Eldarado by Electric Light Orchestra 1974

It started with the single "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" which wasn't constantly on the radio in early 1975. Basically I couldn't get it out of my head. I had just started teaching college. Met the girl I would go out with for the next six years and ELO kinda soundtracked that period for me with this album. I was really into concept albums. They were like audio films. I would listen to them from start to finish. I guess I got into that from listening to The Kinks run of concept albums in the early seventies. But really everyone was doing it. Bowie. Pink Floyd..everyone.
At the time ELO were not big yet. So this was like an underground record. They were cool with their "I Am The Walrus" strings and Beatle melodies in a world where the Beatles no longer existed. Listening to the album now I can hear the fifties rock and roll roots on some of the songs. The voice seemed blurred. I actually went to see them at the Myer Music Bowl and it wasn't just the production..Jeff Lynne seemed to have a blurred voice. For that one, we sat outside the fence until the last 3 songs and then poured into the bowl. A tactic we used on many a gig.
When I started writing songs our guitarist said my songs sounded like a cross between ELO and Leonard Cohen. I took that as a compliment. Depressing lyrics on top of pop melodies. Fair enough.
Oh, I must say I've always liked the cover too. The Wizard of Oz was a film we all went and saw in the early seventies because it was very "trippy'

Forever Changes by Love 1967

It took me a long time to hear this album and it started with one of those singles that were tucked away in the back of our neighbor's house and he wanted to get rid of. Graeme Boyd was a DJ at 3AK. He had tons of singles and albums floating about the house and now and again he would give me a box of them. Mostly rubbish but with a few gems. So many singles it took me ages to get through them all. One was "Alone Again Or/A House is Not a Motel" by Love. Good enough to keep but not on the top of my playlist. Not when I was busy listening to the Beatles.

Then later in the seventies I started reading about the band and I got intrigued and searched out the album. When I found it in some second hand store and got it home and played it and heard "Alone again Or"  in the context of the album I was hooked. I loved the mariachi horns, the acoustic guitars and the wild ideas crashing about the recording. It was like finding lost treasure. I think it was the summer of 1980 I would play this with the windows open and just drift backwards into 1967. I still want to put mariachi horns on one of my own records. Something I was aiming for with the horns on "Keys to My Heart" from my Home album.

Slade Alive! by Slade 1972

I loved Glam Rock. It was the first real movement I was part of as it happened. Too young to be part of the real Beatles era. Not that interested in Hendrix and Creedence and all those American bands, Glam rock was a godsend for early seventies teenagers. First, it was T. Rex. And then Slade. They came out with these magnificent singles "Cos I Luv You" and "Look What U Dun". Then they brought out a live album. The radio kept on playing "Darlin' Be Home Soon" continually. We'd all wait for the quiet bit and then the burp and then kill ourselves laughing. Simple pleasures. The record shop windows were always ordained with this cover.
And they were coming to the Melbourne Showgrounds. This was going to be my first real concert. Lindisfarne, Status Quo and Slade. Tickets were $5:50. I went with my friends Geoff Thake and Alan Barnard who would later roadie and mix for Little Murders. The place was full of sharpies dancing their strange sharpie frug. When Slade came on I was too small to see over the older kids so Geoff put me on his shoulders for what seemed like the whole gig. It was just amazing. The rain came down. Wet happy and having one of the best times of my life.
On the back of my bedroom door, I had a large poster of Slade. For a brief time, Slade were the coolest band on the planet.

Setting Sons by The Jam 1979

Arriving in the UK in late 79 I waited until I got to my family's place in Blackpool before I let myself go record shopping. I was afraid of how much I would buy and then have to carry it around for the next month or so. So the first day in Blackpool I went to WH Smith and bought two albums, London Calling and Setting Sons. When I got back to my cousin Neil's house I didn't know what to put on first. In the end, I chose The Jam.
He had this thing called a Music Centre set up in the front room. The speakers were high and when I put on Setting Sons "Girl On The Phone " just exploded. I can't remember anything ever sounding so good. The trouble of course was I wouldn't really get to hear any more of this stuff until I got back to Melbourne.
But when I did arrive home in late January laden with boxes of albums and singles it was to a slightly different world. While there I had got myself a Union Jack coat made up by Paul Weller's tailor. My hair which had been growing long was now back to a short cut and it was done in Carnaby Street. I was ready to help kick-start the Mod movement in Melbourne. Me and a few friends would gather in a house in South Yarra and talk about what we could do to get more people interested in our Mod obsession. We started a club Kommotion and a fanzine called "Start" Little Murders draped amps in flags, covered Who and soul songs and organised Mod discos instead of support acts. On the street, scooters started appearing. In the background, The Jam "Setting Sons" played. A brilliant time was had by all.

Today by The Beach Boys 1965

I picked up this album up ina second-hand shop in the city at the peak of my record-buying mania in the late seventies where every week I would go into town just to see what new second-hand records were in. I think I used to fret knowing that every day more records were going into the shelves and being scooped up by others. But once a week I would come home with classic albums mostly American like Flaming Groovies, New York Dolls and The Beach Boys. Old sixties albums from the USA were always very tactile with bright colours and thick cardboard.
After listening to Pet Sounds continually I was interested in what Brian Wilson had released before though I was a bit turned off by some of those old cheesy surfing songs. But I had read so much about his writing I thought I would give it a try. This was the first one I found. And it was glorious. Such great melodies. Such great harmonies.  Such great songs. Still surfing pop but there is something more to the songs.
The first side is upbeat with that fantastic chugging surf beat the band had perfected. Well, the session musicians (known as the Wrecking Crew) But on the second side Brian Wilson gets a bit more melancholic. The production is more sumptuous. It was stuff like this that showed what a genius Brian was. Great songs except for a bit of rubbish at the end. But Beach Boys always seem to have a bit of rubbish at the end as if we want to hear the band mucking about in the studio.

Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan 1975

It was on the 3XY album show late on a Sunday night when I first heard "Idiot Wind" and was instantly glued to the speaker. Couldn't believe how good the song was. Especially since I'd kind of written Dylan off after Blonde on Blonde. It took me a while to buy the album though but when I saw it at the record stall at Burwood Teachers College and read the blurb on the back cover I thought it sounded like a good album by the way the author spoke of the work. When I got it home and started playing it I was just mesmerized. it was so cohesive it was like he wrote one song and just made variations on it. But it worked so well. It was like jumping on a roundabout.
I would take the album over to my girlfriend Leonie's house in Balwyn North and we would listen to it obsessively. Later when I moved to Oakleigh to a share house it was one of those 2am albums we'd sit and listen to after being out to gigs. It would also inform my first attempts at songwriting as I would make use of Dylan's chord progressions.
And the words. So many just hit home. Heartache, anger and loneliness indeed. Easily one of his best albums. It got me back on the Dylan kick searching down the albums I hadn't bought yet from before Blonde on Blonde. A year later he would follow it with another great album in Desire but it lacked the impact of the previous album. We thought Dylan was finished and irrelevant but Blood on The Tracks blew all those thoughts away. He would continue to surprise us for years to come.

The Beatles by The Beatles 1968

After my Mum came home with Abbey Road and left it as a surprise on my bed for when I got in from school I became an insatiable Beatles nut. I actually started with their later albums and moved backwards to their earlier stuff. So after Abbey Road I bought what is known as the White album.
I had to save up for a few weeks using money from my chemist round. Delivering prescription drugs to sick people. I wonder if they still let teenagers do that. When I got the album home it looked so beautiful. all white with raised lettering. Four photographs of the band plus a big poster with snapshots on one side and lyrics on the other. The poster was censored cutting off a picture of John in the bath.
The music was just wonderful and would keep me entertained for years to come as I would alternate my favourite songs and sides. "Happiness is A Warm Gun" was the first one to grab me. Our neighbour (3AK DJ Graeme Boyd's wife) came over while I was playing that song and was convinced it had swear words and wouldn't stop going on about it. Still can't think which bit gave her that idea. "Back in the USSR" which became massive down the Rubber Soul. "Julia" "Martha My Dear" it just goes on and on. I even listened to Revolution 9 a few times but late at night I would find that too scary.
At the same time I'd picked up the Hunter Davies Beatles biography so this was the soundtrack to those summer days in Blackburn South. And because I had quite a shitty record player I missed whole pieces of music, particularly in Yer Blues. Even now when I hear it properly it gives me a jolt.

(This happened a lot with those mid-period Beatles albums.. my stereo didn't pick up bits particularly the start of Sgt Pepper where some of the lead singing was way in the background)

Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers 1977

The first bunch of punk albums to come out of the UK just sounded so fresh compared to what we had been listening to before. It really did feel like year zero. The first I heard of The Stranglers was a very short snippet of the clip for Grip that they showed on the music news section of Countdown. It sounded great. It looked great and a few days later it was in the shops.
Tons of classics on this album. Peaches, Hanging Around, Grip, London Lady...it just sounded fantastic. A bit more retro than the other bands. well apart from The Jam. Big Doors influence. The lyrics of course were very sexist. But so was Under My Thumb 10 years earlier.
Six months later they came out with a second album. My sister sent it to me for my 21st birthday. She and my Mum were living in England. She wrote birthday greetings on the back though that kind of wrecked my punk credentials a touch.
Then the band came to Australia. I went to see them at Latrobe Uni. Supported by the Models. The Stranglers seemed a little pissed off. Then they got really pissed of and suddenly there were cans of beer flying all over the place. I was up the front dodging cans. Amazing stuff. They only played for 40 minutes.  Maybe even shorter. But it was totally action-packed.

Quadrophenia by The Who 1973

This one is all about the packaging. I loved the Who but it was the sixties I was really into. Quadrophenia music-wise was never a big deal for me. There were times I loved it but often I would ignore it. I bought it because I was interested in the whole Mod thing at the time. But unfortunately, this is not Mod music. Indeed I haven't listened to it for a long time. Well not properly because it's there when I play the film. In the background.
But that's not why this album is important to me. When I bought the album. When it was just vinyl it came inside a big 12 by 12 book of photos. I would pore over the photos of sixties Mod culture over and over. It was what I harked back to. Maybe it was because I left England in 1965 just when it was about to explode (though I was only 8) but I kept returning to the book. Totally fascinated. Something that not many kids will get to see nowadays.
And of course, there was the film. As Mods, it shaped our lives in 1979. And so we'd come back to the album to relive the film. Or play the soundtrack album. It all just went round and round. But it's always been there. A bit like a musical.
So I would play Quadrophenia and other Who albums as I turned the pages. There are some great songs here. The Real Me & 5:15 are standouts. I also by this stage I was preferring Pete Townshend's voice to Roger's.

In 2019 I was in San Francisco and spent a day by myself checking out the town. I went into this photo art gallery and began chatting to the daughter of the owner about the fantastic photos on the walls. Maybe it was a quiet day but she let me go back into the storeroom where they kept work not on display. Work after work blew my mind. Duffy Bowie negatives for Alladin Sane! Original artwork for many albums I loved. Oh, my God1 The original artwork for Quadrophenia was there too. Much bigger and more exciting. I was afraid to ask the price. 

They also brought out Eric Clapton's 'Blackie' Stratocaster guitar for me to look at. The original which they were commissioned to sell. ( the story of a lot of the things they were selling came from divorce settlements) Did I know anyone in Australia who might want to buy it? Even I didn't realise at the time that it was worth over a million dollars.  No big Clapton fan myself I was still pretty much in awe as I held the guitar. The first thing I noticed was the cigarette burns on the headstock. The lightness of the guitar when I picked it up. The balance was amazing.  

What a day that turned out!

Blow Up A-Go-Go! by various artists 1999

I bought this album at the Mighty Music Machine in Chapel Street Prahran. I bought it because there was a song by the Kinks that I'd never heard of. Of course, it may have been rubbish (but it wasn't) but there was something about the look of the album that said it might have some good stuff on it. I took a quick listen on the headphones something I hardly ever do. Mainly because it usually puts me off buying the record. Anyway, a quick scan through this album and I was amazed at how great it all sounded. It was like a glimpse into someone else's club or their record box. These songs were touted as hits from the legendary Blow Up club in London. And when I got the album home and started playing it I was wishing I could go to a club that played these songs. It set me off on a trip looking for more obscure but groovy sounds from the sixties and seventies. Not really something I'd done before but now I was buying weird seventies soundtracks and hip lost treasures. 

The first hour of the Lizard Lounge as the people were just coming in I'd use to create my own little Blow-Up vibe. Spinning tracks like Bert's Apple Crumble, Bongolia and Shake by The Shadows of Knight. Also got me back into playing Northern Soul and early ska. In 1999 while everyone was getting a little bit more dance floor I was constantly listening to obscure groovy tracks.

Just listening to the album again now I want to get some friends together and party. 

Stoneage Romeos by Hoodoo Gurus 1984

Booked to support Little Murders on a Monday night at the Prospect Hill Hotel (Monday nights were incredibly huge gigs.. the place was packed and always ready to party!... it was a major score to get a months residency there) they pulled out at the last minute but we got to play with them a little later on a shared bill at the Jump Club.

Le Hoodoo Gurus took off really quickly it seemed. They had this brilliant single called Leilana that was all over RRR. When I saw them play I was amazed that they just had guitars and drums and no bass player. The crowd went nuts. They loved everything they did.

Soon they would drop the Le and a guitarist (the legendary Roddy Ray'Da), add a bass player and record a bunch of brilliant singles and this great album. All the singles ended up on this album. Tojo, My Girl, a new version of Leilana. I was mad about this record.

When I wasn't playing myself I'd go and see them at places like Macy's and the Armadale. I particularly remember their cover songs too like "That's Cool, That'sTrash" by the Kingsmen and Galveston by Glen Campbell. It took me ages to find the original version of the Kingsmen record. It was such a good song. Hoodoos should of recorded it though because it's their version that sticks in my head.

Later on we played this album to death at places like the Beehive and Barbarella's. A classic Australian album that helped to define the guitar era of the Eighties.

For a start it's the one with Waterloo Sunset on it so that's worth the price of admission alone.
After buying the Golden Hour of The Kinks I started looking for more Kinks albums. K-Mart had a few cheap ones in horrible sleeves on labels like MFP or Music For Pleasure. The first one I picked up was in a horrible purple sleeve with the worst photo of the band. I actually made my own cover for it when I find out it was actually Something Else (not Waterloo Sunset as was the name on the cover). I built the cover from bits of cardboard and photos from an old pop annual. Though I wish I'd kept the annual now.
The Kinks work as been endlessly compiled and resold which is a great shame because they are right up there with the Beatles, the Who and The Stones.
Anyway after Village Green this is arguably their best album. It is just so English and in the early seventies when I started getting into the Kinks I was also getting back into my Englishness. I couldn't listen to Crosby Stills and Nash or James Taylor or hear about endless highways and golden beaches. I had become focused on wet streets and old buildings and would watch old films like Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. My pin-up girls were Julie Christie and Chrissie Shrimpton. Not a Californian girl in sight. And this is what Ray Davies wrote about and their music reflected. There are no better songs about London than those by Ray Davies.
And what songs! Apart from what I beleive is the best song ever written in Waterloo Sunset there is the sibling rivalry of Two Sisters, the ode to smoking which is Harry Rag..Death of Clown (a song I once based a painting on during High School art).. brilliant album!

Idlewild by Everything But The Girl 1988

Well, there's got to be some quiet time around the house. It can't all be pounding drums and chiming guitars.  In 1988 when this album came out I was living in Elwood on the top floor of a block of flats in Meredith Street. You could actually go up from my flat and it was a big open roof. One year I threw a birthday party up there. It was pretty big. A friend of mine who was minding the place actually dragged a mattress up there one hot night and slept up there. On New Year's Eve, you could watch the fireworks.
I remember playing this song a lot at Meredith Street. Not only was the sound lush and one could say a little to the middle of the road. But calming on a Sunday afternoon. Sitting on an Ikea couch (the same one as two of my friends) Surrounded by Art Deco statues, art prints and Japanese robots. Waiting for friends to turn up with a bottle of Stolly. Especially after 3 nights of DJing playing lots of guitar music.
And I really liked the lyrics.  So it wasn't just background music. It was an album to listen to. Back in a time when I would actually sit on the sofa and listen to records. I'm not even sure I could do that anymore. I really enjoy hearing albums in the car because I can really hear what's going on but more often than not I will rely on music I really know. So I now I listen to music while I'm busy doing something else. Like right now, typing.

Alladdin Sane by David Bowie 1973

I came home from school and on top of the record player was a brown paper bag in the familiar shape of an album cover. My Mum had been to Doncaster Shoppingtown and brought me back an album. Excitedly I opened the bag and inside was this brilliant record. I didn't have any money at the time because I had bought a new bike on hire purchase so this was glorious surprise. My Mum only bought me 2 albums ever but what albums..Abbey Road and this!
I played it on the good stereo in the living room first before retiring to the crappier record player in the front bedroom to listen to it more. This was an altogether different beast to Ziggy Stardust and it took me  a little while to get over Mike Garson's piano playing but over the next few days it all fell into place. A brilliant album with only one jarring note..the cover of the Stone's Let's Spend The Night Together, which I thought was horrible. And it was a bit American. Bowie actually said it was "Ziggy goes to America" and being a big anglophile it took me a little while to get into that.
My immediate favourites were Cracked Actor and Drive-In Saturday. Jean Genie was already a big hit. I first heard that song in the school art room. And had the single.
Glam rock was big now. Actually, there's not much difference between Jean Genie and The Sweet's "Blockbuster". I can see now why Bowie felt he need to move on and kill Ziggy. Everyone was a glam rocker. It was all getting a bit much.
At the time the cover was quite shocking. Especially the strange nude like figure in the gatefold sleeve. The no eyebrows look. Of course, now the images are iconic. But at the time it was so out there. He really did come across as an alien.

Beggars Banquet by The Rolling Stones 1968

While I loved my greatest hits records from the Rolling Stones... in the late sixties and the seventies I wasn't really interested in the Stones. I started to hit my stride as a record collector as the Stones started to release steadily worse records. Beginning with Goat's Head Soup. T. Rex and Bowie meant a lot more to me than these old rockers. So I never got to hear their brilliant run of albums like Let It Bleed & Sticky Fingers, Beggars Banquet and Exile. I did spend a teenage afternoon pashing a girl called Bernadette while she played Sticky Fingers constantly but I think I was concentrating on kissing her while keeping an ear out for her Dad mowing the lawn.
It wasn't until after Little Murders broke up around 84 and I got together with Chris Harrington from Large Number 12s and formed the short-lived Dice Men that I got to hear the Stones properly. I was around his house in Prahran and he started playing Let It Bleed on his acoustic. Great song but I didn't know it. He then played the album over a few beers. Though I liked the album it was hearing Beggars Banquet that did it for me. This was introduced to me by working a few months later with Ronny Williams and Jason Underhill at the Venetian Room and Rubber Soul. Actually, I think I might still have Jason's copy of the album suitably corroded by overuse. Jason worked with me at all those clubs in the eighties and was the original DJ at Lizard Lounge.
Beggars Banquet ..it's really hard to put into words how good it is. Street Fighting Man and those opening acoustic guitars. Sympathy For The Devil a dance floor favourite from most of the clubs I worked in. Salt of The Earth. Stray Cat Blues which I argue is miles better than the live version on Get Yer Yah Yahs Out people always go on about. Brilliant.

Inflammable Material by Stiff Little Fingers 1979

Coming at the tail end of Punk was this masterful record by Irish band Stiff Little Fingers. Sure it harked back to the sound of 1977 but it did it with such style and melody and commitment it was just the stuff I could relate to. This was how I was trying to write songs. Fast and furious. But with a pop edge. I loved this band but unfortunately, this was where me and my old group of friends really started to diverge. While playing in bands in the late 70s I saw less and less of my old friends. But 1979 was where I kind of stopped seeing them altogether. The last time I got together with them I brought this over. We used to have record listening parties but for them after the Pistols and The Stranglers and The Clash this was the last time they wanted to hear my rubbish. Actually, I knew it was over two years previously but we had kept our friendship together over the sounds of Roxy Music and Bowie the like.
Towards the end of the year a group of my newer friends started talking about the Mod revival in the UK and since we were already into the style (as opposed to punk) began working on a Fanzine. Being in a band I started working on putting together a night. Although I rejected a lot of the punk bands especially hating Sham 69 I remained a fan of The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers. Truly great bands. I even had a soft spot for Generation X.

In 2020 Stiff Little Fingers played at the Croxton Hotel in Thornbury. My other band The Fiction scored the support gig. I was pretty sick that night but there was no way we were pulling out. If you're in a band the show must go on. And COVID was just around the corner and there would be no more gigs for a year. Not that I knew that then. In the end it was a great night. When they played Alternative Ulster they raised the roof.

Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout 1985

I must admit when I first heard Prefab Sprout I was not very impressed. Overproduced, too lush and far too soft. But it was coming home late after a DJing gig one night and watching videos when the song Appetite came on and I was hooked. Instead of buying the single I decided to buy the album. I mean, it had a great title. And "Appetite" kinda got to me. The album was just great. It just drew me in with every play. I think it was the words that got to me more than the music first.  There were so many quotable lines in there and the singer mined the same angsty coalmine as Morrissey in many way. Dry humour.
I was driving my Mazda down to the beach one afternoon with a girl I was seeing at the time. I always thought she reluctantly went out with me from the moment we first met. I was a DJ at Barbarellas. And we met at 4am in the morning. And she didn't like DJs. We were all up them ourselves I guess.
Anyway I was playing this record in the car and it came to the song "Horsing Around" She told me to pull over and explain what I was trying to tell her. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Until she refered me back to the lyrics on Steve McQueen. I was just listening to my favourite record at the time and she thought I was sending her messages. It was a rocky road from then on. Lucky we were next to a Milk Bar so I bought a good supply of treats for the day. Getting back in the car it was really hard to choose what the next tape would be. I think it was Roxy Music. I doubted she would find any messages in there.

More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley 2004

I was reading an article about Elvis Costello because although I can no longer sit through a whole album he does come up with a few good songs now and then and he does good interviews. The man does have an opinion. Regrettably I love his old stuff better than his new stuff. It happens.  

In the article, he was talking about Jenny Lewis and her band Rilo Kiley. He usually has pretty good taste so I sought out the album. And it was fantastic. One song on it "Does He Love You?" sent shivers up my spine when I heard it.  I just couldn't stop playing it. Then there was "Portions For Foxes" and the sublime "It's a Hit". The album was full of brilliant songs. This was their third album so I went looking for other stuff and I find heaps. Not only the previous albums but demos and such. What I didn't find much of were videos. They didn't seem to make many vids of their songs. But I became a bit of a Rilo Kiley obsessive for a while.
I don't know if they ever toured Australia but I did get to see Jenny Lewis performing at RRR a few years back. No Rilo songs but songs off the Jenny and Johnny album. "I/m Having Fun Now" (which is a great record too) And she's still writing classic pop songs. Great night but the first time I'd seen a band without a drink. Didn't hurt that much and managed to get down to The Tote for a beer afterward.

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles 1967

The first time I came across this album I wasn't really interested in the Beatles at all. I liked their early stuff but I was mostly into my radio and the current pop songs. Luckily this mindset only lasted a few short months in the late sixties. Tony Edwin, who lived around the corner from me, his Dad was a 3AK DJ Graeme Boyd and Tony brought round a copy of the album. Along with some other albums, he said his Dad no longer had need of them. The plan was for me to sell them at school. So like some black marketeer I packed them in my bag and the next day took them to Box Hill High School and with a group of young Form 1 bidders around me, I tried to sell the album. But no one was interested at the extortionate price of $3.50. I think I sold it for $2.50 in the end.
That weekend Tony comes back saying he's got to take the records back. His Dad was looking for them. Especially the Pepper album. So then on we had to tell a fib and say we never saw the Pepper album.

I felt terribly guilty. Graeme Boyd was one of the 3AK Good Guys and he was really a good guy. As a teenager, I got in trouble with the police and he was the one who came down to the police station with my mum to help me. When he walked in the police really changed their attitude. This was a celebrity!.
A few months down the track and my eyes and ears are opened to the sound of the Beatles and after my Mum gave me Abbey Road I start collecting Beatles albums. Because of the stereo effect on my cheap stereo Peppers always seemed to have vocals missing. But there was something about the songs. They're like sunshine. It became a regular play over the years and especially around 1990, I went mad for it. Everything was a little psychedelic again and this fitted in so well.
At the Rubber Soul Ronny would always play the Pepper reprise. Short but ferocious.
Nowadays I just put the record on and it creates a good vibe and puts you right back through time looking through the rose coloured glasses of 1967

Monkeemania by The Monkees 1979

My copy of this record is scratched ripped and smells of Rubber Soul. (the sixties night club I DJed at for 5 years)  It's also got Ronny Williams's name on it. Since he took my Aretha Franklin Best of when he left for Adelaide, I guess it's a fair trade. The Monkees were a big band for me in the sixties.

I lived in Croydon in 1968 and remember arguing with a neighbour in their backyard about who was better. The Beatles or The Monkees. I pointed out that The Monkees had all these hits. So what if they didn't play on the records just sang. What difference does that make? But they did play on their records later on. And wrote some great songs. Mary Mary, Randy Scouse Git. Self-penned.

The friendly argument continued into the house where we were playing the Game of Life in the living room. I was so intent on winning them over that I actually started believing the Monkees were really better.

Years later, I would get Little Murders to cover Monkees songs. Mary Mary of course. Also Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow, I'm Not Your Stepping Stone, (the Fiction even covered I Wanna be Free and made it into a punk song). Quite a few really. The Monkees were the beginnings of bubblegum music but they transcended that.
I used to love the TV series too. Watched it religiously. Bought the bubblegum cards. Even have a large tin Monkeemobile.
In 2016 the Monkees brought out the album Good Times. A brilliant album with a host of current-day artists writing songs for them. It contains what I think is one of the best Monkees songs ever in a track called Me and Magdalena. Mike Nesmith singing. Just great.

Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan 1966

An epic record from 1966 which I didn't really get to listen to until 1978.
Again it took me until the mid-seventies to start listening to Dylan but when I did there was a great catalogue to get through. I used to live in a share-house in Oakleigh. One of the guys there was totally into Dylan. His name was Seb. His girlfriend was a very heavy walker. She made the floorboards bounce when she walked into the room. Therefore the records would skip. When she was around we'd keep the good records off in case they got scratched. Seb had a Dylan gold record on his wall. And that's all he had. I was resistant to the Dylan thing but gradually broke down after hearing Like a Rolling Stone on a good stereo.
This was a time when we would just sit around listening to Dylan. No TV on. Maybe a few beers and smokes. It was glorious. And this album went on forever. Though we had to get up every 20 minutes to flip the record.
I used to collect the Story of Pop magazine. Dylan's image at the time was just so cool. With his polka dot shirts, black suits and Cuban Heel boots. I even bought his book Tarantuala. It was rubbish. But not this album. It was Dylan at his peak.

Parallel lines by Blondie 1978

Poptastic! After a bunch of disappointing second albums by the punk elite, the third albums were turning out to be real treats. On this album, Blondie really hit their peak with what would come to be called New Wave. The sixties look and feel was already in place but here it came full bloom with a bunch of pop songs and a look to match. We already knew that Blondie leaned this way with their sixties sound on In The Flesh and the accompanying videos. But this was the one. This was great. The ripped clothes and leather trousers (well vinyl for me) were out. Suits and skinny ties were in.
Actually, I only wore vinyl trousers once on stage. The week before I had spotted a leather looking pair at the Salvos Op Shop in Abbotsford. I had to have them. I thought I would look good in brown plastic leather-look trousers.

Playing a full-on pop-punk gig in them was a different matter. They were so hot I had to peel them off after the gig and they were almost glued to my legs. It was after a gig at the Champion Hotel in Fitzroy. The last Fiction gig. We went to Vic's place for an after-party and I was in the bathroom with my girlfriend Leonie trying to get the bloody things off. They were actually stuck to my legs. I must have foreseen though because I had a change of clothes in the car. The vinyl pants just fell apart.
Blondie never did an album as good as this again but they came up with some cracking singles.

What a wondorous trip when you are young to start collecting records like this. Falling in love with his greatest hits and then going back and scooping up Dylan's back catalogue. This was the first one that really got to me. I mean Like A Rolling Stone leads off but it's Desolation Row that I would listen to again and again. I even tried writing my own epic in a song called Whatever happened to the revolution? 15 verses. Hey but I'm no Dylan. So I also learned to play Desolation Row, All 8 minutes. The verses went over 3 pages which meant I had to keep turning over the pages in the songbook. I also tried a rewrite of Tombstone Blues called State of Execution, a song The Fiction did a couple of times in rehearsal. And it ended up on our Negative Fun album.

Ballad of a thin Man, Queen Jane Approximately. Such great songs.

Such a cool album. I was under the spell of the mid sixties Dylan. The Chelsea boots and polka dot shirts. I used to collect the Story of Pop magazines. They were a monthly magazine that told the story of rock and roll from start to whatever year they finished making the magazine. I loved learning about new bands. As I still do now.

The Dylan they portrayed was simply cool. Pure London Chelsea style with a great bar band behind him playing loose with the instruments. Yes Blonde on Blonde was brilliant and so too was Bringing it all Back Home. But this is the one I kept coming back to.

Brotherhood by New Order 1986

I had all the singles. Now it was time to explore the albums. This was bought at Central Station Records in South Yarra. It's still got the branded plastic on it. It also has a little P in the corner. This means I sprayed the record with a special preservative. 

In the mid-eighties, I was living at the back of a bunch of flats in Meredith Street, Elwood. It had a small balcony that overlooked palm trees and the beach at Elwood. Not that you could see the beach. You just knew you were facing it. The place always had a summery feel to it. And because it was old and retro it was the first cool place I had lived in.

I wasn't much of a muso anymore, I was a DJ. I took more time with my records. Looked after them. Cleaned them. Put on stickers that meant they were protected by some spray-on stuff. Bought more speakers. Listened to Brotherhood by New Order.
I doubt it's immaculate now because there is also a sticker that says songs to play at the club. Paradise, Weirdo, Promise and Way of Life. These were my handpicked dance floor fillers. Though I doubt they did that job. Bizarre Love triangle which happens to be my favourite track of theirs is not highlighted. That's because the 12 inch of that track is just so good I could never play the short version. I must mention the accompanying B-side 1963 which is also a great song.
I also liked the last track "Every Little Counts" but it sounds like Bernard couldn't care less and throws it away with some quite silly lyrics.  I'd read he wrote lyrics as he went along which works sometimes but being a writer myself  I never bought into that theory about New Order or Iggy Pop where every line is ad-libbed. Then again. 
A fabulous mid-eighties record.

Best of The Who 1966

Yeah, I've already got one best of the Who on my list. Meaty was my first Who album and so it holds a special place. But I also came across this album in a second-hand store and it contained songs that I didn't know or never knew they covered. Barbara Anne, Bucket T. And Circles and Disguises. Also, I was suspicious that Meaty Beaty tracks weren't the originals which on listening to one of the singles on this I think I was proved right. 5 tracks on here are from the Ready Steady Who EP. Singles like I'm a Boy and Pictures of Lily plus Johne Entwistles Doctor Doctor a personal fave of mine. It was an Australian-only release. Maybe cashing in on their new success. But it's a fantastic early comp quite devoid of what would have been their real best of. Maybe it was too early in the piece.
When I got this I was still searching for the My Generation album. But this was still exciting anyway. I felt I was a lot closer to the early Who here. You can imagine the who playing this stuff live.
A few weeks later I was holding the original My Generation album in my hands. Magic!

My flat in Fitzroy North has a second-hand couch, 2 directors chairs and 2 potted plants along with a sound system and a TV. I'm aiming for Chelsea, England 1966. Groovy bohemia. Or something like that. Records like this were very important to me.

A Nod Is As Good As a Wink...to a Blind Horse by The Faces 1971

So while I'm talking about the Small Faces why not mention the great band they turned into. The Faces featuring Rod Stewart. Of course, it was all wrapped up in the success of Rod Stewart and his Every PictureTells a Story / Maggie May double but there was also something more with The. Faces. You couldn't help but get involved in their good-time rock stance. The stories of bars on the side of the stage, the soccer balls kicked into the crowd. The videos of the band on Top of The Pops when they just looked like they were having a great time all the time.

I saw Rod at the Myer Music Bowl ( if only for the last 10 minutes-though I heard the whole thing) and when we got inside the gates it really was like entering a party. No, it wasn't the Faces but it was a joy to watch. But it felt like I was seeing the Faces.

For a while there it was the thing to when bands appeared at the Myer Music Bowl. Sit outside the fence for most of the set digging the sound and then as security abandoned their posts stream in to see the last few songs. ELO was another one like that.
The idea of the Faces is sometimes more than the actual output. I loved their records while not liking some of the things they did. It just feels good to have their records. Saying that is far and wide the best of their albums. Crammed with great songs.
On my second show ever when all we did is mime to songs, the opening song was Stay With Me from this album. Despite the successful debut a few months earlier of Flashco this one was terrible and what was fun once didn't need to be repeated. So we had to break up the band. And it wasn't even a band.

Greatest Hits. by The Small Faces 1977

I have three Small Faces best-ofs albums in my collection. Every time they put one out back in the day there would be a different song list on it. I bought them because they were cheap and I was trying to get all the Small Faces stuff I could. I've also got a bunch of records all with different names but some of them are basically the same record.

I love the Small Faces. We covered All or Nothing in Little Murders and it was always one of my favourite songs to play. When I was first getting into the whole Mod thing firstly we looked at The Who but as you delved more into their stories you realised that the Small faces were the real Mod band. They really did look like a band of Small Faces, a face in Mod lingo being the cool one.

This one is from 1985. It still carries the distinctive smell of an album that spent many a night in clubs. Particularly the Rubber Soul.

I loved Ogden's Nut Gone Flake but really I played the hell out of these best-ofs.

Last year during the lockdown I still managed to track down a Small FDaces EP that just had their instrumentals on it. They were just a great band. Actually, I haven't got a copy of Autumn Stone despite having nearly all the tracks on it on various albums so that might have to be my next purchase.

Donovan's Greatest Hits 1969

Loved this record. My brother had a copy and he used to play it in the bedroom I shared with him. My side of the room was covered in posters from Go-Set and pages ripped from old soccer magazines. "Goal' i think it was called. Mainly George Best who was my hero then. Played the record on his portable record player. Big and heavy and rocking. Take off the speakers and spread them apart. Created a magical world inside this teenagers head. A little hippy, a bit folky but also with Jeff Beck ramping up the electric guitar on some tracks. When my brother got married and moved out I bought myself a copy from the Australian Music Club. 

Then I went through the catalogue and started buying his other albums. However, they were a little too trippy and jazzy for me (except for Barablajacal which was the other Donovan album I loved ) 

But mostly I went back to my "Best of". And what a "Best of". Sunshine Superman, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Season of The Witch...all great singles. 

I can still listen to this album and I've even got into a lot of the stuff that was over my head. Cool

Black Magic by Various Artists 1979

Bought this in Tower Records in London when I went over there in 79. At the time my soul section of the record collection was devoid of the classics so when I saw this record even though it was on the cheapo Pickwick label I had to get it because it seemed to have every soul song I had heard of. It even provided two songs that Little Murders would cover in "Stand by Me" and "Midnight Hour".  Despite a couple of naff songs that I wouldn't go anywhere near, it was brimming with soul classics. And it would lead me into all sorts of places looking for the best-ofs of these artists. Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave, Booker T are all on this double album. I have to admit, with the great soul artists there's not much but compilations in my collection.
The best thing about that 79 holiday in England was the amount of stuff I managed to bring home. All of it to find use in the Mod clubs I'd be involved in. I brought back ska records from The Specials, Madness and Beat. all the mod singles (which I picked up cheap in a Blackpool newsagency..25p each). This album plus other soul biggies. I had to go down to Tower Records and buy myself record boxes to bring them home.
When I saw the purple hearts in Edinburgh I was impressed by the DJ who played with them. So I was determined to have DJs play with Little Murders. Gigs at the Market Hotel in South Yarra would be advertised as Little Murders and Mod DJ. No support band. From that it lead to Kommotion where the Murders didn't play but where I DJed regularly.

Shapes of Things by The Yardbirds 1978

I was fascinated by the Yardbirds in 1979. I knew too much about the Beatles and the Stones but little about the Yardbirds but I kept hearing their tracks and everyone sounded different but really out there. They were in the film Blow-Up doing Train Kept a Rollin and smashing guitars and amps. They looked cool and mod and we never got to see them turn into hippies because they were finished before the whole hippy look came along. So they got out just in time to remain forever cool.
In 1979 I was travelling everywhere trying to find new record shops. We were now vinyl hunters. I found this double album in Preston in some little record shop. Both discs are coloured, one green and one clear. I get the green because the album is all green but the clear plastic?
No matter it was my first Yardbirds record. and it starts with an intro which must have been lifted off 5 live Yardbirds. Then straight into a Chuck Berry cover. But the next few tracks I Wish You Would and For Your Love would become part of the future Little Murders setlist. I also tried to get the band to play A Certain Girl.
There have been better compliations and I have those. My first bootleg album I ever bought was a Yardbirds album and that's great.  I bought it just to get Psycho Daisies. But this was my first Yardbirds album after searching for so long.

Very by The Pet Shop Boys 1993

I always liked the Pet Shop Boys since West End Girls onwards though I don't listen to them much nowadays. Battered down by wave after wave of people who actually can't stand them in my circles. I've given up talking about them. But they had great pop songs. And have made some great albums. This being one of them.
I guess I started listening to them when I first started listening to stuff on my Walkman. Their music just sounded so good through headphones. Mainly it was the singles plus maybe a few album tracks. It wasn't until this album that I actually liked a whole album of theirs.
Firstly it's got this great Lego CD cover. Very tactile. Then it's got a bunch of great tracks.
Luckily I had the Walkman because none of my friends wanted to hear this. neither did any of my girlfriends. So it kind of forced itself into being my personal soundtrack.
Notably, it reminds me of the time I went to the Greek islands. The sun, the beaches, the heat..it was like the perfect Pet Shop Boys setting. I remember there was this beach where the sun was so hot and the sand was burning feet so they had to put wooden boards leading to the damper sand closer to the water. I was so into listening to the music I went for a walk by myself so I could listen to the music and take in the sights.
It took me ages to find somebody else who enjoys them. Thank god for Facebook.  I guess they're my guilty pleasure.

The first time I heard Belle and Sebastian was "The Boy With The Arab Strap" a great song that I totally loved and still do, The album it came from was great too. So after enjoying that I was eagerly looking for more Belle and Sebastian. I'd read the legendary Tigermilk album was a long gone debut release limited to 1000 copies and incredibly rare. But then they released it on CD. I guess cos the proper albums were doing so well.
And it was great. There is something very do it yourself about the album. Reminiscent of the Smiths at their best but without the power I guess but with a niche all of their own, Some of the tracks sound like they have pulled off a cassette tape.
It begins with State I'm In. A great opener. Great lyrics. And it just feels good. And then song after song. Brilliant tunes.
I finally got to see them live. My wife Liz is a big fan. They didn't disappoint. You could tell the crowd just loved them. It was one of the best crowds I'd seen really. You just get a feeling about a good crowd. People smile at each other. They don't push you out the way. I mean we were still blighted by the incredibly tall people that like to stand in front of us at gigs. But I swear he turned around and gave us an apologetic look. The band and the audience were right in tune.

Now when they come to Australia we always buy tickets to the show. 

And I've managed to get most their records now. If You're Feeling Sinister is a particular favourite.

Standing On The Beach:The Singles by The Cure 1986

Never been able to get into a full Cure album so when this CD came along it was a chance to have all my favourite tracks in one place. To me, they were a brilliant singles band. The amount of classic songs on this album is amazing. We used to love it at the Lizard when albums like this came out because it meant we could reduce the number of discs to bring in with us. A few years later and it wouldn't matter because everything could be burned onto one disc.
This set opens with Killing an Arab the first single, but it also contains 10:15 Saturday Night which a sign of things to come. Boys Don't Cry. When I first got a video camera I made a film clip of me miming to the song. It was my first effort and is locked well away.
I got to see them on their second tour (missed the Macy's gig on their first when they played the night after us) at the Ballroom and songs like The Forest and Primary bring that night back. A wash of keyboards.
Let's Go to Bed and The Walk bring back memories of Therapy, a disco we all went to during the latter days of electronica and new romantic. Then In Between days and Close to Me which calls to mind The Beehive and Lizard Lounge. I guess these songs have left their fingerprints all over the Eighties with enough energy to also infiltrate the 90s. I saw them live again at the Rod Laver Arena but it wasn't much fun.
My mate Dan went to the Sydney Opera House to see them a few years back. They played the first album. He said they were great. With tickets going for 2000 dollars they'd have to be. I think it was 6 dollars at Macy's.

Graceland by Paul Simon 1986

I was in the UK visiting family when my brother David put this album on through his new sound system. My trips to the UK were always at Christmas as being a teacher I would have those extra long holidays that people get so envious of. All my recollections are mostly bright and sunny but pretty cold. Inside was warm as only English houses are warm. Central heating indeed. And this record just filled up the room.

I didn't have much interest in Paul Simon since the Simon and Garfunkel times (and I was that big on them either) except for a few of his hits in the early seventies. So wasn't prepared for how good this album was going to be. The sound these South African musicians make from the word go with "Boy in The Bubble" is just amazing. Incredible rhythms with Paul Simon melodies over the top were a magic formula. It was such a complete album. really like nothing I'd heard before.  I could even get into "You Can Call Me Al" so it fits in so well with everything else that's going on here.
Hugh Cornwell from The Stranglers even named it album of the year. It crossed all borders except maybe the faction who had slapped an embargo on making music in South Africa. I would have thought introducing these great musicians to the world would have been a good thing. However there was a lot of fuss. But the album also introduced us to Los Lobos who rocked out on the record and the sound of zydeco from the USA also gets a look in. Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Youssou N'Dour. A world record indeed. I
Sadly after this album he got a bit boring again. His next album always literally put me to sleep. Twice I tried to listen and fell asleep.
Not so with Graceland. This album is a joy.

When punk was starting back in 77 and 78 there were many references to this album as one of the cornerstones to the whole punk thing. Of course what chance in those days would you have of getting an album that had been released five years previous. But one day I'm looking through the boxes of records at the Monash University Record Shop and there it is. Thick cardboard. Cut out. Nuggets. It was like discovering gold. Couldn't wait to get it home and play it. And song after song was just brilliant. After weeks of listening to this album, I think I'd changed the way I wrote songs.
And what songs. "Don't Look Back by the Remains. "Lies" by the Knickerbockers. How long had I been looking for that single? This album was chock full of legendary songs. We'd put these songs on cassette and play them before the band went on stage.
One day I went looking through my albums. This would be in the 90s. I couldn't find the album. By then I had quite a few albums so it took me a few looks to realise it wasn't there. And the Undertones and god know what else had disappeared. Had I sold them? Unlikely. Did I lend them to someone? Unfortunately, the mists of time have closed around this mystery.

So began the process of looking to find all those missing albums. Record fairs and record shops came back into my life. And what a pleasure it has been to rediscover records after using CDs for so long. Rhino released a 4 CD box of Nuggets (volume 1 & 2) but it doesn't beat putting the needle on the record.

The "In" Crowd:Ultimate Collection 2001

Suddenly all this stuff started becoming available through overseas outlets thanks to the power of the Internet to connect us to record shops around the world. Once upon a time getting something like this would have been impossible or incredibly expensive. That I got it cheaply delivered from the UK was a godsend. And what a brilliant box set it was. Coming about the same time as the Northern Soul album as was suddenly immersed in all this modness. With Lizard Lounge starting to wind down and the music we were playing on Saturday nights more and more dance-orientated at home I was listening to all those Mod records I used to love plus I was getting to discover all these new sounds. And all the amazing imagery.
I was also back in touch with the Sydney Mods following the tragic death of Don Hosie a leading light of the Mod scene during our heyday. His brother Gary asked me to come and play at a benefit gig for Don's charity. It was a wonderful night at the Sydney Metro and great to see so many old friends. And I played songs like Tube Station and Midnight Hour with just me and a fender Telecaster.
Through these albums, my passion for the sixties and Mod culture was awakened. I also started to write shorter and sharper songs more aimed at the feet. I guess I was going back to my roots. Although at times it feels I'm more like a spectator these days.
This 4 CD set is really quite brilliant. Just listening to it again I feel I should be having a party.

The Best Northern Soul All-Nighter...Ever 2001

Okay, not one for the purists I know.  Basically the best or most popular Northern Soul songs. And there have been quite a few excellent comps before and since. But this is the one that really opened my ears to the whole Northern Soul thing. It was like a doorway to all those other comps I had lying about my collection. And it also got me buying more.
Mainly cos I heard a lot of these songs at the Highland Room at the Mecca Ballroom in Blackpool in the seventies. And these were the songs they played those nights I went. Not the really rare stuff but the hits that worked with the crowd like any other club. Keep everyone dancing. And for me who didn't have a clue about Northern Soul when my cousin took me there I needed songs like these to get me going. Mind you I was a crap dancer. The girl I was going out with, second date, mocked my dancing style. I still bear the scars today. Girls can do that.
This is one of the first CDs I ever bought online. When websites like CDWow were selling albums you couldn't get here, and at cheaper prices with free delivery well from then on it was almost goodbye JB Hifi. The same thing happened to book stores.
Anyway cracking double CD. Starts off with 7 Days is Too Long and then just grooves like an all-nighter even finishing with the big 3. The songs that used to close the night at Wigan Casino including the sublime "Long After Tonight Is All Over"

Aftermath by The Rolling Stones 1966

As I was scooping up sixties albums in the mid seventies some of them were just to add to my collection and some would just stop me in my tracks and force me to keep listening. Aftermath was the first (well maybe second if you count the greatest hits package) Stones album I fell in love with. There"s something about the songs and the sound that make it such a classic mid-sixties record. It kicks off with Mother's Little Helper and then basically soundtracks Swinging London for the next 35 minutes.
Under My Thumb was one of Ronny's big spins at Rubber Soul. I liked to spin Out Of Time. But the album is packed with great tunes and give a nod to their bluesy past but also point forward to what they will become. When I put this album on in my flat with all those sixties posters and a palm tree in the corner, directors chairs for furniture, Get Smart on TV with the sound turned down...I felt I was almost there. Chelsea, London 1966

My Aim Is True by Elvis Costello 1977

One night I was at Valhalla cinema when it was in Richmond. I can't remember the film I went to see but I do remember some guy walking in with this record under his arm. No bag, just the record. Like a big badge of coolness. Of course we'd all heard of the record but no one I knew had it. I didn't know it had been released in Australia yet. With an inkling that the record was out there some where I was soon off to track down the album. I think I found it in the place where RRR used to be. They had a record shop there open late. There is nothing in the world like record shops at night. Love them.
Loved this record. The short sharp Welcome to the Working Week. The anger. The revenge. Elvis was spitting out these fantastic songs. Wasn't a punk record but was completely in tune with what was going on at the time. Yes it's sounds a bit like pub rocker Graham Parker but this album had a whole lot of charisma despite the pub rock backing. actually it's great bridge between the sounds of Dr. Feelgood and The Clash.
In the end it's the words that get to you. Delivering all that young man blues like no one else before. Even the gentle Alison is full of self loathing and betrayal.
Six months later he released This Years Model and that was even better.
I used to have a giant Elvis poster advertising this album.. Bruce Milne swapped it with me for a copy of the book Generation X. In the end I couldn't find anywhere to put it so I gave it to my friend Mandy. It was so big I don't think she ever put it up either.

Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds 1965

Another classic from the Sixties which sounds just as good almost sixty years later. I picked up the album Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds at Burwood K-Mart because like a few of my other purchases it was on a cheap label and then further discounted to about 99 cents. I knew little about the Byrds except for Mr. Tambourine Man. This was the early seventies and I was more interested in Glam but I was starting to look to the sixties more and more. And I need that song!

 When this piece of vinyl hit the turntable he was almost too hard to get off. It just blew away so much of the pop stuff I was listening to. Those harmonies. That jangly guitar. And just brilliant songs. I don't think I even owned a Dylan album before this. (unluckily I first heard Dylan around New Morning time and couldn't understand the fuss) But it also kick-started my interest in Dylan.

By the late seventies, it was a major influence on my writing as I moved from punk to being in a Mod band and eventually embracing power pop. In 1982 Little Murders attempted to cover "Here Without You" I think we may have only played it once. At Macy's in South Yarra. Taped for posterity but I don't think we ever did it again. Little Murders also covered "Feel A Whole Better" which is also on this album. Now that song we covered through many line-ups. She Let's Me Know our third single was originally an attempt to write a Byrds type song. (actually, the chord sequence is cribbed from one of their songs) 

When my flat in Fitzroy was robbed and I lost my Ibanez Les Paul guitar (plus beer and cigarettes) at first I bought an electric 12 string electric guitar. I really wanted that Byrds sound. I took it to a gig at the Oxford Hotel. It was such a bugger to tune up and keep in tune that I took it back the next day and swapped it for my Fender Custom Telecaster.

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys 1966

I picked up this record at K-Mart in Burwood around the early seventies. Cheap cover. Cheesy photo. Strangely the sleeve notes are by Ian Meldrum. Australian pop guru. It wasn't called Pet Sounds but later on, as top 100 lists started popping up I realised I actually did have a copy of Pet Sounds on my hands. God knows why they rebranded the album just because it was on a cheap album. Music For Pleasure who put out a lot of cruddy stuff. And a lot of great music too.

Apart from their cheesy image and rubbish like Sloop John B Brian Wilson's songwriting and the production on these albums is just absolutely brilliant. Plus the harmonies and the backing band. Just great.

These are songs you can listen to again and again.

The reason I bought it was I had recently picked up a copy of some other disguised Beach Boys record at a second-hand shop. I was amazed how good the album tracks were on that one and finding Beach Boys cheap everywhere ( and there were lots) I began to amass a collection. Pet Sounds is by far the best. And I guess the world agrees because it always ends up near the top of best of all time Records.

But how could it not with tracks like God Only Knows and Wouldn't It Be Nice? My particular favourite is Caroline No. I first heard that as a solo Brian Wilson single I found in our neighbours stash of old records he was chucking out. This was Graeme Boyd who worked at 3AK. I managed to score some great stuff. He had cupboards full.

One Step Beyond by Madness 1979

If anything it would be the countless times we did the nutty walk. The fun we Mods had.
I was in the UK when this record and the Specials debut were everywhere. Top of The Pops seemed to be full of these ska bands. The Mod bands weren't getting anywhere near the same exposure. It was all ska. One Step Beyond was like a giant party album. You put the record on the first track and then you were off. Skanking around the living room. And considering how small my flat in Fitzroy was you'd be knocking over lamps and tables.
We'd play Night Train and One Step Beyond at Kommotion and the crowd would go absolutely nutty. These songs couldn't help but bring a smile to your face just the way people reacted. My particular favourite was My Girl which I first heard on TOTP and was my introduction to Madness. Great tune and they had a few.
Back in Melbourne ska was starting to take off in 1980. At the Batcave they opened a new night called the Bluebeat Club. Bands like Strange Tennants and No Nonsense played. They got quite big really quick. And you could see why. The gigs were just fun. As Ripley Holden in the series Blackpool says to a friend suffering in hospital as he plays a ska song to cheer him up. "There's nothing ska can't fix!"
I sang with the Sets at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney a few years back at a celebration of the Eighties. (and in particular Mod)  The Allnighters were on too. Ska has still got it. Couldn't stop smiling all through their set.

Brewing Up With Billy Bragg 1984

Of all the international acts I've seen Billy Bragg would have to be the one I've seen most. The first time I saw him was at the National Theatre in St. Kilda. Just him and an electric guitar. It was marvellous. A year later I saw him at some beach pub in Sydney when again he was solo and this gig still remains the top one for me. Maybe because I wasn't on home turf. Maybe because our names  were supposed to be on the door and they weren't so we had to frantically call the acquaintance in Melbourne who promised us (big in radio) and get him to ring the management. But we did it. And he was just great. Never thought he captured the same magic when he brought out a band though.

It was also about the stories told on stage too. Probably the best raconteur since Bruce Springsteen. The stories were almost as good the songs. Almost. With the band the stories were slightly curtailed. actually one year I saw him two nights in a row and I couldn't believe it was quite scripted because he came out with all the same stories.

After the Spy versus Spy EP I was eager for this album to come out and it didn't disappoint.  " It Says Here" comes over like a micro Clash. A band he alluded to on stage when discussing his style. But it's some of the slower numbers that got me. St. Swithin's Day and The Saturday Boy have that English melancholy feel. But so raw with just that electric guitar.

Talk, Talk, Talk by The Psychedelic Furs 1981

1981 and we were going out almost every night of the week. Maybe not Monday but definitely Tuesday's onward starting with some underground club in the city where they played a lot of early Stevie Wonder. I was gigging with the band most weekends and hitting the clubs other nights. Mod clubs and more commercial ones like Inflation and The Underground.
This album was like the soundtrack to going out. A great big wall of sound leading off with the perennial favourite "Pretty In Pink" and then all these wild discordant sounds with Richard Butler coming across like a cross between Bowie, Rotten and Steve Harley. And though Pretty in Pink was the big single the track we begged them to play at the Underground was "Into You Like A Train" which was a storming rewrite of Dylan's "All I wanna do". When they played it only me and James danced to it.
It was a hot summer. We'd walk home in the early hours of the morning through a city that wasn't even awake yet. Just the street cleaners patrolling the streets. Some days I would have about one hours sleep before going off to work. Sometimes it was too hard to get the eyeliner off your face so I'd walk in looking pretty ghoulish and all Day of The Dead. They were the bad days when all you wanted to do was get back home and lay on the couch. I was driving a Mazda with the most comfortable seat covers ever at the time. I can't believe I made it home cos as soon as I sat in those bucket seats I was almost off to neverland before I even started.
The clubbing didn't last long. Winter came and Little Murders started playing 4 or 5 times a week and rehearsing more and really club life...  it was messing me up. And the Furs got really commercial but I did get to see them live at the Prospect Hill Hotel. The guitarist was a little out of shape and the sound was a mess. But that was The Furs. Brilliant!