James Cruickshank - Notes from Pig City

The Cruel Sea: Honeymoon spark returns

Tex Perkins has been around the ruthlessly ageist Australian music industry to know an opportunity when he sees it. “As far as Boomers and Generation X punters go, it’s all about anniversaries these days,” he says with a dry chuckle, somewhere on top of a hill (the mobile reception is better) near his home in northern New South Wales.

But when it came to reforming the Cruel Sea to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band’s double-platinum selling, multiple ARIA award-winning third album The Honeymoon Is Over in 2023, there were major obstacles to overcome. The biggest: tracking down guitarist and leader Dan Rumour, whose very name positioned him somewhere between man and myth.

Rumour was one of the great lost talents of Australian music. For nearly 15 years, he lived off the grid, on his father’s property in rural NSW. Perkins hadn’t spoken to him since The Honeymoon Is Over’s previous anniversary reunion (20th) in 2013; he didn’t even have his phone number. By Rumour’s admission, he didn’t often have a phone that worked back then anyway.

Eventually, Perkins says, drummer Jim Elliott came up with an old number. Perkins got through. What happened next is contested. Perkins describes Rumour’s response to the proposal of a tour as an adamant, “Fuck yeah, let’s do it!”… Read more..

The Cruel Sea: Fortitude Music Hall, 30 November 2023

Music / January 9, 2024 / 3 minutes of reading

Outside the Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane’s biggest nightclub strip, two hours before showtime, a long line snakes up and around Brunswick Street Mall. It’s been well over a decade since the Cruel Sea played here, and the 3,000-capacity venue is soon overflowing to the point of feeling oversold.

It’s a reminder of just how big the Tex Perkins-fronted outfit was in their heyday. They’re back to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Honeymoon Is Over, their biggest album by far. Other than a low-key warm-up for a wildlife charity, this is the first of a half-dozen gigs that may or may not point to a second life for the band. There’s nerves, and some rust.

The audience, overwhelmingly in their 50s and 60s, are showing signs of wear too. The Cruel Sea were a strictly generation X, very Australian phenomenon. After the title track of Honeymoon became a hit – one of those songs that still appears on Triple M’s so-called Ozzest 100 – the Cruel Sea rode the wave until the end of the millennium, then vanished like smoke.

Tonight’s set is dedicated to keyboardist and guitarist James Cruickshank, who died in 2015. He’s replaced by Matt Walker, who ambles on stage with the band’s original trio: guitarist Dan Rumour, bass player Ken Gormly and drummer Jim Elliott.… Read more..

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