Plain and Fancy: 03/12/25

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

The La De Das - Rock And Roll Sandwich (1973 australia, solid funky boogie classic rock, bonus tracks remaster)

In January 1973, Kevin Borich finally returned to New Zealand, bringing back the new La De Das lineup to headline at Robert Raymond's 54-act Great Ngaruawahia Festival, and they gave a triumphant performance. According to John Dix, the La De Das delivered "...a well-paced set (that) blew Black Sabbath and everything New Zealand had to offer clear off the stage." Their ecstatic reception encouraged them to organise a short major-city concert tour there in May, when they returned with four tons of equipment and made their live mastery evident to all who attended. For the rest of the year, it was a constant round of touring, either as headliners, or sharing the bill with Sherbet (who were now being managed by Roger Davies) or as support to visiting international acts such as Little Richard, Gary Glitter, Three Dog Night, The Guess Who and Lindisfarne. They also provided backing on two tracks for Richard Clapton's debut album Prussian Blue.

On July 8, on the way to a Lindisfarne gig, their truck was involved in a head-on collision on the Hume Highway between Holbrook and Albury. Ronnie Peel and roadie John Brewster (not John Brewster of The Angels) were both hospitalised, although their injuries were not serious. The major casualty was the band's equipment, most of which was destroyed in the crash. Three weeks later the Sunrise agency organised a benefit gig in Sydney at the Green Elephant (the Doncaster Theatre) in Kensington, featuring a top lineup, including the Las De Das, Sherbet, Buffalo, Pirana, Lotus, Home, Country Radio, I'Tambu, Original Battersea Heroes and Hush, which raised almost $2000 for the group.

By mid-year, the band were being hailed as Australia's leading live act and Borich's was widely regarded as our pre-eminent guitar hero. With the new lineup firing on all cylinders, and Chugg back on board as manager, Kevin was impatient to record a new album, but EMI were less than enthusiastic. To pressure them, Borich instructed Michael Chugg to get the band out of their contract. The ploy worked, and EMI reluctantly agreed to a new record in September. But the first sessions at EMI's studios were deemed unsatisfactory by the band and all but two tracks were scrapped. (The two tracks, "She Tell Me What To Do" and "No Law Against Having Fun" later surfaced on the compilation album Legend.)

According to Glenn A. Baker, the main stumbling block was that Kevin couldn't get a guitar sound that was anywhere near his live sound, so Rod Coe again solved the problem by installing a portable 8-track recording rig and JBL monitors in the Green Elephant and recording them there. Kevin swapped his familiar Gibson for a Fender Stratocaster and, as Glenn Baker charmingly puts it " ... the whole album went down like a sinker off a pier, in just two days." Back at EMI, they overdubbed Kevin's piano parts, added some tasty backing vocals by Renee Geyer and Bobby Marchini and horns by Don Reid.

The result was the brilliant Rock'n'Roll Sandwich, which Baker rightly lauds as "one of Australia's finest rock albums, a fiery, cohesive work dominated by the superbly talented Kevin Borich and carried off by the reliable gutsiness of Peel and Barber." Touring around the new LP, released in November 1973, the La De Das enjoyed their most successful period to date, including supports for Elton John and Suzi Quatro on their Australian tours.

The solid gigging continued through 1974 and into 1975, including a well-received appearance at the final Sunbury Festival in January '75. The La De Das' appearance was one of the few high points in this ill-fated event, which was was marred by bad weather and poor attendance. Headliners Deep Purple copped strong criticism for the arrogant and aggressive conduct of their crew, with Purple's roadies provoking a fight with AC-DC and George Young after refusing to allow AC/DC to follow them on stage. There was also a lot of anger over their whopping AU$60,000 fee -- about ten times the going rate for a top-rank Aussie act of the day -- which was magnified by the fact that almost all the local groups went unpaid. Despite these altercations, the La De Das made a positive impression on Deep Purple, and lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore expressed an interest in jamming with them.

Milesago