilion for the police and my dad got into a fight trying to protect the family because they took the whole family and the place was just a riot. The place was just going nuts. So when we were in the front or second front row, yeah, it was lasting memories, that's for sure. Good on you parents, yeah yeah, so you got the bug you had some lessons or self-taught so I had some lessons from a local guy, warren.
Speaker 2:I grew up on the central coast of new south wales, up at long jetty he was and uh it's you know, did the did the usual three chord bangers and all that sort of thing I've still got. I wish I had it. It's downstairs. I've still got my original guitar that I learned from you know've still got. I wish I had it. It's downstairs. I've still got my original guitar that I learnt from you know, and still sit in the lounge room there Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival held in Victoria on the Australia Day weekend from 72 to 75. We should listen to that performance by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs that inspired Dave Leslie to pick up his guitar, and the rest is history. Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs with Bebopaloola. You may have told this before, but how then did you four originals you know you and Suze and the others get together in the first place, like, was there a wanted ad? Did you guys know each other?
Speaker 2:I knew Eddie and Frank because I was a mate of their brother, Otto. We used to go and see their band. They were in the band Bamboo Curtain and I was playing in this other band and myself and the singer used to go and see their band. They were in the band Bamboo Curtain and I was playing in this other band and myself and the singer used to go and catch their band all the time. Just go, wow man, these guys are unreal great rhythm section. You know, used to hang out their house and they had a house in Lane Cove that was full of musicians so they'd jam all the time in their lounge rooms and stuff. They'd cook up a big meal and then jam. That was a cool kind of environment.
Speaker 2:But I was playing in a band. I auditioned for Rose Tattoo. I didn't get the gig, probably because I had a blonde mullet and no tattoos, but I thought I'm just going to go and have a look, Just have a crack. You know what I mean. Have a look. Anyway. The bass player at the time was Andy Sishon, who currently plays with Billy Joel, but he was engaged to John Woodruff's personal assistant and so when Suze came out from London, one of the former bands. Woody jumped on board as a manager and so Andy threw my name into the hat when she wanted to put a band together and she knew Eddie and Frank from Perth and so when I turned up I was, oh OK, yeah, I know these guys. You know, this could be really cool. Then the rest is kind of history.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 30 years ago. It's funny you can put four musicians into a room and you get music. You can put four other musicians into a room and you get magic. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It did have a chemistry, there's no doubt about it. Yeah, we'd spent a lot of time jamming, you know, and then susie had had these songs that she had, you know, had written in london. And we were just talking about our influences and you know, led zeppelin was a big one and the classic kind of, you know, 70s rock. That was great. So we sort of put those through the process and you know, we'd go out on on these tours or they're getting these supports, you know, for barnsey and Hoodoo Gurus and Hunters and Collectors and the Angels especially as well. We did a lot of work supporting the Angels and each time something would rub off on us, you know, especially going out with a female singer. You do a Western New South Wales run with the Angels with a girl singer. It's like either kill or be killed out there. That's right, sink or swim, sink or swim, sink or swim, exactly. And so you know, we paddled like crazy and so the band just developed this kind of hard edge, you know, because of that sort of thing. Awesome.
Speaker 1:Being, you know, an Adelaide girl, you've got to be a fan of the Angels or Cold Chisel. So you know I love that. The angels helped influence you guys and helped set you on your fabulous journey, because it was a pretty heady seven years, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:89 to 96 was very busy, man. Yeah, yeah, you are listening to still rocking it the podcast with cheryl lee.
Speaker 1:We'll hear a little bit more about how this came about later, but for now here are the angels, who were such a great influence on the baby animals with their version of the baby animals hit One Word I love it. What do you think, apart from your Aria success, the album and single success? You toured with the Angels first and then Brian Adams' European tour.
Speaker 2:That was our first overseas tour. We'd done overseas like showcases and things like that, because we were assigned to an American label. So we had to do these big showcases, stuff like at the, I think at the Roxy in LA. We did one one time and I remember they flew all these radio people in and all that sort of stuff right, schmoozed them, wined and dined them and everything like that, which is you know what you got to do. I remember our manager, john Woodruff, coming in right before we went on stage and said well, you know they're all here, so if we mess this one up, we're all fired, you're fired.
Speaker 2:You know like flying high. I just want to let you kids know that we're all counting on you, no pressure.
Speaker 1:Well, you must have done all right, then.
Speaker 2:I think we did a bit of a cracker of a gig that night and then, yeah, as it started to snowball, we got onto this tour. Yeah, it was the Waking Up the Neighbours record for Brian Adams. That was a massive, massive record. So it was called, you know, waking Up the UK or Waking Up Europe or whatever the name of the tour, and we jumped on as support act for that, which was amazing. We were playing these stadiums through Germany and all the way up through England. We did three nights at Wembley Arena, not, and all the way up through England we did three nights at Wembley Arena, not Wembley Stadium, but I just say Wembley. We had three nights at Wembley, wembley, that sort of thing, and it was a really good run and you know, it got us a real good foothold in that area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Since then you've done some amazing tours the Black Crows Tour of Australia and New Zealand, but this one, wow, support Act for Van Halen. Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour. Dream come true. Yeah, I bet Got any stories you can tell us or will you be killed?
Speaker 2:None that I can share in a family program. Yeah, that was literally a dream come true. On the first night we were in Little Rock, arkansas. It was Australia Day 1992, so January 26th, edward Van Halen's birthday. Our album had just gone to number one and we opened up for VH. It was like wow, what a time. You know what I mean. Everything just kind of lined up and we did more than 60 gigs with them through that run.
Speaker 2:Two legs of their massive tour through the States played what 50, 50 states or 48 states, something like that. And it was a juggernaut, this thing. You know. There was people on that run who I didn't even meet. Was this that many people? You know 12 semi-trailers worth of gear. You know 10 buses worth of personnel, um, yeah, and every night we got to play our hardest stuff, like hit them as hard as we can, because often we wouldn't get a sound check. Whenever it was available we did, but often you're just wheeling your gear on and just going on and going for it as they're walking in, you know but, then, as it progressed, the MTV picked up Painless and so they were giving that a run.
Speaker 2:So people were getting there early out of interest, interest, you know. So there was a bit of a vibe in the the room which was like the room was like a, you know, a stadium sort of thing so, so cool, what an experience and is it true that you ended up there because his wife Valerie heard your album that's correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, valerie saw Painless on MTV because Painless got a good run and she bought the record and was playing it and Ed heard it and went wow, that'd be cool to to have it open up yeah, isn't that amazing, how that it is. It's a fairy tale. You know it really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah and then, of course, robert Plant's tour as well, of the US yep, we did a Robert Plant tour of the US.
Speaker 2:great man, listen, you know meeting him and listen, hearing him sing those songs night after night, it's pretty amazing. Great band as well and did some great gigs there too.
Speaker 1:You've had a blessed life because then you came back and did a national tour with one of my faves, the Screaming Jets.
Speaker 2:Well, we'd been playing with the Jets since the beginning. I think they'd been signed and we were just kind of we hadn't been signed and we were just kind of we hadn't been signed yet. But we did a whole bunch of doubles. I think we did a residency in oh, it was a Petersham Inn or the Ennerdale Hotel, I think it might have been Petersham Inn supporting the Jets for a few months, you know. So we did a lot of work with those guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was good Still rocking the podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. We'll hear how it came about after this song, but here's the flip side of the single from 2019. This time it's the Baby Animals covering an Angels song. Here they are with Marseille and what a terrific version it is. Back to speak to Dave Leslie, founding member and guitarist, with the Baby Animals straight after this and sort of like a full circle. Then you were back to touring with the Angels again on they who Rock in 2019. You know what I love about that? I've got that little single when we played each other's songs.
Speaker 1:That is the best thing. Look, I know some purists go don't do covers and it's not right, but it's a win-win and I absolutely love it. So you have your favourite band and some of their favourite songs and another favourite band and their favourite songs and they swap and it's like the best of both worlds. You both did brilliant versions of each other's songs. You guys did Marseille.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:They did One Word of yours.
Speaker 2:One Word yeah, yes, it was awesome.
Speaker 1:I play it on the radio all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought that was a great idea. I want to do it live. You know what I mean, Just on the radio all the time. Yeah, I thought that was a great idea. I want to do it live. You know what I mean, Just on the night and say, hey, let's have a hack at doing it. But yeah, I thought it was good fun to do. I mean, you know, any chance I get to be Rick Brewster, I'll take it for sure.
Speaker 1:Exactly right. You've got a new band of your own called Truck. They're opening for this band called the Baby Animals.
Speaker 2:Evidently one of the guys in Truck knew one of the guys in the headline act so they kind of struck some sort of deal.
Speaker 1:So you're calling Double Duty?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I say it's a two-shirt night for me. It's keeping you fit Two shirts, four guitars.
Speaker 1:I bet it's keeping you fit.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is good actually. Yeah, you've warmed up, you know, by the time BA's play.
Speaker 1:I've already done a gig so I'm good to go. Truck has got Andy McLean from Horsehead, Yay. So how did you guys come about?
Speaker 2:Truck were recording with our sound guy Ricky doing their EP, and Ricky came on tour one time and said man, you would love these guys. I've got in the studio and I knew Andy because Horsehead used to do gigs with Baby Animals way back in the day and they lost their guitar player. So I jumped in to help them one finish the recording and maybe do some gigs that they had booked and they were already on my radar anyway and so I'm still there. It's a really good vehicle. It's a great outlet. Good bunch of guys. It's going down really well. A lot of the crowd's coming early to find out what the fuss is about. Yeah, it's a good band. It's unashamedly classic rock.
Speaker 2:I love that we grew up on Deep Purple and all that sort of stuff. So that's kind of how we play.
Speaker 1:So you are the work experience guy and you stayed.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm not the newest. They lost their drummer as well, because he left with the guitar player. So I got my mate, alex Deegan, in, who's an Adelaide boy as well. Oh go, alex. All the Deegan family listening. Alex is a monster and that combination has just worked really well.
Speaker 1:I love that there's an Adelaide connection and you guys have got a new song and we're going to play that.
Speaker 2:Hello music lovers. This is Dave from Truck. We're about to play our new single Unconventionally Rising. And remember the louder you crank it, the better it sounds.
Speaker 1:So you're on tour at the minute and Jeepers, Creepers. You've got quite a few dates to go through Queensland and Victoria You're busy and then New South Wales in September. Do you guys ever sleep?
Speaker 2:Well, after having, you know, an enforced break of a couple of years, we're just playing wherever we possibly can. You know what I mean. There's a big vacuum to fill's like a, a coiled spring. We're just ready to go. So and it's good, you know the truck thing, the more gigs you do, I mean we rehearse all the time. Well, we don't rehearse, we call it band practice. We practice all the time writing. You know we write a lot and everything like that. But you know, one live, one live performance is worth, kind of you know, 10 rehearsals. So we're just jumping at everything we possibly can do just to get out there, get in front of people and give the songs a run. You know what I mean. We're releasing an album this year and starting to record album number two, hopefully very early next year.
Speaker 1:Did you hear that first here? Is that a scoop.
Speaker 2:Yes, you heard it first. That's right. We've already got album two written. There's new stuff bubbling to the surface all the time, so I'm quietly confident it'll be a pretty strong record. Yeah, I mean album number one's pretty good too as a first. You know banger, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's good to hear that you used that downtime wisely. You know it was pretty devastating for. You know it was pretty devastating for, you know, everybody in the entertainment industry. But you guys are coming out the other side seemingly bigger and better and everyone.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, it gives you a different appreciation for things, really, doesn't it? When something is completely taken away from you that I don't know you took for granted perhaps, yes, being on tour and doing all that sort of thing, and I mean, I appreciate it each and every day when I do it. But you know, it really gives you a different appreciation for it when all of a sudden you can't do it for years. You know, I'm never going to complain about having to do a road trip to go and do a gig ever again, ever again.
Speaker 1:No, we, as the punters, gig attending audience, we feel exactly the same. From the other side, we can see how thankful you guys are to be back out there sharing your music with us, and we are equally as thankful to be out being able to listen to live music again. It's so good.
Speaker 2:It's a win-win, hopefully. You know we'll keep that energy, we'll maintain yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you say, we didn't realise until it was gone how much we love live music. So get out when you can support local artists and I'll see you down the front. Always, I'm always telling people oh, see you down the front.
Speaker 2:See you down the front.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, Cheryl Lee. Dave spoke earlier about the baby animals supporting Barnsey and the Hoodoo Gurus and Hunters and Collectors. So here's something a little bit different for you Time Will Tell featuring the baby animals from Jimmy Barnes' 3030 Hindsight album, 30 30 hindsight album. One thing that I'm really looking forward to, which is, after you and the baby animals, boys and you and truck have finished your tour, there's the fistful of rock, so you're getting out with your old mates, the angels again, and that's in september that's early september, it's a couple of weeks you're gonna have rose tattoo with you and the poor as well.
Speaker 2:I think I might have to wear my favorite black t-shirt for that one. I think that'll be great because I mean, you know bas play a lot of different types of material. You know we can play from a pin drop to a raw kind of thing. But I think on that night it's all going to be raw. We're just going to hit them hard, as hard as we possibly can, you know, oh we're so jealous here in Adelaide, any chance that it might come to Adelaide ever?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure. I'm not the one who pulls the strings, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Can't you get your people to talk to my people to talk to their people?
Speaker 2:If I had some people, I'd get. I'll get them to talk to the relevant powers that be and see if we can pull some strings. It's a great line-up. It's good, great fun it is. It's a fabulous oh Sign up. It's good fun, great fun it is.
Speaker 1:It's a fabulous oh Zoom bomber. Oh, that's my elderly dad. Oh, that's awesome. Hey Dad. So get onto the Googlometer, track down the dates for the baby animals, superbly supported by truck, and see Dave do double duty, If you're lucky enough to live in Sydney. See you down the front at the Enmore Theatre on Friday, the 2nd of September.
Speaker 2:Friday, the 2nd yep.
Speaker 1:What do you, Dave, like to listen to now, actually? So if you're alone in your car and you can put whatever you like on.
Speaker 2:You know what I've been listening to lately. I'm showing my age here. It's a live Supertramp record called Paris, Recorded in Paris on the 107th gig of their world tour. Right, it's immaculately recorded. The band plays great. You say wow, man, it's an awesome sounding record. I've been loving that lately. Yeah, it's called Paris, it's a double live. Just bought myself this awesome JVC quadraphonic record player thing and I've got the vinyl of that. It sounds unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Isn't vinyl, the best though it's really good.
Speaker 2:Well, it's just got that thing. You know, when you just hear the needle drops and you hear these little Crackle, crackle, little crackles and everything, and it just because you grew up on it and everything it makes you go, it has that moment of anticipation, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, here it comes. Do you have a favourite song on that album?
Speaker 2:Oh, Crime of the Century is probably my favourite song on that record, but there's a few.
Speaker 1:You are listening to Still Rocking it, the podcast with Cheryl Lee From the 1980 live Supertramp album Paris. Let's hear Crime of the Century, dave's favourite song From Dave's favourite album at the moment, back with more from Dave Leslie of the Baby Animals after this. Now they're blaming the crime of the century. Well, what Will it be? Thanks, cheryl, you co-wrote Early Warning.
Speaker 2:Which was your breakthrough. Oh well, what will it be? Thanks, cheryl.
Speaker 1:You co-wrote Early Warning, which was your breakthrough, super-duper single.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably one of my favourite songs that we do.
Speaker 1:And do you have one more favourite that you helped bring to the world?
Speaker 2:There's one called Tonight, which was the last kind of single that we did, which was a couple of years old now, but it's a great song. It's a really cool song. I love it.
Speaker 1:And you gave birth to it.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Well done. Would you like to intro that one for me then?
Speaker 2:Dave from Baby Animals. This track is well, it's a few years old now. It's called Tonight, but I love the sentiment of it, I love how it sounds and I just love the song.
Speaker 1:I hope you'll love it too. Well, thank you so much, dave. I know you are a very, very busy man. Give our love to Suze and the others. Good luck with the rest of the tour. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of time in the Zoom room with me today, and I'll see you down the others. Good luck with the rest of the tour. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of time in the Zoom room with me today, and I'll see you down the front.
Speaker 2:Sounds good. Thanks for having me, cheryl, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much, no worries at all. Have a great tour. See you soon.
Speaker 2:See you down the front.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ta-da, still rocking the podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. We're going to go out with Early Warning, released in 91, the debut single from their debut album, written by Suze DiMarci, eddie Parisi and Dave Leslie. Here they are, the baby animals with the super smexy and talented Suze DiMarci out the front. You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.