Dave Graney And Clare Moore Get By With A Little Help From Their Friends

"Yes, it’s very flattering actually,” a still somewhat surprised Clare Moore admits, chuckling, with regards to the Living Legends tribute celebrating the near-40 year musical legacy of her musical and life partner Dave Graney and herself. “It’s kind of weird but it’s very nice. It’s sort of come out of the blue, but we’re definitely going to enjoy it very much, especially seeing as we’ve got so many wonderful people performing, many of whom are friends of ours. So it should be really great.”

As part of Leaps & Bounds Music Festival, the line-up performing on the night at The Gasometer Hotel includes faces old and new, from Conway Savage, Mick Harvey, Mick Turner and Penny Ikinger to Go Go Sapien, The Ocean Party and The Sand Pebbles. Considering that across their career, Graney and Moore can boast the release of more than 30 albums, including the classic Night Of The Wolverine and The Soft & Sexy Sound, as well as solo albums The Third Woman and Fearful Wiggings, and a “his and hers” double album, Hashish And Liquor, the hardest part for the performers must surely be picking the repertoire from such an abundance of riches.

"It was great when Dave won the King Of Pop award at the ARIAs that night. In an absolute coincidence I actually wore a tiara!"

“I know,” Moore exclaims. “We haven’t really done the maths but we’ve been playing together since 1978 so with the albums we’re giving Slim Dusty a run for his money! Adam Rudegeair and Henry Manetta are definitely from the jazz side of things, so I think they may be able to get their heads around Dave’s strange chord progressions better than some of the others. And then Go Go Sapien, who are friends of ours, who will definitely, probably, get the humour in Dave’s songs.” 

“We’ve been pretty hands-off with the Living Legends thing,” Graney adds with his usual touch of the laconic. “They have it every year and I guess it was our turn. There are lots of people performing that we’ve played with, like Steve Miller, who I went to school with in Mount Gambier, and Mick Turner, both from The Moodists, are doing different things; Penny Ikinger, we’ve worked with her in Salmon and in the studio; Adam Rudegeair has played with us occasionally; Conway Savage, who plays with us. Go Go Sapien, I have a rap duo with their singer, Wam & Daz. Stu Thomas plays with us. 

“Henry Manetta is a jazz singer in the Tim Buckley mould that Clare plays with occasionally, a very old friend of hers from her first band, when she was in Adelaide. Then there’s Tony Martin, the writer, filmmaker and comedian – we’d did the music for [feature film] Bad Eggs with him.”

“He and Elizabeth McCarthy are going to do some spoken word,” Moore chips in with a laugh, “and we’re really not sure what they’re going to do at all.”

“The Sand Pebbles,” Graney continues. “I co-wrote a couple of songs for them and Clare’s played with them a few times. We’re quite honoured to have a lot of those people as friends, so they’ll be able to take it if we critique them pretty harshly,” he finishes, with a chuckle.

“As soon as someone starts playing the drum parts wrong I’ll have to just jump in there,” Moore assures. “Or if there isn’t a drummer.”

Now, as the evening’s publicist has put it, “Sir Dave and Queen Clare will not be performing at this concert but will be in the audience watching their subjects pay tribute to them.” Which begs the question, to Graney, that, while it’s only appropriate and an obvious aspect of his natural gallantry that he defer to the feminine in all things, did he not experience the tiniest bit of displeasure on receiving news of this tribute and discovering he’d been demoted from King Of Pop to a mere Sir and Queen’s Consort?

“Well, Prince Phillip got a knighthood,” Graney laughs. “It’s very fluid, the nobility and aristocracy. I haven’t seen that press release so it sounds pretty slanderous, though I like the sound of Queen Clare, and ‘the eternally cool royalty of Australian music’. Print it!”

“He should be Duke, perhaps,” Moore corrects with a laugh. “I got a promotion! Awesome. I think I know who wrote that too,” she adds with an even heartier laugh. “It was great when Dave won the King Of Pop award at the ARIAs that night. In an absolute coincidence I actually wore a tiara!”