The
McAskill’s Notice Board: Hi
Folks, Welcome
to our world
Jan has now retired from teaching which now given us the opportunity to reform our Duo. Our Next Gigs Are:
Ron Tremaine's Musical Odyssey + Roasting The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel
Saturday, October 26th, 2019. 11.00am till 3.30pm
Prior gigs we've been happy to keep noted are.
Levi Smith's Clefs Barrie McAskill: A.K.A. "Levi Smith" Vocal: (www.mcaskill.com.au) Jan McAskill: Vocal: (Levis: Topsy & The Bear: Last two Levis reunions) Les Stacpool: Guitar & Vocal: (Original Levis, The Chessmen & the Browns) Gil Matthews: Drums: (Original Levis, the Impacts, Billy Thorpe, Richard Clapton) Billy Kristian: Bass & Vocal: (Max Merritt, Ray Columbus, Last two Levis Reunions) Warren Morgan: Keyboard & Vocal: (Chain, J.P.Y's All Stars, Last two Levis Reunions) Photos taken by Patricia Ann Leneghan My soul went to work and took me along for the
ride. We featured my Empty Monkey Album. Thanks Gil, good idea. A week ago (Monday 25th Oct) Jan and I drove to Melbourne
and booked in to the Frankston Motel. I’ll let Jan tell you her story first as I do tend to chat on leaving her nothing to say: Cheers, Barrie. Well folks, certainly a good time was had by one &
all! Barrie McAskill and the “Levi
Smith’s Clefs" performed exceptionally well, I thought.
This was reinforced by the excellent reception we received from both
audience members and fellow performers, I’m pleased to say! What a pleasure to see Ross Ryan looking incredibly well and happy and performing better than ever! It’s been many years since Barrie and I worked on a show with him in Townsville and he looks great! This is due, I believe, to the obvious joy his beautiful wife, Donna, brings into his life. I just loved the audience reaction when they heard the
first few magical strains of Mike Rudd's harmonica
on “I’ll Be Gone.” What a song! He and Bill Putt
were fabulous as they always are! Good to hear Neale Johns singing up a storm too! There’s no doubt that “Boppin' the Blues” always pleases our Aussie audiences! It was great to catch up with him again and meet his handsome son, Jesse. How good it was to hear Madder Lake again after
all these years. I finally got to meet them! They really played well
and it was fun singing the last round of backing vocals for Tony
Lake on the song commonly known as “The Na Na Song” with Ross,
Bill, and Mike. It’s a long time since those days in Newcastle at ‘Bus
Stop’ – the disco where they used to play sometimes back in the 70’s! It was a true inspiration to witness the amazing Jim Keyes doing such a fabulous job with his band "The Master’s Apprentices." It was a huge effort for him to undertake this performance and it did take its toll on him physically but the audience and his ‘apprentices’ got 110% of his energy and commitment. It’s no mean feat to come back from such ill health and perform so well. It just goes to show – you can’t keep a good man down! I loved renewing these old acquaintances backstage as well as meeting
for the first time, some wonderful people, some of whom were known to
me in name only until last Friday. It was a thrill to see some fabulous
friends and supporters having such a good time in the audience too.
It was great to see Julian Cumming again too. Julian was the assistant editor for Juke Magazine and ran ‘Life’ disco in Prahran. He and Barrie have been friends for many years and I’ve always enjoyed our times together very much. He looks really good! I regret not getting out the front quickly enough to meet his dear Mum, June. I’ve heard so much about her but didn’t get to make myself known to her as I would have liked to. I guess we’ll just have to return to Melbourne soon and visit! The smiling of face of David Flint was a joy to behold!
Some of you will know that David owned “The Thumping Tum” also
he and Julian owned and ran “The Garrison” together.
David looks very well too I must say. Also, it was wonderful to catch up with our bridesmaid and my long
time friend, Linda Morris. It was lovely to meet Tony Buetell and his wife Helen who came over from Tasmania to attend the concert. Tony played drums with Barrie’s Levi’s many years ago and is on many of their recordings. Unfortunately, he is no longer well enough to play drums but I know he and Helen enjoyed the show immensely and it was wonderful that they could attend. Another strikingly beautiful lady I met was Judy Harris (the late Tweed Harris' wife: The Groove, The Clefs) We didn’t get to spend very much time chatting but I look forward to getting to know Judy a little better some time in the future. It was good to see Barrie enjoying his time with her, no doubt reminiscing on old times. A real highlight for me was meeting the late Billy Thorpe’s
wife, Lynn. What a talented lady! I can’t believe how fast this week has flown! I must admit friends;
it was difficult to get excited about returning to school on Monday
morning after such a top time in Melbourne! I’ll hand you back to the ‘Bear’ now or he’ll be left with nothing
to say! I’m sure he’ll manage a word or two! It was also good to meet Ian McFarlane at last. I must say that Jan not only looked great in her fancy stage gear, she also brained them in her feature cameo spot. I could not have been more proud of her. I have never presented my Empty Monkey album live, feeling that it would not work without the original players and asking players to copy other players was not in my vocabulary. However Gil Matthews, the last drummer of The Clefs and the first of the Levi Smith’s Clefs and owner of Aztec Music suggested we play some tracks off Empty Monkey. After two rehearsals I was starting to relax, 40 years later there was only one note that bothered me, I could hit it but it made the breathing tight so I changed the melody to make things more comfortable as I always do. The souls blended, the magic hit, and off we went to muso's paradise, ears wide open and eyes smiling brightly. In this musical mesmeric state of being, Nirvana! Did I have a top time? You bet! Cheers, Barrie (The Bear)
Well here's a surprise that just changed my life. Jan & I were invited to the 2010 Legends of Aussie Rock Gala Concert & dinner to be held at the Adelaide Entertaiment Centre on Friday the 23rd of July 2010.
Before the night was over I had been presented with the inaugural Living Legends Trophy, which certainly changed the colour of my night.
I ended the show singing with Jon English conducting the Australian Youth Choir and Fiona Boyes, singing (Jon's choice),
"You Cant Always Get What You Want" "But you always get what you need"
thanks Tim Kowalick & Team at tk events and touring.
Tarrin, Jan & Barrie
For photos of the night (posted 5th August 2010) please link to:
Everyone close to me kept it a secret for 3 months, must have nearly killed them. I wondered why my phone had gone a little quiet. The photos of my shock and surprise looks on my face say it all. (An award for What? Why? from Who?), * a nip of brandy please*
I personally have become a computer nerd and can now burn and package
CDs. I can also take music off tapes and vinyl records and convert them
onto my hard drive, edit and burn onto CDs. The next task is to hook
up a video recorder and be able to convert tracks to burn DVDs. I now
have a six channel Beringer mixing desk and Alesis
mini verb hooked into my computer and can record directly on to a Cakewalk program (240 tracks), which allows us to record at home when
ever the mood strikes.
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