City’s Calling Me
Mick Thomas’s Roving Commissions’ new album City’s Calling Me started life as a simple covers record, but as Melbourne’s second lockdown of 2020 took hold, it grew into something more substantial. Something that the Dutch might identify with. Mick saw his own chance to illustrate the hidden city inside all Melbournites’ – indeed all Australians’ – imaginations.
With a selection of songs from some of his favourite local songwriters – Van Walker, Sally Kimber, Marcel Borrack, Charles Jenkins, and Peter Lawler (with the latter two both providing previously unreleased songs) – as well as a left field pick from local grunge rockers Legends of Motorsport, Mick had the basis for his own collection of Jordaanlied- equivalents. Of course, Mick’s own back catalogue holds swathes of suitable material so a few of his own were dusted off for reinterpretation too, including ‘Under the Clocks’, which was recorded in what would have been Grand Final week in Melbourne; ‘It just seemed such a sad time,’ says Mick.
