The Crowns Australian label, Shock Records had set up an album release at the infamous Annandale Pub for the band during this tour. It was their only headlining gig and it turned out to be a banger, directly connecting them to fans in Australia.
"I remember this being more in our element, so we were relaxed and shit hot since this was the end of the tour, tight as a crab's ass." - Dennis Kelly
Jason tells the tale from his tour journal at that time below:
"July 21 Sydney AUS The Annandale. I head over to our Australian labels offices (Shock Records) to catch up on some E-mail and then meet everyone at the club for soundcheck. Did I say club? I meant pub! This is gonna be really cool, stage not too high, right in people's faces, little place and it's already starting to attract a cool looking crowd! The band that's opening tonight is a local band by the name of The Del-Emmas and they look like they're gonna be great! There's a BBQ out back, so we head outdoors to get some beer and food. We come back just in time to catch the Del-Emmas getting ready for stage. Matching black catsuits and masks! They get on stage and start rocking through a set of great garage originals and covers. They have the best harmonies! All the Crowns just watched from the side of the stage and took pictures. The crowd loved em and so did we! Speaking of the crowd, there was quite a few people gathered (about 300-350!). We get all excited and get ready to go on stage. the pub's CD player is broken so we can't do the intro with the music. But no prob, we just get on stage and introduce ourselves. I think all the greasers and rockabillies in Sydney were there, everyone primed and ready. This will be one of those gigs that we talk about in the van for months to come. it just had the perfect combination of energy/speed/force and a great audience to keep it going. People kept bringing us shots and yelling for more. By the time the set ended we had played all the songs we knew with Dennis (including the cover of Screamin Jay Hawkins "Lil Demon" that we just recorded for Rob Zombie's Halloween comp)! We get off stage, and the crowd is still roaring, we're looking at each other like scared little hamsters. "What are we gonna play?" "We can't go back out for an encore, we played everything!" The crowd is going nuts, stomping their feet and screaming. At one point we hear this one woman scream "GET BACK UP HERE YOU YANKEE BASTARDS! "(I hope we have this on tape; it'll sound great on a new single.) So, we head back out and explain our dilemma, They don't care, so I ask them which song they wanna hear repeated, "The fast one with the maracas!" someone screams. Dennis rips into Gretschy, and it's one of the most ferocious versions we've ever done. The crowd instantly is in motion, going nuts! The song comes to a close, but before it completely ends, we tear into Shiverin, mean and lean. So, there you go, our own gig in Sydney Australia and we had a great time! Afterwards we hung out with alot of the people that came to see us and went to another pub. (Town Hall I think it was called?) Lotsa drinking and talking till the end of the night. Sydney rocks. - Jason"
-
Image 1: The Del-Emmas.
-
Images 2-3: The Crowns and Del-Emmas.
-
Image 4: The Del-Emmas kick drum head
-
Image 5-6: Fan pics of the Crowns set.
-
Images 7: Shock Records one sheet hyping the Crowns in Australia.
-
Image 8: A review in Revolver magazine of the show that Pete Porker sent to Jason.
Photos 1-4 from the Collection of Dennis Kelly
Photos 5-6 from the Collection of Jack Hanlon
Documents from the Collection of Jason Kendall
