Down here in Melbourne you’re begging for raucous bellows of “Brokeback cowboy!” from passing cars if you slouch around town in a cowboy hat, even a Just Jeans hat stolen from Sneaky Butcher. But they’re real handy when it comes to fending off killer x-ray sunbeams slicing through the whopping big hole in the ozone layer above. And when, two minutes later the suns gone and it’s pouring with rain, they make a handy micro-umbrella for the head. It’s worth feeling like a displaced rodeo clown just for the sheer imperviousness.

Speaking of Sneaky Butcher, aka Uncle Burnin’ Love, he’s creating a new name for himself as Sidekick of the Year, having recently swung his banjo with Jimmy Willing and the Real Gone Hick-Ups, Glennys Rae Virus and last weekend, The Red Hot Poker Dots, on their recent run up to Queensland. Word is he’ll be doing some more Re-Mains cameos in the near future, if Dwight Yoakum doesn’t give him a call in the meantime.

The Re-Mains rendezvous in Melbourne next week, for a sold-out show at the Northcote Social Club supporting a temporarily reforming Weddings Parties Anything, folk rock heroes of the Eighties and Nineties. Weddoes were my rock-and roll role models, who I used to go and see religiously in Sydney for years and indeed frontman Mick Thomas, one of the finest songwriters of his generation, is now the boss of our record company, Croxton Records. Weddings Parties fans are a special breed of fanatic who snapped up all the tickets to this show within two hours of its announcement. So it’s with a great sense of satisfaction that we back up this legendary band, who toured the world supporting such acts as U2, The Pogues, Steve Earle and Stevie Ray Vaughn. And the night after we’re back at our regular Melbourne haunt, The Retreat, supported by Den Hanrahan, before making our weay back up through Wagga, Maitland and the Central Coast for our shows at the Winsome on December 1st and Billinudgel on December 3.