Can you tell us a bit about the upcoming Dr. Feelgood & Dr. Love event at Melbourne’s Cherry Bar?
It’s really a celebration of some of the most spectacular rock bands the world has known: Kiss and Mötley Crüe. Since they’re touring Australia together for the first time (with Thin Lizzy onboard too) and playing in Melbourne on March 5 and 6, Cherry is throwing another one of their famous events for rock’n’roll fans. The Before-Party takes place both days between 1pm and 7pm, so everyone can get amped-up at ACDC Lane for the night’s stadium rock show. And they can then make their way back to Cherry again for the After-Parties from 11pm until 3am. It’s free entry, so you’ve got nothing to lose!
You’re flying in from New York City to DJ the event, how did that come about?
It was the idea of Cherry owner and booker James Young. He reached out with the offer to fly me out for it, and it was really then just a matter of the planets lining up – the timing being right. I’ve been living in NYC the last couple of years but I held a Saturday night DJ residency at the great Cherry bar from 2005, until 2010 when I decided to hang-up the headphones as such. I was travelling to the US a lot on business back then, and busy with release commitments for my book Sex Tips From Rock Stars. I knew I’d have a chance to get behind the Cherry decks again one day, so I’m glad this party is two-days long. As much as New York City is amazing, I’ve missed Cherry. If I was Gene Simmons, I’d be calling this my Reunion Tour… and there’d be four different versions of the event poster to collect.
Did you see the Kiss and Mötley Crüe show during their US summer tour last year?
I did. I enjoyed a couple of shows towards the end of the summer and they were really great – better than I expected; both bands certainly know how to put on an entertaining show, that’s for sure. I photographed their show in New Jersey, and then shot again out on Long Island, New York the following night. I caught up with Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee before that show and they told me then that they were going to head down to Australia, so I’m glad it’s all come together now.
I hear you have known the Mötley Crüe guys for some time, is that right?
You could say I’m a historian of the band: I’ve continuously documented Mötley since 1995 on my Chronological Crue website that has been read well-over five million times now. I also contributed to their best-selling autobiography The Dirt and then wrote five books on the band myself. So yeh, I guess you could say I know a little bit about them. Tommy Lee even said during a press conference once, “Paul knows more about us than we know!”
How many times have you seen them play?
Well, there was a time where I thought I may never get to see them play. I’m originally from Perth and they never made it there on their first Australian tour in 1990. In the late-nineties, I put together the world’s first Mötley Crüe tribute CD through a label in Chicago, and I wrote the liner notes inside Mötley’s first-ever live album – Live: Entertainment or Death, where I summed up their brilliant live shows. The great irony was that I’d never seen the band live at that point! Fortunately, that all changed when they returned to Australia in 2005 and I got to tour all access with them. I toured with them again through Singapore and Japan a few years later, which was a blast. I think I’ve seen the Crüe 14 times now, so not as many shows as some fans.
What was the highlight of that first time for you?
I literally wrote a book about all the things that went down on that Red, White & Crüe tour across Australia with Motörhead, but I guess two things come to mind as standouts for me: standing front-row centre in Sydney for my first Crüe show with the energy of 15,000 fans behind me while Sixx dedicated a song to me on stage, then secondly, coming off the tarmac at Perth Airport into a waiting limo to take Sixx to Bon Scott’s grave in Freo; that was a memorable afternoon.
Will you be touring with them again this time, and writing another book on it?
No, I’m just coming down to DJ these parties at Cherry exclusively, and take a bit more time to catch-up with some friends and family. Then it’s back to New York City where I’m working on my next book called Before I Hit the Stage. I’ve teamed up with Guns N’ Roses’ former tour photographer and we’re documenting the intimate moments before rockers go on stage in this great city. It’s the world’s first book on rock stars backstage before their show in one city during one year. We’re having fun with it so far.
What differences do you see between the local music scene in New York City compared to Melbourne?
There’s a reasonable amount of local rock bands here in New York and some of them are really good. The Dirty Pearls are the pick of the bunch to me and the ones primed to make it big next, but I hoped there’d be more that drop my jaw to the floor. I keep looking, but like everywhere, live rock venues are closing and struggling to stay open, given all the conditions. NYC has shows by national and international artists on every night of the week, however overall, I really feel that Melbourne has a better local rock scene. It’s great to see Melbourne-bred bands like Airbourne playing the biggest rock festivals overseas, and Electric Mary finally getting a taste of European festivals too. My Dynamite are up next and I see The Mercy Kills are ready to be pushed overseas too. They’re all as good or better than anything I’ve seen here in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but they can’t do it all by themselves. Rock bands must have local venues like Cherry to begin with as incubators and ‘universities’ to hone their craft live. Then there needs to be the industry infrastructure to further assist them and take their rock talents to markets worldwide. The music industry seems too focused on computer-generated songs and reality TV shows, and it’s like junk food that is seriously harming the health of music and the people. It’s time to wake up and get back to the healthy, organic basics of real musicians writing their own songs and rocking them live in front of real people, and truly connecting.
Kiss started out that way on the streets of New York City. Would you consider yourself a Kiss fan too?
Oh man, that’s who started me off on my rock’n’roll journey. Talk about connecting… you couldn’t escape them in Australia back in ’79-’80 – that tour was massive! And even though my parents said I was too young to see that show, the Kissteria certainly got a hold of me. I’ve recently been seeing online that Kiss icy-poles are for sale again in Australia – I fondly recall summer holidays back in the day playing cricket at the park all day and going into the deli for a break. We’d buy a heap of Kiss icy-poles for lunch and Kiss bubble gum cards, head back over to the park, sit on the grass and scoff them while looking at what Kiss cards we got in our packets. Magic days…flaming youth! I still have all my Kiss cards – full sets of Series 1, 2 & 3, except recently I noticed I’m missing card #103, so if anyone has that one, PLEASE bring it to Cherry when I DJ this event in March!
Have you had any Kiss moments while in New York City?
Of course, I’m in the New York Groove. I’m finding there’s often things that come full circle in life: Shout It Out Loud was a favourite Kiss song of mine as a kid, and now I just found out that their first #1 it was actually written at producer Bob Ezrin’s apartment on the same fucking Manhattan street I’ve been living over the last couple of years. Unbelievable!
You’re billed as Rock DJ Paul Miles. How would you describe your DJ style?
I say Rock DJ to make it clear that I play rock’n’roll, and not EDM of any form. Most rock lovers don’t like mashing and mixing and scratching, so for me, it comes down to song selection. I see myself as the party host and the selector, and I respect the songs as a complete work of art, just as its creator intended. But with that, there’s a skill required to make a rock crowd react on a dance floor and around a bar, and keep them upbeat and having a great time partying all night – especially the ladies. Bridging is a key to me; you can usually find a link from one song to the next, whether it’s the genre or era, artists that collaborated together, or they’re from the same city, or what have you. It’s usually a journey of the coolest rock songs and artists since the 50s that move people, both physically and emotionally. But like the classic radio DJs from years gone by, I also like to turn people on to some great new rock songs they’ve probably never heard before and slot them in for freshness. You can’t just live in the past, you’ve got to keep moving forward in life. That’s how you entertain and create great times, I feel.
Anything else Kiss and Mötley Crüe fans can expect at Cherry bar’s Dr. Feelgood & Dr. Love event?
People know Cherry is THE rock spot to be in Melbourne, especially when touring bands come through. I know it’ll be a fun time to get together with other fans before and after these great rock’n’roll shows. As the Dr. Feelgood & Dr. Love name suggests, it’s about feeling good and celebrating the love of these two influential rock bands, so I’ll be sure to play a heap of songs from the extensive catalogues of both Kiss and Mötley Crüe. And there’ll certainly be plenty of other hard-hitting, beer-drinking, foot-stomping, boob-shaking, good-time, rock’n’roll party songs spread throughout the two days and nights while we’re kickin’ ass on the wild side. It will actually be a case of rock’n’roll all nite and party every day! I look forward to seeing you there.
Catch Paul Miles as part of Dr. Feelgood & Dr. Love @ Cherry Bar
Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th March
