Dai spent July in Europe on tour with Rose Tattoo doing 30 shows in 35 days. So The Metro Gnome caught up with him to find out what makes Dai tick.TMG: Let’s start with Rose Tattoo…. How cool was it to be asked to go on tour with the Tatts? How did it happen?
DP: Well, I had about 2 weeks notice. It’s really funny, I’d been trying to get in there for years and years. Since I was a kid, that was the one band I’ve always wanted to play with. I used to tell everyone that, before I die, I wanna play with the Tattoos just once. I’ve always let DeMarco know; I’ve known him for the last 10-12 years because of the connection with Thorpie. He always knew. I’d say, “Listen if Pete ever gets sick or Rob Riley ever can’t do it, just give me a call.” And he always said that he would. And he did. He did! DeMarco gave me a call one day, about a year ago, and he said, “Mate, you could go on, so start learning.” So I thought, “Fuck!” I started playing everything. It turned out that Pete got better, but then I got a call 2 weeks before the tour. “Start learning. Learn all of the hits because you and 2 other guys got to audition for the gig.” So I start learning all of the stuff and then DeMarco calls me up the next day and says. “Right-o, next Wednesday we’re auditioning at the Stage Door.” Then he rang me back the day after that and said , “Listen, don’t worry about the audition, you’ve got the gig.” I know Rob Riley, the other guitar player, really well and I know Kingy, the bass player. So when De Marco said to the guys, “Why don’t we just get Dai to do it” and they said, “Yeah, let’s get him to do it.”
| "….before I die, I wanna play with the Tattoos just once." |
So I had one rehearsal for about 4 hours with Angry. And then one without [Angry], but with Pete Wells - which was really cool. [Pete] came to the rehearsal and he showed me a few things which [were] really, really interesting. He’s a lovely man. There’s a couple of tricks that he does. He did one thing that freaked me out. I played a couple of tunes. He sorta sat back and watched. Anyway, he said, “You’re playing the parts alright, but can I have a look at your guitar? You see how this is perfectly in tune? Well we don’t want that. What you do is take the G string, alright, and you tune it a little bit flat.” And I said, “Why?” And he says, “’Cause it pisses them right off.” And it’s true; it’s part of the sound of things; it just creates a tension. So every night I would put the guitar on and get it all in tune, and as soon as I walked on stage I’d just flatten the G string a little bit. It is part of his sound. [Before Pete told me that,] I’d be playing the solos and be wondering, “What is that?” But it’s just that – he flattens the G string to create musical tension.
TMG: I hear your fingers got soft with all of the slide playing. When you got back home you had to build up the calluses again?
DP: I played slide the whole time. Pete hardly frets anything. Everything’s tuned to open E and every now and then he’ll fret a little bit, just on the 5th fret he’ll just hit an A chord. And that’s it. Everything’s just slide. I took my acoustic just so I’d have something to needle around with in the room. So I played that every now and again. But for the most part it was all slide.
TMG: You played with all your own guitars?
DP: Ah, no, I didn’t. I started with mine, I started with a white Strat. But Pete’s got a sound that’s really cutting. So luckily DeMarco brought a little Telecaster that he played I his room. So I used that ‘cause it’s got that really cutting Telecaster sound. And I did a lot of work with that.
| "….[Pete told me to] 'tune it a little bit flat….'cause it pisses them right off.' " |
TMG: What is your best memory of the tour?
DP: Angry. We did this live German TV show in Hanover. It was like a German The Panel. We played a couple of songs live to air. As people walked into the TV studio, there was a set of earplugs on every chair. They’d ask the questions to Angry in German and he had a translator in his ear. So they’re asking Angry a question, and it could have been something like, “So what do you think of the weather?” But Angry’s a real have-a-chat, and he’s gone into this huge extended answer. All of the people are looking at each other, and the host of the show sort of laughs and says something in German and they all start laughing. We asked someone, “What’d he say?” And he said, “That’s the longest answer to a simple question that I’ve every heard in my life.” Anyway, so everyone in the TV studio had a set of earplugs.
TMG: And was that for the noise coming from you guys?DP: Well the announcer came on and said [Dai imitates a German accent], “Here is Rose Tattoo!” And the producers were off camera miming to the audience to put in the earplugs.
TMG: What was the worst part about the tour?
DP: Just fatigue, you know. You never get to sleep properly.
TMG: Did you spend a lot of time together with the rest of the band?
DP: We all had our own space, but, yes, absolutely. There’s a lot of time driving. We were in a Sprinter, which is like, a Tarago. So yeah, we got pretty close. You’ve got no choice. And the whole band is together the whole time. They’re a real band.
TMG: I Googled ‘Dai Pritchard,’ and you know there’s another Dai out there?
DP: Yes, an amazing instrumentalist. And there’s another one – a Welsh rugby player or something like that.
TMG: Is ‘Dai’ short for anything?
DP: It’s actually Welsh for David.
TMG: You’ve played with some pretty big names in the business (Billy Thorpe, Marcia Hines, Jimmy Barnes, Olivia Newton John, Glen Shorrock and Doug Parkinson to name a few). Do you play regularly as part of a band with these artists or is it more ad hoc? How does it work?
| "I just wanted to be a guitar hero." |
DP: I played with a lot of these people with The Long Way to the Top tour. I played with Marcia for Long Way and I’ve done a few corporate gigs with her as well doing Long Way songs. All the people who did Long Way tend to pull that band back together because we all know the stuff. So I’ve got a lot of the artists covered. In a few weeks, I’ve got a corporate gig at the Wentworth hotel with Glen Shorrock and that’s with the Long Way band.
TMG: Do these ‘stars’ call you themselves?
DP: Oh yeah. Like Parko. He just calls and says, “We’re getting the Long Way band together.” I did the Bali Bombing benefit on channel 7 with Marcia. Just me and her with an acoustic, just a duo; it was really nice.
TMG: Do you sing with all these guys?
DP: Oh, I didn’t sing with Marcia, ‘cause that would be a bit daunting. Marcia’s an amazing singer.
TMG: Can you take me through your musical background a little bit? How did you get started?
DP: I started when I was about 13. We had a big family, I was the second youngest out of 6 kids, and I was the only one who didn’t get music lessons. Everyone else got piano lessons, but no one really got into it, so I think my parents gave up on it by the time they got to me. But there was a guitar lying around, so I got into it. After a while I put it down, but I picked it up again when I was 15 because I went and saw Alice Cooper. Oh man! I saw these 2 guitar players and I said, “I wanna do that.” So I sold my prized possession, my ice hockey skates, the next day. [Later] I saw Hendrix on TV. He was already dead then, but I thought, “What’s this guy doing?” He was just going berserk. And that was it; I just wanted to be a guitar hero. I wanted to do that.
TMG: So how’d you learn how to play?
DP: I taught myself. I started with books and then listened to records. It was really hard back in those days because it was a record. You had to put the needle on, and put the needle on, and put the needle on. If you wanted to learn the solo for Stairway to Heaven, you had to wear the record out. To wear a groove in it. To slow the record down I’d put coins on the head. Weird shit like that. You worked around it; I played like that for years. And then I went to a guy named Paul Wiseman in Rockdale when I was about 19 and took some jazz lessons and stuff. Not that I was really into jazz, but it was to teach me about chords. I did that for awhile. Every now and then, if I have a slump, I still like to take lessons. When I hit a plateau, I’ll go and see someone like Deiter Kleeman (unless you’re a guitar player, you wouldn’t even know who he is - but he’s just a monster), and he’ll just shoot me off in another direction. The thing is, I play with a lot of guitar players, and you just learn from other guys. I’ll play acoustic with Randal Waller and he’s a monster. Rowen, Benny, they’re all good players and when you play with them, you feed off each other.
TMG: What other jobs have you had besides playing the guitar? When you started playing at 19, were you a professional player then?
DP: Oh shit no. I left school really young. I‘ve been a fisherman, a slaughterman, and I was a butcher for a long time. And just odd jobs and bits & pieces. And then I started playing and teaching – I still teach now.
TMG: You’re always working. How do you market yourself?
DP: It’s sort of funny. It’s a real slow process. I’m not a real self-promoter. I don’t have a website or anything like that. I’ve got business cards and that’s it. In this country, we’re lucky, because it’s very small, and the scene, well, people might whinge about it, but when you look overseas and when you come back you realise it’s not as bad as you think. It’s pretty healthy out there. I mean, I do between 4 and 6 gigs a week. Overseas, musicians are lucky if they get one. And they don’t get paid much – they get nothing.
TMG: Don’t you tell people when you’re available through email?
DP: Yeah, I’ll send out an email letting people know that I’m available. I’ll send it to people who I use and people who use me. Wednesday through to Sunday, I get what I call “panic calls” ‘cause I’m like “Captain Fill In” for everybody. I know a lot of people and I sing a lot of songs, so I’m like an instant band. If they get Dai, they know they’re going to get about 50 songs; so they book Dai. There’re probably a lot of guys that can play rings around me, but I just know lots of songs. And so, if I’ve only got, say, 4 gigs on, and I need a Thursday or the Friday, I’ll send emails to people and just let them know I’m available. Invariably I’ll get at least 1 gig out of it. Gigs come up on short notice.
TMG: How would you characterize your “stage attitude”? I’ve seen you on a big stage with Billy [Thorpe] and you seem to become a different person.
DP: Do I? See I don’t know, I don’t see myself. Take no prisoners and eat the wounded. [He laughs.] No seriously, I just get into the music.
| "If I’ve only got, say, 4 gigs on, and I need a Thursday or the Friday, I’ll send emails to people and just let them know I’m available." |
TMG: How do you make sure your sound is exactly what you want?
DP: It’s good to have one guitar that you’ve had for a long time. It’s like an old shirt. I’ve had an old Fender, an old black Stratocaster, for a gazillion years – since I was about 19. It’s good to have one guitar you’re just comfortable with. I’ve got another one, it’s a Fender but it’s been customised by an Australian guy named Frank Grubisa , who’s a great guitar guy - Sydney-based, he’s great. For amps I predominantly use Marshalls. I’ve got a Laney as well, which is a good sounding amp, but I just like the sound of the old Marshall. I’ve used that for everything. I’ve done Marcia Hines with it - and Rose Tattoo and Billy Thorpe. Marshall’s are easy amps - made for dummies. I use different variations of pedals. I’ve got a floor gig with a wha pedal, that goes into an Ibenez TS9, which is a great overdrive pedal, and then into a Boss GT5 - I use that mainly for colouring, adding delays – things like that. Then it goes straight into the front of the Marshall. And that’s pretty much it. TMG: Do you ever give direction to the front of house?
DP: No, not really. I just let them do it. It’s pretty point & shoot.
TMG: Do you do any writing? Any recording?
DP: I’ve done some original stuff. I had an original band in the 80s called Der Straza. I did that for a long time. I never really went out with covers; it was just originals in the 80s. And then I went onto the covers later. We made some singles. Actually we had a minor hit in Germany (our band had a German name); we were like the Australian version of 99 Luftballoons. I still write, but just for myself. I recorded some stuff with Mick and Billy. About 3 songs.
TMG: What about writing for other people? Do you ever submit your songs for others to play?
DP: Yeah, I’m actually going to do that. I’m going to start doing that this year for the next Rose Tattoo album. I’ve actually started writing with DeMarco. I tend to write the melody first. Then I’ll pick up the guitar and find the chords that fit what was in my head. I rarely write from the riff, which is really funny for a guitar player. Usually I write the hook line first, then the melody, then find the chords that suit that, and then I’ll go back and write the lyrics. That’s what most people listen to; it’s only guitar players who listen to the guitar.
| “….for the next Rose Tattoo album… I’ve actually started writing with DeMarco.” |
TMG: Do you have any big projects?
DP: I might be going back to Europe with the original singer from AC/DC [Dave Evans]. There’s a big AC/DC convention over there later this year. The guy who took Rose Tattoo out to Europe asked if I’d be interested. So I could be doing that. And that’s about the only think going on.
TMG: So for years and years and years you’ve wanted to play with Rose Tattoo and now you’ve done it. What’s the next pinnacle?
DP: That’s it. I’m done. I’ve done it, man. Rose Tattoo again. I’ll have to play with them again. After the first gig I said to the band, “25 years…. 25 years!” They thought that was quite funny.
TMG: Any sound bites I can have about what you think of The Metro Gnome so far?
DP: I like anything that spreads ideas, that makes guitar players think, that helps them find gear. When I started playing, there weren’t a lot of options. Kids are lucky like that now – there’re plenty of options. Back then you had a Fender a Gibson or a piece of shit. And that was it. And you couldn’t afford a Fender or a Gibson. And teaching aids - I wish I had the Internet when I was learning. There wasn’t even tablature when I was a kid.
And with that, we ended the interview. We ordered another round and then Dai went back to his stool, tuned his guitar, and stepped right back into his gig. You can check out where Dai is playing in The Metro Gnome's Gig Guide! Gnome Links:
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