Patti Smith
1997 Australian Tour
Enmore Theatre,
Sydney, NSW Australia
21st January 1997

01. Beneath The Southern Cross
02. People Have The Power Poem
03. Gone Again
04. Free Money
05. Redondo Beach
06. Dancing Barefoot
07. Wicked Messenger
08. Walking Blind
09. Ghost Dance
10. Love Of The Common People (Sung By Lenny Kaye)
11. Summer Cannibals
12. Ain’t It Strange
13. Kimberly
14. About A Boy
15. Because The Night
16. People Have The Power
17. Wild Leaves
18. Not Fade Away
Encore
19. Land > Gloria
Recording & Artwork By Waz From Oz Remaster Thanks to mjk5510

The Band
Patti Smith - Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Harmonica (All three occasionally)
Lenny Kaye - Guitar, B/Vocals, Lead Vocal on Love Of The Common People
Jay Dee Daugherty - Drums & B/Vocals
Tony Shanahan - Bass Guitar & B/Vocals
Oliver Ray - Guitar

I first became aware of Patti Smith in late 1974 to mid-1975 when her name started cropping up in the English music magazines NME, Sounds & Melody Maker that I’d religiously buy every week along with American music magazines
Rock Scene & Circus that could be found in hip Sydney newsagents albeit all those music magazines mentioned above would arrive in Australia a month or two after being on sale overseas.
These articles described a female artist whose views, outlook & antics certainly sounded interesting to me as was the fact she was in the process of recording an album that would be released before the end of the year.
I was surprised when I first saw a picture of this Patti Smith person looking somewhat rather ordinary (sorry Patti) for some daft reason I expected her to look somewhat outreageous, something similar to the ultra-glamorous
New York Dolls who were the last American music artist that had piqued my interest.

I’d often frequent Sydney’s then most popular import record shop Anthem Records situated on Town Hall Station, on one visit I spied on their upcoming new releases board for November Patti Smith Horses.
I immediately handed over the cash there & then to secure a copy so I wouldn’t miss out. When Anthem notified me that it was in store it I hotfooted it into the city to get my eager mitts on it,
It was the same scenario as three years earlier when I brought the New York Dolls 1st LP without hearing one note of the Dolls music, which I loved from the first play it was the same with Patti’s Horses.

Horses started me on a lifelong journey of Patti love buying every album release from then to now, some albums appealed to me more than others but IMHO she’s never released a dud album,
also I buy every Patti Smith group bootleg I could get my hands on starting with live cassettes, LP’s then CD’s. I joined one of the internet’s first Patti Smith fan websites “a patti smith babelogue” where I connected
with a lovely generous person by the name of Yana Ya Ya (Hi Yana if you’re still out there) who provided me with many audience recorded cassettes of Patti shows from older & current tours.

In late November 1996 it was announced that Patti would be making her first tour of Australia in January 1996 as part of the Big Day Out festivals plus some stand-alone gigs, I scored tickets for the two Sydney Enmore shows
& one for the Sydney Big Day Out gig.

Patti was popular here, up to the 1997 Australia Tour most of the albums from Horses onwards had reached the lower rung of Australian Top 100 albums charts, apart from the 1978 single Because The Night Patti songs
weren’t played much on Sydney commercial radio stations however she did receive regular airplay on the highly popular Triple J which she mentions during the first Enmore show.

The Show
On arriving inside The Enmore Theatre for the first ever Patti Smith show on Australian soil one could see & feel the excitement, she certainly had eclectic audience, who lets say certainly looked different to an AC/DC audience!

The first song played was Beneath The Southern Cross from the Gone Again album, for those that aren’t aware the Southern Cross it’s easily visible in the Southern Hemisphere but not visible at all north of +20°
in the northern hemisphere. It holds special meaning in Australia and New Zealand, where it is circumpolar (continually visible above the horizon) and can be seen throughout the year, which is why Patti tells the
audience to go out the back of the Enmore Theatre (or club as she calls it) on a clear night & look up into the sky as it can be seen.

It was a typical Patti show where in-between songs she told us stories, such as that on the day of this gig in America it’s Martin Luther King Day to who she dedicates “Ghost Dance”, other dedications were “Gone Again”
for her late husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, “People Have The Power” to the South Korean workers who at the time were on strike, “Wild Leaves” for her friend Robert Mapplethorpe, Lenny Kay dedicates the Wayland Jennings
song “Love Of The Common People” to Lillian Roxon, who was an Australian journalist known for writing the “Rock Encyclopedia”, she moved permanently in 1959 to New York City where sometime in the mid to late 1960’s
she befriended Lenny.

At times it became like a Q & A session like for some reason she mention Pitt St (Sydney’s 2nd busiest street in the CBD) asking the audience how many of us lived on Pitt St, then & now only those with mucho dollars
can afford to live in the many high rises there!

Patti informs us how to remove splinters from one’s finger but to make sure we sterilize the needle first before digging it! A humorous exchange unfurls when a guy in the audience yells out “How’s ya mum?”
Patti responds by saying just how she will describe this audience member who asked about her mother to mum Bev when she returns home.

Before “Not Fade Away“ (in which she plays harmonica) she asks if we’ve read William Burroughs, tells us to vaccinate our rabbits, make sure we put on our sunblock, to drink a lot of water, to love our neighbour
& if any of us audience members are for various reasons feeling down she suggests we should visit an Aids hospice and or cancer wards & spend some energy talking to patients there such as kids undergoing chemotherapy,
then our lives won’t feel so shitty.

At one point during the show she disappeared off stage while the band was jamming on a song, soon after she appeared dancing in one of the aisle’s before jumping back up onto the stage, usually I have a good long-term memory
but I can’t remember the song that she was grooving to while among the audience. After Ain’t It Strange finished she sat down taking off her socks & boots describing it as taking care of business & something
to do about American World War 2 General Patton.

All up it was a great show, the band were excellent. I don’t agree with everything the reviewer wrote in his gig review, which is included with this torrent, I’m sure that many in the audience including myself
didn’t notice any flat spots as he did. My only slight disappointment was that she didn’t perform my favourite song Birdland from Horses, I had to wait till 2017 for that but I still got to hear many favourites
at her first Aussie show.

After The Show.
Thanks to an acquaintance working Enmore security I was able to go backstage, which was a very busy crowded affair. Eventually I was able to briefly speak to Patti before she was surrounded by well-wishers,
Olivier Ray was standing next to Patti when I spoke to her, he seemed rather shy didn’t talk but gave me a nice smile.

Patti graciously signed my Enmore ticket, the Gone Again bookmark & my Horses CD booklet twice, once on the front page & writing something at the top of the back page which to this day I still can’t decipher,
the same goes with the signature below hers & above Lenny Kaye’s “To Warren” signature, the signed booklet is included in this torrent, the signature that I can’t work out who wrote it is written partially over
the right side of Richard Sohl’s photo onto the left side of Lenny Kay’s pic. If anyone can decipher both please let me know!

I then approached Lenny Kaye telling him that it was a nice touch that he dedicated that nights “Love Of The Common People” to Lillian Roxon. I mentioned to him as a 16yo back in early 1973 when Lillian was back here
in Sydney visiting family that I was introduced to her & we had a short conversation, on hearing this Lenny smiled & said he was pleased that someone else remembered Lillian. He signed the back cover of the Horses CD booklet,
then people started to gravitate to him, so I said goodbye to as I did I spotted the drummer Jay Dee Daugherty more or less by himself so I gravitated over to him & introduced myself.

Being a member of the Patti Smith fan-based website “babelogue” I was up with the latest set lists so I asked him why they had dropped the Doors “The Crystal Ship” & Prince’s “When Doves Cry” that were performed often in 1996,
Jay Dee was somewhat surprised that I knew they’d been playing both songs, he asked me how I knew this, I replied through the glory of bootlegging & tape trading!

He laughed, then said he collected bootlegs of the band, hearing this I boldly admitted to him that I’d taped that night’s show, he asked if he could have a copy to which I replied gladly.
He asked if I was coming to the 2nd show the following night so I could give it to him, if not he’d arrange a ticket for me then afterwards to come backstage & ask for him, I told him thanks but I already have a ticket
but I would see him tomorrow after the show.

Before I left his company I asked if he’d autograph my ticket (I dead set completely forgot to ask him to sign my Horses CD booklet) he obliged, he even wrote the venue's name spelling theatre in the English spelling &
not the American spelling. My autographed ticket is included in the artwork. I hadn’t any blank CD-R’s at home so I dubbed the show onto 2 cassettes which I gave him the next night.
Jay Dee lived in Sydney in the early 90’s when he was the drummer for the well-known Australian group the Church.

I’ve attended every Sydney Patti gig bar one since her first one in 1997 (this torrent),the 1997 Sydney MCA reading & Big Day Out gig, the Dylan / Patti 1998 tour, the 2008 tour & the last time she toured Australia
with Horses in 2017. The Sydney show I missed was her Sydney Opera House “In Her Own Words” reading that was added as the last date on the 2017 tour as I was interstate.

Also caught her twice in London on the 1st & 2nd July 1999 when my visit there coincided with her London gigs. I’ve taped every Patti show I’ve gone to (mostly uncirculated), hopefully this torrent will be the first
of my Patti recordings to be torrented in the future.

Back in 1997 I traded this show with a few Patti fans but it doesn’t look like it had much exposure as I have not seen it on anyone’s lists nor on any torrent sites, so this upgraded version will be new to many Patti fans.

If burning to CD-R I’d suggest between Track 12 Ain’t It Strange & Track 13 Kimberly.

Thanks again to mjk5510
Enjoy, Waz

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

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