Jeff Duff Band

The Canberra Review citynews.com.au
October 7, 2004

Studio 54 hits Canberra

By Candy Gibson & Wendy Johnson

Jazz and R&B vocalist Jeff Duff will headline Canberra’s glamour event of the year next month at an ultimate dance gala in support of the ACT’s arts community.
One of the most anticipated events on the ACT social calendar, the annual Capital Art Patrons Organisation’s (CAPO) ball at the Royal Theatre on Saturday November 13 will bring to life New York’s infamous Studio 54 nightclub scene.

Triple j presenter Jordie Kilby, who presents the Roots ‘n All show on Thursday nights, will be the deejay for the evening, spinning some hot dance music tracks in a dual act with powerhouse performer, Jeff Duff, and his new band, Duffo.
The legendary Jeff Duff, who made his debut Canberra performance in August at the Southern Cross Club, packed out three performances at the Manly Jazz Festival during the October long week-end, and wowed the crowds at Thredbo in June.

Duff will perform tracks from his new CD – Ground Control to Frank Sinatra – which features original compositions plus inspired arrangements of David Bowie classics sung in Sinatra style and Ol’ Blue Eyes songs performed Bowie style.

Tickets for the November 13 dance party are $160 per person and $1500 for a table of 10. To book, phone 6249 - The Canberra Review

“I don’t think it’s overstating the case to say that, had Jeff Duff hailed from a country in the top half of the world, he could now be as acknowledged and acclaimed as David Bowie or Lou Reed or Iggy Pop” – Glenn A. Baker, rock historian

- Glenn A Baker

review
THE CANBERRA
David Bowie meets Ol’ Blue Eyes Sinatra
Expect Something Special
By Wendy Johnson A hot new band, led by the powerhouse voice of Sydney’s legendary Jeff Duff, is performing for the first time in the ACT, at the Southern Cross Club on Saturday, August 21.
‘Duffo’ will launch their new CD in Canberra after a successful tour of packed out venues in NSW. The band’s live shows, including at The Basement in Sydney and at the Thredbo Jazz Festival, received rave reviews by music critics and audiences.
The new CD - Ground Control to Frank Sinatra - features original Jeff Duff composi-tions plus inspired arrangements of David Bowie classics sung in Frank Sinatra style and Ol’ Blue Eyes songs performed Bowie style.
It is jazz, rock, pop, and blues all wrapped into one - refreshingly original and very Jeff Duff. As Andy Warhol said in the 1980s: “Sinatra, Presley, Jagger, Popeye, and now Duffo.”
And two members of the new band hail from Canberra’s School of Music - Kevin Hailey (bass) and Rachel Gaudry (backing vocals). Duffo also features Sydney’s Tim Jenkins (keys), Aaron Michael (sax), Andy Davies (drums), and Louise Perryman also on backing vocals.
On the CD, being distributed nationally by MGM, classics like Changes, Rebel Rebel, and Suffragette City are given new life with jazz swing arrangements while, Sinatra’s Under My Skin, That’s Life and My Way are given a modern makeover that catapult them to new heights.
The concept for the album began as a ‘hypothetical’ story written by Jeff Duff involv-ing the fictional Larry Epstein, a neurotic New York theatrical agent who represents big names in show biz. Larry books Sinatra and Bowie to perform on the same night in different cities in the U.S. The night in question, Larry - not exactly sober - messes matters up. Sinatra was scheduled to perform at the Main Event Casino, Las Vegas, and Bowie at Madison Square Garden, New York. Both singers end up at one another’s gigs and end up performing anyway. The rest is history.
And then there’s the infectious Jeff Duff, with his big, booming baritone voice, who has been singing professionally since he was 17. He is an innovative and unique performer. Jeff is not only a powerful singer, he is a marvellous entertainer, always drawing his audience in with his wicked, yet delightful sense of humour.
The Duffo Band performs at the Top of the Cross, Southern Cross Club, Sat 21 August. Dinner / show 7pm $55. Show only 8.30pm $25.
- Canberra Sun

Bohemianrhapsody
Author: Richard Jinman
Date: 25/09/2004
Words: 1081
Source: SMH
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Section: Spectrum
Page: 3


His 20 albums brought little success, but vocal virtuoso Jeff Duff has no regrets - even about his decade without sex, he tells Richard Jinman.
The first thing you notice when you step inside Jeff Duff's tiny studio apartment are two large paintings. One shows the singer naked in bed, looking faintly puzzled. The other, an Archibald Prize entry by New Zealand artist Justin Pearson, depicts him as an angel with soft, snowy wings.

Both images are revealing. Duff is a chronic insomniac and the nude, painted by a former girlfriend, shows him awakening from a rare sleep.

His appearance as an angel is more perplexing. This, after all, is the man who has been arrested on stage for ripping up a Bible and banned from a Sydney venue for inciting a riot. But, at 46, his sweetly boyish nature and cherubic features still conspire to give him a vaguely celestial air.

Duff, who has made 20 albums, is arguably one of the nation's best male singers: the owner of a big, emotional voice that recalls balladeers such as Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza and his great hero, Scott Walker. He isn't famous or wealthy, but has always lived as if he should be.

Some people might remember him as the androgynous waif who fronted the '70s jazz-rock group Kush. He had a minor hit with a dance version of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side in the late '80s and he now performs everything from pop to opera with a bewildering array of bands such as Duffo, the Prophets, the Jeff Duff Orchestra and the Alien Sex Gods.

His most recent album is Ground Control to Frank Sinatra, a collection of David Bowie songs performed in the style of Sinatra.

Perched on the edge of a futon - the only substantial piece of furniture in his rented Elizabeth Bay studio - he cuts a curious figure. His two-metre body is stick thin, an impression accentuated by a black felt hat and the kind of enormous platform sneakers once worn by the Spice Girls. He speaks in a soft, rather refined accent acquired during a decade in England trying to "make it".

"I've never had any money," he says cheerfully, as Rubenstein, his white cat, rubs against his legs. "But I love my life. It's fantastic."

Duff was born into a fairly conservative Melbourne family, one of seven children. His mother, Marie, encouraged him to pursue music and he played drums with the family band. In his heart, he wanted to "leap around" out front. By the age of 17, he'd achieved his goal.

Dressed in leotards and make-up - "I wanted to wear as little as possible" - he was an unlikely frontman for Kush and his theatricality occasionally landed him in hot water. He ripped up a Bible during a performance and ended up being admonished by a priest on a TV current affairs show. "I was a bit of a rascal," he sighs.

At another show, in 1977, Duff's homemade costume got him arrested. "It was all very innocent," he says. "I got sponsored by a sex chain that sold inflatable sex dolls. I'd dress them up and dance with them on stage during the long solos. One exploded so I cut her up and stuck the parts onto my leotard."

The Ballarat police weren't impressed. "Sex swoop on pop star", screamed the headline in the Sunday Observer after officers escorted the singer from the stage.

By 1978, Duff had had enough. He was sick of being described as outrageous instead of a serious singer, a situation he acknowledges he helped create. Desperate to experience London's punk scene, he packed a suitcase and caught a plane.

England didn't exactly roll out the red carpet. Duff's bold ploy of jumping onto the desks of A&R men and belting out his new songs - punk-inspired compositions such as Give Me Back Me Brain and Rise in Your Levis - saw him thrown out of a succession of record companies.

Eventually, he landed a deal with the independent label Beggars Banquet. He made Duffo, an album that offered an improbable mix of punk, glam-rock, reggae and '50s rock'n'roll. Give Me Back Me Brain was released as a single and made the charts the week it was released.

His time in England was marked by extremes. He made several albums and got to record with superlative musicians, including maverick blues guitarist Peter Green and soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer. He played cricket (Duff has always been an enthusiastic sportsman) with Virgin boss Richard Branson and Tubular Bells composer Mike Oldfield. But the death of his mother in 1980 led to depression, then anorexia. He wrote bleak songs with titles like Screaming Alone and his weight dropped to 50 kilograms.

"I'd be stoned from the sleeping pills and go to Woolworths and steal stuff that reminded me of mum - perfume, for example," he says. "I was so slow I got caught."

Duff also gave up sex. People had often assumed he was gay or asexual, in a Quentin Crisp kind of way. In truth, he has always loved women and indulged in "terrible debauchery" during his time with Kush.

"It just happened," he says of his 10 years of celibacy. "I lost touch with my genitals. Once, I was taken to a country estate by these posh English girls. One of them jumped into bed with me and the shock gave me a nosebleed."

Duff came back to Australia in 1988. He made his home in bohemian Kings Cross, rediscovered women and formed an orchestra. Not everyone was thrilled to see him. In 1989, he was chased down Kellett Street by a gang of men and savagely beaten.

He could still inspire controversy. Performing at the Basement in

1998, Duff tried to take the stigma out of the f-word by asking everyone in the audience to tell their neighbour to "f--- off". The ensuing riot required police intervention and Duff received a lifetime ban (which has since been lifted).

"I was naive," he says, a word he often uses to describe himself. "But

I wrote an apology. It was a

beautiful apology, too, because I

do calligraphy."

Nowadays, it's his extraordinary voice that keeps him busy. Next weekend he'll headline the Manly Jazz Festival and he has 44 more gigs over the next two months. He's also putting the finishing touches to an autobiography that will be published next year. Ideas for new albums and songs flow out of him and he has no regrets.

"If I'd remained a normal boy, wearing normal clothes, I'd probably have been recognised more as a singer," he says. "But I just do what I do. I don't plan anything."

- Sydney Morning Herald