The New York Dolls

From Waz From Oz Uncirculated DAT Master
2007 Australian Tour

The Metro
Sydney, NSW
Australia
28th March 2007


01. Intro Music
02. Looking For A Kiss
03. Puss In Boots
04. We’ve All In Love
05. Piece Of My Heart
06. Fishnets And Cigarettes
07. Private World
08. Dancing On The Lip Of A Volcano
09. Punishing World
10. Rainbow Store
11. Plenty Of Music
12. Who Are The Mystery Girls?
13. Pills
14. You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory > Lonely Planet Boy
15. Gimme Luv And Turn On The Light
16. Dance Like A Monkey
17. Trash
18. Jet Boy
Encores
19. Personality Crisis
20. Gotta Get Away From Tommy

Sydney Metro Photos By Phuck Nose
2022 Remaster By aUDIOWHORE
Recording & Artwork By Waz From Oz

The Band
David Johansen - Vocals & Harmonica
Sylvain Sylvain - Rhythm Guitar & B/ Vocals
Steve Conte - Guitar & B/Vocals
Sami Yaffa - Bass Guitar
Brian Delaney - Drums

2007 Australian Tour Dates
The Hi-Fi, Melbourne, VIC 26th March
The Metro, Sydney NSW 28th March – Taped x 3
The Tivoli, Brisbane, QLD 29th March
V Festival, Centennial Park, Sydney NSW 31st March
V Festival, Avica Resort, Gold Coast QLS 1st April
V Festival, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne 4th April

The Departed Original Dolls
Billy Murcia
Johnny Thunders 23rd May 1991
Jerry Nolan 14th January 1992
Arthur “Killer” Kane 13th July 2004
Sylvain Sylvain 13th January 2021

I first became aware of the New York Dolls (Dolls from here on in) in 1972 when I’d read articles about them in the English music magazines that my grandmother in the UK would send me, then a short time later around mid-1973
in the US music magazine Rock Scene. I was instantly captivated by the photos of the Doll’s all dressed up in their flamboyant, androgynous clobber / attire / which as it turned out were mostly female, accessorized with
some fabulous knee-high platform boots along with sheila’s high heel shoes & judging from the photos they sported some tasteful make up as well.

At that time the Dolls had released no product, so all I knew about the kind of music they played which was described in the article’s as raw rock & roll, very Stonesy like, as the Stones were my favourite band
this appealed to me even further.

I’d left high school in February 1973, was working in my first job just above slave labour being paid a pittance, but still managed to put aside some cash to spend on upcoming LPs, I’d read the Dolls had now landed a record deal,
had started recording with a LP due out soon so I the money ready.

My bestie Ruby & myself had started to haunt Sydney’s major Import Record Shop, probably in August 1973 while we were haunting said shop I saw up on the wall the list of new releases / new arrivals, on the list was the Dolls LP,
it was here! I immediately went to the new arrivals bin, had no idea what the LP cover looked like but I knew it as soon as I saw it, the now infamous outrageous grey cover with the Dolls looking like they were photographed
at a half-way house for undecided drag queens with the band’s name written in red lipstick.

This is only time I’ve brought an LP on the strength of a cover alone without hearing a second of the music inside. Once home the LP went straight on the hi fi, from the first song I was hooked, a brilliant debut LP,
not one track to me was a filler. I also rank the Dolls 2nd LP Too Much Too Soon a classic, IMHO there isn’t a duff track on either LP.

Today both Dolls LP’s are considered cult classics, the 1st classed as one of the greatest debut LPs ever, both LP’s especially the 1st making the greatest albums ever lists.
I regularly still play both LP’s today, they never lost their appeal in the Waz household.
They’re often mentioned as being fore runners of pre-punk & pre-Heavy Metal. The Dolls left a great legacy and influence.

I expected the Dolls to go on to great things but by April 1975 by the band had broken up, due to a mixture of poor record sales, internal fighting fanned by drugs & drink.
I’d also read but have no idea how true it is that someone high up in the record industry was determined for them to not succeed & would do anything to make sure this didn’t happen.

Also, the Dolls weren’t helped by their androgynous look which seemed to unsettle the American public.
Yet another band that started up around the same time who sported laughable outfits plus who wore more makeup than the Dolls
ever did went onto not only find success at home but international success as well.
Yes, I’m referring to the excretable Kiss (sorry Kiss fans) who IMHO if you took their best songs they wouldn’t even make up a decent EP
compared to the music contained on the two Dolls LP’s.

Johansen / Sylvain continued on under the Dolls banner until mid-1976.
In 2004 the Dolls albeit the three still with us members were back in the musical spotlight as Morrissey (a huge Dolls fan) &
who was the curator of London’s Meltdown Festival had asked them to reform for two shows, lo & behold they accepted.

After this the reformed Dolls continued gigging but now without Arthur “Killer” Kane who had departed this world shortly after the London 2004 concerts leaving again only David & Sylvain.
Those two with hired hands released an album in 2006 as the New York Dolls entitled “One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This”.
Being a Dolls long-time fan I brought it, was pleasantly surprised on hearing it that it was a decent LP, not an embarrassing effort as I thought it might have been.

They toured the world in support of the album announcing that they would be touring Australia in March 2007 playing a mixture of stand alone shows as well as appearances at the V Festivals.
Two shows in Sydney, one at the Metro Nightclub, the other at the V Festival in Centennial Park, I chose the former because they’d be playing a longer set at the Metro than at a festival.

The Metro Theatre is on George street in the heart of Sydney. It’s a good venue, the main room holds about 1,200 plus, all standing except on the left side looking at the stage there is seating section,
going back from the front of stage area it goes up in small tiers to a bar at the back. The stage height would be level with a normal sized person’s shoulders. I’ve always found the sound at the Metro,
to be pretty, pretty good as Larry David says.

I loathed that the drinks bar is situated behind the tiers, at some shows the bar would be open so throughout the show punters would be endlessly going back & forth there for booze, some would congregate up there & start yakking.
If one was up in the tiers you could hear the drone of their incessant talking over the music.
Methinks the bar was shut at the Dolls show as I can’t hear talkers in the quiet parts of the show.

I arrived not long before the show, the show was sold out, the place was packed, on entering the area where the show was to be held I was surprised at how top heavy the audience was with younger folk.
Put it this way a good proportion of the people I was looking at, their parents would either not have been born back in 1973 or would have still been wetting / soiling their nappies / daipers.

Taping at the Metro can be a hard task as it’s a venue that attracts record company people.
A few times I’ve had to discreetly remove myself to another position because of this.
A good friend, a fellow taper was also taping the Dolls that night, he was down the front, just after the band launched into Trash he was observed and was confronted by a mouthy record company female, who brought a Metro staff member into the equation.
They demanded he either turn his DAT off or hand over the DAT cassette.
He made out he couldn’t hear what they were saying to him, he abruptly turned on his heels, went down the stairs & exited the venue.

Once I was inside the venue, it was jam packed in front of the stage.
I found a position mid-tier just off to the side of the middle, turned out to be a good position as no one around me was a chatty Cathy, all the enthusiastic concert goers where down the front of stage.
The pre-show music consisted of female singers /groups which the Dolls, especially David loved.
I turned the DAT on during Jackie De Shannon’s "When You Walk in the Room” when that came to an end the band walked onstage, did a bit of a tune up then David spoke then did the spoken intro to into “Looking For A Kiss” followed by “Puss N Boots”.
They sounded great, as was finally seeing the two surviving Dolls.

Both David & Sylvain, the latter more so were very talkative during the show, both to the audience & each other, Sylvain expressed that he wanted to fuck everyone in the audience.
I don’t believe David when he said the Sydney audience was the best one ever nor that the band had just played a show for the Sultan Of Brunei & his 716 wives.

A nice touch was David before “Private World” that it was going out to Arthur “Killer” Kane who he co-wrote that tune with.
Likewise Sylvain saying that the medley of “You Can’t Put Your arms Around A Memory > Lonely Planet Boy”
was for Johnny Thunders & all the New York Dolls that aren’t around anymore.
A surprise song in the set was “Piece Of My Heart” introduced by David as being by our favourite band, that band being Janis Joplin!

The recording turned out well, no close audience members chit chatting loudly around me, as I wrote earlier the more boisterous & vocal members of the audience were down the front, they can be heard singing along
they don’t dominate the recording but compliment it when they’re heard.

I have to say that I enjoyed the show, even though I didn’t get to hear my fave Doll’s songs, namely “Frankenstein”, “Bad Girl” from the 1st album nor "It’s Too Late" & “Babylon” from the 2nd LP.
I personally felt it would have made an excellent gig a wee bit special if the last song of the night had been a well-known Dolls number instead of an average song from the previous year’s album, myself &
I’m dead set positive a good percentage of the crowd would have much preferred something like “Frankenstein” than “Gotta Get Away From Tommy” to end the show with.

Sylvain Sylvain passed in January last year so as of this writing leaving David Johannsen as the last Doll standing.

This show is for Hans, he knows who he is!
As always thanks to audiowhore.

Enjoy,
Waz

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