🎶 That Lady feat. Lionel Cole

In which two soul singers lament their delicious affair with the city of Sydney.

I lived in Sydney for just 2 years, but it feels like an entire epoch of my life and career. I released my first solo album on arrival, quickly became a well-known and booked-out session and events musician, recorded two more albums with some of the city's most legendary instrumentalists and singers, sang and played keyboard on live television, pubs, clubs, pools, parties and Church of Scientology Balls (I’m not affiliated, rest assured) and worked my butt off consistently until I hit a wall with vocal nodules, and Sydney-fatigue, and I came home to the Northern Rivers.

Those two years in Sydney were unforgettable, though. I made many great musician friends, many of whom I sadly haven't kept in good touch with (because that's me!), but who will be forever held in my heart as legends.

One such legend I had the privilege of calling friend, and occasional collaborator on various live music events in the city that never slept (at least until the lockdowns started in 2013, anyway) was Lionel Cole. Lionel had moved out from the USA, and is the son of Freddy Cole, American Jazz legend, who is also the brother of the immortal crooner “King” himself, Nat King Cole.

I first met Lionel when we were changing shifts in what used to be a great nightspot of Sydney for the working musician, the Bourbon in Kings Cross (formerly the Bourbon & Beefsteak). The place was a well-appointed and dimly-lit whiskey bar and grill that was open all night long, and boasted TWO band slots for trios, one from 10pm to 1am, and the next from 1.30am to 4.30am (just before sunrise). I would sometimes play a wedding on the North Shore until 11pm, then bring the band over the Harbour Bridge to the Cross, and listen to the last set of Lionel Cole playing with his band, before he’d towel off the in-house Fender Rhodes (Lionel is a very energetic and physical performer who gives 100% of his soul to the audience every time, which as you can imagine produces some sweat) and give me a big sweaty hug and then listen to my first set before he went home.

This happened a few times and we really enjoyed each other’s music and song selections and friendly company. Lionel Cole is the life of the party from the moment he enters to the moment he leaves. But after a little while I got to see another, more sensitive and introverted side to Lionel as we spent some sessions talking as men and sharing about our lives and music making, and when we eventually wrote this song together. Lionel bonded easily with my son Ruben who was only 2 at the time but had a personality to match the larger-than-life Lionel. We had a lot of fun recording Lionel’s vocals at my house while Ruben continuously interrupted to direct us and tell us he was going to be in the band soon. So cute. He’s thirteen now and less interested in being in the band.

If I recall all the personnel correctly, this song features: Joel Warden (drums), Chris Frazier (bass), Ross Comerford (organ and synth), Dane Laboyrie (trumpet), Brendan Champion (trombone), Nic Jeffries (sax), Amy Chase (backing vocals), and Ben Ackland (guitar). Lionel on co-lead vocals, and I did the rest of the keys and the programming, arranging, production and mixing.

I animated this video myself, because that’s the kind of nut I am! I bought a Wacom Bamboo tablet and figured out how to record my sequence of hand-drawing, colouring and animating the Sydney skyline (for Sydney is the woman this song was written about), and then used a number of After Effects plugins to create a sketch-style of Lionel, myself, and the dancer Carma, as well as sax soloist Nic Jeffries. I had to do a LOT of manual masking frame by frame to get it all to work as a layered moving artwork, and the result was far from perfect but still achieved what I had set out to. Like so many of my multimedia projects, they are created in a fit of ADHD-fuelled obsession, with absolute self-belief but almost none of the requisite skills or experience to pull it off - but that’s the point! Nothing thrills me more than learning on the job and doing things I’ve never done before. My problem as a spiritualist artist in a world of materialist lucre is that I don’t seem to care much what or whether anyone thinks of what I have made, because I made it for me.

But it’s good! So even 11 years later, it deserves sharing. At least that’s what my darling girlfriend reminds me, so here I am posting the video to keep my promise to her and to keep you entertained!

There’s so much more in the back catalog where ths came from. You have no idea the weird and cool things I’ve done in my career. I’ll tell all the stories eventually, one at a time. Make sure you stay subscribed!