“You Talkin’ to Me?” – Rhys Bowkett On All Things Jive 20 and The Trafalgars

Jive is turning 20. The iconic Adelaide venue at 181 Hindley Street is going to celebrate the best way it can, with a bunch of bands on stage and a disco party till late on Saturday September 2. Playing the 20th Birthday party are The Wanderers, Special Patrol and The Trafalgars. There will be one very very special guest band also playing but they haven’t let the cat out of the bag yet as to who this is.

The Trafalgars played the opening night of Jive 20 years ago, so it is fitting we caught up with Rhys Bowkett from The Trafalgars for a chat about life, The Trafalgars and Jive.

Name: Rhys Bowkett

Alias: Rhyso

Band: The Trafalgars

In less than 50 words describe your music, your band (if applicable) and yourself.
Vintage-esque rock and/or roll. As for me, I’ll think I’ll let others describe me!

I am led to believe The Trafalgars played the first night of Jive, 20 years ago? Any memories of that
evening?
That’s right. It’s terrifyingly long ago. I do remember when Tam was first setting up Jive as a venue and
thinking ‘this place is going to be bloody unreal’. And it is. Tam has been wonderful to us, she’s a
genuine legend. For many years a photo us from that first show was on the wall near the DJ booth.

Do you have any other shows coming up?
Yes, we are playing with a bunch of great bands down at Hindmarsh Valley on October 21. We’ll
hopefully do some more shows closer to our album launch too.

Punk or Goth Music:
60s punk (MC5, Stooges etc.). The punk explosion of the late 70s does absolutely nothing for me.

Who are you excited about, music wise, at the moment?
I’m going through a huge Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers phase at the moment. Plus, I’m a big fan of
local lads Los Palms.

Guess you have seen a lot of shows at Jive. What are some of the highlights you have seen there:
Yeah, I sure have. Even have put in a few epic sets over the years. Rocket Science blew everyone off the
stage many years ago. Dallas Crane always knocks it out of the park too.

What are you currently reading?
I know its remiss of me, but with a couple of young children I don’t currently get a lot of reading time.
Any spare quite time is occupied by music-related activities… Or AFL Fantasy team selection…

How is the new album coming along?
Slowly… Life gets in the way… But we’ve just got a few backing vocals to do and then it’s off for final
mixing and mastering.

On what formats will it be released?
Digital and hopefully vinyl at this stage.

Which song do you wish you had written?
Shark Fin Blues, The Drones. Kills me every time.

How many unreleased songs sit on the hard drive (not counting the new album songs);
Well, I have another Trafalgars album of songs waiting in the wings for recoding and release sometime
(Hopefully not too long) after our current album. And a batch of other songs I’ve written on over the
years which tend not to fit in the Trafalgars cannon, so we’ll see where that goes.

Author Manuel Puig said “I’m not terribly happy about rock and roll. Rock music is uninspiring, numbing;
it makes you feel like an idiot.” Discuss.
Maybe if you’re already an idiot it then it doesn’t matter?

Vinyl, Cassette, CD, mp3 or Streaming?
Digital – convenience, vinyl/CD – a tangible thing which is nice to own, Cassette – great unless you want
to listen to a song halfway through the album.

If you could hang out with any music artist, in a bar one afternoon, who would it be?
Brian May. A genius musician, astrophysicist and compassionate man.

What is your worst habit?
Ask my wife.

How often do you look at your mobile phone?
Too often.

Any good back stage stories?
There certainly are a few, but a particularly memorable one was meeting Neil Finn when I was about 16
at Thebbie. It was his Try Whistling This solo tour and throughout the night he forgot some song lyrics
and I called them out. For the rest of the night, he kept calling out song lines for me to quote, it was
amazing. I got to meet him after and he was bloody lovely. He ended up writing about that night in a
book of his.

An alien lands on Earth and wants to know what Rock and roll sounds like. What song do you play him?
Exile on Main Street in its entirety. If they’ve bothered to come all this way, they should have the time to
list to the whole damn wonderful album!

Favourite all time TV show:
Seinfeld. I’m concerned I’m a little too similar to George though.

What is your specialty in the kitchen?
Booze.

With whom would you like to record a song with?
Hmm, that’s a tricky one. I’ve typically written by myself for the most part but if you could co-write with
anyone it’d be pretty hard to go past having the opportunity to have contributed to a Bowkett/ McCartney composition!

You have tickets to see The Killers and Bruce Springsteen but they are on the same night. Which one do you attend?
Springsteen. Being a Crows supporter I can’t listen to the Killers since attending the 2017 grand final.

Where do hope to be in 12 months?
In the band room of our new house, we are currently building in the Barossa, working on our next
album.

Interview By Geoff Jenke

JIVE TURNS 20 – September 2, 2023, 7.00pm Tickets via Mosh-Tix