Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Thursday 11th June 2015
If the Narelles hadn't existed, it would have been necessary to invent them, so that actor and comedian Alan Brough and Casey Benneto could reunite at the cabaret festival in an affectionate 'omarje' to this overlooked player in the Aussie music scene.
Alan Brough and Casey Bennetto - The Narelles is the story of the band, told by its members.
From 1988 to 2005, the duo and their exceedingly shy drummer, Gary X, seem to have touched on, and left a mark on, so many areas of music, with a leaning towards the unquotable because it is unprintable and loud. Their reunion after all this time, with their reclusive drummer's contribution piped in from a tent on Popeye (a small cruise boat on the river running through Adelaide), showed that there is so much depth to the history of Aussie music that is still to be mined. Every band has its stories, arguments, and professional difficulties.
It also showed that Alan Brough, best known as one of the long time team captains in the Spicks 'n' Specks television quiz show, and in the professional tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has great guitar skills and a powerhouse voice. Casey Bennetto, writer of Keating the Musical, is his match in every way. Seeing the two playing with each other was vastly entertaining.
There was one of the few results of their three month sojourn in an Adelaide hills hut, a blend of Urban R and B and alternative folk, terms that must mean something to someone, and the highlight of the evening was a song about murdering Nick Cave. I could say that I'm too old to know who Nick Cave is, but I do know that one of his songs, with a red hand thing, is the backing for an ad about South Australia's Barossa Valley. People think
that will encourage visitors? It's like selling the Murray River with the banjo tune from Deliverance.
Of course, including Brough's refusal to accept that the whole thing was a joke, it's a story written by two excellent musicians about the fact that some bands refuse to lie down and play dead. It was very lively way of spreading that message and they can do it for ever. I certainly hope that they take it on the road, to somewhere, anywhere.
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