FANS of RADIO BIRDMAN will be pleased to hear that guitarist DENIZ TEK will not spit the dummy if he is asked to play ALOHA STEVE AND DANNO at The Casbah tomorrow night.
Tek is in Australia to plug his latest solo album, EQUINOX, nearly 20 years after his old band RADIO BIRDMAN broke up.
But unlike Birdman singer ROB YOUNGER, who went on to sing in THE NEW CHRISTS, Tek says being asked to play Birdman hits doesn't faze him at all.
'You have to expect it - that's what people know - and I don't blame people for that,' he said.
'To me, it's normal, I accept it and I'm not unhappy with having been in RADIO BIRDMAN. It's certainly still opening doors for me everywhere I go.'
Tek will be joined on this tour by former NEW CHRISTS bass player JIM DICKSON, and THE CELIBATE RIFLES and TUMBLEWEED drummer NICK REITH. EQUINOX is a surprisingly varied album, not devoid of Tek's trademark hard-edged guitar style, but is also filled with brooding lyrics, jazzy drum fills and cheesy sounding lounge keyboards.
His wife of 17 years, ANGIE PEPPER, also features on a couple of tracks, and has become a regular performer with Tek in the United States.
Tek, who lived and worked as a doctor in Newcastle at the Mater Hospital in 1979, met Pepper a Novocastrian, while the pair were on the road with her band THE PASSENGERS and his first post-Birdman group THE VISITORS. On Equinox, Pepper contributes vocals in an offbeat song MOON singing as a character who experiences bizarre feelings of paranoia in a checkout line at a Seven 11.
The couple now live in Montana where Tek now works as an emergency physician, although he also worked as a surgeon for the marines and even flew jet fighters for the United States Navy.
Considering his amazing array of skills, Tek still considers music a serious pursuit.
'I don't know in my life what's a hobby and what isn't it' he said.
'To me it's all serious stuff and I just have a lot of time-sharing in my life.'
Tek said his life's greatest passion was music - 'it's just that I can't get paid doing it'.
For a few weeks of the year Tek embarks on short tours of the East and West coasts of the United States, and once or twice a year travels to Australia and Europe where he still has a strong following.
TE has copies of the CD to give away. To enter send an envelope with your name, address and phone number to TEK GIVEAWAY, PO Box 200, Newcastle, 2300. Or click your entry through at www.nnp.com.au's backstage section.
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