Christmas Special Edition

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05 December 2017

Hello Blogger, The Borich family wish you a very safe Christmas and Holiday period

1973 - The La De Das - Rock And Roll Sandwich - Remastered

Heya all, Here it is Available NOW on CD to fill your Christmas stockings and some tales from my forth coming book.

Rock And Roll Sandwich AUD30.00

This was Kevin's first LP as a three piece band - under the La-De-Da’s brand and has been remastered and self released to all his fans via this website only.

I had written some songs with the help of Keith Barber (Drums) and Ronnie Peel (Bass) & we decided to record again so we went into EMI and started, but very soon we found that we didn’t like the sound, it wasn’t like we were on stage – my amps just didn’t sound like they did at Live shows, and neither did the drums. I thought because in those days studios seemed to be dead meaning sound absorption treatment on the walls sucked the life out of amps and Drums. Rod Coe was producing with John Taylor engineering. - continued

We all talked about how we could fix the problem and came up with the logical solution “ Set up like at a live gig” and the “Green Elephant” was a venue [The Doncaster Theatre] that had High Ceilings and a great live sound, so Rod bought the 8 track recorder and JBL Monitors into the Green Elephant and set up in an adjoining room. We just played as we would a live show, not stopping, then after checking each song to see if it was a keeper or not. The result, a great alive sound for Drums, Guitars & Bass. The vocals were done later in EMI B studio along with the Piano track “ No Law Against Having Fun”.

For my first keyboard attempt. I’d come across this old piano and had it in our house at Watson street to learn, but I’d just bang away teaching myself the chord positions and then pretending to be Ray Charles, sometimes with the Sunnies on and appropriate sway, usually at a party and that song grew outta that goofing around.

We were Very happy with how it came out and were lucky to have Renee Geyer & Bobbie Marchini sing backing vocals which was a first. I had seen a young Renee in her early band called Sun and thought she was a honey & totally awesome, we got along just fine and became very good friends still to this day. Other musicians spicing the soup were – Don Wright Sax’s, Joe Whippy on Congas and of course John Taylor engineering & Rod Coe producing.

We really needed another single that would get us on the radio. Our last song wasn’t played enough so we decided to find a 'Radio Friendly' song to record and Keith came up with a then unheard of Check Berry song called “To Pooped Too Pop”. When Keith first played the record for me I didn’t like it at all, but got to see where he was coming from eventually understanding it’s positive qualities. Besides being a great drummer, Keith was a creative ideas man so I took his advise and treated it as a fun tune, which is what it is.

Anyway the damn thing got to number 4 giving us a needed boost so we gladly played it for a long time while it was happening - then stopped. I figure when I’m 75 or 80 when the pipes get clogged, I can play it as a serious autobiographical piece.

We did the Sunbury Festival again in 1975 along with a heap of bands including AC/DC and Deep Purple. We were on before AC/DC who were supposed to play but got into a blue with Purples roadies and told them to get Foocked, so they walked off & didn’t play in protest. After our set, which went over really great as the crowd loved it & we were all on a natural high because of it.

At a point when it felt like the beginnings of “contact”, due to herbs & potions, I had a wander taking in the night canvas above, then, as I was walking by one of the many caravans back stage, one had its door open, I peeked in, it was full of Fender Stratocasters and a guy was tuning them, his back to me, the scene seemed to have a magnetic pull and I stuck my head right in now doing the Wow!! And he saw me. He goes in his UK type accent “ Hi - Ouw was thut jorst uon biffore playin” ‘ I answered -“ That was us – I’m kevin“ – “eer Bluody greet , Richie thoort sou tue - arya pleyin arund tamorra “ – “Yeah at the Hard Rock in Melbourne [ex Berties] , ( I kinda Joked) “Hey tell Richie to come down and have a play with us” – “Ooky ull due thut” After a bit more chat I said seeya and went off thinking, Wow - Richie Blackmore liked us. I forgot all about my invitation and went and sat by myself looking up at the sky in forever wonder until it was time to leave.

The next night at The Hardrock on stage, I see a guy making his way towards us holding up a white Fender Stratocaster high above his head through the tight crowd with a guy with lots of black curly hair in his slip stream ending up on the stage. Yep, it was him --