Tales of Yaw!

[3.14159]

When I was 16 I decided my home-life was crap so I left school after year 11 and travelled around the country for a few years.
I did all sorts of work from prawning in Cooktown to operating conveyor belts in Port Hedland and lots of jobs and lots of places in between.
As a consequence I have some strange and sometimes amusing stories to tell...(Whether you believe them is entirelyup to you).
My friends tell me I should write some of them down.
I have been meaning too and I'm not doing anything at the moment so here's one about the time I met (and sang with) Cold Chisel!

Many years ago (in daze of yaw) I played a lot of pool.
I learned to play mostly in the bars of hotels and for a while even worked the late-night shift at the Green Cloth in Richmond to pay the rent and play snooker for free.
In 83 I was working part time at an auction house.
To pass a dae off I'd play in hotels and sometimes let some-one play me for a beer or few dollars....I was good and I didn't lose much.
One dae I was in South Yarra and stopped in at Macy's hotel to kill few hours playing some pool.
I put my coin (20 cents back then) on an empty table and this bloke came over, said his name was Jimmy and he was holding the table.
We played a few games and talked.
He was from SA and came over as a kid with his family as $10 pound pommes and worked in Whyalla or Port Kembla (I can't remember which).
I told him about working in the mines of Wa and then we started talking music...
A few years ago he'd formed a band and they was playing Macy's that night.
They were called the "Barking Spiders" (he told me).
I asked if they were any good and more importantly were they getting any gigs and making any money?"
"Hey Don! Are we making any money"? He asked the big curly-headed keyboard player sitting by the door.
"Not a sausage mate", with a grin on his face!
(I was a dyed in black the punk & hadn't a clue who he or his band was...)
We'd played a few games by now and I won them all even throwing in a few tricks shots with out trying too hard when he asked if I'd do somethink for him?
He told me last night he'd been hussled a $20 bucks by the bloke in the corner and if he staked me, would I play him?
His money so no problem I ask this guy for game.
He agrees & asks to play for a beer?
I Pull out Jimmy's $20 and say why not play for one of these instead?
Game on...
I win... just.
"Double or nothing he says?
Sure!"
Beat him again...just
Double"?
Beat him
Double"
beat him
Double"?
Yepp, but this the last game!!!
Sure sure mate... He breaks...but nothing down.
My turn, I pot 5 balls and leave him snookered behind the black.
My last 2 balls are behind the foul line so he played the white into the pocket.
(No shooting back in this hotel).
Jimmy tells the bloke "that's weak mate!!!"
But I don't worry, I just chalk my cue.
I aim about an inch ahead of the line and strike the cue ball hard and sharp on the side (i gave it some English!), it hit's the cushion spins back hard and pots my ball sitting over the bottom right pocket.
The 7th and the black were a walk in the park.
I walk over to shake his hand and ask for my $320!!!
He wants to play again but I tell him I've got to go back to work and very frankly inform him that I wanted my money there and then!!!
Jimmy was standing behind him when he opened his wallet and gave me a $50 sitting in it.
I asked for the rest he said his bank was across the road (ANZ from memory) and he'd nip-out and get it for me.
Jimmy reached out to grab him but this guy was took quick and took-off for door.
Don, the keyboard player stood up just as he was passing and "close-lined" the hapless bloke leaving him flat on the floor.
Don and Jimmy then helped him up and escorted him across the road and came back with the money he owed me.
I thanked them both, offered them the extra fifty but they declined saying it their pleasure etc etc etc...hic hic hic
I had to go soon after but not before they told me to come and see the show that night and they'd stand me some more drinks!"
I staggered up the street and into an Italian bistro and called it a day.
...
I 'd thought of sort of figured out by now who these guy's and their band was but I still wasn't sure so I rolled along & I went in.
Bugger me it was Cold Chisel and the bloke I'd been playing pool with was Jimmy Barnes!
(The Barking Spiders was a name they used when they wanted to do a small gig some-where only the die hard fans would turn up too).
Anywae I standing up the back trying to look out of place (the place is full of mullets and flannel shirts and I'm standing out like a saw thumb in my motorcycle jacket and "Eat the Rich T-Shirt") when Jimmy see's me and calls me up on stage!
He's pissed as a fart and tells the crowd I a punk but I'm also a pretty good pool player and shoves a bottle of Bundy in my mouth!
The small crowd roared!!!
He asks if I know any Cold Chisel songs?
I did know a few, so with his arm around my shoulders we launched into a passable version of Cheap Wine and an terrible rendition of Bow River and a couple more I can't recall.
My back was covered in straight Bundy he'd poured down my back as we sang so I guess that was the stand me a drink I'd been lured on stage with.
I don't remember much about the rest of the night but I woke up in strange hotel room, a huge bump on my forehead (I fell off the stage apparently) and a wonderful looking red-head asking me to leave the key at front desk when I left...
Lost my job when I rolled into work the next day but that was fine.
I was young, I had a roll of nearly $400 in my pocket and my band was doing it's second ever show in a couple of weeks time.
And who knows maybe I could lucky, just like my mates in that band...
The Barking Spiders!

The only regret I had was I never did catch the redheads name...sigh...

[partypie]

Nice tale 3, I met Ian Moss a few years ago, he was touring country pubs playing solo. Couldn't help wondering if he didn't fare as well as other members.

I wonder if Macy's is still there. I saw the Fall play there a bit after that, one of the maddest lead singers I have ever seen.

[3.14159]

In about 86 it became the Saloon Bar, bucking bull and yuppy to the core. ick!

Jason Dunstall was a part owner. ick!!

It's now a boutique apartment block. ick!!!
~

I saw the Fall about the same time you did but I think it was at the Seaview Ballroom.

Maddest lead singers?
I'd have to give that title to I Spit on Your Gravy's Fred Negro.

[David]

Haha, that's an excellent story. I'd challenge you to a game of pool, but it sounds like I'd be doing a few laps of the table.

[HAL]

What would make you challenge you to a game of pool but it sounds like he or she would be doing a few laps of the table?