Dave Graney & Clare Moore will be playing at Darwin’s best dive bar, the Darwin Railway Club this coming Saturday, 19 September.

The Rails will host the exclusive Territory album launch of Dave & Clare’s new album, Laburnum Of The Mind, available in all the usual formats at their bandcamp page and all discerning outlets.

Laburnum Of The Mind is a rock album with grooves, upbeat tempos, drums, guitars, vibes, bass and vocals—truly an album with both an engine room AND a powder room.

On Saturday they’ll be playing songs from the new album as well as from across the 40 something albums they’ve written, played and produced over the many years they’ve been stomping on stages across Australia and the world.


OK, they’re from Melbourne but they’re not like those other Melbourne bands; they’re a rock band but they’re NOT like those other rock bands.
So, keep your head down and yourself tidy! And remember—Hits Are The Worst!

Earlier this week I got in touch with Dave and Clare and threw a few colourful questions their way.

They responded in bold and italic!

How did you get to where you are today?

Dave Graney: I’d say we took the long way around, but also made our own thing, our own sound/territory/tone/groove and stayed on it.

Clare Moore: Trial and much error and a lot of wonderful friends and family who helped us out along the way.

When did you last break the law?

Dave: I wouldn’t admit to anything like that.

Clare: Driving whilst listening to Highway Star by Deep Purple. If it isn’t against the law, it probably should be.

Your Desert Island Disc?

Clare: Casanova by The Divine Comedy … definitely NOT the Grateful Dead!!

Dave: Too many. Something instrumental jazz wise. I love vibes players like Gary Burton or Red Norvo.

Perhaps an album by guitarist John Scofield, Quiet, his only acoustic guitar album from 1998. Or some grimy 70s British folk–prog like Audience, Pentangle, Mark Almond Band, Family/Streetwalkers. Or some Allman Brothers Band, or just the Grateful Dead playing Dark Star or the Best Of the Byrds.

What was the first record you ever bought?

Clare: It was a KTel 20 Electrifying Hits LP that included Bobby Sherman (who was such a spunk!) singing his hit Easy Come Easy Go, it also had Spill the Wine by Eric Burdon and War and Knock Knock Who’s There by Liv Maessen.

Dave: La La by the Flying Circus.

What was the most recent record you bought?

Dave: I just bought six jazz CDs for $10 at an op shop in Kiama today. Don Burrows, Jim Kelly, Coleman Hawkins, Blossom Dearie, Dionne Warwick and Dave Brubeck.

Before that it was four vinyl albums by sax player Red Rodney, a fascinating character who played with Charlie Parker. Supposed to have been involved with the post boxing career of Sonny Liston and apparently was in a prison band with Wayne Kramer from the MC5.

Clare: Could have been an LP by the great vibes player Gary Burton. We have quite a few of those and they are all great!!

What are you reading at the moment – fiction & non-fiction?

Dave: I am reading a biography of Charlie Chaplin by Peter Ackroyd. Peter writes great non-fiction.

I usually love to read fiction. I started an Alan Bennett novel called The Uncommon Reader which is about one of the Queens Corgis running off and she gives chase and winds up in a mobile library that visits her Palace regularly. She takes a book out and reads it. Then reads more. She has met all the writers and also never has to have an opinion on anything … She is the fucking Queen.

I love to be immersed in a doorstopper novel for months. The biggest in the last 12 months was Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer. Incredible work. I also read another by Patrick White. I love all his novels. I also look forward to reading another John Cowper Powys.

Clare: I’m reading Robert Forster’s book Song Writers on the Run and greatly enjoying it.

Footy team/s – and why?

Clare: Saint Kilda in the AFL and Sturt in the SANFL. In Adelaide my grandparents (and then my folks) ran the closest pub to Unley Oval—The Earl of Leicester Hotel—so I was a double blues supporter. It was so great to follow a sensational team who just kept winning all the time. Michael Graham, Rick Davies and Paul Bagshaw were my favourite players.

I was lucky enough to see the St Kilda team play with Tony Lockett, Nicky Winmar, Stuart Loewe, Gilbert McAdam, Robert Harvey, Nathan Burke in the 90s several times at Linton St and Waverley.

Dave: I have come to realise I loved the SANFL and the VFL in my boyhood and youth.

The AFL—the national game—is incredibly decadent. They destroyed all the interesting local leagues. They are all athletes from private schools … it used to be players of all shapes and sizes. The football media in Melbourne is ridiculous, more media than any other organisations or outlets, they control all media.

Boring over-analysis during and then after the games, interviews with players walking off the field at half time. Horrible. I barracked for St Kilda, East Gambier and Sturt. The way modern players celebrate goals is plain silly.

Reflections on country town op-shops, CWAs etc and your best buys?

Clare: The chiffon gowns and Osti dresses from the Warrnambool Op shops were fantastic … I imagine the cocktail parties of the time would have been very glamorous indeed.

Dave: My favourites used to be in the Western District of Victoria. Fletcher Jones used to be centred in Warrnambool. Op shops in Coleraine, Hamilton, Casterton were full of great suits and shirts. “Fill a bag for $5!” Nowadays I still look for books and CDs, pens, belts, cloth badges. I really love knitwear but that doesn’t age at all. There was a vintage shop in Penola that was incredible – Jill’s Vintage and Pound Puppy in Adelaide. I’m not so into suits. More a casual style, square-toed shoes, V-necked t shirts and jumpers, and slacks.

Is it time to bring back the safari suit?

Dave: I bought a great one in 1992 and still have it. I thought they were the favoured suit for film directors. Casual but formal. Lots of pockets. People got madly excited when I wore one. I couldn’t understand the fuss.

Clare: Its already happened! I saw a social media post for a very groovy hat maker the other day where the model was wearing a beige short-sleeved safari suit. Very smart indeed!

And what about The Darwin Rig—should we bring back the collared short-sleeve shirt, longish shorts and long socks for workwear?

Dave: Definitely, that was the look of all 70s school teachers too.

Clare: I thought that look went with really tight short shorts? Yes, Geography teachers.

Stetson or Akubra? Beaver fur or rabbit?

Dave: I had a hat made by Blakesby Hats in Adelaide. I wanted one in the style of Brian Jones. I have an Akubra in nice rabbit. The oldest hat I have is a Homburg made of Beaver pelt. I would love a straw boater.

Where do old silverback roadies go to retire?

Clare: Mostly I reckon they use their unusual but very useful skills to better the lives of their family, friends and local community. There IS no retiring in this business.

Dave: Have you ever watched the tv series Saxondale? It dwells on this character. Steve Coogan stars in it. But usually they get jobs in arts centres or theatres and work to strict union conditions.

What makes you happy?

Clare: Playing drums onstage in front of an audience. It becomes more apparent the longer I play.

Dave: I’m with Al Pacino—“There is no happiness. There is only concentration”—I think he meant being lost in concentration on some work you are involved in. I do love playing music, singing my songs and playing electric guitar. I love a clean sound and colouring it a little with a phase pedal or some short or long delay. I also have two types of overdrive, one with a bit of distortion and another with full fuzz.

What makes you angry?

Dave: Same as most people I guess. Political forces, fudges and failures. Now the entirety of mainstream media as well as the social ones exist only to inflame and anger so its total enshittification ain’t it?

Clare: I’m in angreement with Dave on this.

Front loader or top-loader?

Clare: We have a front loader, but I am still concerned that the water will pour out when I open the door. We don’t have a dishwasher for that reason.

Dave: Hunh?

Pencil or pen?

Dave: I have a lot of both. I love fountain pens. And cursive writing.

Clare: Pen probably. I must try using one again for a stir.

Is it time to bring back the transistor radio?

Clare: Yes, I love them, they emit the correct sound for am radio talkback and music and can have a comforting effect crackling away in the background while you pad around the house. They are getting harder to find in Op shops too … along with CD Walkmans.

Dave: We have always have one handy.

330,000 klicks on the clock in your (now deceased) Tarago! If those tyres could talk what would they say?

Dave: We put 800,000 kilometres in the van before that. Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams and Dickie Betts all had great songs called Rambling Man.

Clare: You get a lot of daydreaming done staring out the window on the road, and as my annual report cards conveyed, that was my greatest achievement at school!

Dave Graney & Clare Moore will play the Darwin Railway Club on Saturday, 19 September.

Be there or be somewhere else!