Stephen Cummings - Close Ups

“When I left the Sports, I left the Sports. That was it. I left the songs behind and I never looked back. Now I’ve done 13 solo albums I kinda thought, ‘I wanna bring those songs back into my life’. Elvis Costello does it. Bob Dylan does it. Why am I not doing it?”

Stephen Cummings isn’t being immodest by claiming such distinguished company. Like some of rock’s greatest artists, he’s a writer obsessed with the ongoing redefinition of ageless emotions and scenarios. For nearly 30 years, his work has channelled a restless creative spirit through one of Australia’s most acclaimed and distinctive voices.

CLOSE-UPS is a surprisingly affectionate return to his back catalogue in a spontaneous acoustic setting. By recalling songs he hasn’t played in 25 years and reconsidering some of his finest moments as a solo artist, Stephen Cummings has arguably arrived at his definitive album.

“To me it was about rearranging and reclaiming the songs,” he says. “A good pop song doesn’t date. All Neil Finn’s really good songs, Beatles songs, they sound great on an acoustic guitar. I wanted to see how mine stood up.

“To me, How Come and Strangers On a Train sound like they were written yesterday. Live Work and Play, I thought ‘This sounds like Porno For Pyros or something, a real modern rock record’.”

Suspicious Minds, one of four songs from the Sports’ benchmark Don’t Throw Stones LP of ’79, is one of several recast in the haunting twilight mood of a mature artist. Then again, the breezy nylon strings of Twist Senorita revisit the band’s first EP of ‘77 with the freshness of innocence itself.

Later classics – She Set Fire To The House, When Love Comes Back To Haunt You, Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick – are timeless stories that reveal more in the retelling, like pictures showing new details under different light.

“Doing it was a real blast, I have to admit,” Stephen says. “We did it in about three days, played it live so every track has the immediacy of an actual performance. It has that urgency so many records seem to lack these days.”

CLOSE-UPS was recorded at Joe Camilleri’s Woodstock Studios in Melbourne with long time collaborators Shane O’Mara on guitars and Rebecca Barnard on harmony vocals, plus Howard Cairns (bass), Peter Jones (drums) and James Black (electric piano).

Track	Title
1	How Come
2	Hell (You've Put Me Through)
3	She Set Fire To The House
4	Don't Throw Stones
5	Suspicious Minds
6	Who Listens To The Radio
7	Twist Senorita
8	When Love Comes Back To Haunt You
9	Strangers On A Train
10	The Big Room
11	Walk Softly But Carry A Big Stick
12	I Fell From A Great Height
13	Carrying A Torch For You (For Years)
14	Live Work and Play

LIMITED TIME:

CD plus 32 page book by Ed. Nimmervoll

ABOUT THE CD BOOKS

The CD books present an innovative and unique concept whereby a music CD is housed within the inside cover of a casebound book. Each book is approximately the same size as a CD, and designed to be kept on a CD shelf, amongst a CD collection, rather than on a bookshelf. As such, the CD books enable the reader to recapture the simple pleasure of reading about music and musicians while listening to a number or tracks: an enjoyment which has largely been lost with the demise of the vinyl record and its accompanying sleeve.

In this first collection of CD books, music historian and journalist Ed Nimmervoll (author of Friday on My Mind, founder of Juke magazine, amongst other achievements) presents concise, evocative, and accessible biographies on the artists behind several of Australia's most popular and influential bands: Mark Seymour, Stephen Cummings, Joe Camilleri, and James Reyne.

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