Fishing

In our first year of existence, the Spines travelled and played around the lower North Island a fair bit and one of those early gigs was in Masterton.

It started out as a holiday but it soon got bigger than that

You know you’re fishing know your bait but you don’t know what you’ll catch

A couple of shakes is all it takes to make you want to quit

And pull in the line and see what’s on the end of it

It was 1981 Caroline, Rob and me and people didn’t know what to make of us – staunch woman drummer, crazyman jazz bass player and my angular, short-haired post punk guitar and vocal delivery. There were cries of – “Play some Dire Straits” and “Do you know any Rolling Stones?” and of course we only played my quirky songs. We went down alright in the end though and got invited back to a party after the gig. Our hostess proudly informed us that Masterton was the crime capital of New Zealand and rolled up a big smoke she called a “Kiwi Cocktail”

Though you never put to sea you weren’t put out by that

All the weather’s against you – you won’t be coming back

A couple of waves is all it takes you know all about that

And pull in the line and see what’s on the end of it

When we got back to the motel Rob asked me how I wrote those songs and being in the right mood I picked up my Gretsch and came up with the chords and riff to Fishing – the song that would become the title track to our first EP. It’s the only time I’ve ever written the music to a song in front of anybody. The lyrics came later when I got back home to where I lived on the Terrace.

And Satan’s got the reigns you know what hell is

Standing at the window on the Terrace

Rotting fish for brains wonders what the smell is

There’s something in us all that’s out to get us

Last week we played there again. This time the line-up was Hannah, Les, me and Simon, who was filling in for Malky on drums. There weren’t a lot of people there but some good friends made the effort and it was a great night for us musically.Simon and Les were rock solid and Hannah played some wonderful violin on the encore and keyboards throughout. I did have issues with the sound guy who told me to turn down the guitar and gave me so little vocal monitor that I had to over sing just to hear myself but it was a strong performance and we had people up dancing. It felt great to be playing out of town again.

You need another holiday to get over the one you just had

You didn’t get your pound of flesh you let it go at that

It’s always the same you start to say then let the words slip back

And pull in the line and see what’s on the end of it

After the gig the bands went back to the motor camp and some of us got outrageously drunk. I woke up the next morning thinking that I might need a hip replacement but it turned out I’d had some kind of fall and was just bruised down my right side – knee, hip and wrist. We limped on to the second leg of the tour.

There’s something in us all that’s out to get us
The Ghost of Electricity – War Stories by Jon McLeary is a new initiative at Off The Tracks, a series of stories and reflections from painter, writer and musician Jon McLeary 

To read any of the first 86 in the series click here