Over a career spanning 21 years, Fireballs have become an institution in the Australian live scene, while also remaining a huge drawcard for punters. Indeed, they regularly sell out venues with a capacity of over a thousand people, simply through their fan pages and word of mouth – no advertising necessary.
Hence fans are in for a treat as they prepare to hit the stage with blues man Barrence Whitfield and his devilish band The Savages, as they both play one of the most intimate shows of their recent careers at Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne this Good Friday. Jim Murray caught up with singer and drummer Eddie Fury ahead of the gig.
Eddie Fury cackles as he remembers the first gig this interviewer saw the band at, back in 1993 as a squeaky voiced barely-teenager at the Pushover Festival at (the then) Olympic Park in Melbourne. “Yeah that was with … It probably would have been Frenzal Rhomb’s first gig.” Indeed almost 20 years later, he also remembers TISM and the Hoodoo Gurus headlining.
“Yeah, if I remember correctly they had big bubble costumes on their heads.” At that stage, TISM in their prime and Fireballs also heading in to the stratosphere of Australian music was enough to blow the mind of a 13 year old schoolboy; but all this time later, TISM are no longer. Despite an eight year hiatus, Fireballs are still playing to crowds that make other music promoters jealous. What’s kept them going is the obvious question? Indeed, they’re not even resting on the laurels they are more than entitled to – they have recently put out a new album; Hellrider.
Now that they’re not at the mercy of record companies and shareholders, has it made the process of writing a new album any different? “Yeah well we’re just a bit older and are a bit more ourselves and need that artistic control,” Fury says. “It’s good—it helps us in the writing process as well seeing as we’re not trying to make a hit … it has taken us a good year to do the last album, which is probably the longest that we have ever spent on that many tracks.”
Since reforming in 2006, however, as a four piece line up with two guitarists instead of the previous one; fans may wonder if the Fireballs are still the same band they adored in the 1990s prior to their initial split. Is the new line up working for the band? “Yeah we’ve had a lot of positive feedback, obviously with the line up change and having two guitarists people are sort of worried that we won’t sound like Fireballs”, Fury admits.
“It does sound like nothing else, but in my book, in there with the two guitar line up, it’s just gotten a little bit heavier and a little bit faster, and probably back to our Terminal Haircut release. It’s raw, and there’s plenty of interesting things going on in it too … having that luxury of being in the studio and doing experimental sort of things, having a bit of a laugh and pitching songs … it’s all very good.”
To be like a dog digging after a bone though, one has to ask Fury – does the two guitar sound change the band that much? Apparently not – it reinvigorates them. “I’ve always just thought that the two guitar line up is actually probably truer to what we recorded on sixes back in the day, because if you listen to all the songs, there’s still rhythm guitar underneath it, so it was sort of like a four-piece band in the studio and a three-piece band live, you know what I mean? So I think it has actually enhanced what we’ve already done and sort of brought that recorded sound to the stage and the live sphere.”
Speaking of live, which is where the band arguably do their finest work; this Friday sees them playing with Barrence Whitfield and The Savages as he touches down from Boston in the USA to play a show in the hot and sweaty confines of Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne ahead of his Bluesfest shows in Byron Bay this Easter Weekend.
Are they looking forward to a hot and sweaty club gig? Fury is more than enthusiastic. “Yeah well it’s kind of good to play to a small room again, especially with someone of the likes of Barrence Whitfield. That’s what we’re looking forward to really, is seeing some of Barrence’s new tunes and stuff. You know, he’s just a mad man entertainer and stuff … he’s very much out of the mould that we like … we was probably invented without a mould really.”
For a band that has similarly never fit the mould like Fireballs, it is cheekily suggested that the environment might be right for an onstage collaboration between the band and Whitfield, who is notorious for his love of live on stage hook ups. Fury chuckles: “That’s completely up to Barrence, I’m afraid, but yeah, why not? … Let’s have a go.”
Pushing the idea further and suggesting that if Whitfield reads about it on Tone Deaf while he’s in Melbourne it might push it over the line, Fury offers up a gem of a story relating to collaborations. “I’ll tell you a funny story about Fireballs in that sort of vein. When we supported Dick Dale, we were actually driving to the sound check and we hadn’t met Dick at this stage, and Steve Walker on 3RRR was talking about the Dick Dale show, this is at the old Palace in St Kilda … Steve Walker was saying ‘Ahh, two great legends right next door to each other; will you be doing a collaboration on stage?’ … and I’m sort of pleased that he mentioned this to Dick Dale’s roadie, and he was Like ‘Hey Dick! They’re talking about you and Chris Isaak doing a collaboration on stage!’… and he goes ‘What!? Well where is he?’ and then he goes ‘Well he’s just next door’ and he said ‘alright, well grab up the amps’ and he grabbed the amps, and came over and there he was, Dick Dale and his roadie, saying ‘Well I heard that we’re going to play together, where can we set up?’
Fury admits to being a co-conspirator behind the whole performance, saying “Yeah, Dick Dale actually instigated the whole thing, with Steve Walker and myself.” Alas his role has never been publicly acknowledged until now. “Yeah Chris Isaak was actually quite chuffed at the whole experience … never got thanked for that one!”
The gig going public has been acknowledging Fireballs in droves since they returned to the live scene some five years ago, selling out 1,000 capacity venues on a regular basis and ensuring band merchandise flies off the desks. So what can we expect of the band in the near future? For a start, there’s international touring.
Fury reveals “Yeah, well, you know, the psychobilly genre overseas, as much as it is underground … I guess it’s a bit like metal … it just bubbles underneath … I mean you go to festivals overseas and you see like four or five thousand psychobilly dudes just sort of hanging out there with all the hair and double basses and bling and whatever goes with it. It’s encouraging—you get this warm, fuzzy sort of feeling inside of you, and you get that in Australia as well. So you know, we’re part of an international movement really. As you can see, there’s Horrorpops and Nekromantix … and all that sort of thing. So it’s definitely sort of gaining recognition. When we sort of started it, no one really even understood what we were going on about.”
Further, Fury also lets slip that there is a new album in the works. He says “[We] might just have to do another Fireballs album. We’re in the midst of writing a song that’s going to go for 15 minutes at the moment, so that’ll be hilarious.” In the meantime, fans in Melbourne will be lucky enough to catch them at Ding Dong Lounge in Market Lane in the city with The Level Spirits as they play a Bluesfest sideshow with Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. Get your tickets from www.dingdong.oztix.com.au or try your luck as we have one double pass to the show for a Tone Deaf reader to win at www.tonedeaf.com.au/win/
