A note from the band

The two shows over the weekend were an amazing celebration of William’s music, and a fitting reminder that great songs are timeless. To play together again in front of William’s family and their friends was an incredible experience. We’d would like to say a special thanks to Toby for his amazing performance over both nights to bring the songs to life again in the most respectful and moving way. Also thanks to the wonderful Andrew Kentler for getting up in Melbourne and showing his flawless guitar playing was better than ever, and also to Brendan Wixted and The Model School for playing with us in Sydney and especially for his version of “Baby Now”. To everyone who came to the shows, thankyou we’ll remember them fondly for a very long time. Our final thanks must got to William for the songs and his musical vision, which we are all incredibly grateful to have been a part of.
Jason, Marc, Tim, Andy.

Linda Heller Salvador took some great photos of the Sydney show for Mess + Noise which you can find here .
The Sydney show was also filmed and recorded by Moshcam , who will have the show up on their site shortly. Check back shortly for details and links.

Mess + Noise have an in-depth chat with Jason and Andy up on the site here covering William’s songwriting talents, the reissues, tribute shows, the band’s history and and importantly, whether or not it is possible that some people’s parents put them on to band.

To commemorate the upcoming, one-off shows at the East Brunswick Club and Annandale Hotel, the redoubtable Cameron Emerson- Elliot has designed a print, (limited to 100) celebrating the performances in a style that William would have surely approved – the Spanish bullfighting poster. These prints will be on sale at both shows.

In addition, after much searching, we have unearthed a load of Glide CD’s that will also be available at both shows. The albums “Open Up And Croon”, “Disappear Here” and “Shrink Wrapped Real Thing” will be on sale, in addition to a small number of rare singles; “Why You Asking?”, “Something” , What Do I Know?” and “Tangled”  which contain all of the impossible to get b-sides.

The most recent issue of Time Out Sydney carries the fond reminiscences of Tim Rogers (You Am I) and Toby Martin (Youth Group) on William and the music of Glide.

‘Why you Asking?’. ‘Open Up And Croon’. ‘Something”. Glide were one of Sydney’s great never-quite-weres of the 1990′s, despite having songs that should, by rights, have taken over the world. A decade since their final album, the band are doing two shows to mark the digital reiussing of their back catalogue – and their influence was considerable, evidenced by these reminiscences from Tim Rogers of You Am I and Youth Group’s Toby Martin (who is performing in the place of late frontman William Arthur).

Tim Rogerstein

It’s simple really. I heard “Thin Faced Man” by Glide on the radio, and in between the opening A minor and whatever the goddamn second chord was, was in hook and blinker.It was smart, lofty, and made me both wistful and inspired. It was also supremely confident . To me anyhoo. Intimidating especially when i found out they were…well there’s no other way to put it….”contemporaries”. Saw ‘em first time at the Hopetoun just after our band had gone overseas for the first time. William was detached but involved, in command. I always thought he was a lot older than i was. He didn’t have a show. They opened with Bug. We met soon after on Booth St Annandale. I was surprised and charmed he surfed (true?) and had a sweet smile. I always checked in with what the band was doing as they had dynamic and nous and real smarts which we were aping. William and i were never close but i respected the living hell out of him and was always charmed to be in his company. To consistently see Jason, Andy and Andrew from the band intermittently is always a bittersweet, but mostly sweet reminder.

Toby Martin

Canberra. 1994.  I had just finished school and had just formed my first band. Glide came to town and we went to see them play at The Asylum. My memories of that show are of fringes, a wall of guitar noise and a darkly-lit stage.  Something grand, something stylish had actually come to Canberra and we were the only ones to see it. Glide quickly became one of my favourite bands.  Best of all, they were from Sydney – a city that, in my imagination, was full of such fabulous things. I finally moved there in 1996.  Glide seemed to be everywhere. We chose to record our first EP at Charing Cross studios in Bronte, largely because it’s where Glide had recorded Open Up And Croon. On our first day in the studio we noticed a cardboard star, with the image of a face on it, hanging from the ceiling.  It was the same star that was on the front cover of the ‘Something’ single.  These are small things. These are important things. They combined an expressive style of guitar playing with William Arthur’s yearning voice and lyrics of real poetry and substance. They were melancholy, romantic, sometimes sordid, and original.  In 2010, its startling clear how ahead of their time they were.