Entertainment For Lively Minds
Australian Rock
Posted by Colin H on 30 March 2009 - 9:04pm.
It seems to me we just don't hear enough about early 70s Australian rock in the Northern hemisphere. I'm always baffled when the same half dozen names from Oz are mentioned 'up north', as if the vast hordes of their great and noble forebears never existed. After all the 'Not Proper Rock' discussion of late, I'd like to submit that THIS - by Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, 1971 - is the qyuintessence of what 'proper rock' should be. Not having had a go at this embedding lark before, the following may end up as a load of tech-gobbledegook. Or it may be an embedded youtube vid. If it's the former, well, I'll return and just paste in the link...
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A few years later...
...but still great & underated...
The Gurus
are a great band
Dave Faulkner is a top class songwriter
They are a great Live band too
I saw them for the first time last year
in Majorca after buying their records
since Magnum Cum Louder.
Top Notch
Here's my vote..
..from 1972.
Carson, featuring Broderick Smith on vocals and the mighty Greg "Sleepy" Lawrie on guitar.
I think we're on a roll here, lads...
...though (annoyingly) I can't access the Carson vid (nor access it direct at youtube - it's posted by ABC, the original broadcaster, and somehow they have a 'location control'; would I by any chance be correct in assuming you're in the Southern hemisphere, Shane?). But so far no 'usual suspects'!
Here's another goodie from GTK on ABC, thankfully not restricted. It's the Lobster: Lobby Loyde & the Wild Cherries playing 'GOD'!
That's a shane Colin.
ABC are posting some bloody amazing stuff from this era.
They've probably restricted it because they're posting lots of contemporary TV material too.
Anyway..
..how about Zoots moody go at "Eleanor Rigby"?
They were a late 60s teenybopper band who tried to go "heavy" in the early 70s.
Guitarist Rick Springfield went of to America and ended up on "General Hospital" and had a hit with "Jessies Girl"
Bass player Beeb Birtles formed The Little River Band..very big in America, but very anonymous.
This is fun, though.
But luckily, Shane...
...I have a pal in Oz, the legendary Trevor J Leeden, who keeps me supplied with all sorts of goodies from ABC re-broadcasts, Aztec Music re-releases (Spectrum! Kahvas Jute!! Barrie McAskill!!! Tamam Shud!!!!! The list goes on, the names get sillier.... but it's wonderful stuff!). And, of course, not all the Oz goodies on youtube are from those tantalising scoundrels at ABC.
Such as, for the benefit of everyone up this neck of the world who thinks they've heard all the true pop/rock classics of the 70s, Daddy Cool, with the 1971 classic 'Eagle Rock' - the song the Stones surely wish they'd written!
If you lived here Colin...
..you'd be so sick of "Eagle Rock" you'd want to slit your wrists every time it came on.
It was a classic though.
Speaking of Khavas Jute..
..was there any better Cream copying than this?
The voice and guitar is Dennis Wilson, still active and a good egg.
Zoot? Alors!
Fantastic - hadn't heard that one! Didn't the fabulous Doug Parkinson do a version of 'Eleanor Rigby' with one of his early 70s bands? Was it Doug Parkinson In Focus? Or Fanny Adams? Hopefully the Fanny Adams LP will get a deluxe reissue one of these days - a lost gem. But then there are SOOOOOOO many lost gems in Oz rock are there not? And all we ever hear about up here is blinkin' Nick Cave. I can't believe we've got this far without someone mentioning him but, drat, I've gone and done so myself. Might be time for bed...
Doug Parkinson In Focus did a version of Dear Prudence
It bugs me no end that Nick Cave has had THREE covers of the Word and Ed Kuepper, his infinitely more talented compatriot, has probably never even been mentioned.
It also bugs me that when an Aussie band does get pushed overseas it's always dreck like The Vines or Jet or frigging Wolfmother.
Anyway I think the problem a lot of Australian bands have isn't just distance etc but they're too ugly and too unfashionably dressed. As proof I give you a fantastic band from the mid 80's who were both. This is Died Pretty miming very badly on French TV.
Ed
As much as I love Ed Kuepper, he's a difficult one to sell. Hell, he doesn't even get the Aussies out in force when he plays in London, let alone the locals. Ask most people in the UK, even those who consider themselves to be into music, and you'll get a "who?" in response. And that, sadly, is not going to sell magazines.
And on the subject of the Jute...
...should we mention that (a) bass man Bob Daisley went on to better-known (though not necessarily better) things in the wider world with Uriah Heep (I think) and Ozzy 'Not from Oz' Osbourne, and (b) Kahvas Jute reformed recently for a live show in Sydney, happily recorded for commercial DVD release (and they can STILL sound like Cream!).
I daresay I would be sick of 'Eagle Rock' if I lived down your way Shane, but you'd be amazed how little of these names are even known - let alone how little of the music is ever heard - up here. It's like Australia was a parallel universe in the 70s - or an Atlantis that sunk beneath the worldwide cultural waves, just after AC/DC managed to jump ship. Drat, I've done it again there...
There were..
..sooo many world class Aussie bands back then Colin.
They were scuppered by the "tyranny of distance", amateurish management and most crucially by always being a few months behind the times.
I saw that Jute show, not a skerrick worse than they were first time around.
Barnsey, Farnsey
And the Chisels.
Not forgetting Iggy Pop's classic interview with Molly Meldrum on AusTV's Countdown:
I only got to Australia in 1989 but after a couple of years felt like I'd grown up with this lot.
Chisel...
..often held up as being purveyors of beer-barn rock, but they housed a great, subtle songwriter (Don Walker) and the best rock guitarist Oz ever produced (Ian Moss)
Here's a song about the riots at the Star Hotel in Newcastle (NSW)
Actually, I always went for these guys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_is_serious_mum
Would I be right in thinking...
...you're trying to get a reaction, Sam?
Moi?
TISM fans are used to, shall we say, somewhat bewildered responses. Choose your own adjective for that sentence. :-)
Anybody got clips by any of
Anybody got clips by any of the following: Masters Apprentices / Ariel / Pirana / Madder Lake / The Dingoes / Mandu / La De Das / Coloured Balls / Healing Force / King Harvest / Band Of Light / Buffalo / Jab / Mighty Kong / Finch / Python Lee Jackson / tamam Shud / Galadriel / Buster Brown / Blackfeather / Chain / Jeff St John's Copperwine / Flying Circus / Spectrum / MacKenzie Theory / Wild Cherries / Country Radio / Fraternity / Headband / Hard Time Killing Floor / James Taylor Move / The Loved Ones / Max Meritt & The Meteors / Purple Hearts / Sid Rumpo / The Valentines...
The world should see them if you have!
Masters Apprentices..
Excellent!
Thanks - keep 'em coming!
Chain..
.."Black and Blue"..
Cool!
Where did you get these? Did you carry out a commando raid on the Australian Broadcasting Commission's archives??
You
Tube!
Healing Force...
"Golden Miles"
(One of the greatest Oz singles ever...Charlie Tumahai ended up in BeBop Deluxe..)
Now You're Showing Off!!
Awesome! This is one I was hoping would surface. You're a miracle worker!
Australian?
Charlie Tumahai was a New Zealander (spending his latter years playing with Maori roots rockers Herbs).
Speaking of New Zealanders and staying with the thread, what about Dragon? 'April Sun In Cuba' anyone?
Or Th' Dudes? 'Be Mine Tonite' and the hardy perennial drinking classic 'Bliss'?
Not exactly my cup of tui but classics of the antipodean rawk genre.
Of all the "coulda/shoulda been big" bands from Aust/NZ
Dragon would be close to the top of the list. I can't see how they missed, they had some great songs and a genuinely charismatic lead singer in Marc Hunter. Their Greatest Hits is well worth getting.
Don't get too hung up...
..on the Kiwi thing.
Healing Force were an Aussie band that contained a New Zealander..like about 70 per cent of Aussie bands.
Mike Rudd, Max Merritt,Leo DeCastro etc
The traffic between the countries was more open in the 70s
(Blows fingernails...)
..rubs on shirt.
Spectrum..
Make You're Stash (Man)
Country Radio
"Gypsy Queen"
My Crudd
I'm off to see if I can find 'Esmerelda' by The Indelible Murtceps. I know it sounds stupid - but I did not even think to look on You Tube for this stuff. Have pretty well ignored it thinking it was just home videos of people lighting matches to ignite their own flatulence and the like... Just goes to show there are still Luddites in the world doesn't it?
Wouldn't you know - a strike out!
Hopes are dashed. No listing for the Murtceps track on You Tube!
Cheer up!
Heres Blackfeather!
Mood Has Improved
Another gem. Didn't Fraternity do this one too? You Tube did have a Running Jumping Standing Still clip, so it wasn't a wasted trip...
Indelible Murtceps...
Word is that Aztec Music will be remastering/expanding the classic Indelible Murtceps album in the not-too-distant. for those who don't know what on earth we're talking about Murtceps (look at it backwards) were Oz melancholic/whimsical/mellow progsters Spectrum (a bit like Caravan with a tad more world-weariness and less knowing whimsy, plus an astounding, spacious organ-based sound) supposedly in a more commercial alter-ego. They still sounded proggy, but out went the organ, in came the electric piano and suddenly it was as if Badfinger were revealed behind the curtain....
The Aztec reissues of the first two Spectrum albums are items of great beauty.
Murtceps Go Nasal
Good news, Colin. We should also let the uninitiated know that their sole album release was entitled 'Warts Up Your Nose'. A candidate for greatest album title of all time, perhaps?
Warts Up, doc?
I can't help feeling that, given their alter-ego aim was to become more commercial, sell some records and get more gigs, they might have scored an own goal with the title of their album and the rather dull, uninspiring cover. It hides some fine pop moments within. Might this be the time for someone to post the classic promo clip for Spectrum's 'I'll Be Gone'? Once covered, within the bounds of music history as it is written in the Northern hemisphere (as opposed to almost the whole history of Australian rock, which pretty much 'doesn't exist up here), by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
You did ask for it. Spectrum I'll Be Gone
I saw them play (well Mike Rudd and a friend) just a few years back at a local pub in a room the size of an average lounge room. I don't know if they got any cash for such a tiny gig but the reaction this song got would have been payment enough for anyone.
Yep Heres Fraternity with a hippie BON SCOTT singing!
Crikey, and we all thought Noddy Holder...
...had the most ludicrous Dickensian sideburns of the 70s!
Not convinced of your elevation of Dragon to the ranks of the great, though... Were they the people regarded as 'the Australian [equivalent to] Queen'? Certainly, the flaccid facial expressions and hairstyle of the chap on guitar indicate a familiarity with Brian May. And there is a certain frisson of campness in their presentation... Still, room for everyone...
Colin..
Dragon were nowt like Queen, except that they wrote great pop songs.
Marc Hunter was a charismatic and ofter dangerous frontman.
He was like a wierd cross between Jim Morrison and Robert Palmer.
Check 'em out.
Incidentally...
...nice 'Gypsy Queen' clip. A new band/song on me. Am I right in thinking they sound not a million miles away from Axiom?
Bon..
..is playing a mean bike pump there.
Do you think...
...that if we keep going the boys in the Word office might believe there's overwhelming demand for features on Australian progressive rock in the magazine? Or might they have tumbled that the longest-thread-this-side-of-Andrew-Collins is largely down to three or four people, at least two of whom clearly live in Australia...?
Maybe if we each promised to buy a dozen copies of the Aussie prog issue for distributing among our friends? [insert obvious - though inaccurate! - joke here]
A Challenge That Must Be Met
I think this is already, clearly, the coolest thread on the Word website already. We must now make it the longest, and if that means I have to adopt a dozen aliases - so be it! Features on classic Australian rock would be an excellent idea. (Are you listening Mr Ellen?) I noticed 'Shindig' did a cover on Buffalo a few issues back,will The Word let an inferior magazine mine this rich vein alone? They must not let it happen! May I suggest first feature should be on 'The Sons Of The Vegetal Mother'??
I bought a great book, can't remember the name
...all about Aussie rock, and then found what I could on itunes, etc. Some great stuff there.
However can someone explain the popularity of Skyhooks? They're truly awful.
Not 'Truly' Awful
...Just a lot of the time. I think Skyhooks contribution to the Australian scene was that they resisted the Australian 'cultural cringe' which saw Aussies ashamed of their own culture for such a long time. If music was local, or a movie or play had been produced in Oz, most people stayed away, believing it to be inferior product. As a result too many artists tried to sound British or American, or base their stories around ideas already used in the cultural product of these countries, in order to con the listener into thinking it wasn't Australian. Hence, lots of songwriters would use British, or American place names in songs because they sounded cool, whereas local iconography was embarrassing. Skyhooks defiantly sang about Australia and set their stories and characters in recognisable locations and the kids lapped it up and took them to heart. 'Hey boys, that's Balwyn calling...' and all that.
Skyhooks had their moments but then again so did Sherbet
Iron Maiden did a cover of the Skyhooks song Women in Uniform and I'd bet serious money their "Ego Is Not A Dirty Word" would be a worldwide smash today if it were placed in the right hands. Robbie Williams or Guns and Roses perhaps, just someone that is notoriously fond of themselves. The title alone would get it airplay and the song is good enough to finish the job.
I looked at youtube trying to find a Skyhooks clip that wasn't embarrassing. I could not find one! Their image was all over the place so they look terrible (they all seem to belong in different bands) and the songs all sound very thin but they were well enough written.
Sons Of The Vegetal Mother?!?
You're joking, right? Okay, I know they were real, existed briefly about 400 years ago and spawned Mike Rudd (Spectrum) and Ross Wilson & Ross Hanaford (Daddy Cool), but I'm sure the massive think we're making most of these names up!
I don't think ANY amount of enthusiasm or postings under a variety of pseudonyms is going to get anyone with half an eye on the bottom line to put a feature on the Sons Of The Vegetal Mother into ANY magazine with UK national distribution, let alone The Word. Though, now that I think about it, they did once take their eye off the ball long enough to put Dido on the cover...
So, yes, it's a good idea!
I Confess
Yeah you got me. I just threw that one in there as a bit of a joke...but I do have a 7" of theirs somewhere. Nevertheless, the point is that music magazines like Mojo with their Buried Treasure page, and other such columns,often put one-off and never to be heard of again acts back in the spotlight. Many an Aussie band ventured to Britain, put out an album, were ignored,often derided as colonial upstarts, and saw the product of their hard work dropped straight into the remainder bins. Surely many deserve a page or two of glory now, in this age of reminiscence and reassessment?
It's not me you need to convince
...unfortunately!
From my time in Oz in the late seventies...
... (Brisbane) I remember seeing many fine bands live - The Models, The Go Betweens, The Church, The Saints, The Dynamic Hepnotics and my particular favourites - Mental As Anything - truly wonderful in a live setting.
Ah The Mentals...
Home of Reg Mombassa, who found additional fame with his Mambo T-shirt artwork. By sheer coincidence I'm wearing a Mambo T-shirt now, not one of Reg's as they can't be worn in built up areas during daylight hours!
And no mention of The Oils (Midnight Oil) so far, or are they one of the usual half dozen implied by Colin H's original posting? For any non Australians who made it this far, Oils frontman Peter Garrett is now Minister for Environment, Heritage and Arts, serving under PM Kevin Rudd.
I have two Reg Mombassa T-shirts
One of which, with a huge picture of a dog farting tunefully, is so hot, due to the transfer on the back, that I now only wear it in the Winter - love his atwork. I also remember seeing Midnight Oil - I think at the Queensland Institute of Technology Refectory.
Midnight Oils....
No, I wasn't lumping them in with the 'usual suspects' - I guess I was referring to AC/DC, Nick Cave, The Saints & the Go Betweens, maybe others that momentarily escape my memory, but the sorts (like 3 of the 4 above) who are always mentioned in chin-stroking muso-critic fashion as being 'important' in some way. But on the Oils subject, two of them are in the fabulous Angry Tradesmen clip nearby - not Peter Garrett, mind. He's an Angry Politician.
Someone else I haven't mentioned yet who's Australian (well, Scottish, brought up in Oz) and quite brilliant at this music thing is Colin Hay [no, it's NOT me! Merely a similarity of initial], ex of Men At Work. A hugely gifted songwriter in a bar-room philosopher/after-the-gold-rush(of having a worldwide No.1 for a moment) way. And a fun live performer too. Doesn't have any connection to early 70s Oz prog as far as I know. But you can't have everything.
Midnight Oil and Warumpi Band - Black Fella White Fella .....
Great clip ......
Punk's not my thing, Steerpike, BUT...
...there are always honourable exceptions: check out this blistering punked-out surf instrumental from the Angry Tradesmen (great name isn't it!), from the FANTASTIC 2006 Aussie surf music doc 'Delightful Rain' - which is out on DVD/CD, featuring great spots too from (revisiting one end of the 70s) Tamam Shud and (revisiting the other) the Celibate Rifles. Trust me, it rocks!
That slide guitar...
...just sounds Australian somehow. Great stuff. (I expect the drummer had to go and have a lie down after that).
that clip of carson
nearly gave me a flashback hangover
I remember having passed out at the high school dance having been a little too impatient for a flask of whisky to take effect. when it did hit it hit with great devastation and i was pushed onto the stage where i spent most of the night looking up at broderick smith singing and playing harp.
This was 1972 I think
carson that night were upstaged by a then unknown bloke who came on avec guide dog and played the most stunning extravagant slide blues guitar in the peter haycock style of climax blues band .
greg lawrie was knocked out and wanted him to join the band.
i see Chris Finnen's name mentioned in adelaide from time to time
The World's Heaviest Toothbrush
Madder Lake perform '12lb. Toothbrush'. Too groovy!
That bloke on vocals...
...did he by any chance have a subsequent career as Captain Birdseye, selling fish fingers to juveniles with an 'Ar, Jim lad!' glint in his eye...?
Masters Of Footwork
'The mums and dads think he's gas!' Who else? The '5.10 Man'!
Variety Is The Spice Of Life
Three more diverse offerings from varying vintages.
Last one for now...I promise
No video but the album cover will give you nightmares for weeks...
OK I Lied. These Are Good Too
The magnificent Loved Ones.
Not a clip of the band but some great 70s photos to accompany the Band Of Light's 'Destiny Song'
And the mighty Renee Geyer when she was just starting out. Always been a great singer, drugs had her in their grip for awhile but now she's enjoying a bit of a resurgence (on a small scale)
I'm a bit of a philistine...
...when it comes to Oz Rock, but there's a band from Sydney called The Dolly Rocker Movement who are making some fantastic psych-influenced music at the moment. They've just released their third album Down Under (it's not out over here until September/October), and their first 2 albums are pretty astounding.
I ought to mention The Saints too. 'I'm Stranded' is a great track.
Wot,
No Little River Band?
TAXI FOR GEACHER 53
amazing
No one's mentioned The Seekers yet. They had some good tunes.
Divinyls ......
They may be a bit too "pop" for this thread, but during my time in Oz in the early 80s they kicked ass on the live pub cicuit. And they had the mad, bad Christine Amphlett who had ...erm ....something about her.
Guru + Scientist + Chrissie Amphlett = Antenna
The previously mentioned Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Kim Salmon of The Scientists (can't say I'm familiar with their work, but they were active in the 70s according to wikipedia) and others including Chrissie Amphlett released an album entitled "Installation" in 1998 under the moniker "Antenna". At the time "Come On Spring" was heavily played on at least JJJ radio, but there's little trace of them now, more's the pity.
AC/DC are obvious, but
any excuse to post this:
What ever happened to bagpipes in rock?
At the opposite end of the fame scale from ac/dc
"The Happy Hate Me Nots" were an excellent Sydney band from the Mid-80's whose chances of success were probably not helped by their frankly STUPID name.
Australian rock the greatest on earth, ever?
Well. at least during the 80's. Died Pretty, Hoodoo Gurus, Scientists, Celibate Rifles, Triffids, New Christs and a host of others made creative, original and fun rock music at a time when the rest of the world was busy investigating the sonic and aesthetic possibilities of the syndrum. As I believe it was called. (Although the Minneapolis and Los Angeles scenes weren't far behind.)
The 70's, though, I'm not so sure about. Except for Radio Birdman and The Saints.
Listen to this
The Eastern Dark, Sydney 80's band. If they had been British or American there would be threads on this blog with titles like "The Eastern Dark, am I the only one that's sick of hearing about them?"
Without going into the terrible details everything is in place for them to become cult legends except one, their nationality.
You have to forgive the crappy clip. Circumstances were against there being a better quality one. I don't know what Rik Mayall etc are doing in it. It's probably been cobbled together by a fan. The song is a tribute to the Ramones.
It must be an age thing...
I wouldn't give tuppence for any of those bands, except for the Gurus and The Triffids.
Radio Birdman were an appalling MC5/Stooges rip-off and I'm none too keen on the originals.
Much as I like...
Radio Birdman, the Celibate Rifles, New Christs, New Race, the Eastern Dark, The Visitors, The Stems, Lime Spiders etc. I wouldn't really describe any of them as either original or particularly creative - most them were following a very well trodden path.
But they were all capable of moments of greatness, like The Eastern Dark track above, or like the Rifiles' Darlinghurst Confidential. There's a really good campilation called Do The Pop which sums up this 'scene' beautifully.
You're not Clinton Heylin in disguise, are you?
You've just mentioned two of the 'half dozen or so' always-mentioned names that I referred to at the top of the thread: Radio Birdman and the Saints. Add to that the Triffids, the Go Betweens and Nick Cave and (if only because they're huge, unstoppable and operate entirely outside of critical boundaries) AC/DC and you have the 'usual suspects' namechecked by muso writers in the Northern hemisphere. It's lazy, it's boring and it's wrong. Any time I've spoken of Australian rock to Clinton Heylin - a man beholden to critical orthodoxy if ever there was one - he'll say nothing existed in the 70s except Radio Birdman and the Saints. A ridiculous attitude, which excludes vast swathes of music...
Cant see them mentioned
but one of my favourite bands were The Moodists, they had a terrific lp called 'Thirsty's Calling' released in 1984 and a couple of mini albums around the same time, before calling it a day.
Lead singer Dave Graney and Clare Moore carried on as the Dave Graney Show, guitarist Steve Miller (surely one of the most handsome of Aussie rock stars) went on to work behind the scenes with the legendary Triffids, and other guitarist Mick Turner went onto form The Dirty Three with Jim White and Warren Ellis.
The era has shifted
I think the thread began as a reassessment of 60's early 70's Australian bands and has metamorphosised into a wider ranging discussion - which is fair enough. There have been many Australian bands who have deserved praise but only received it from a relatively narrow cross-section of the listening public. The Go-Betweens, The Triffids, Paul Kelly & The Dots / Coloured Girls / Messengers etc all warrant high praise, I agree. And I'm afraid I'll have to take Shane Pacey to task, although he is most often right on the money but not this time. Radio Birdman were awesome. In their heyday nothing could match them in full flight. Even more recent reunion shows have shown they retain some of the magic (although you have to close your eyes to cancel out their physical deterioration from the equation).
Yes,well..
I saw them twice at the Oxford Funhouse (get that name?)early on. The first time they were appalling, the second time they worse than that.
It wasn't that they were inept (which they were) but that they were so bloody derivative, right down to the BOC-style flag behind them.
Billy Thorpe
I had a drink with Billy Thorpe one night - he was really nice and told me all about the history of King's Cross (Sydney's). He gave me several copies of both volumes of his memoirs.
We were in the company of the legendary raw-throated Oz promoter Michael "Chuggie" Chugg who I once saw run starkers around the circular (and quite small) Sebel Town House bar...ah happy days...