“There was an element of danger, I used to get abused on the street,” Howard says. “But that was from people who’d come into St Kilda. St Kilda was seen from the other suburbs as Sin City, this vibrant hub of the sex industry. There were a lot of people who were on drugs and who were drunk, and there were some frightening things.”
In Howard’s mind, modern-day St Kilda has transformed into something approaching a capitalist Gomorrah. “It’s a place where people are making money these days, but back then it was small family-owned businesses, takeaway shops and punk rock venues which were scorned in other parts of Melbourne,” Howard says. “It was a fabulous place that totally unrecognised, and no-one had seen the potential for making lots of money. And now it’s saturated in people who know the potential to make money.” Paradoxically, he suggests the only thing that will return St Kilda to its seedy origins will be an apocalyptic event, the type of event the Bible describes as occurring in cities with the sexual depravity and decadence associated with St Kilda punk mythology. “It’ll never recover unless there’s an almighty swamp and the foreshore floods when the ice melts. But then it won’t have the old world charm anyone, it’ll be a swamp,” he laughs.
On Friday 19 December Howard returns to play the Prince of Wales Public Bar for the first time in about 15 years. “The last time I played there must have been when I came back from living overseas,” Howard says. Interrogating his memory further, he comes up with a show he played with These Immortal Souls, the band fronted by Howard’s late brother, Rowland. “I don’t think it had started when I left Australia in 1982,” he reflects. “But when I came back it was full swing everyone I knew in Melbourne was going there. And then later I think, These Immortal Souls played upstairs, and then later on downstairs, which is where I think we’re playing next week.”
Howard and his band, the NDE (aka the Near Death Experience) – comprising keyboard player (and partner) Edwina Preston, bass player Dave Graney and drummer Clare Moore – have just returned from a tour of Europe, the first time Howard has been back to Europe since he left the continent after living there for 15 years. “It was incredible to go back after 20 years. I could scarcely believe it was happening,” he says. “It was such an assault on the senses and on my perspective on the world because I’d changed, and it had changed, and yet it was largely the same. And the same people were there but didn’t look the same, and neither did I,” he laughs.
While Howard wasn’t on the same professional footing as he’d been when living in Europe 20 years ago, he found his appreciation of the local culture and music scene was greater than he remembered. “It might sound tedious, but as you get older you tend to appreciate positives more and not take things for granted,” he explains. “When I was working as a musician in Europe I took a lot for granted. But going back this time I didn’t get one iota of the comfort or financial reward I used to get, but I probably enjoyed it as least as much, and probably more.”
One aspect of his European experience that was significantly different this time around was Howard’s familial entourage. Howard and Preston brought along their six year old daughter; needing a babysitter on the trip, Howard offered his 19 year old son a trip to Europe with the condition that he help with domestic duties. “We were the Partridge Family,” Howard chuckles, “and poor Dave [Graney] was Mr Kincaid, except much, much more grumpier about it.”
For Graney, who assumed driving duties for the entire tour after Howard realised he’d left his passport home, it was an initially confronting experience travelling in a van with a child. “Six year olds can be hellish,” Howard laughs. “And to have to be in a van with one every day that’s not yours is going to make you a bit irritated, and Suki and Dave rubbed each other up the wrong way for quite a while. But they did come to terms with each other about half way through, which was nice to see. But it was always a taunting relationship, with Dave correcting her saying, ‘That’s not a castle, it’s a mansion’, and Suki swinging around saying, ‘You blue eyed freak’.”
Beyond this week’s show at Prince Public Bar, Howard hopes to take the NDE back to Europe, if he can hitch a ride with the Rowland Howard tribute event, Pop Crimes, if that show is successful in securing some European dates. But right, now Howard’s concentrating on writing some new NDE material, which he plans to take to the band very soon to keep the NDE fresh. “It keeps things purposeful rather than just playing the same album all the time,” Howard says. “I just felt like we can’t go back to Adelaide and play the same songs again’.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
