RE: [Seance]

[Chad Corley]

Hello Chuck, Sue & well, everyone else.

Sue- yes I moved away from Australia in 2007. Sometimes it's a good idea to be close to your family when they need you... But now looks like wife & I will be moving back down under (more likely New Zealand) next year. She's a church convert btw.

Chuck- Things are mostly well. Health insurance situation in USA is dreadful. As a result, see NZ, above. My adventures weren't all worthy of jealousy! The Ploog/gardening thing is actually a story I've been wanting to tell to this group since it happened (probably back in 2004). I was actually quite broke at the time and Richard had mentioned if I ever needed work I could do some landscaping with him, so I took him up on the offer. I rode with him out to some suburb of Sydney (can't recall right now but if I had a map handy...). It was a very hot, yet overcast day and I remember unwisely wearing some polyester overshirt that got extremely uncomfortable in the heat. We got to the property and Richard says [paraphrasing]: oops I forgot what he wanted was his lawn mowed and I didn't bring a mower so you don't mind doing it with gardening shears, do you?

All I can say is fortunately the lawn wasn't very large (perhaps 250-300 sq feet) or else I might've just walked home from there. But I didn't. I basically spent the next 2 hours or so on my knees cutting grass with gardening shears. In the mean time I got very hot and took off the uncomfortable polyester shirt, which was unfortunate because although it was overcast I still got quite a bad sunburn in the shape of an A-shirt (wifebeater). It was classic.

Not that it was all bad by any means, just kind of indicative of Richard in some ways (he's kind of forgetful sometimes). We did discuss the church quite a bit, including one of the obvious things - the circumstances behind his leaving the band. We also played a lot of music together (and also for a bit with my band at the time - the sleep-ins [sleep-ins.lonesomerobot.net]), so it was a fun time overall. He also played briefly with some friends of mine who are in the band Regular John; they're just now getting pretty popular down under.

Gracious how I've missed Seance, thanks to Chris Barrus for keeping this going!
-Chad

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[kieran...@mchsi.com]

Thanks for the story, but are you going to let us know what he said about the circumstances of him leaving the band?  thanks 

-------------- Original message from Chad Corley <xco...@hotmail.com>: --------------

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[Sue Campbell]

Regular John - isnt that the band whose album Tim was got the Producer of the Year ARIA nomination? To overseas people, that's our equivalent of a grammy nomination.

 

Sue

[Sue Campbell]

Regular John - isnt that the band whose album Tim was got the Producer of the Year ARIA nomination? To overseas people, that's our equivalent of a grammy nomination. Unfortunately Tim lost out to Empire of the Sun but what a great thing to achieve.

 

Sue

[Chad Corley]

yes that's the one, I totally forgot they told me about that a few weeks ago...
-c

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From: sue_ca...@esat.net.au
To: xco...@hotmail.com; seanc...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Seance]
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:50:42 +1100

Regular John - isnt that the band whose album Tim was got the Producer of the Year ARIA nomination? To overseas people, that's our equivalent of a grammy nomination.

 

Sue

 

 

>> He also played briefly with some friends of mine who are in the band Regular John; they're just now getting pretty popular down under>>

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[Chad Corley]

sorry I guess I left that a bit of a cliffhanger.

It's no secret that the band wasn't looking forward to working with Waddy Wachtel on Gold Afternoon Fix, but probably no one more than Richard. He said that during those sessions WW was basically incapable of being satisfied with his performance, in some cases ordering him to do 30-40 takes. That's brutal for a drummer. When I played with Richard, some 15 years or so after the GAF sessions, he was still what I'd consider to be a world-class drummer with amazing meter, especially for a band like the Church that rarely strays from 3/4 or 4/4 time. So I can't see how if he was a good drummer in 2004 how he couldn't have been a good drummer in 1989... and yes I know there is mention of pot use from back then; let's just say if we were looking at this situation scientifically, that would be defined as a "constant". There was one other thing he mentioned about working with Waddy, and I hadn't been certain how to bring it up, so I'll let Mackenzie Phillips (I know...) do it instead:

"After the concerts, back at the hotel, there was always plenty of coke around. Linda's guitar player Waddy Wachtel, slept a lot, and the only way to rouse him was to tick a razor blade against a mirror. The tiny sound of the possibility of cocaine woke him every time."

They had been in LA for a while and Richard didn't like that also. Overall, however, his attitude was remarkable - I never had any sense that he regretted leaving. He genuinely has an appreciation for just having had the opportunity to do the things he did. He never seemed remorseful, jealous or angry at any of the other members of the band, also (and still talks to them occasionally). He said his favorite time with the band was when they were on tour with the Cult.

Richard was one of the more inspiring characters I met in Australia, actually.

-C

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From: kieran...@mchsi.com
To: xco...@hotmail.com; seanc...@googlegroups.com
CC: xco...@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: [Seance]
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:56 +0000

Thanks for the story, but are you going to let us know what he said about the circumstances of him leaving the band?  thanks

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[Daniel Watkins]

That's great stuff to read, thanks for sharing.  I've always wished we would get to hear more of Richards experience, and maybe even hear him play again.

--- On Tue, 11/24/09, Chad Corley <xco...@hotmail.com> wrote:

sorry I guess I left that a bit of a cliffhanger.

It's no secret that the band wasn't looking forward to working with Waddy Wachtel on Gold Afternoon Fix, but ...

[Andreas Rossi]

Dear Chad,

thanks a lot for sharing this. I appreciate enormously hearingsomething more about Richard, and especially that he is doing well and is apparently at peace with his past and his former bandmates.

He is an amazing drummer and it's great that the band has had the opportunity of working with two fantastic drummers like Richard and Tim (btw JD was also great!!!)

Thanks  a lot again

I envy you a bit for moving to NZ... must be great to live down under.

Cheers from Italy

 

Andreas

Genoa/Italy

 

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[kieran...@mchsi.com]

Yes, thanks for sharing this about Richard.  I didn't know the Church toured with the Cult.  What year was that tour?

-------------- Original message from "Andreas Rossi" <and...@start.no>: --------------

[Paul Webb]

That was 1986.

-Paul