Davey Craddock & The Monocle will play AGWA Nights on Friday 16 November. Find out more about this event on our What’s On page.
Meanwhile, here’s an introduction to Davey Craddock and a taster of what to expect from his show.
“It’s a folk-country record and we did it all to tape so it’s got a prettier, less polished sound. It’s loose and relaxed,” Davey Craddock says. He’s talking about Davey Craddock and The Spectacles’ forthcoming EP, Going Home, a five track record which AGWA audiences will be hearing when Craddock and band member Todd Pickett pop into the Gallery. Pickett won the 2012 WAMi Multi-Instrumentalist of the Year award and is, according to Craddock, “a very talented guy”. The pair will be treating AGWA Nights’ audience to a set list of new and old material, and perhaps a few covers in between. Expect a night of warm, autumnal blues with American bluegrass twangs and foot-tapping country jigs. Combine this with Craddock’s soothing voice and laid-back vibe and you have a band that suits just about any venue.
While they’ve never played at AGWA before, Craddock lists Fremantle Arts Centre and the Guildford Grammar School chapel as the creative venues he’s recently played. The latter saw a conglomeration of WAM musicians share the stage as part of Craddock’s and Stacy Gougoulis’ Hush gig series. “We do fit in in pubs,” Craddock affirms. “But the quieter songs work really well in more sedate venues like the Freo Arts Centre and the chapel, and you can play a bit prettier there.”
Craddock is an all-round creative type and when he’s not writing music, he’s writing music stories. He’s currently dabbling in freelance and publicity work but previously he was an entertainment journalist and editor at X-Press Magazine and Sunday Times. “I was really on the other side of the fence, writing about art and other artists and music and film,” Craddock says. “I got to talk to people like Elvis Costello, Paul Weller, Tim Rogers –people whose music I really enjoy. It’s always a pleasure to speak to people you’re really into.”
Art is also one of his interests. “I couldn’t namedrop proficiently but I do love contemporary art,” Craddock says. “When I’m travelling I go to galleries. My favourite modern artist is [London-based] Billy Childish. What appeals to me about him is that he’s kind of a Renaissance man. He’s in a punk band, he’s an artist, a poet, he’s just this kind of creative factory.”Craddock attests that Childish’s creative approach to life is influencing him too: “I’m trying to adopt that Billy Childish mentality where just week by week you do something creative!”
Craddock also enjoyed Picasso to Warhol. “It’s wonderful. I’ve seen a lot of those works in New York and I just thought it was so cool to see them here because it was kind of like a greatest hits in Perth!” he says. “You can just walk in and see some really beautiful, incredible, affecting works. I found it quite intense because if you go to galleries around the world and you can see all those types of works spread out as part of the larger collection but to see them all distilled in a smaller area together was powerful as there are a lot of them and it’s so much to take in!”
Craddock will have another chance to view the exhibition when he plays AGWA Nights on Friday 16 November. The exhibition will be closing two weeks after this performance so don’t miss out on your chance to see 14 of the world’s greatest modern masters as well as one of Perth’s best bands.