It’s been over 20 years since rockers Baby Animals first exploded onto the music scene, but they are far from disappearing.
Disbanding in 1996, the group reformed in 2007 and began touring again throughout 2008/2009. In April this year they released their first new single in almost twenty years, swiftly followed by new album This Is Not The End and are about to embark on yet another tour of this wide brown land that they call home.
In celebration of their upcoming tour, Suze DeMarchi and David Leslie tell us about the gigs that changed their lives.
The First Gig We Played…
Frontwoman supreme Suze DeMarchi began her career in Perth at the ripe old age of 17, before being signed to EMI and shipped off to London to record as a solo artist in 1985.
DeMarchi speaks fondly of the first show she ever played, highlighting the moment she stepped out on stage at the Cat And Fiddle (Mount Morley, Perth) with first band Photoplay in 1982 as a definitive moment in her life.
“I wasn’t nervous or anything…The minute I walked off that stage I realised that that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life… We had two nights there and the second night there I was petrified, I was absolutely shitting my pants – I knew what I was in for.”
For his first ever gig, guitarist David Leslie scored a spot on the bill (through the help of his guitar teacher) for The Entrance Mardi Gras in 1979. The school formed band was to play to a crowd of thousands in Memorial Park whilst hyped up on a “combination of nerves mixed with creaming soda” .
They were to follow “the big procession”- a display consisting of floats that had been “assembled and decorated by such parties as The Entrance Butchery, Sterlands Building supplies, Long Jetty Bait Shop, etc – all classy/exotic stuff.”
“I cranked my 10 watt beast up as loud as it could go and even though we were shitting ourselves, at one point we all looked at each other and shared a collective “FUCK YEAH!!” moment.
I still get to share those moments with my band. It’s probably the best feeling you can get!”
Stevie Wright Rock & Roll Show
Guitarist Dave Leslie didn’t find such a life affirming experience in his first moments on stage, but in his first turn as a punter. Winning two tickets through radio station 2GO to see the Stevie Wright Rock & Roll show at Wyong Memorial Hall in 1976, Leslie notes the atmosphere’s effect on himself.
“I remember walking wide-eyed, through groups of kids not much older than us… who were drinking, smoking, fighting and generally doing the sorts of things that kids who lived in Wyong did, if a big rock show came to town.”
Claiming he can still feel the volume from opening act – “I had never heard anything as loud in my life”, Leslie notes that as the night wore on he began to know his future in the crowd that surrounded him – “I wanted to become a drunk and stoned punter”, a dream that has been ‘fulfilled many times since.”
Stevie Ray Vaughn
A key influential moment for DeMarchi came through seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Perth Concert Hall in the early eighties, an experience the she speaks of as having affected her deeply. “I’ve never seen someone perform that way with their guitar… You couldn’t really separate the two… He played guitar like it was a part of his body.”
The gig was opened by The Fabulous Thunderbirds (featuring Vaughan’s older brother Jimmie Vaughan), who Baby Animals went on to play with in America.
“Seeing someone like that play, it makes you understand a little about how much time you need to put into what you do, being a musician, you need to put a lot of time and effort into it to even be considered half-good.”
The Pretenders
It comes as no surprise that another of DeMarchi’s top gigs comes from fellow female frontwoman Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. Playing the Perth Entertainment Centre in 1982 DeMarchi speaks in admiration of simply “seeing a woman fronting up a dirty rock band” like Hynde as “inspiring for a girl to see”.
“It just made me think you know, YOU could do it too, you could do what you wanted… All of those songs as well really struck me – I think she always wrote from a real girl from the 50’s perspective ”
Perhaps most formative for Leslie was the experience of seeing The Police in 1981, a gig that he describes as a “pandemonium”. “Being the diligent punter that she was, my mother procured the family tickets in the second row of the concert” but on arrival, the family were advised that the seats were occupied by “free-loaders”.
“My parents were adamant that we were going to claim our seats! During the gig my dad had to constantly protect my younger siblings from the surging crowd, engaging in fisticuffs in the process! I had the best night… The band was on fire, the crowd was out of control and my dad was involved in the fight that broke-out down the front. It was awesome”.
Out First Headlining Shows
Forming in 1989 and releasing their self-titled debut in 1991, Baby Animals quickly cemented themselves in Australian rock history, the album spending six weeks at number one, going eight times platinum and becoming the highest-selling debut Australian rock album of all time, a record that stood for twelve years.
Leslie recalls a gig in 1991 shortly after the release of “Early Warning”, the group playing a run of shows around Sydney, their “first real headline shows.”
“The gig was at the Great Northern at Chatswood… we were heading to the venue at around 8pm… When we were about 15 minutes away the Tour Manager got a call on his recently acquired mobile phone warning us that the place was ‘going off ‘and to wait down the road while the crew could figure out a safe, alternative way to get the band into the venue.
We ended up parking a block away and had to walk through the back of the business next door in order to get access to the dressing room. I mean, it wasn’t exactly Beatlemania but it sure was exciting at the time…”
“The feeling of playing in that environment, your eyes stinging from the sweat but you can’t get a free had to wipe ’em, it was then that we all got an inkling that this little rock record we had done might have some legs. It did indeed change all our lives.”
DeMarchi notes a similar gig at The Central Club in Melbourne, where they pulled up to the venue only to find a line surrounding the entire club.
“We just went, ‘what’s going on here, there are people everywhere’ [Laughs] We didn’t equate that it could be that they where there to see us. And that was the beginning of when that started happening pretty much everywhere we started playing.
I just thought, wow, this is the beginning of something good. It was a real great moment you know.”
The Supports
As well as the plethora of solo shows, the band have also toured with some incredible acts, but there were two shows in particular that stood out to DeMarchi and Leslie.
For Leslie, supporting Bryan Adams during his Waking Up The World tour is a standout, especially the three nights the tour played London’s Wembley Arena. He notes that the gigs were well attended by the public, but it was the “rock royalty that assembled backstage” that got him truly excited.
“It was on one of these nights that I got to meet one of my heroes, Mick Ronson…We had a great although brief chat and he said that he liked our band. Well, that was enough for me. I was so excited I made a $380 drunken phone-call to the folks back home that night.”
DeMarchi notes one particular show in Salt Lake City supporting Robert Plant (Of Led Zeppelin) in 1993, and for great reason. “I’ve got pictures of me and him, on one of the Salt Lakes, like looking like we’ve just got married”
The photo in question is buried “safe away somewhere” up in DeMarchi’s attic, and depicts Plant and DeMarchi with the sun setting behind them, “facing each other, holding like a glass of champagne and sort of toasting each other.”
“It gave me hope that you know, you don’t have to stop just because you’ve reached a certain age or whatever, you can keep being the kind of classic act that you are and following your path, and just doing it the way you want to do it.”
Baby Animals 2013 Australian Tour Dates & Tickets
Feed The Birds Tour
w/ special guest STEVE BALBI (Noiseworks/Electric Hippies)
Thursday, 24 October – Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
moshtix.com.au
Saturday, 26 October – ANU Bar, Canberra
ticketek.com.au
Wednesday, 30 October – The Wool Exchange, Geelong
oztix.com.au
Thursday, 31 October – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
cornerhotel.com.au
Saturday, 2 November – Astor Theatre, Perth
showticketing.com.au
Saturday, 9 November – Metro Theatre, Sydney
metrotheatre.com.au
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