Liner Notes: INXS
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Liner Notes: INXS

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It’s 8:00pm on a Saturday and I’m waiting to be connected over the phone to nerd-chic, UK performance poet and comedian Tim Clare. Clare is in the middle of performing three gruelling shows per day at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before whisking off to Australia and taking on the Writers Festival. As a major Youtube and blog fan of Clare, who will be headlining Liner Notes with INXS’s signature “disambiguation” song, the anticipation plays with my nerves. “You get comedians, poets, cabaret artists and musicians all together, riffling on a classic album you love or at least know well, you learn offbeat tales of its making, and you get a great live band faithfully recreating the sound,” says Liner Notes MC Michael Nolan of the show. “It’s a great formula because on the one hand, everything you see has a common source, so it’s easy to wrap your head around, but on the other hand, you never know where the performers will take you… The album’s our common ground, but then we throw away the map and get lost. Together.” 

Suddenly, my mobile phone rings. Tim Clare’s on the line from England. “Hello, nice to meet you,” he says. Oh god, I’m drunk. The charmingly rough, British accent crackles through the phone line and I begin to lose grip of my cool. “Hi Tim! Sooo glad to, you know, chat!” I giggle, reaching astonishingly high schoolgirl pitches. Lucky for me, Clare is a great talker and quickly launches into his take on life as both comedian and poet: “I’d identify as a poet at first, although I was really writing comedic poetry. Everything that’s serious has a couple of jokes in there…Actually, I’m not comfortable with either terms. Anything I’d describe myself as would be a bizarre string of adjectives,” he says. “I’m just a lazy toad.”

The charismatic accent is really too much as I frantically trying to write everything he says down on red wine stained paper I have sprawled across the cigarette ash-stricken bar bench. Be cool, be cool. Clare says he can’t wait to team up with the Liner Notes crew: US poet Ken Arkind and local talents Justin ‘Bedroom Philosopher’ Heazelwood, Ben Pobjie, Catherine Deveny, Emilie Zoey Baker, Alicia Sometimes Sean M Whelan and Omar Musa. “Sooo how do you, you know, connect with INXS’s Kick album?”

“I listened to it years ago and actually haven’t heard it since. I’m coming from the perspective as, to be totally honest, not a massive fan. But in my defence, I’ll be bringing in a totally new perspective (on the album),” he says. “Well, it’s a long flight to Melbourne. I’m sure you’ll have time to bond over the album again,” I say.

But Clare says he’ll have none of that. He recounts an incident on a flight to LA where he “necked” a few sleeping pills and champagne to help him sleep. “I fell asleep immediately; it ended up feeling quicker than taking the bus to the next town. But, on the way back I got food poisoning. There’s no need for the details but it was pretty horrific. It was like aeroplane karma.”

Wow, so rock and roll, I think to myself. Be cool, be cool. “Thanks for, you know, chatting and stuff Tom! Really looking forward to catching the show and meeting up after.” Click, the phone disconnects. Phew, I think, winged that one well. This calls for a celebratory drink. “I mean, Tim!” I scream at the dial tone.