Johnny Vanguard

Johnny Vanguard

Citizen Urban/Country Cousin Tour

Francis Greenway

Originally appeared in Rolling Stain Magazine, 2011

When the Rolling Stain office learnt that Johnny Vanguard's ‘Citizen Urban/Country Cousin’ tour was coming to town certain reporters suggested we indulge in a little wager. First one to miss a deadline for next issue gets, not only completely gutted by our editor, but also the dubious honour of attending the Vanguard concert. Now, don’t get us wrong, Rolling Stain loves Underlife just as much as the next high end music magazine. We all grew up with Vanguard and Lee’s harmonising in our radios, car stereos and television screens, idolising every overindulgent lick or too loud drum beat. It’s simple, we at the Rolling Stain offices concluded, everybody loves Underlife. It’s just as simple, we also realised, looking at the reluctance in all these reporters faces, that doesn’t mean everyone loves Johnny Vanguard.

Johnny Vanguard is a nice enough guy. Nice enough to listen to in the comfort of your own home through a staticy stereo system, nice enough to watch perform out of a TV screen but not so nice 3 feet away sitting for an interview. As we sat in the office trading Vanguard horror stories (turning up 3 hours late, drunk, condescending, walking out early) this reporter remembered that she had a 3 page feature to write on the Foo Fighters due in 25 minutes. That’s how I find myself in the V.I.P section of Vanguard's October 23^rd concert at Liverpool’s ‘Cube.’

After sitting through the deplorable support act, in the form of The Dead Man’s Chests, as they thrash around with their false sense of entitlement and ‘alternative’ tunes I’m almost thankful when the mortal enemy of the music journalist, Johnny Vanguard, takes the stage to perform a showcase of his newly released ‘Sunsets and Scrapheaps' album

I judge him on his late entrance. I judge him on his sloppy appearance (wearing no shirt at the age of 40 does not make you a ‘righteous dude’.) I judge him on his tacky staged set. Then Johnny Vanguard starts playing…

And I stop judging him.

I stop doing anything but listening as he warbles and strums his way through one of the most raw, messy, incomplete and…absolutely brilliant sets I’ve ever had the privilege to witness in my years at Rolling Stain. Vanguard is a little unsteady on his feet, his hair not as long as his 70’s self would have liked. His voice is the kind of scratchy from age and wear that he’s been trying to imitate on Underlife records for years. He is older and wiser and maybe even a little more vulnerable than any of us at the magazine has ever seen him…but he is captivating.

I watch, and I listen and I don’t think about anything else but the music from the first note to the last Vanguard plays.

Before he walks off stage he winks at a bevy of adoring fans in the front row and declares himself ‘the new Keith Urban’ and I’m reminded somewhat jarringly why I dreaded coming here in the first place.

It’s walking home that night, Vanguards riffs and lyrics rolling around in my head, that I decide once and for all that Johnny Vanguard may not be the world most delightful human being, but he may very well be one of the most talented.

The Citizen Urban/Country Cousin Tour is frequenting various venues around Australia, check the website (www.citizenurbantour.com.au) for details

Francis Greenway