The Monarchs: Fun, Fun, Fun!

The Monarchs play the Essential Stage from 4.30pm at the Big Day Out, Gold Coast Parklands, on Sunday.

It’s been a rather emotional couple of months for The Monarchs’ frontman/guitarist Brad Shepherd. At Homebake late last year, Brad’s former band The Hoodoo Gurus played an extremely well received set, even if Brad’s memory about the historic gig has gone somewhat blank!

“Truth be told, I don’t really remember that much about it,” he admits. “I’m told we were very good. I was sort of distracted by some technical problems I was having with my gear. I felt like I was a bit more like a technician than a musician. It’s all still rather dream-like at this point in time. I’m not really aware of the audience being there or anything. The other guys in the band told me we were fabulous and they all had a great time. I remember I looked pretty good. I had a white suit on and a purple sequined shirt.”

Very Elvis. You need some mirrors down there on the foldback so you can check yourself out.

“I don’t need to check myself out. I know I look great!” deadpans Brad. “But I do believe the MC5 used to do that as well, to make sure they got their coordination down pat!”

Was it tricky to get yourself back in a Gurus mindset?

“Yeah, it was really tough!” says Brad. “My brain won’t hold three bands’ worth of material! We had this alter-ego to the Gurus as well, which was called Persian Rugs, a  ‘60s punk kind of thing. I had Monarchs songs and Gurus songs and Persian Rugs songs going on in my head and I was actually saying to my wife, “Just don’t talk to me at all”. Because if I started thinking about anything else, like paying the bills or going out and getting milk, I would have dislodged a song somewhere and it would be gone forever! I was actually surprised at how completely we’d forgotten to play a lot of the Hoodoo Gurus songs. We were in rehearsal for about a month beforehand. The first day of rehearsal was very sobering. We had no idea what we were doing.”

But by Homebake, the boys managed to deliver a triumphant set. It certainly helped Brad get ready for an upcoming appearance by his current hi-octane garage rock outfit The Monarchs at the Big Day Out.

“The Monarchs are very spontaneous,” says Brad. “It’s something akin to a freeform jazz thing in some respect, where we take our chances regularly on songs, probably due to our inability to rehearse very often! We’re sort of weekend warriors, like semi-professional musicians. A couple of the guys in the band have day jobs or other commitments. It’s not like the Gurus where we were sort of mercenaries and on-call 24 hours a day. We would throw ourselves wholly into the band, whereas there’s a bit of juggling that needs to go on with The Monarchs. But for the time being, we’re actually quite happy to exploit that. Sometimes you take a chance on stage with The Monarchs and it falls flat on its face. And at other times, it achieves a sort of spontaneous ecstasy!”

Is the band happy with the response to the Make Your Own Fun album?

“I don’t know how the sales have been going, but the reviews have been most generous,” says Brad. “More so than I had anticipated, given the climate that rock ‘n roll is generally perceived to be unfashionable and old-hat. But then again, I reckon some people think that it’s actually gone so underground that it’s cool again. I find that the idea of rock ‘n’ roll is rebellious to kids even though they may not actually listen to rock ‘n roll. If you look at fashion these days, there’s all those ‘ironic’ rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts you see in Esprit and Dotti. Wide white belts, a la The Brady Bunch, which I think is a fantastic place for fashion to be, but whether or not these people are actually sitting at home listening to AC/DC and Kiss, I’m not convinced. They’re listening to Shaggy! Craig David! Give me strength!”

You didn’t make it to Rumba, then?

“I honestly wanted to go, because I thought it would be hilarious. Those poor saps! Imagine looking back and telling your kids, “Yeah, the first show I ever saw was Craig David at Rumba!” I mean, just hearing his name makes me laugh!”

Do you remember the first big show you ever saw?

“Slade,” he says without hesitation. “February 13 or 14, 1974. That was the first international band I saw, at Festival Hall, followed by Suzi Quatro’s first tour of the country in May of 1974. Lots of silver leather going on. I topped the year off in October with Black Sabbath! I had a dream about that show about a year ago and I just woke up feeling warm and fuzzy. They were bloody awesome. That wasn’t at Festival Hall, though, that was at a warehouse somewhere.”

Although most readers wouldn’t have been lucky enough to have made it to an original Osbourne/Iommi/Ward/Butler performance, The Monarchs’ show at the Big Day Out looks set to appease any fans of dirty, dirty loud guitars.