Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
This podcast you are a fly on the wall as we recently interviewed Australian music legend Brian Cadd in the green room of his concert venue for the tele.
76 years young, Brian has a lot of stories to tell, and many he can't tell.
To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, or for more radio chick stuff simply go to “ThatRadioChick.com.au”.
Includes Songs:
The Groop - Woman You're Breaking Me
Brian Cadd - Little Ray of Sunshine
Axiom - Arkansas Grass
Ronnie Burns - When I Was Six Years Old
The Masters Apprentices - Elevator Driver
Brian Cadd & The Bootleg Family Band - Bulletproof
The Screaming Jets - It's Time
Brian Cadd - Theme from Alvin Purple
What has Brian Cadd been up to lately … let’s find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
This podcast you are a fly on the wall as we recently interviewed Australian music legend Brian Cadd in the green room of his concert venue for the tele.
76 years young, Brian has a lot of stories to tell, and many he can't tell.
To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, or for more radio chick stuff simply go to “ThatRadioChick.com.au”.
Includes Songs:
The Groop - Woman You're Breaking Me
Brian Cadd - Little Ray of Sunshine
Axiom - Arkansas Grass
Ronnie Burns - When I Was Six Years Old
The Masters Apprentices - Elevator Driver
Brian Cadd & The Bootleg Family Band - Bulletproof
The Screaming Jets - It's Time
Brian Cadd - Theme from Alvin Purple
What has Brian Cadd been up to lately … 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. Welcome to the Still Rocking podcast where we'll have music news and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. This podcast you are a fly on the wall, as we recently interviewed Australian music legend Brian Cadd for the Telly. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists or for more Radio Chick stuff, simply go to that. Radio Chick dot com. Dot a. U. Welcome to Ryder TV. You're with Cheryl Lee and the amazing Brian Cadd. As part of our legend series, Brian has kindly agreed to have a chat with us in his green room before his gig tonight at the amazing Trinity sessions here. Brian, 76 years young, still on the road, still performing. You know a list of achievements longer than both of your arms Is music in your DNA. When did you know that music was going to be your life?
Brian Cadd:I think it really had. I grew up in Western Australia. I was born there and lived there until I was about 14. And I was the eldest son and my mother was a soprano, quite a good soprano, but she couldn't handle the crowds and just nerves got her beat. And in our house in the hallway was an old, you know, just a simple old stand upright. And that was in the days when they were all handed down and nobody ever really wanted to get to the family area.
Brian Cadd:Shut mother up, shut grandma up. We put them in the thing and she noticed after a while that I would sit there and I would start to pick out little melodies and things that I could get them in the same key, which I've never been able to listen to. No, but at that time for someone who was six or seven or whatever it was that was, you know, seemed like a reasonable argument for having piano lessons. I had piano lessons and she was a real stage mom. She was great. She was fabulous. None of this would happen to me if it wasn't for her.
Brian Cadd:And when I was 12, I was asked to do a New Year's Eve show on Channel 7, which had only just started. Then Well, a young bloke called Ralph Harris don't go there. He was just about to go to England and he had this sort of big farewell New Year's Eve thing. He was ahead, children's programs and stuff. So they decided that they were going to put a band together. And then my mother, because immediately we got me auditioned and I got the piano gig. You know, we were 10, whatever it was.
Brian Cadd:I think I might have turned 12 during that year, but anyway, that was that one night and we were terrified. I was like, anyway we got through it all right and apparently we got mail and stuff, because in the January the guys from Channel 7, were going to do a weekly children's Channel 7 and they wanted to put a band on every Friday and they wanted us to do it. So my mother agreed, of course, and it meant that every Friday for a year I was on television. So if you think about it like that, I could have not ever failed to know what I wanted to do after that.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, so there was never really any plan B. From then, you knew that was what you wanted to do for forever.
Brian Cadd:I did have a bit of a go at in high school. I really really loved the idea of architecture and stuff like that and I still watch all those restoration things and I'm in one of those programs. My father, on the other hand, thought it would be a great idea for I don't know why for me to be a surveyor. But anyway, I surprised everyone by joining a rock band. When I was about 15, I moved to Tasmania and joined a band there.
Brian Cadd:I still went to school and everything, and then we moved at 16 or something to Melbourne and I stayed in Melbourne and by about 17, I'd been in a bunch of bands and I was now a musical director at 17 for Lynn Randall, who's had a couple of big hits. So I'd go and get home at four o'clock in the morning and get up at 6.30 in the morning and go to school and sleep through everything. So eventually it just got to be fairly pointless and I toured with bands up until the time I was 20 in 1966, which was an extraordinary time to be alive and to be in music and everything Is that when you joined the Groop?
Brian Cadd:And the punchline of that was first of all, they wrote all their own stuff, which no one did back then, and secondly, they were a professional band, so you couldn't do anything else If you joined the band bye, bye, daddy.
Brian Cadd:you know it's like sorry but I'm going to do this Bye. You got a year kind of thing. Not that he was that kind of guy, but you know that sensibility back then was why would you join a band? You're all lunatics and gangsters and everything Anyway. So I had a year and during that time I was lucky enough to write my only wrote one song. I mean the first time I ever wrote. Woman You're Breaking Me was the song called . It was a big hit. So fortunately I could say to my father well, you never agree.
Brian Cadd:And the rest is history and the rest, as you would determine, to say that with history.
Cheryl Lee:I think we better hear that song now from the group G-R-O-O-P. Woman You're Breaking Me, then we'll be back more as flies on the wall for the filming of the TV interview with legendary Brian Cadd.
Cheryl Lee:After the group Axiom came along another great band.
Brian Cadd:That was about three years later and we'd gone to England and broken up and the Twilights had gone to England and broken up and Shorrock and I were friends and we got together and poached a couple of people out of other bands and we formed Axiom. Axiom was really a deal made and everyone of us was fantastic. It was just the perfect balance of people who sang perfectly together and we wrote songs that we all liked, which wasn't always the case, and we had a love this for years, up until 1970. It was gorgeous.
Cheryl Lee:You're back on Ryder TV with legend Brian Cadd. I think, Brian, the last time I interviewed you was a couple of years ago and you were coming to Adelaide at that time with your good mate Russell.
Brian Cadd:That's right. Both he and I really love Adelaide and we really like coming here together.
Cheryl Lee:So you and Russell Morris are coming to Adelaide again soon.
Brian Cadd:I think at the end of the year or something like that. It's a pretty busy time now for both of us. Who would have thought at 76, you
Brian Cadd:I can't speak much but I can sing, but at this time we're touring, and he's touring as well, separately, and I'm also in the middle of a new album and he's in the middle of a whole lot of orchestral shows that he'll be doing. So I think it's important this afternoon to sort of just you know, whenever we can catch up, we will, and then later on we'll do some shows together.
Cheryl Lee:It's fantastic that after all these years and all the successes that you've had, you're still creating new stuff and trying new things. I think it's kind of inherent in the gig.
Brian Cadd:If you've been doing it as long as we have, it does never occur to me that I might not write down something you say because I think it's a title, because the chances are it will, and you know when you've got enough books with these ridiculous phrases?
Brian Cadd:Sometimes you're sitting there and you're playing the piano and you flick open something and you'll see something and you're going, oh wow, yes, I see, I try and write most days and it doesn't always happen. In fact, you know, often it doesn't happen, but when you get a good one, it's worth the effort and that's that sort of addiction, if you like. That keeps me going and that, and walking out on stage and having an audience participate for two hours or around half what it is, and having a great time. I'm able to take them back. You know, some of them have got a few years on them and you start a song like I have sunshine, or something like that, and then all of a sudden, the couple that's just there are not the age there now, but they're when they first had them. Or girl, yeah, and the music does that?
Cheryl Lee:It transports you back in time. I reckon it sure does. I reckon.
Brian Cadd:It does that for all of us, and there are some songs and they come on. You can tell me exactly ?
Cheryl Lee:I was speaking to a mate of yours that you wrote a song with the other day interviewing him, the screaming jets because they've got a new album coming out. I was so surprised when he said that you and he had written a song together when you met in Tamworth.
Brian Cadd:After we met in Tamworth, he's a very naughty boy, but I suppose you know that In fact there are no screaming jets that are not naughty boys, it's just a shocker. They're fabulous. I love them all. No wonder you got on so well. Oh, it's actually nice. Yes, we're naughty together. It was great and that was the first act I ever saw in Tamworth. The first time I ever went to Tamworth. Someone picked me up from where I was staying and said we're going to go and see an act at Wests, which is a club up there, and I was expecting I didn't dig it in, you know and I came out there. I was loud as fall. I had the best time. I thought Tamworth rocks, this is fabulous and it does. It's what it does. It sure does.
Cheryl Lee:Back to you, brian. You also have had success with the Bootleg family band and the Flying Burritos. But apart from your performing and songwriting success, you've also had a very illustrious producing career.
Brian Cadd:I'm lucky in the sense that I got I was able to get a couple more strings to the bow rather than just being a writer. I also could play and sing a bit, so I got to do those. So there's three.
Brian Cadd:And then when I came back from England after Axiom, I didn't want to go on the road.
Brian Cadd:I've been on the road for so long, I didn't really want to be in a band. And Ron Tudor, who had a label called Fable Records, said to me why don't you come and produce some records? And I said I don't know how to do it, it's not that hard, you know, I can do it, not that hard. And it turned out to be a gorgeous year or so of my life, which spread into about four years, because we started a new label, bootleg, and that's where I had my solo stuff and I signed a lot of other people and they had it and not necessarily because I signed it, but they were really good people and it just opened up a whole world. From then on I learned enough about studio operations. When I moved to Nashville I opened a studio in Nashville, so that was another stream and I think what that really means. What I'm trying to say is that for people who are in the industry, who are just sort of starting out in the industry, it doesn't hurt to have a few different.
Cheryl Lee:Learn as much as you can about it. As much as you can, yes.
Brian Cadd:Somebody says be a tour manager on this and you go well, I'm not a tour manager, yes, you are a tour manager. So somebody tells you not, you are, or you promote or whatever.
Cheryl Lee:So you're a quadruple threat, Ron. Not only can you sing, play the piano, write songs, but you can also produce as well. Yes, and I'm not a bad ballroom dancer?
Brian Cadd:No, I'm not, I'm a shocking ballroom dancer, no feet. But yes, and that's what I always say to young people get out and do something. And I guess that's one of the reasons for our longevity, in the sense that all of us who have been around a long time have produced records and written for other people and, you know, been on all kinds of different activities and adventures other than just singing or writing and writing. It's a great way to guarantee longevity, way after you might want to stop, you know, singing and performing Because you know some people get sick of it but some people don't. I guess Sharrick and Ross Wilson and Russell and people like that, we're just such old hams, we just can't stand it. Somebody rings a bell on me just head for the nearest right and sing.
Cheryl Lee:It's so great to see you guys still, you know, enjoying what you're doing and for the public who loves to watch it.
Cheryl Lee:I just wanted to congratulate you on your 2007, that's a little while ago now. Induction into not only the Aria Hall of Fame, but also the Songwriting Hall of Fame.
Brian Cadd:Congratulations, it was a good year, it was a good, and the same year and it was a great year. All those things are because they're different from what might be awarded from public or from selling things or gold sort of. These are industry peer votes and that matters.
Cheryl Lee:Congratulations. We mentioned your songwriting earlier. You've written for the Masters Apprentices great Adelaide band, great song. Naughty boys, more naughty boys, elevated drive a great song.
Brian Cadd:That was fun. They had a bit where they'd, I think they changed a couple of members and they had stopped writing for you know, they just sort of. But the record company was saying come on, come on. So they came around my afternoon with a few beers and we had it to be chatted about it. We wrote that song for them and I was very happy with it. They loved it. It was good. But it was not that rare that those things happened, because we're like a really tiny family and it's not that much bigger now. Really, it's pretty easy to say, oh, by the way, could you.
Cheryl Lee:you know we're very spoiled here in Adelaide because they're still performing now, with Mark Holden's brother, Craig, singing now for Jim, of course. Oh, that's lovely.
Brian Cadd:You know who would have thought if you had told Jim that when he was 30, it wouldn't have believed you.
Cheryl Lee:That's right. And also you wrote a song for Ronnie Burns, who is my husband's cousin
Brian Cadd:I did, I did, but that was once again a case of us being very closely associated At that stage, Molly, as Ian. Ian was living with Ronnie and his mum and we were getting together and doing projects, and it was fairly natural that Ronnie and say well, you know, write me a song. What was good about that song, which was called when I Was 6 Years Old, was it was sent over to England and Paul Jones from Manfred Mann released it as a single.
Brian Cadd:That wasn't very common, those sort of things. Mostly we were fairly isolated or insulated as were they, and so we had our own networks to play with. But the idea of getting something overseas was really lucky and that sort of set my sights on what would eventually meant that I'd leave the shores for a while, and I lived during my time abroad in America and load in England and some time in France.
Cheryl Lee:Great to have you back in Australia. I wanted to thank you for coming along to our SupportAct South Australian lunch during the week while you were here.
Brian Cadd:So lucky that band Kelly's Kelly's Wake, kelly's Wake. My goodness, I had to go out and have 12 guinnesses.
Cheryl Lee:As you do, as you do, and they probably already had it.
Brian Cadd:That's right. It was that goddess little fiddle. I can't remember her name May, yeah, oh God, she was great, they all were. But it was more than that. It was a fact that after all these years I could look around the room and it was packed. The South Australia Support Act Still doing and still putting money in the coffers of Support Act to help people.
Cheryl Lee:You were instrumental in the early days with our Daisy Day, in the set up of Support Act.
Brian Cadd:Yeah, Well, I joined Support Act when it was only in Sydney and one of the reasons I was asked to join was because they wanted to get state branches. So we started out with one in Sydney which is still going, and then we started out with one in Melbourne which is still going. Yes, we lost the one in Perth it's just too small to see it, and same with Brisbane back in the day. But the one in South Australia, which is really close, close to my heart, because Daisy was such a great friend and such an amazing person that I really love the South Australia one. I want to sort of see the South Australia one. So you know, strength, so strong and doing everything good, it just makes my heart.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, you could hardly eat your lunch, though You're a pretty popular man of the day.
Brian Cadd:They're funny aren't they when go and ask for a selfie, they don't look at anything around?
Cheryl Lee:But thank you for being so generous with your time and so gracious. I'll tell you what the Kelly's Wayke t amborinist was pretty good. Yes, she was.
Brian Cadd:I think she's got a kind of a natural. I don't know how long she's been playing, but she's got such a natural flair to her she could play with Fleetwood Mac. Oh you bloody liar.
Cheryl Lee:How do I? Do it Pretty good, I'll pay you later
Cheryl Lee:Now we're lucky to have you here, brian, because we almost lost you during an act of God right? Yes, if you're.
Brian Cadd:Yes, perhaps it wasn't actually an act of God, was it? Well, I don't know what it was. Oh yeah, it was Almost between the century and I went down a swallowing river, trapped in a car and it was, you know. I was under water, but fortunately it was an older car and it had windy windows the only reason I'm here and I managed to be able to get the wine. It was actually gone. So you know, if it was an electric window, I would just drown because it was starting to fill up with water.
Brian Cadd:It's one of those moments she said, like something, get right and put in a movie and you put in your own life. Anyway, I got out and I grabbed on a tree and I was here in the dark and then this monstrous like Arnold Schwarzenegger like, came over the bank and leaned over and just got over here and I watered. I was terrified. I thought I'm not going to drown. This guy's going to kill me. You thought you were meeting your maker. Yeah, that's what I met, my savior. So I got to live through that one.
Cheryl Lee:You've been involved in so many things, including a movie, Alvin Peoples' soundtrack.
Brian Cadd:Yeah, that's right, they were naughty boys as well, they were naughty girls, that's what they were. Oh, and I'm not going to tell you this. First of all, I can't tell you this, but I do a version of it in the show. But it was a most miraculous time, because it was the time when you could show culture but you couldn't show certain comfort. And the cameraman or really he was probably one of them, the cameraman were all naughty, naughty boys and all renegades, you know. And the film company was too, though really not your major straight film company. So, anyway, so they got the script and they immediately started doing the thing. No, I'm not going to tell you this?
Brian Cadd:I almost did, but the truth about it was it was a very loose set and the people were really rock and roll people. Even though they were actresses and actresses they were really, you know, they rock. I bet it was a lot of fun. It's a good thing. I'm not required by the Lord to tell you what happened on the promotion to us.
Cheryl Lee:So if you want to know what happened, you're going to have to go and sing Brian in concert and find out the rest of the story. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Cheryl Lee:Last time we chatted none of your children had followed you into the family business and the entertainment industry. But I must ask you how your very talented granddaughter is going. She was playing four instruments, writing songs last time we spoke.
Brian Cadd:I'd never made a thing about anyone wanting to be or having to be involved. It was only if they wanted a guitar I could get him a guitar or piano lessons or whatever. I wasn't my mother, fortunately.
Cheryl Lee:So you're not a stage, grandpa, are you? I might be with this one.
Brian Cadd:Anyway, she's 11 and she's in the high school jazz band, Like a jazz jazz band Not, like you know, St James Infirmary, but more than jazz, but a big band and she takes solos and does all that sort of stuff. And I was really happy because I bought her a piano and she was playing piano and she was doing really well and starting a right little song. And then one day she was filling around in her parents' bedroom and something rolled under their bed and she went on to get it and she dragged out her father's trumpet. Oh, is that something or not? If you've ever lived in a house with somebody learning trumpet, no, but she just fell for it. She would not go back to anything else and now she's really really good at it.
Cheryl Lee:So she's changing her mind a bit, following in your footsteps. Yes, sort of kind of Very talented by the sound of it.
Brian Cadd:Yeah, she's an improviser and everything, and she's just about turned 12. So I'm very proud of her, but it doesn't matter what any of the kids or grandkids have done. I am very excited, though, that I have five granddaughters, and three months ago I had a grandson. Oh, grandson, congratulations finally, and he can't quite play the drums yet, but he sits under them. I think at some point he might get up on the chair.
Cheryl Lee:Oh, bless him. How old is he? Three months, oh, that's awesome. We've played some of Brian's early work. Now I'd love to play you the title track of his 2016 album, bulletproof Beautiful song. And then we're back to speak some more to Brian. You can probably hear things are getting busy here at the Trinity Sessions, where we are filming an interview with the legend that is Brian Cad for the telly ahead of his gig tonight. Don't know how much longer we've got, but we'll be back for a bit more of a chat after this.
Cheryl Lee:I know you're a very busy man, Brian, and we really appreciate you spending time with us for our Legends series this evening. One more question for you. We're called Ryder TV. What is your non-negotiable on your ride, apart from coffee? Have you got something you have to have in your green room? Um, not really.
Brian Cadd:I mean, I don't mind a bit of lubrication. You know I could glass a minor, something like that, but it doesn't matter. But it's kind of nice to sit and have a couple with the boys before we go and, yeah, the girls before we go on. But I don't have any because I don't really eat before it starts. I find that I'm rejoining that food at various intervals to show that there's not something I do. But it doesn't matter, we prefer to eat after.
Cheryl Lee:So you're not like Elton and you have to have these certain white roses in your dressing room.
Brian Cadd:No, no, but that's a book by itself. I wish someone had write that. Chugga told me once that he said Fleetwood Mac had to have whole dinners and cakes and things and everything and they very rarely showed up to eat them, but they had to have them. And he said and then, after they like, booked ACDC from Australia to it he said this is going to be terrible.
Brian Cadd:There'll be like barrels of beer and everything, and the writer was four large ash trays. That was all they didn't drink. Who would have thought they didn't drink?
Brian Cadd:If they did, they'd carry everything around themselves.
Speaker 3:But four large ash trays.
Cheryl Lee:So you're pretty low maintenance?
Brian Cadd:Yeah, I am, but I just want to add to that that I was an incredibly difficult rider, because you wouldn't let a smoke backstage at any of the entertainment scene. Oh really, so the whole concept of allowing them to have four ash trays had to be done in great secrecy.
Cheryl Lee:Yes, oh, that's funny. So, Brian, they heard it first here. Stay tuned. New album.
Brian Cadd:Yes, a very, very different album for me and I'm very happy with it. So look forward to the end of the year, single out in October. Plug, plug, plug.
Cheryl Lee:There's your scoop. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. That was great, still off in a podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. Well, that's the end of the filming for the telly. I'm going to play you the screaming jet song it's time that Brian and Paul were seen, wrote together after they met in Tamworth, and then, if you want to hang around, you can be a fire on the wall as we pack up the equipment and the rest of the band arrives for the concert, and then we'll finish up with the theme from that very naughty movie, alvin Purple.
Speaker 4:Yes, so I've been watching on TV all my life, and this is broadcast on.
Cheryl Lee:Channel 44 in Adelaide and Channel 31 in Melbourne. Yeah, we're all volunteers. We do it for the love of us.
Brian Cadd:That's the best way.
Cheryl Lee:Same as supporting my husband and saying Can you do something for money? Oh well, I could. Oh no, not that.
Cheryl Lee:Hello, how you doing? What are you doing here? He's playing here, nice, nice to see you. I'm everywhere, man, I know.
Brian Cadd:I know, did you bring a tambourine?
Speaker 4:No but. I believe Stefan did.
Cheryl Lee:I was just about to say You're playing with Adelaide legendary guitarist young Stefan. He played at my fiftieth with Swanee . Thank you, so maybe afterwards, Before you run off, I could just grab your autograph On the guitar. Sure, thank you. Alright, we'll get out of here. The boys can come in. Thank you very much, Brian. You're the legend, but you're the tambourine.
Brian Cadd:Should see her on the air.
Brian Cadd:I'm gonna love how she works this year.
Cheryl Lee:You think I did it alright, yeah, very, it was blatant. Obviously I know. No, it's because that's the only reason I'm a support act, so I can play tambourine with people. I've been with them for about four or five years now, so after days.
Cheryl Lee:Gary asked me if I would join the committee, so yeah, alright. My official title is the Fundraising Coordinator, or Raffle Bitch.
Brian Cadd:Make a better t-shirt about it.
Speaker 4:That would make a good t-shirt. Raffle Bitch.