David Chesworth & Bill McDonald - Drive Time CS

Drive Time - coming to you from the reverberant spaces of Trinity College Chapel, Melbourne.

Drive Time was originally broadcast live on the drive time slot on a chilly winter evening in 1984 on ABC Radio 3AR, which back then was a posh classical music station. The unlikely invitation was made at a time when ABC radio had risk-taking local producers; how else would something like this be broadcast?

David (on vocals and DX7 keyboard) and Bill McDonald (on bass) were invited to perform in Trinity Chapel at Melbourne University (a space known for its special acoustic qualities), pitted against an organist playing Bach on the chapel’s organ. The organ reverberated through the expanses of the chapel, as did the duo’s Roland 606 drum machine that was fed into an amp. You will notice the reverb!

"The tag-team musical juxtaposition was mediated by an announcer who sat in one of the chapel’s pews. Wearing a thick coat (it was cold), she would occassionally stand up in front of a mic to make live announcements about the traffic and the gloomy weather outside.

Bill and I are indebted to ABC engineer Chris Lawson, who made this impromptu recording of our performance from the mixing desk." - David