Dave Gleeson: Plane Sailing.

Dave Gleeson & The Stilsons play the QSM Basement on Saturday. 

Dave Gleeson and The Screaming Jets are forever linked in Aussie rock’s history. After last years touring commitments wound up the band was put on a temporary hiatus, and the result is Dave’s new solo album Wanted Man. So it rocks, right? Well, yes, but not how you’re expecting it. Wanted Man ain’t a bunch of left over Screaming Jets material; it thirteen soulful, country tinged tracks. 

“Were you surprised mate?” Dave laughs. “The hardcore Jets fans, the ones who bought all the singles, they’ll know I’ve always been a country fan. We recorded Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues on our second record. There’s a B-side with a Garth Brooks love ballad on it, called If Tomorrow Never Comes. We did Slim Dusty’s Cunnamulla Fella. These are songs I’ve written that I just wanted to get out there, you know."

"Some of the songs have been around since ’93 or ’94 I think. I’ve always been a bit of a closet country fan. Not so much in the closet, I burst out every now and then. Jet’s was always the priority, but I didn’t want to bring out a record in the middle of us touring.”

 After the Jets went on hold, Dave landed a part in the ill-fated musical Hair. After the show collapsed he found himself at a musical loose end. 

“Well I’ve been working as a plumbers assistant the last six months, so that really kind of got me thinkin’ you’ve got to get out of digging up people’s shithouses and get back in and do a record. It’s been a long time in the making. Nash Chambers was involved in it for a while, Kasey’s brother. But he obviously had bigger fish to fry. I wanted to get it done while the Jets were having a break, so I went in with Jimi Hocking, who used to be in the Jets and we whacked it out in a couple of weeks.”

 Saturday night’s Brisbane launch show will still turn up a few surprises for those expecting a Jets set. 

“This is going to be a totally different show that I’m doing. It’s fun and not so much in your face. It will be the songs from the record, a few covers, some Elvis. Make it a bit of fun…” 

But people are still going to request Better, aren’t they? 

“Yeah they are,” he laughs. “Whilst I’ve been plumbing, the bloke I work for is a huge Jets fan. I met him at the pub and we got talking, and one day he said, ‘mate, I’d give anything to come and play drums in your band’. So we got a band together and we’ve been playing around Balmain a bit.” 

“We’re terrible, but it’s the best fun ‘cause there’s no pressure, no band meetings, no getting people saying we owe them this or that. We just get in and play three sets of covers we hardly know. People always yell out, play Better. Sorry mate, this is as good as it gets,” he jokes. “We can’t play any better…”