Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Pseudo Echo's Brian Canham been up to lately? OR From local gigs to global hits!!
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Ever wondered how a skating rink performance could catapult a band to international fame?
Join us as we sit down with Brian Canham, the charismatic lead singer of the iconic Australian 80s band Pseudo Echo. Brian takes us on a nostalgic journey from his early gigs, including that unforgettable first performance, to the spontaneous addition of "Funky Town" to their setlist and its meteoric rise to becoming a global hit. You'll hear intriguing anecdotes about interactions with music legends Molly Meldrum and Lee Simon, and how these personalities were pivotal in turning Pseudo Echo from local heroes into international stars.
But that's not all – we also uncover the band's early struggles and triumphs, focusing particularly on the invaluable support from Molly Meldrum, which led to significant exposure on Countdown. Listen to tales from the Countdown Awards, including a memorable moment with Michael Hutchence, and discover how Pseudo Echo's knack for choosing great covers, like "Nutbush," played a role in their success. Plus, we chat about the thrilling rediscovery of lost demo tapes, shedding light on the joys and challenges of working with vintage equipment.
Wrap up this fantastic episode with a nod to Pseudo Echo's standout live performance at the Countdown Awards in 1983.
What has Brian Canham 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 Rocki' It podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today we are a fly on the wall, as I interviewed lead singer, founding member, songwriter, guitarist from fabulous Australian 80s band, Pseudo Echo. We filmed the interview in the restaurant at the Gov before their gig that night, so please excuse a little bit of restaurant noise in the background. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to thatradiochick. comau. Welcome to Rider TV.
Cheryl Lee:This is Cheryl Lee that Radio Chich. I'm disappointed I didn't wear my Harley boots today because I wanted to look as cool as this man here, but noone I can look this cool, right. I'd like to welcome to Rider TV today as part of our Legend Series, Brian Canham thank you. Founding member, guitarist, lead singer, a songwriter of Pseudo Pseudo Echo, thank you. We remember Pseudo Echo so fondly. We've so many top 20 and top 10 hits from the 80s. Listening, A Beat For You, Don't Go, and Living in a Dream the list goes on. But I wanted to talk to you about one of my favourites because I think you've got a little bit of a story of when you first played in a skating rink. Where do you get this stuff stuff? I was a skate marshall and you pick up all the little kids.
Brian Canham:Well, my first gig, yeah, was with a band. I was just playing guitar with them. I knew most of the chords and they got me in there and I think that our stage was just a corner at the end of the straight and they just put a ladder across the floor which aided in tripping them when they came around. We ended up with so many people just laying on these little stays area in front of the session. And then some years back I mean some years later with the Pseuds, got booked to do some skate rinks, I can't recall, it was out in the burbs somewhere and same sort of setup, down to one end, sort of thing.
Cheryl Lee:In Adelaide. Here we had a skate rink called Downtown Leisure Centre and I used to pick up all the little kids that fell over and the big kids were going too fast. I had to tell them to slow down so they wouldn't knock all the little kids over. T hey played Funky Town every five minutes and whenever I hear that song I think of skating. Yeah, great. What a successful song as well. Number one in Australia and New Zealand and congratulations top ten, Sweden, Canada, US, UK. It was a great choice. What made you pick it?
Brian Canham:Well, the funny thing is is like if we go back a few years, when I was just 18, I used to go to this nightclub regularly that Molly DJ'd at out in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Croftsview Park and they called it Crofts. I used to just sort of go there to watch Molly play. He was always playing the latest stuff and he always had a good set list. So I used to sort of sit, I used to crouch on the edge of the dance floor and just sit down there next to his DJ boom. So Molly kind of knew this quiet little kid that didn't do much other than just watch and listen. I remember the first time he played Funkytown and I thought this is a cool song. I love the bass, I love the whole simplicity of it and I love that little gang-a-dick guitar bit and it just stuck with me. Obviously it became a hit and it was, you know, came and went and then fast forward a few years and I've got Pseudo Echo up and running, we're in the second album, we're touring Love and Adventure and during the tour I caught up with an old friend he used to be DJ and we had a coffee and he started spinning some old vinyl and he put it on Funkytown and the original. I heard it and I went oh, this is great. You know such great memories. So next day or so I'm in the middle of this tour still and I'm doing soundcheck and I start sort of noodling on my guitar, working it out, and I go into the bass keyboards and I'm working out the bass screws and so I sort of went through each instrument with the guys and said can you hear it, this song? And we were jamming it and then we started playing it all together. It's pretty easy. It sounds like I've got three or four chords and not many lyrics, which is good for me. So we jammed it through, we said that's great and then got on with it. You know the show that night. The end of the night got big encore and I can't remember what we would normally done. But we just decided let's do that song, let's just jam and see what happens. And we weren't sure. I was sort of semi-serious about it and um, and so it was amazing, it brought the house down like we did not expect that kind of reaction. So we left it in the set the rest of the tour. It just became the encore song. So it was only during the tour or just after the tour.
Brian Canham:Our management, the way the organization used to share offices with triple M back in the day, I think zion fm back. So yeah, it was Lee Simon, Lee's, walking down the corridors in the office one day. I'm walking past him and just looks at me and goes hey, Brian, you've got to release that song. So I looked at him and I said what song is it? He talked to me and goes it's going to be a smash. I said Funky Town, I've got my way, I've got a disc tape. So somebody would give him a disc tape. I didn't know about it anyway. So Lee was really vibed on it and that was good.
Brian Canham:Because Glenn always took a bit of convincing, we sort of suggested he'd always be oh, I'm not sure about that, and because of his age and he relates to the disco era, . So that's sort of how it came up. To be honest, it wasn't overly enthusiastically received within the record label initially, like the American label thought nuts, because they just relates to the Lipp Sinc version. They said, yeah, disco's dead, it's well and truly gone, what are you doing? And they hasn't heard our version, of course, um, they just assumed it would be similar, so by the time they heard it, um, I think we were stubborn enough to go ahead with it. I'll be responsible if it's um a stipper. And so by the time the American label heard it, it was already in the charts. So then they'll change their tune.
Speaker 3:Congratulations on the phenomenal success you are listening to Still Rockin It, the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:Let's hear that huge hit now, Funky Town, and it'll take us back to the day when we skated around and around and around. Back to speak some more with Brian shortly.
Cheryl Lee:And speaking of the Legend of the, molly, who was instrumental in getting you guys started too and getting you known, because Countdown, you know, launched a thousand fans and you were one of the.
Brian Canham:Well, we were the first unsigned, first end, probably last, because it was sort of not the policy. They had a blanket sort of set of rules that they could apply. That said, you can't just have every Tom, Dick and Brian.
Brian Canham:So the funny thing is, as I said, I used to go to this club and Molly knew me as this quiet kid down on the sidelines. So as we forward a few years I've got Pseudos up and running. A mutual friend or someone who knew Molly must have given him a demo of Pseudos so he could kind of check out this new band and I think he liked the demo. He thought they sound good. It makes an effort, comes along, and we were just doing this show and I remember it was a good night. We had a good crowd there and I see the cowboy hat - it's Molly Meldrum. So we're, you know, posing off a bit more and you know the gig went really well. And after the show Molly comes back with his posse and introducing himself and then the pennies dropped. He's realized he's going. You're that kid. So it was a really nice kind of connection and I said oh, MollY said let's put you on Countdown. It was like holy shit, you know like what? We don't have a record deal or a single or anything. And they said it doesn't matter, they're going to take care of it all. So it was pretty amazing. Now Molly pulled together a cut crew and they built a set for us, made this video clip for us like it's just a little studio clip and then he did the big spiel in the national television, no pressure and um, you know, so it was incredible. It really did fast track, I think.
Brian Canham:Like at the time, I think there are a few labels sniffing around but no one making a move. It's an interesting um semantics would like, because they don't want to make too much fuss, they need to be chic, they can't put the ball too much into a court, so they're all sort of hang back. EMI was the first one that finally jumped. There were a couple, but they weren't really putting uh many uh money with their mouth or, so to speak. Um, EMI my jumped on. They came along to another show same was was a sold out show. They had a real vibe, so they just went and you guys are in, you know, and, uh, it was a great, great relationship we have still in 1986, when Funkytown came out and the Countdown Awards.
Cheryl Lee:You won the most popular Australian group, Pseudo Echo, and you pipped Michael Hutchence as the most popular male performer.
Brian Canham:Yeah, it wasn't too bad. It was funny. It was afterwards at the party after the awards. Some journalist grabs Michael Hutchence and drags him after me. The winner in the. I swear you knew he was going to say the loser. Oh, I just stopped him there, you know. I think he was just searching for the word of the previous winner and Michael just leaned into me because he'd taken that award out for five years ago and he just leaned and said it's yours, take it. Thanks, man.
Cheryl Lee:A very gallant loser yeah.
Brian Canham:It was close.
Cheryl Lee:Let's have that song now that was played on Countdown by the very first unsigned band, Pseudo Echo here is Listening. Back to speak to Brian shortly. You do have a little bit of a knack of picking great covers. Obviously you've got an amazing body of original work. But I want to talk about Nutbush. Oh yeah, because what I would like to see is you know Mundi Mundi and the Big Red Bash they had a Nutbush world record attempt, so I think the next one should be there to do a world record. Yeah, cool to you guys singing it. Surely your people could speak to my people to speak to their people to organise that.
Brian Canham:Let's do it. Let's do it. Funnily enough, that was one of the songs around the time we did Funky Town. That was another contender.
Brian Canham:Yeah, we were, you know, toying around with ideas of songs and that was also very influential for me when I was a kid. I'm seven, and I'm at primary school, and I loved that synthesizer solo in the middle. I just that's the bit I hooked into. You know, apart from the Mark Bolan guitar in the start, I was playing the funky wah and Mark's playing the ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, all that bit which makes sense, yeah, and um, so I love those sort of two elements to the song. The song is obviously fantastic, I'll think, story, everything, synthesizer solo just stuck with me and I just that's like a canary, it's just wailing, that's really good.
Brian Canham:And um, one day it at uh, in primary school we were having our um class. We had these electronic kits and our assignment today was the canary sound that you make on those electronics. You see, I'll turn the wires up like this. So, my friend, he's out front demonstrating his canary and as you rotate the dial you modulate the pitch and you feel pretty cluey. You can make a melody out of it. And he broke into the melody of the Nutbush solo. Yeah, it was, it was. It just went nuts. It goes back a long way for me. So yeah, it was always there. And then just, you know I love this song, let's just do it. It's the most unsuspecting sort of thing to do, like we do, but you know we do our thing.
Cheryl Lee:It's a really great version and I think we really should get our people to answer the world record of the Maddison.
Cheryl Lee:We will be back to speak with lead singer, guitarist, founding member of Pseudo Echo, Brian Canham, again shortly, but in the meantime, let's have their version of Nutbush.
Cheryl Lee:You guys did have a little bit of a break. For a bit you did some producing. Yeah, In fact you produced one of my favourite Chocolate starfish. Oh yeah, A couple of theirs actually.
Brian Canham:Yeah, yeah, Taxi Ride. Lee Kernighan, I think did some work with Come on.
Brian Canham:Yeah, I like a challenge, I like to just go off in any direction and then do the best I can do in that genre. Yeah, the Starfish thing was interesting because I went to school with Johnny Nixon and Darren, grew up in th and so there's three of us and all those other Zora Dora boys and they were coming up in the ranks when I already had pseudo-Stanley and I had this band that were Dewey, darren and Johnny and I already had pseudo-stamlish and I had this band that would do it. Darren and John ended up going in Roxas, as you know, and then we went on to perform with Charles Starkey, so we just had that hit in Falkentown and so there was a bit of talk about myself as a producer then rather than with the front man. The guys said they wanted to meet with me and talk to me about doing that. So it was a great project because we were all really close friends. It was almost like a band, them not, they're like a bunch of naughty boys. So it suited me by.
Cheryl Lee:Um, we ended up doing two albums I um interviewed John last week yeah right, but the podcast has just gone up and he said to say hello.
Brian Canham:Strange music world, small world we go way back, you know. I remember I actually knew John' as an older brother. He's my age and I can remember Mark John's big brother saying my little brother plays guitar and stuff and Darren's say eight, and he said you've got to come and meet him Because I was known in the neighbourhood as the guy I remember going to his house and I think they'd already gone to bed by this stage and so they must have got him out of bed and I remember they came in their pyjamas and sat down on the couch to meet me.
Cheryl Lee:ou guys supported Couch Climbing the village people. Do you spill any secrets for any of the tuns?
Brian Canham:It was a great tour. I can remember actually calling one of the guys from Starfish when I was on the road, darren drummer, and we were out just wandering on the township where we were playing I think you can see him in Edablay and I bumped into the guy. I forgot his name. It was the Indian in the village tree and he was saying hi, probably getting a coffee or something. Zoran could hear this chit-chat, the background noise on the phone. He said what's he doing? And then Darren said Kenham's having lunch with the Indian from the. Oh, he gave me a feather.
Cheryl Lee:Well, that would have been really cool, but only people as cool as you can say no to touring with Madonna.
Brian Canham:That's right, that one's never going aw. No, the funny thing is the time they asked us like during the 80s, because remember, from the later 80s the sound started changing. Bon Jovi were prominent, van Halen were making a comeback, big Hair Heart was having a comeback, the 70s rock sound was coming back into the 80s a bit. So we were getting a little bit of prompting. You know, you guys need to, you know, toughen it up a bit, which was fine with me because that's what I grew up with 70s rock. So hence the race album was on the cards and we were starting to write that. And then we get off at the Madonna tour and it was like hang on, we were beefing it up and going Rocky. This is like going the other way again. So, no, that's cool. I mean stop to stop, because I don't know that many would say no, but we just thought no, that's off right. Yeah, you found aylen.
Cheryl Lee:Let's have a song from that Chocolate Starfish album produced by brian canham, their debut self-titled album, the. The song is Mountain. And then back to speak some more with Brian. The restaurant that we are chatting in is getting busier, so please ignore the restaurant ambience going on around us.
Speaker 3:This is Mr Chocolate, Adam Thompson from Chocolate Starfish. You're listening to Cheryl Lee. Listening to cheryl lee. You wanted me to be a mountain, I'd rather be a river your beautiful wife rachel.
Cheryl Lee:She's a very clever lady because you lost a very important tae for about 30 years. You wanted to replay. When you found it, she said release it as it is, was it right?
Brian Canham:or was she right? Yeah, because I mean I told Raquel it was like it was a bit mixed. You know, I said this is tapes that I lost. I had all these songs because sometimes she'd hear me sitting on the piano playing a bit of the songs you know, that's beautiful, what's that? And I'd say I hardly song lost all the tapes to tell her about this album that went missing in the 90s. And so she said, well, how could it go missing? Wouldn't you have a backup or something? I said, well, no, I thought about it and I just don't have it. And she said, what about that big box of cassettes we found the other day? And I said, yeah, I think I'll be through. She said I think you should get through them.
Brian Canham:So it was a good excuse to go buy myself a vintage pioneer tape deck. That was exciting. For what? Vintage pioneer tape? A tape deck, what is that, tell me? So I was real excited because I was getting this beautiful vintage tape deck. So I thought, great, that gave me some enthusiasm to start going to the tapes.
Brian Canham:And it was pretty laborious and boring. You know it's slow going. What's the counter go around? And when you get a video, fast forward this way back, I eventually got through all these tapes, of going through together, I'm up to about the last couple, this whole box of tapes, and all of a sudden I hear this song and I go, this is one of those songs. And you know, sticks it in and goes this is good. And I go, I think I found the tape. And then, you know, fast forward to another one, to another one. Sure enough, it was pretty much all of the songs that I'd lost. It was labelled, but it was just labelled very generically and most of them were not labelled like Tape 1, tape 2, master Tape 1, whatever. So there was really no real designation on the labelling and that's why I must have duplicated it quite hastily and forgot about it.
Brian Canham:So as we were chatting about this, we were playing it, and he's playing in the background and Ra and I are talking about it, and she said, well, they said it's fantastic and just like that. I said I'd have to re-record it because these are just demos. She said no, no, like it is, it's brilliant. While we're talking, tape gets to the end and the auto-rewind kicks in and it's running around and I could hear it rewinding. We're still churning away and then I started to look at it. I can see one spool's going crazy like this and the other one stopped and I know what that man's. So I said pretty glitz read oh shit, if I grabbed it he'd just stop, not the pants at the rack, give me, give me two pens, two pencils. You start looking at me like what I said just just trust me, and I forget the tape down and and we managed to get it out of the whole machine without any creases or anything.
Brian Canham:It was a miracle. I felt very screwy, I couldn't believe it. It's the miracle of records. So we did, we left it as it was. We just had it mastered to get the levels all nice and all the songs matching that rough and ready. But they are the original demos. Had that been pursued and finished as a proper recording in a day, it would be a different record. It would be a different record.
Cheryl Lee:It just would have been more polished and bigger sounding and all that, but that was going to be the album after the race hall. Yeah, so we could talk for ages and I think last time we did it's one of my longest pcasts, but we could go on and on and on, but we're only a half an hour shows. I want to ask you one more question, if I may, because we're at the gorgeous gov. You guys are performing here tonight. You perform here about once a year, yeah, yeah, what is the non-negotiable on your rider? What have they got back there in your green room that you hae to have?
Brian Canham:I'm pretty keen about the chocolates I've heard that before jesus. I could have been fat in this view, Maybe with a sweet to. Yeah, a bit. Yeah, we're pretty easy going. Yeah, we never throw a spinal tap. If it's this, I'm missing out the right. You know the boys like a beer and that's about it. I asked.
Cheryl Lee:John Nix for chocolate starfish this question the other day and he said it's carlton draft or he's not playing
Cheryl Lee:All righty. Well, I wish you guys a fabulous show tonight, fabulous rest of your tour. Good luck with your new band.
Brian Canham:member. two Yep, the new girl stage tonight on the backing vocals. So that's two girls in the Pseuds.
Cheryl Lee:Well, thank you so much for spending some of your precious time with us today on Rider TV.
Cheryl Lee:I think we'll go out with another song that Pseudo Echo performed live, actually at the Countdown Awards in 1983, a Beat For You. There's a beat for you. You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin' 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.