With episodes from Series One, Two and Three now out on
DVD and The RocKwiz Christmas Special screening o Christmas Eve, Mess + Noise invited Julia
Zemiro and Brian Nankervis to email each other a few questions, answers and
thoughts about RocKwiz.
Brian: Hi Julia. I’m going to
start at the very beginning. A very good place to begin. What do remember about
your audition for Rockwiz?
Julia: Well Brian, I remember
being excited to meet you! I was a big fan of ‘Let The Blood Run Free’. After
meeting you, Kenny and Peter (our other two producers) I did an autocue test,
some script, made you laugh I think. I hope. You all thanked me and as I was
stepping out the door, you called out … ‘Hey actually, before you go, can I
give you a little music quiz?’ I said ‘Sure’, with trepidation in my voice,
because suddenly, maybe it was music knowledge that was going to get the
successful applicant over the line. I was reading the big A3 sized American
issues of Rolling Stone back in 1982 when I was in year 10. Would save my money
up to buy them as they were imported. So I was confident I knew SOME stuff, but
I was nervous.
You gave me twenty questions I think. The last ones
were in the line of:
Martha and The … ? Joan Jett and The … ? Paul Kelly
and The … ? I stopped and said, ‘Well there’s been so many … The Dots, The Messengers,
The Coloured Girls’ … and just that morning I’d been reading a street mag and
had read about a new incarnation of PK with The Boon Companions. Later, muuuuch
later when I had got the job, you told me how happy those answers had made you.
I had no idea what a huge PK fan you were. So I got about 70% I think you said.
What do you remember of the audition?
Brian: Kenny and Pete and I had already auditioned a couple
of actors in Sydney before we met you in Melbourne. In a tiny casting agency in
a back street of Prahran? The Sydney actors were okay asking the questions and
delivered the short intro and outro pieces to camera pretty well, but seemed to
flounder when it came to answering music questions. Not only did they seem
thrown by the idea of answering questions, but their scores were low! You,
however, handled the question asking and pieces to camera with a refreshing
ease, you relished the idea of answering some trivia questions … and got most
of them correct! I remember your big smile, genuine enthusiasm for the project,
smart shoes and that we had some friends in common we’d both worked with.
Julia: My agent rang me to say I
had a call back, whereby I had to ‘run’ a whole show with the actual band
behind me, with you on set as adjudicator. There were two teams of contestants,
made up of Melbourne comedians. And it was filmed. I relished it and loved it. Then
you offered me the job. And I have been pretty happy about it since!
Brian: And we’re pretty happy too!
Julia: Ok … here’s one for you.
I’m often asked about the pre history of RocKwiz and I’ve got a fair idea how
it happened, but I’d love to hear your version …
Brian: Rockwiz began life at Renegade
Films sometime in 2002. Kenny Connor and Peter Bain-Hogg believed the time was
right for a music quiz show. I wasn’t there, but I wasn’t far away.
Kenny was a friend of a friend and we’d bonded over a
mutual passion for great concerts and rare vinyl. I’d met Peter at the Last
Laugh and worked with him on the Jimeoin Show at Ch 7 in 1995. They invited me
to be involved and we came up with the structure we use to this day … the
contestant selection process using ‘rock brains’ from the audience, ‘Who Can It
Be Now’ segments resulting in two artists performing their songs with the house
band before they sit down, general music quiz questions, ‘Million Dollar Riff’,
‘Master Blaster’ and the duet that closes the show.
In March 2002, we filmed a pilot episode with Stephen
Cummings, Ella Hooper, Rebecca Barnard, Dugald and the Orkestra at Chapel Off
Chapel Theatre in Prahran. The television networks all passed on the concept,
but a change of guard at SBS encouraged Peter to re submit. They decided they
liked it and commissioned our first series! You came on board in September 2004
and episode one, featuring Joe Camilleri and Christine Anu went to air on
January 27, 2005.
Julia: That first episode I kept
thinking ‘don’t stuff this up, don’t stuff this up!’
Brian: Had you performed at The
Esplanade Hotel, or the Gershwin Room before? Had you been to see anything
there?
Julia: Sadly no. I came to
Melbourne from Sydney when I was twenty-four to do the three year acting course
at VCA. It was a competitive course to get into and I was supporting myself by
waitressing every Friday and Saturday night. The workload was extreme and I
just never went out. Luckily my good friend Kate Herbert, who I lived with, is
a theatre reviewer and I would be her plus one, so I saw a lot of wonderful
theatre and comedy, which was great for me as that’s what I was studying. But I
was living in Brunswick, and yep … I pretty much stuck to that side of the
river. How about you? You’d spent a bit of time at the Espy before RocKwiz
hadn’t you?
Brian: ‘Espy Comedy’ at the Gershwin Room was one of the
great nights of stand up comedy in the early 90s. Then there was ‘Hessie’s
Shed’. I happily played Paul Hester’s second banana for those shows … did the
warm ups, made toast for guests, performed poetry and ran a little rock and
roll quiz each night, asking guests to complete a lyric. One night Midnight Oil
drummer Rob Hirst was having a drumming duel with Hessie and Peter Garrett was
in the audience. I put in a Midnight Oil lyric and Paul spotted Peter up the
back and asked the audience if he should come up and sing the next line on
stage. The shiny dome seemed to float forwards from the rear of the room and he
climbed on stage and proceeded to mix up the opening lines of ‘U.S. Forces’.
Very funny.
Julia: We had Paul on the show … towards the
end of the first series. I remember it clearly. I was very excited, nervous and when the show
started he seemed a bit combative. I didn’t fight it, I just kept being playful
and about ten minutes in, he relaxed. I also remember hugging him goodbye at
the end of the night and he smelled like sandalwood.
Brian: He was a little confused as
to what song he should do at the beginning of the show. He kept changing his
mind and finally Lucky came up with the brilliant idea of Paul doing ‘Wipe Out’at the front of the stage, using a snare drum set up like he used to use with
Crowded House.
How important is location to a show?
Julia: There’s such a history of
music at The Espy that it’s a perfect location for what we do. I also think
it’s cheeky and daring to turn a band room into a TV studio. When we tour and
play big theatres, where the audience numbers in the room go from two hundred
and fifty to two thousand punters, the whole cast and crew revels in having
more space on stage and off. It makes everyone lift their game.
Brian: Can you remember first
meeting Mark, Lucky and James?
Julia: At the call back. I was
nervous. I had met James before, as he was a friend of a friend. He had seen me
in an Impro show I used to do called ‘Spontaneous Broadway’ where a group of six
improvisers make up musicals on the spot. James saw that show several times,
loved it and suggested to Renegade that I should audition. I really owe it all
to him. I didn’t know Pete or Mark, but seven years on, I can say I am proud to
call them my friends. They’re like the wiser, older, cheeky brothers I never
had. They are the energy, the battery power. When I’m side of stage and I hear
the opening bars of our theme song, it’s like a switch going on in your head
and your hips and your groin … and you just wanna get out on that stage and
make people laugh.
Brian: What about Dugald?
Julia: Oh yes. Very dry, very
funny and I was quite overwhelmed to find out he had roadied so much for
Crowded House.
Brian: Dugald is such an important part of our team. Steady
as a rock. Hilarious. Smart. Won’t eat anything he can’t throw over a fence. Largely
unflappable. Has a powerful left foot kick and an excellent Frisbee throw. I’m
not sure about the beard, but there you go.
When you look back at the early episodes from 2005,
what are your
impressions?
Julia: How young we all look. How
chubby in the face I am. How we were still figuring out what the show was,
although I must say the blueprint was there. They were only twenty-five minute
shows then. Also it wasn’t til the second series that I got a great new hair
cut, a fringe, some stunning clothes and the red lips. A transformation if you
like. How about you?
Brian: Watching the early episodes, I’m
surprised at the frantic pace. I seem to be surrounded by stuff that is now on
shelves behind me. In the really early episodes I’d hold up the scorecards and introduce
you from a stool behind my podium. What was I thinking! My pronunciation of your
surname has improved dramatically. My clothing was a lot more casual and I
liked the way the band played an excerpt of Neil Young’s ‘Tonight’s The Night’
as walk on music for Dugald, who was clean shaven and occasionally wore board
shorts! There’s a few things I’d forgotten … Sam Cutler, former road manager
for the Stones and the Grateful Dead introducing the band like he introduced
The Stones in ’69, Michael Gudinski buzzing for Jimmy Barnes, Tony Biggs
introducing Dave Graney as “The Housewives’ Choice”, the roar from the room
when Chrissy Amphlett came out, Dave McCormack doing the Nutbush, Tim Rogers,
Dave Larkin and Tex Perkins doing ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’.
Julia: Ah, The All Star episode,
with those three boys and Rebecca Barnard, Ella Hooper and Deb Conway. I had my
hands full that night! But you know, I sometimes wish the audience could see
the rehearsals, as well as the actual show. The rehearsals are fascinating … the
moment when the artists first come together. Sometimes they know each other,
sometimes they are strangers. To see them and the band negotiate, rehearse, re
configure, stop, start and then produce the version of the song that gels for
everyone is a privilege.
Brian: Absolutely … almost my favourite part of
the whole process. Now, I know you shouldn't pick favourites, but because it's Mess + Noise
… can you name four favourite duets from the first two series?
Julia: Happy to select four. ChrisCheney and Chrissy Amphlett, ‘Stray Cat Blues’. Martha Wainwright and DanKelly, ‘Slave To Love’. Angry Anderson and Sarah McLeod doing ‘Highway to Hell’
and Deb Conway and Tex Perkins performing ‘Love Hurts’. How about you?
Brian: I have great affection for
all the duets, but I’d want to throw in ‘Picture This’ by Robert Forster andLisa Miller, Tania Doko and Stephen Cummings performing the Little Feat song‘Long Distance Love’ and Kim Salmon and Jodi Phillis doing ‘It Takes Two’.
How about your top four guests and why?
Julia: Chris Bailey from the
Saints – my first reeeally brainy guest who had me guessing from the get go
with his obtuse answers. Jimmy Barnes – for his incredible music knowledge and
for giving the contestant sitting next to him tickets for her and her family to
his next gig. She was a huge fan. Clare Bowditch – her grace, good humour and
gorgeous voice makes her such a wonderful player on stage and on the panel. And
Tim Rogers – the first guest I really flirted with, in mind and heart, which
set the template for a lot of what I do.
Brian: Back to Martha Wainwright …
what about that night when the power went out just before we filmed an episode
with her!
Julia: That was the first time we
ever had a major technical hitch. We’d just filmed one episode and were setting
up for the next with Martha and Adrian Belew and BANG – the electrical pole in
the street caught fire and we lost power. A forty-five minute wait. Would the
audience stay? Would they start to get up and move around? It was raining
outside but really hot inside. Kenny rang his mate Roy, who runs a generator
hire company, but as it turned out, a bloke from the S.E.C. arrived with a
giant set of jumper leads, it was fixed in record time and we got on with the
show.
Brian: What do you think you have
learned about performing, or indeed about
yourself, over the 7 years that we have been making
Rockwiz?
Julia: These are good questions
Brian. I can be a bit of a loner. But working with this big group of people has
made me want to share more. Working with many sure beats working alone.
Brian: Do you have any pre show
rituals?
Julia: Stretching. A last look
over my cards. Red lipstick is the final thing to go on.
Okay, we need to wrap this up or we’ll never get it
done. Last question … why do you think we are still doing this show?
Brian: So many factors. You, for a
start! A fabulous host who is a great performer with a background in
improvisation and theatre. A strong woman who loves music, can control a rowdy
audience and flirt with both men and women. A great band who seem to have played
with most Australian musicians and who are always well prepared. A real roadie
who is happy to hold up scorecards and give the odd look that says so much.
Four contestants who arrive at the Espy thinking they will watch a show and a
few hours later they are in the show. Singers who collaborate with other
singers to perform duets. Music trivia. Album covers. Trips down memory lane
and, importantly, the thrill of discovering new talent. A committed collective
who produce the show, a network who trusts us and an audience with a hunger for
music on the telly.
Ok. Thanks for your time Julia. I’ll leave you with
another look at Kimbra and Ben Salter’s version of the Supergrass song,‘Moving’. One of our best duets I reckon. See you at
the read through next week.
Julia: Are we having sandwiches or
falafel?
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