Aussie rocker enters the temperance zone

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Tim Rogers isn't feeling the best this fine Perth morning. At least he thinks it's Perth.

"Apparently. I've had one of those mornings where you wake up and have to do a little geographical check," he rasps down the phone.

The guy who is better known as the frontman of now-veteran Oz rockers You Am I played a gig the previous night with his ironically titled solo/sideline outfit the Temperance Union.

It wasn't just the after-gig drinks that has him sounding tender of head. It all started the other night on the other side of Australia.

"We had one night off so we thought the best idea on our night off was to go out and get some food and go drinking for the rest of the night and play football in this tiny park in Surrey Hills. It just got stupid."

The upshot is Rogers cracked some ribs.

"So to play the show you've got to take a couple of painkillers and you have a few drinks and everything goes a bit nana ... "

Teach him for playing that silly Australian Rules game. Ever heard of touch rugby?

"You got it man. I'll see you on the park."

But at least the stuff Rogers is playing with the Temperance Union - his second solo-ish outing - doesn't require the physical exertions of You Am I's rock'n'roll.

The album behind it all, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union Play Spot Polish, is more country-tinged singer-songwriter material which often has Rogers venturing into territory nearer Paul Kelly with songs that tell a joke, tell a yarn or write a love letter. The rockier tracks wouldn't sound out of place on a Ryan Adams set.

"In You Am I the drums are always quite powerful, as they should be. But you've got to adhere to that rhythm a little bit more with this kind of music; you can flesh out things a little bit more."

And yes, having his name on it and some family photos decorating the artwork, it is more personal.

"Sure. It's pretty much all I got. It'd be an incredible thing to write with more objectively and put more perspective on things."

What does his wife think of having their relationship as so much lyrical ammunition?

"I think she's pretty used to it. When we met I guess it was a little difficult in the start as everyone or anyone who is close to me says 'if you can put it in a song why can't you say it in person?' Hopefully one day I'll learn how to do both."

One of the funnier, less romantic numbers is Letter to Gene. It's a song about having gone from a 10-year-old fan of Kiss and bassist Gene Simmons ("Gene, my first performance was a tribute to you/ I had my dibs on Ace but I was six feet two") to an adult disheartened by the rock business and guys like Simmons' part in it.

Simmons was played the track on a recent Australian visit by a journalist.

"Gene's response was 'thanks Mr Rogers'. His actual words were 'please tell Mr Rogers any money he doesn't want please send it to me'."

After the Temperance Union tour You Am I will regroup to start touring, then it's into the studio to start working on a new album. "The challenge at the moment with You Am I is to use the power of You Am I with its instrumentation and lyrically bend the rules a little bit."

And among You Am I's upcoming gigs are support slots for The Who, a band they have long drawn comparisons to - in Australia.

Rogers is looking forward to it, in a mischievous sort of way. "Oh yes, that. We'll take all the Stratocasters out of Pete's guitar rack and replace them with Rickenbackers."

But is he brave enough to pull his own Pete Townshend windmill guitar moves in the opening slot?

"The ironic thing with these broken ribs is I almost physically can't. I think that is the great rock'n'roll god telling me 'come on Rogers you've done your dash'."

Performance

* Who: Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union

* Where: Kings Arms, Newton

* When: Tonight