Cooper-Lily Nikora interviews Luke Peacock of The Painted Ladies ahead of a special performance with Vic Simms this Friday night at Melbourne’s NGV.
No one could really tell if it was sweat or tears falling from Vic Simms face as The Painted Ladies performed under Darwin’s muggy winter skies to a crowd of thousands.
It was definitely a show to remember, years of unspoken pain brought to life by Simms’ first full live performance in over 20 years, reminding everyone of the unfair treatment he and his people were put through.
“We are never, ever, ever again gonna be strangers in our country,” said the 70-year-old ex-Bathurst gaol inmate, rock ’n’ roll legend, and Bidjigal man, who was celebrating his induction into the NIMA Hall of Fame.
Luke Peacock looks back on the night dotingly. It’s been a couple of years now since Luke brought together a band of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander musicians to form The Painted Ladies, with the sole purpose of paying homage to Simms’ long-forgotten 1973 album, The Loner.
“The NIMA award was definitely a cherry-on-top kinda feeling, especially with the long journey we’d been on over the years,” Luke says. “To have Uncle Vic recognised for what he’s done – and been through – was something none of us imagined would happen so quickly.”
After a very early start to a burgeoning pop career, a young Vicki Simms’ music career faded, and he became addicted to alcohol at the age of 15. By 22, he had no money and nothing to his name, and landed himself in gaol for robbery.
Spending seven years in Bathurst gaol, Simms – hardened by the cold nights and never-ending danger simply for being a black man – sacrificed a few packets of tobacco for a guitar. By then, his writing style had taken on a deeper and darker tone after suffering from years of racial discrimination – explored in tracks like ‘Get Back Into The Shadows’ and ‘Poor Folks Happiness’.
The Loner was recorded inside Bathurst gaol as a publicity stunt by government officials to deflect news of the ongoing riots. Simms was even thrown on tour, but soon realised he was being used and called it quits. The album eventually drifted off the media radar, only to be remembered by the very few who knew it as the first Aboriginal protest album.
Truth be told, Peacock didn’t even know if Simms was still alive after he came across a copy of The Loner in 2011, hiding in the depths of 98.9 FM.
“It felt so close to home in so many ways,” he said, after his station manager carefully gave Luke the DAT from his personal stash. “Not just the aspects of Indigenous cruelty, inequality and discrimination. There are also love songs, songs about friends… and if they weren’t about me, they were about someone I knew.”
Years later, as The Painted Ladies continued their work to draw attention to the release, Peacock and his band were taken by surprise by the late arrival of Simms himself and an energetic delivery of his classic ‘I Wanna Bop’.
“We were very surprised,” Peacock says warmly. “None of us had seen him perform before. I had heard he was doing some gigs around Sydney, but other than that I didn’t know how his voice was doing or how he was doing energy-wise.”
“Once we finally gained his trust, we managed to get Uncle Vic on the plane to join us for a show at WOMAD 2015. It was a good warm-up before we went up to Darwin to play a full set. He always manages to blow us away.”
While the groundwork to a collaboration had been laid, it wasn’t a simple, immediate transition, and Simms was understandably hesitant.
“It was hard in the beginning,” Peacock explains. “For obvious reasons he was hesitant to delve into something that reminded him of his deep past. He’d put it all behind him. But slowly, Vic has let himself be open to singing his songs again, with even more fire and passion”.
In the end, the pieces joined, and Luke’s admiration for Vic is clear.
“The way Vic holds himself onstage is pretty incredible; after all these years his professionalism remains. I’ve seen him perform a number of times now, and I can’t help but admire the amount of effort he puts in. That’s who he is.”
Luke has kindly shared exciting news that Vic Simms is currently working on new material with the help of some pretty important names – but that’s under wraps, for now.
In the meantime, Friday’s show at NGV is one not to be missed. Luke Peacock will also be performing a free solo show at Fitzroy’s Labour In Vain the following evening.
