Paris invades London

By STEVE MASCORD

THE Cavern Free House is what purveyors of cliche call an ‘institution’, in south west London – been threatened with, and saved from, closure many times.

“The Cave” is really just a glorified pub but the glorification is real and Pete, my friend from Balham, has his own personal perch right in front of the stage, his if he’s in da house. Everyone seems to know each other here and although tonight’s midweek appearance by Melbourne chanteuse Cassidy Paris is free gig, the bucket goes around at the end of the night to keep the doors open once more.

(For those who don’t know what a ‘free house’ is … traditionally most pubs in the UK were owned by breweries and only served that brewery’s products. A free house can sell any beer it wants).

This is kind of a gig review and a feature as I had a chat to bassist and proud dad to Cassidy, Steve Janevski, after the show.

Firstly, what are we talking about musically here?

We’re talking about eighties-themed commercial hard rock – there’s a cover of Joan Jett’s Desmond Child hit “I Hate Myself For Loving You” very early.

And, being an honest reviewer, I must report the gig gets off to a somewhat slow start. Any show played in a room with the lights on, which has an lengthy intro tape, is going to struggle to engage the audience straight off the bat.

And the cover is easily the best of the opening five songs.

But then Casey and her band, completed by British brothers Tom and Alex Rogowski, play the song “Danger” and we are cleared for take-off. The crowd becomes engaged and the band hits a groove. “Rock’n’Roll Hearts” is another highlight as we hurtle towards closing time.

The former Jagged Edge and Skin guitarist Myke Gray is working the room taking snaps – he’s reinvented himself as a gig photographer – and everyone is having a jolly time.

Before they chuck us out when it’s all over, I corner Steve to fill in the undoubted gaps in our collective knowledge about his daughter’s journey. It’s Cassidy’s third UK tour.

“Cassidy’s always expressed an interest in music,” he recalls. “She’d come and see me back in the say at the Hard Rock Cafe. I used to play a residency gig there.

“I’d probably say that by the time she started high school, she’d learned how to play guitar. I’d taught her guitar and she started to take some lessons vocally and I always encouraged her to write songs.

“It takes a while for you to become a good songwriter but that came about pretty quick and I noticed that she had a voice and slowly, slowly she was getting better and better at singing and better and better as a songwriter.

“My wife and I just said ‘you know what, there’s something special there’ and of course we’re proud of her and we just nurtured her and slowly, slowly she just kept at it. I’d probably say that when she released her first single when she was 14, ’Talk About It’, that was an exciting moment for sure.

“She’s 21 now but she’s been performing around the world the last seven years. She’s been to Japan, America, UK three times as well as some other parts of Australia as well as Melbourne.”

Most of tonight’s crowd was male and middle aged. Is this a market that appears lucrative to Cassidy and Steve or does she yearn for the pop charts, I wonder…..

“We do (talk about it) but the thing is: she grew up with eighties music. She’s always going to have that thing about her. Maybe it’s attracting some of the older audience.

“We’ve been getting some younger people come to the shows and that’s been cool. They’re now starting to even out a little bit, particularly at (London venue) Cart and Horses. It’s a bit of a mix but you know what? We don’t discriminate. We’ve got some older fans. That’s cool. Cassidy’s totally cool with that.”

Paris is the only Australian signed to Italian melodic rock label Frontiers and the youngest artist on its roster.

After chatting to Steve and introducing myself to Mike, Pete and I befriend an English fella who lives in the Blue Mountains and his childhood friend who stayed in England and lives in Croydon. This fellow (the UK domiciled one) is full of praise for Cassidy but observed she tried to work in too many ‘moves’ into her stage personal and was more compelling later in the set when she just let the songs take hold and “got into it”.

Not an unfair observation.

I give the fellows a lift back to Balham in my Uber (Pete insisted on a bus because we insisted on one more round) and although we vowed everlasting Facebook friendship, I’ve not heard from them since.

Cassidy, meanwhile, is holidaying in … Paris. I kid you not. And I’d just about bet my life I do hear from her again.

HEAR OUR INTERVIEWS WITH DOZENS OF ARTISTS VIA OUR PATREON PAGE. EAVESDROP AS WE TALK TO SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ROCK AND METAL – FROM 1987 TO THE PRESENT!

Features:

Cinderella: Fred Coury

Cinderella: Jeff LaBar