After more than 20 years, Dave Graney is getting back together with his old band, the Coral Snakes, to play their iconic album Night of the Wolverine in its entirety in a series of special shows.
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: It's still remembered as one of the great Australian albums. After more than 20 years, Dave Graney's Night of the Wolverine still resonates with many music fans. The singer puts that down to the stripped back production and the honesty of the lyrics. Well to make the career-changing album, Dave Graney left his post-punk origins behind to embrace crushed velvet suits and a smoother sound. Now he's getting back together with his old band, The Coral Snakes, to play the record in its entirety in a series of special shows. Lateline's Hamish Fitzsimmons went along to the rehearsals.
... There's references to my kind of south-east, South Australia kind of area that I came from, Bordertown and Keith and Hollywood kind of names like Wallace Beery and Ava Gardner. And then it's just got a groovy song like You're Just Too Hip, Baby.
CLARE MOORE, DRUMMER, THE CORAL SNAKES: Yeah, it's quite interesting when you go back into rehearsals, you find, like, it's kind of like having sports people talk about muscle memory. But all of the songs are still kind of rattling around in your head and it's an interesting thing to go through. I quite enjoy it.
CLARE MOORE: Subsequently we put records out that were in the charts and things like that. Night of the Wolverine was this one that bubbled along for quite a long time and people just really loved the - yeah, particularly the title track.
ROD HAYWARD: I mean, a good song is a good song and it will stand the test of time. It hasn't got that horrible '80s, '90s sound about it that was - a lot of stuff had back then. When this was recorded, it was a quick recording. It was really done in a weekend.
ROBIN CASINADER, KEYBOARDIST, THE CORAL SNAKES: What I really like about a lot of the songs is that they have a great flow, they just move really effortlessly, lovely to play.
CLARE MOORE: It seems to bring a lot of joy to people to - people are saying to me they can't wait to hear the songs again and I kind of really like the idea of bringing those songs back. I think they deserve to be played again and heard and this is the best opportunity to do that.