Diesel on the record
Mark Lizotte, aka ‘Diesel’ revisits Australia’s most seminal live music performances and the stories behind them in new series Days Like These. The rocker tells Siobhan Duck how the project came about and what he thinks of the music industry today
AS HUMANS, WE LIKE TO CONGREGATE AND WE’D LIKE TO BE AROUND THE CAMPFIRE, SO TO SPEAK. IT’S SO BASIC. IT’S SO TRIBAL.
What happens on tour, stays on tour – unless you’re talking to Mark Lizotte, of course. The ARIA Award-winning Aussie rocker – also known to fans by his stage name Johnny Diesel – believes musicians are more likely to spill backstage secrets to one of their own.
This is probably why he has been able to get the likes of old friend Jimmy Barnes, rock band
Jet and the members of Hunters & Collectors to reflect on some of their live performances in the ABC documentary series Days Like These with Diesel.
“I would guess that they can let the guard down a little bit,” he explains of his interviews with Australian music royalty, with a knowing laugh.
“To kind of be like: ‘Well, you know what I’m talking about’. They feel like they’re talking to someone who knows their condition.”
Lizotte also suspects it was easier for the artists to speak so candidly about their performances because they had taken place at least a decade earlier.
“I think getting someone to talk about a concert a month later or so later [could be more difficult because] you’re not sure what you’re going to get,” he says.
“It’s like it’s all too close. They might not have been happy [with how the show went].
“There might be all these things that they were really emotional about.
“But getting them to talk about it 10 or 15 years later – a lot of healing has happened – and they can look back and almost feel removed from it…without getting too personal.
“It’s just funny with musicians (and creative people in general) when it’s still so fresh, they don’t really want to talk about it.”
With a lifelong passion for not only playing and listening to music – but talking about it too – Lizotte was handpicked to host the series by Mushroom chiefs.
“It really started with Warren Costello at Mushroom [Records],” Lizotte explains.
“I think the first phone call I remember him saying, something along the lines of, ‘You know, there’s a lot of lot of archival concert stuff that we’d really like to unearth and not just have it sitting on shelves.
“And I think that was around the same time that Michael Gudinski kicked off the Music Archive in Melbourne, so maybe that was kind of what brought things to his attention.
“And he suggested that I would be a good host because I love talking about music.
“Basically, he’d had many conversations with me waxing on stuff.”
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for a show like this.
Coming hot on the heels of pandemic lockdowns – which silenced live performances around the country, taking a huge toll on the local music industry – Days Like These is a love letter to Australian music. It takes viewers back to a simpler time, when people could still gather en masse in venues with carpets sticky with beer and the air scented with the stale smell of sweat and cigarettes.
“It’s like you never miss your water, until you’re really thirsty,” Lizotte reflects on the renewed appreciation for social gatherings.
“I think we’ve been spoiled in this country to some degree and so suddenly [since the pandemic] it’s like: ‘Oh, I didn’t realise how much I loved getting into a room full of people that I don’t know and feeling something together.’
“And I think that’s what people like [about live music]– apart from going seeing their favourite artists or going discovering a new artist – it’s that feeling of being in a room full of randoms and feeling something together…There’s only a few other things that we can get that from. Maybe a religious gathering or a sports gathering. Not everyone subscribes to those, and some people subscribe to both.
“But as humans, we like to congregate and we’d like to be around the campfire, so to speak.
It’s so basic. It’s so tribal. And doing it electronically via a live stream or zoom, it’s just not quite the same.”
Lizotte says the Australian music scene has changed a lot since many of the concerts featured in Days Like These took place.
While once, musicians perfected their craft on stage in pubs and clubs around the country, there are far fewer live music venues offering that rite of passage today. Instead, many performers are building their fans online through social media or on reality TV shows like The Voice.
“Yeah, you get that notoriety [through TV talent shows],” he says.
“And you get a lot of social media following, but then it drops off. Then, the irony to me is that you have to then make yourself a reality because [a] reality TV show is not real.”
Lizotte says the contestants who have managed to turn their 15 minutes of reality TV fame into a successful music career, have done so by “doing the hard yards and touring”.
And Lizotte has certainly done plenty of that over his many decades in the industry. From his early days performing on stage at a pub with just his close friends and family in the crowd, to selling out venues around the country.
While some performers argue that a mark of a great concert is when you look out to see people getting out of their seats to dance, Lizotte disagrees.
“I’ve never thought of myself as someone who plays in a dance band,” he laughs.
“Usually, it’s only the people who are inebriated that want to get up in front and dance in front of them [the band] and put their bums in people’s faces.
“I mean, you can move your body and everything, but when you start using more than your personal space at a gig, I have a problem with that.
“You don’t want people to be stiff as boards. It’s OK to move and groove but when your dancing gets to the point of being like Elaine from
Seinfeld, then that’s a different story.”
Days Like These with Diesel, Wednesday, 8.30pm, ABC TV Plus and streaming, ABC iview