This is another album I saw at a Brashes sale and bought for something like 99 cents. Chosen because it was cheap and because it had an interesting title, an interesting band name and I liked the cover. Liking the cover was always the first step to buying an album.
This was 1976 and music was changing. We were hearing about new sounds coming from New York and London reading about them weekly in the NME but we had no chance to hear them. Doctors of Madness name kept popping up.
When I got the album home I put down the pillow and positioned speakers at either side of my ears. This was the best way for me to listen to records. I didn't have headphones yet. The music was wild. I mean really wild to my young ears. I could hear bits of Roxy Music and Cockney Rebel in it but there was another edge to the sounds. Something terrifyingly doom-laden. I wasn't sure if I liked it but I kept coming back to it.
It was also an album that my Mum didn't like the sound of. She was very happy to listen to my Beatles, Stones, Bowie and ELO records. Queen rocked a bit hard at times. But this record really annoyed her. It was like the first time it happened. Around this time I had started writing my own songs. Stuff like "Now I'm On My Own" and "State of Execution" were influenced by the Doctors. My Mum thought I sounded like Kid Strange the singer on this record. Knowing Mum couldn't stand the record I wasn't sure if it was a compliment.
Gradually it was pushed aside by the avalanche of punk records that started arriving in the record racks at my local Brashes and I moved on.
Other people were listening to them too. In 1982 we supported the Church at Macys in South Yarra. We all went for dinner beforehand in Chapel street. Talking about records as you do, as well as Cockney Rebel, The Doctors of Madness came up as a big influence on The Church. I always thought Steve Kilbey sounded a little like Kid Strange too, A bit.
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