Grinspoon album gets a new life
THERE’S something about Grinspoon’s 1997 debut Guide
to Better Living that resonates with fans more than its other six albums.
It may have charted the lowest of all its studio releases (11th), but it was the one that launched a two-decade love affair for Australian rock and roll fans.
“In the 23 years or whatever I’ve been in the band, it’s what people ask about the most;; ‘I love youry first album,, Guide to Better Living, that was the one’,” says guitarist Pat Davern.
“I think a lot of people, our fans, look back on that time with great fondness — and we do too.
“It was the album that broke the band and set us up overseas and all those types of things.” Guide to Better Living is again bringing the band together, as the four-piece prepares to release a 49-track special edition of the album along with a 32-date national tour, to celebrate its 20th anniversary. “There’s always been a lot of love out there for Guide to Better Living, so we thought we’d celebrate the 20th anniversary by doing something special,” Davern said.
The special edition CD will include the original 16 tracks, along with 10 B-sides and rarities dug out by the band, and a pair of 1997 live recordings from Falls Festival and CBGB’s in New York. Davern said the band wanted to make sure it would be much more than just another re-release. “A lot of people remix and remaster the same 16 songs and just chuck it out there — we didn’t want to be doing that, we wanted to try and do the best re-release that you could put out,” he said. “That was the whole point of trying to find unreleased material. I mean, we found a song I didn’t even know we’d recorded for Guide to Better Living that we never released. “It was a fascinating exercise in finding what was out there.” After a fiveyear hiatus — interrupted by a 2015 supporting gig alongside Cold Chisel the band just couldn’t pass up — Grinspoon will be getting the band back together for a 32-date tour, pplayingyg Guide to Better Living g cover-to-cover along with a selection of the B-sides and rarities.
While the tour dates are more spread out than they once would have been, running from June to September, the band will still be pushing its onstage fitness to the limits.
“Listening to the record, it’s pretty raucous and loud and exciting, and we’re going to have to try and deliver that live,” Davern said.
“It’s a big show, it’s daunting in a wayy because it’s the whole off Guide to Better Living, which will be about an hour
on stage, then we’ll take a break to catch our breath and come back and do another 30 or 45 minutes of songs from other albums.
“But, like the repackage, we didn’t want to do a p--- poor effort.”
The Guide to Better Living tour will come to the Wool Exchange in Geelong on Thursday, August 3, the latest of “hundreds of shows” the group has played in the city.
“We were going to Geelong long before anyone gave a s--t about Grinspoon anywhere,” Davern said.
“It was a hard slog for us to get anyone to come and see us in Melbourne, but in Geelong we didn’t have that problem, we were embraced early on.”
Grinspoon will be supported by Hockey Dad, a NSW rock duo surfing the wave of success following the release of their debut album Boronia last year. Grinspoon will play at the Wool Exchange on Thursday, August 3.