wagga jawaka
British band Wagga Jawaka performs the music of Frank Zappa. After the response to their first gig (a concert to raise money for cancer suffers), April 1994, they decided to make Wagga Jawaka a permanent project.
Liz Carter said:
The cd was recorded live in about 3 hours, which is why we called it "warts
'n' all". It's not perfect but if we had been able to spend days in
the studio it would have been a lot better, but c'est la vie!
Wagga is northeast of England slang for friend / mate.
around june 2002 wagga jawaka had two new players:
discography
1 |
wagga
jawaka: warts 'n' all (2002, cdr, uk, private release) - all compositions by frank zappa |
concerts
random notes
(edited)
info by bob meyrick - Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002:
Subject: Another UK Zappa tribute band
Hello there,
In addition to the Muffin Men and the Zappatistas there is another UK Zappa
tribute band to check out. They're called Wagga Jawaka and are based in the
North East. I saw then at the Maze in Nottingham on Friday 15 March 2002 and I
was very impressed. The band is a nine-piece: Mick Yare (guitar), Liz
Carter (keyboards), Michael Shoulder (bass), Dave Hooks (drums), Graham Hardy
(trumpet, flugel), Bryn Collinson (tenor sax), Nick Kennedy (alto, soprano sax),
Dave Brock (trombone), Sue Ferris (baritone sax, flute, piccolo). They have a CD
available - I bought mine at the gig - which was
recorded live in the studio, and is a pretty good representation of what they
do. The overall sound of the band strikes me as being an amalgam of the 1988
band and 'Roxy and Elsewhere', with a hint of 'Lather'. I'm not sure how often
they play; it's very much a labour of love, and given the economic realities of
the music scene in this country they are unlikely to be making any money! If you
do manage to catch one of their gigs, buy the CD; the money will be used to fund
rehearsals, publicity etc.- the musicians won't be pocketing any of the
proceeds.
It's interesting to compare the differences between Wagga Jawaka and the
Zappatistas, which have broadly similar line-ups. The Zappatistas are mainly
instrumental (I don't think John Etheridge regards himself
primarily as a vocalist!), while Wagga Jawaka do more of the songs - at the gig
I saw them, they did 'The Torture Never Stops', 'Bobby Brown', 'Son of Orange
County', 'Yo Mama', 'More Trouble Every Day'. Also Mick Yare's guitar sound is
much closer to Zappa's (he did a really nice 'Watermelon in Easter Hay') and
there were times in his solos when I recognised some of Zappa's licks. John
Etheridge sounds and plays like John Etheridge! (This isn't a criticism, I'm
just highlighting the different approaches.)
All in all, I really enjoyed Wagga Jawaka a lot, and I'd recommend any UK Zappa
fans to see them if at all possible. They don't have their own website yet, but
for more information, go to www.jazzservices.org.uk
and follow the links to the bands database.
Cheers,
Bob Meyrick
info
- Bob Meyrick
- Robin Dawne