Kindling Archives Vol. 1 - North by Northgate

Founding Lost Domain member Simon Ellaby moved to Tasmania last week.  As I write, he'll be holed up in his mountain retreat outside Hobart, reading-slippers on, packing down a pipe.  He's from another time is our Simon. Breaks in his pipes by curing them in brandy.  I love that.

So Simon has left town and I've been thinking about those nights when we convened with Eugene Carchesio to smoke trout at the Northgate sheds - a collection of fibro industrial buildings in a northern suburb of Brisbane.  Dragging gear up the precarious flight of stairs into a small room with a big PA.  I can still smell the fusty carpet.

At Pestorius Sweeney House, August 2005

We took our first communion in July 2004. It was a rhythm thing. Little instruments, big sound. Casio and miniature guitar. (Quarter-size violin came later). Eugene's first pummel on the tubs.  It was loud and it felt good. The first-time rush of blood.  I pulled into the driveway at home later that night and sat in my car with ears ringing, top of the world...

We called ourselves G55.  It was the model of headphones we had each coincidentally bought on sale.  No mystery there.

G55 played a handful of shows in our 18 month existence, our first in the carpark behind Jamies Cafe on 19 March 2005.  Pumice played too and jammed with us.  I have the recording. In fact, I have a wad of G55 recordings in the Kindling archive under my bed.

Reunion gig, Tongue and Groove, Feb 2007

We only released our first two sessions as cdrs on Kindling - lovingly boot stamped heavy card covers - imaginatively titled G55-1 and 2. No mystery there either.

The archive suggests we stopped hitting the Northgate sheds on a regular basis around December 2005. Here are a couple of unreleased favourites that distil the essence - smoke pouring outta Simon's little vintage Goldentone. In memorium...

G55 - 9.3 by Kindlingrecords

G55- 3.2 by Kindlingrecords

Second live show, at the 610 Club, 4ZZZ fundraiser.

May 2005.

Filmed by Rin Healy.