Propaganda by Sparks 1974

 I first heard Sparks "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us' driving along Surrey Road in Blackburn in 1974. I was in the back seat and I implored the driver to turn it up. It sounded amazing. I had already read about them. Roxy Music's little brothers I think they were coined as in NME. Or Roxy on helium. Whatever it was I had to to have it and duly bought Kimono My House. Which I liked but didn't love at the time. It was jostling with other records for my attention.

At the end of 74 I went back to the UK and the first thing I saw on television was Sparks performing "Something For The Girl With Everything' off their new album Propaganda. Russell was wearing gloves and a Christmas jumper. Ron looked like Hitler behind the keyboards. The sound popped right out of the TV. 

A little while later I was at WH Smith. The newsagents but also a record store. There was a massive record sale. The whole upstairs was full of records. Even recent hit albums at great prices. I couldn't believe that Propaganda was amongst them so even though I had only heard the one track I bought the album. 

In the UK winter of 74 and 75 I lived at my Aunt Sheila's house. Most days I was alone in the house until my cousin Neil came home at lunch and played Band on The Run or Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits before going back to work. So a lot of the time I sat, read books and wrote letters and listened to Propaganda. Start to finish and without skipping tracks. Trying to sing along. Often hurting my throat with the high notes.

45 years later I'm in a venue in Tokyo with Sparks on stage and Russell sings ""Hello soldier boy," oh boy, she's spewing out her Propaganda" And a chill runs up my spine. Absolutely brilliant!

Moon Safari by Air 1998

 In 1998 I was open to all kinds of music. The first release on my record label was a trip hop album by my friends in Bloom. They had played me the demo tapes of the music and I was knocked out by the songs and the sounds they were making and it gave me the impetus to kick-start the label. So while I was still firmly entrenched in loud sixties alternative indie type music I had a leaning towards and a soft spot for dance music. I was running the Lizard lounge which played all kinds of pop music. If it had a good tune and a beat I was into it.

And at the start of 1998 we started hearing about this French band called Air that were striking out in a somewhat different direction. And the names of Burt Bacharach and Serge Gainsbourg came up. And of all people. Little Murders ex and future drummer Mick Barclay told me about this groovy band from France. It was the name on everyones lips that summer so much so that I went down to Mighty Music Machine in Prahran to score myself a copy only to be told they had got a shipment in and had sold out but were expecting another shipment the following week. I couldn't find it anywhere else so I just had to wait.

A few weeks later it was in and I picked up the CD. For waiting the owner also gave me a massive Pulp "This is Hardcore" poster that was too big for him to display. It's now on my kitchen wall. And in retrospect the music of that Pulp album and Moon Safari fitted well. As the summer of early 98 came to a close. the Air album was a constant on my CD player filling up the spaces of my house in Elwood. Early evenings and Stolleys vodka and a French band in the background. Brilliant.

New Wave by Various Artists 1977

 In 1977 it seemed like I was rebuilding my record collection from scratch. While I was quick to buy the first Damned album and just about anything punk my shelves were still crowded with a lot of records I didn't want to listen to anymore. Bowie, New York Dolls and Lou Reed/ Velvet Underground fitted in well but not a lot more. The sixties kind of fitted in but a lot of my records were more the commercial pop bands like the Searchers  although The Troggs had their place.

So a compilation record like this was really welcome. A few of the songs I had heard about but never seen down the record shop. I discovered Mystery Girls from the second Dolls album. Sonic Reducer by the Dead Boys. Talking Heads, Even The Runaways Cherry Bomb made a lot more sense in the context of this bunch of tracks. And best of all it had the song Shake Some Action which I begun hearing down the Tiger Room when the Keith Glass Band would play it on Wednesday nights. Me and my mates would be down the Tiger Room (or was it Tiger Lounge) every Wednesday night to hear Keith's band and to see which punk/ new wave band he would have support him. JAB, The Boys Next Door and more. Just fantastic nights.

As for the album, of course there were one or two clunkers but they didn't detract at all from my listening pleasure. And although this might have been one of the first compilations I ever bought it might be responsible for the dozens of other comps I have bought over the years. I just love compilation albums. I might often start a search now in the various artists second of the record bins.

The B-52s by The B-52s 1979

 In January 1980 I was in Paris, France with Leonie, my girlfriend at the time and we were wandering the streets after dinner taking in the cold night air as you do. It was early evening and as we passed a record shop down tucked into one of narrow streets this strange music came bouncing off the walls. It was other worldly but definitely pop music. But of a different kind. It reminded of Roxy Music and Yoko Ono all at once.  

More importantly I thought I had found a French band. Which would be exciting. To take back to Australia something no one had heard yet from a slightly exotic country. It was exciting buying the Specials debut in a French department store the day previously but this topped that. In the record store the man behind the counter explained that they were an American band and the album was fabulous but he was playing his very own copy. They had no more. Sold out. So I left Paris without the B-52s.

I didn't matter because when I got back to Australia they had just started playing Rock Lobster on the radio and the B-52s were about to become a hit making machine.

On my first visit to Missing Link Records when I was back in Melbourne I saw they had  the B-52s record in their racks, The cover just jumped out. Great I could buy it here, I was in Missing Link to see Bruce from Au Go Go. A UK distributor called Stage One were starting a record label and wanted to put the first Little Murders single out as their debut release. I was at the counter when Nick Cave came over to me and started asking me questions about the UK. Which surprised me since even though my bands had played a number of times with the Boys Next Door I had hardly spoken to him at all. But he really wanted to know what was going on in London. I said there weren't too many exciting bands around playing live. And a lot of the venues are quite small.
At the time I didn't know they were planning to move over there. 

Got so caught up talking to Nick and then Bruce that I walked out of the shop without the B-52s record. I didn't get it for another few months because Rock Lobster was everywhere. I couldn't listen to that track any more. Then I picked it up second hand. And it was brilliant even if I had to lift the needle over Rock Lobster.

Reckless by The Sports 1978

 In 1977  my friends and I would go to a lot of Sports gigs. This was the closest we could get to the scene that was happening in the UK even though it wasn't punk music. But they had got a brilliant review in the NME. Single of the week no less. And we all bought the 7 inch EP. This was our Melbourne band. 

Seemingly led by Steve Cummins by the fact he was the singer their star continued to shine as 1978 appeared. And they seemed to give support to the leading lights of the new wave in the Boys Next Door. The Sports/ Boys Next Door nights were the highlights of our gig going in 78. One gig at the Collingwood Town Hall with both bands playing stands out in particular. Probably the first time I went to Collingwood. And when Sports brought out their debut album we all went and bought it. because we were listening to Graham Parker and Elvis Costello as well a full-on punk like the Clash there seemed to be room for everything now. 

It kicked off with the "Boys (What Did The Detective Say?)" single. (Oddly enough Elvis Costello released "Watching The Detectives " at the same time) The song was a very Melbourne song that we could easily identify with the lyrics. From then on it was a trip from Russell Street to Richmond and Carlton and around the city. Steve may not have mentioned the places directly in the songs but it all just felt inner city Melbourne. Listening to this album now brings up great memories of great venues of the past. Martinis in Carlton which was also a pizza place. the Kingston Hotel and walking down the stairs to the main room (seeing Graham Parker leaning on the wall watching the band) and the Station Hotel. Straight off the train and into the bar.

Candles in the Wind by Melanie 1970

 In 1970 this was stuck to my turntable. It was the single Lay Down that hit the radio that year which introduced us to Melanie. One word name in a time when singers didn't have one-word names. I was particularly attracted to her voice. Powerful at times but then fragile in the quieter moments. It was just different to other female voices I had heard.

So I bought the album and played it to death. It was 1970. The era of the singer-songwriter. I was living in Blackburn South but just started hanging out over across Middlesborough Road in Box Hill North. There was a friend from school called Paul True who played the guitar. I was in awe as he seemed to be able to play anything. The girls he hung out with were particularly enamoured by his version of Alexander Beetle from this record. He refused to play it for me though. He'd moved on. 

His dream was to play Festival Hall. I hope he got there. Little Murders almost got there. On a bill with Uncanny X-Men. But then the sponsors (Coca-Cola I think) didn't like the idea of having an independent band on the bill. They wanted bands on labels. That's when I realised playing Festival Hall might be my dream too. Too late now I guess unless I join the Church of Hillsong.

I lost interest in Melanie after this album. Glam rock swept a lot of this away. But she did hit the radio again with Brand New Key which I loved. And then when on my first live appearance I performed on Radio Auditions and with my girl-led trio Feathers singing a song called "Helpless Sparrow" won that night our prize was a bunch of singles. All rubbish except one was a Melanie single. Not very good but the flip side was a cover of a Jim Croce song which intrigued me because for a while there I liked Jim Croce too. The song was called Lovers Cross. And it was brilliant.

End Of The Century by The Ramones 1980

 Danny Says by the Ramones happened to be the first thing I heard off this album. I was around at Stuart Beatty's house and we were discussing what the sound of the next single might be like. He played "Danny Says" by The Ramones. Wait for the guitars to come in! Then we talked about how we were going to record "She Lets Me Know" We were looking for that power.

Until then I couldn't say I was listening to the Ramones much after 4 albums of punk rock guitar music. But this sounded different to their usual fare. And then I heard Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio. And I loved it. It just worked. I had missed the album on first release and it was hard to find a copy hut by chance I found a second-hand copy in an Op Shop. Glenhumtly Road. Elsternwick. This shop seemed to get a lot of almost new copies of new wave albums. Reviewers who just got rid of them. Or just one reviewer. You had to be quick though.

I spent a lot of time listening to the album. I was in transit from a share house in Oakleigh to a share house in Wellington Street Collingwood. Just up from the Tote. Which was still called the Ivanhoe Hotel then. 

I lived upstairs in a small room with a great stereo system. One wall had a bed and the other a stack of records. Downstairs we still competed for the stereo system to play our favourite songs. Often we would give up and just leave RRR on. 

Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen 1984

 In 1984 we were all getting a little sophisticated. I had finally got myself off the ground-level flats and up to the top floor in Murphy Street, South Yarra. Top floor apartments and views of the city (well I could almost see it from one part of the balcony) meant playing punk rock and Mod really didn't cut it. So it was time for the Bladerunner soundtrack and Echo and the Bunnymen's Ocean Rain with a little Jacque Brel thrown in. And a bit of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. 

Like a few other records, this one had one side that got the most airplay. In this case side 2 kicks off with the magnificent "The Killing Moon" and then just creates its own world from there. One I was happy to go to.  Spend early evenings indoors with the window to the balcony open. Later I might meet friends down on Toorak Road usually for Italian food at places like Portofino (which is probably the only restaurant name I remember)  Macys was at the bottom of my street and Little Murders played there now and again. Other times I would go down and see some great bands there. Looking at some of those handbills I can't believe how good some of the bands were. For heavens sake, The Cure playing at the bottom of my street. 

Eventually, the money ran out and they upped the rent so  I tried out a shared apartment with a teacher friend. Didn't work. I guess my control of the stereo was too much. 

Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub 1995

 There used to be a record shop down Moorabinn way called Vinyl Solution. Run by Glenn Evans and packed the ceiling with great records which is why after getting the record bug once more I would be down almost once a week. That's when this side of town had some great record shops. Vinyl Solution, Licorice Pie, Quality Records, Vicious Sloth and Greville Records. Sadly 3 of those have gone. Though I do love the new Licorice Pie space over in Collingwood.

Vinyl Solution would email a list of just in second-hand records once a week which I would hang out for. One week Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub was on the list. This was one of those holy grail records that I had to have. Far too expensive on Discogs especially when the postage kicked in I immediately bought it off the website. I was so excited I rang Glenn to make sure my order went through. He said I could pick it up Saturday. I said I would be over after work. Then the rains came down. Peak traffic on Nepean Highway. Could hardly see past the windshield. I just couldn't wait to actually hold it never mind play it. I guess I was being a bit irrational. 

Grand Prix was an album I didn't pay much attention to until after I heard Songs From Northern Britain. So I didn't know at the time how good it really was. And it's a ripper. About You, Sparky's Dream. When you play the first side it's hard to turn the record over because you just want to hear it again. Brilliant.

And it's still exciting looking through records and finding something you always wanted or may not know you wanted. A few days ago a friend and I went over to the North record shopping. I came home with Jonathan Sings by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Love it.

Deja Vu by Crosby Stills Nash & Young 1970

 In 1970 I was doing a chemist round where I dropped off medicines and other things at people's houses. Sometimes I even had to carry big packs of nappies on the back of my bike. My other job was burning stuff in the incinerator out the back of the shop. This was good because I could listen to my transistor radio as I burned stuff. This is where I first started hearing songs from Crosby Stills and Nash who were all over the radio the previous year with Marakesh Express. But the track everyone talked about was Suite Baby Blue Eyes. A small epic. This is what pointed to the future of rock. They said. And then they added Neil Young to the mix.

So it was with great excitement we waited for the new album CSN & Y album. And when it was released it went straight to the top of the charts. And straight onto the turntables of just about everyone I knew. Even our English teacher at school brought the record in to play us Teach Your Children so we could discuss the lyrics. I had to have it but had that laborious wait after ordering it from the Australian Record Club. I think I bought it with the equally popular Sweet Baby James album by James Taylor. When it finally arrived I would sit listening to it in the spare bedroom while incense filled the air (Another new thing for me) Great album although I always lifted the needle when Almost Cut My Hair came on skipping to the next track,  In the end, I was drawn to the Neil Young tracks more and more especially Helpless. Gradually talk at school was about Neil Young and an album he put out called After The Goldrush. But then someone brought Everybody Knows This is Nowhere to school and blew our teenage minds. All these albums mixed in together to create that American vibe which kind of summed up 1970 for me.

I must admit though that I hadn't listened to the album since then. Though some of the tracks overstayed their welcome on the radio listening to the album once more it sounds quite amazing. They said it took 800 hours to make and with the attention to detail one could almost believe it. 

Cosmo's Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival 1970

 So I was in Form 3 (Year 9) at Box Hill High School hanging out by the taps in the Quadrangle when the windows of the Art Room on the second storey were opened by a bunch of older kids and then large speakers were placed on the ledge. The distinctive thud of the stylus hitting the vinyl and suddenly the schoolyard was filled with the screaming guitar of John Fogerty, Up Around The Bend. And so I was really introduced to the mighty sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

With the end of the Beatles Creedence kind of became the biggest band in the world for a short while. Well according to GO-SET. But indeed Cosmos Factory was everywhere in 1970. I knew they'd been around for a while. My big brother Tony would play Susie Q on his Marantz stereo real loud. He was living across the road from our house and those early Creedence albums were never far from the turntable. 

But Cosmos was another thing altogether. What you might call a crossover hit. Their fifth album in 2 years. The radio would play the whole 11-minute version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" My brother Steven would tell me how that was the time it took him to drive to his girlfriend's house. Door to door Grapevine on the radio.

A brilliant album that rounded off the sixties. A massive party album. And with songs like "Who'll Stop The Rain" and "Run Through The Jungle" not to mention that track that blasted the kids eating lunch at my old school, truly a classic album.

Parklife by Blur 1994

 In 1994 the Lizard Lounge was packing them in on both Thursday nights and on Saturday nights. Friday nights was certainly growing. The biggest groups were still the Smiths, The Stone Roses and the Pixies. But the music hadn't really changed too much since Nirvana released Smells Like Team Spirit. 

Then we heard this song called Boys and Girls from Blur. We had been playing their previous hit There's No Other Way but this was a whole new kettle of fish. Bright and poppy and with something of a disco groove. This was the beginning of the Britpop invasion. Just that opening few notes and the dance floor would be packed. Where the dance music before was touched by a hint of miserabilism now it was a thing of joy. Or maybe we couldn't appreciate the irony in the lyrics. 

The Parklife album became the new soundtrack to the mid-nineties which was full of colour, men's magazines and the Union Jack becoming fashionable once more. And using Phil Daniels from the Quadropheia film in the Parklife video was a great link to the Mod sixties and seventies. Of course, all this appealed to me because f the very Sixties London Swinging vibe that coloured the whole thing. This was an exciting scene and soon we had more bands like Supergrass, Sleeper and probably the best of them all Pulp. 

Britpop. A great time was had by all.

Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield 1973

 I was setting up a turntable the other day and looking for something to play in a bunch of old records and pulled this out. Talk about being transmitted back in time.

Back in 1973 I had taken over the biggest room in the house and turned it into my bedroom and a hangout. The walls were plastered with posters. The bulbs in all the light fittings had been replaced by coloured ones. I would come home from school and play records, read comics and just hang out. On Sunday nights I would catch the album show on the radio. One night they played the first side of Tubular Bells. I was transfixed. Just laid on the bed and closed my eyes and listened. Then Viv Stanshall said those two words. "Grand Piano" and it kind of blew my teenage mind.

The radio started playing the last side of side one a lot and you would hear Tubular Bells a lot. Especially when the movie "The Exorcist" was released as they used parts of Tubular Bells as the soundtrack. The Exorcist was also massive at the time. A friend of mine went to see it and couldn't sleep properly for two nights because it was so scary. So I put off seeing it until around 1975. They were playing it at lunchtime at the teacher's college I was at. Settled in the darkness to watch this big scary movie. Tubular Bells, footsteps on the ceiling, haunted looks. I was out of the theatre in 30 minutes. Too scary.

(I did watch it all the way through many years later.. great film)

Lovers by Sleepy Jackson 2003

Lovers by Sleepy Jackson came out in 2003 and it soundtracked a month of sunshine back in Elwood. And I still get a kick out of it when I play it now. A bit of George Harrison-type slide in the guitars doesn't hurt. Truly great songs. Must be something in the water in West Australia which gives the music light and bounce and total grooviness.

Again it was someone talking about the band that got me onto them. I think it was my mate Poz. When I heard the name I thought it might be just some country type album. It had those connotations. But then I got to hear This Day on the radio. I didn't know it was them but I knew I liked the song. So I had to wait through another one or two songs hoping that they would announce the artist. And there it was. Sleepy Jackson. I immediately jumped in the car and drove down to JB HiFi in Brighton which was kind of my first stop for music in those days. Bought the CD and put it in the car stereo and bang there was Good Dancers as the opening track and I knew this was going to be great. I took the long way home just so I could listen to the album. Ending up driving down Beach Road listening to Sleepy Jackson. Sunshine in a bottle.

Chelsea Girl by Nico 1967

 On first listen to the Velvet Underground and hearing Nico's voice I was quite on the side of those who would say what is she doing on the record. Then again the song on the end whose name I forgot and which probably came from John Cale's head wasn't a bag of fun either. But as I listened more and more to the album the off-key singing of this beautiful Germanic model made sense. But there was no way I would buy her solo album. That much I couldn't take. So for years, all I heard were the Velvet Underground songs. 

In the 80s I did go to see her play live at the Jump Club in Collingwood. It was really a horrible night and because I didn't pay to get in I didn't have that investment in trying to enjoy the show and spent most of the night upstairs drinking.

But a few years back I saw "The Royal Tennenbaums" a film by Wes Anderson, whose vision I find simply brilliant. I was addicted to watching his earlier film "Rushmore " on DVD for ages. Same with each film he brought out. One of the best things about his films is his use of music. To me, he is the master of putting songs to scenes. And digging up slightly off centre songs by big artists. So it was that I heard "These Days" and was knocked out. Together with "Fairest of The Seasons" (both songs written by Jackson Browne) I got quite hooked on listening to these terribly depressing Nico songs. But at the same time not depressing. Just a different world. Then I bought the Chelsea Girl album at first because of those songs and secondly because of the great cover. I found much to love about this album but I had to play it at the right time. But I guess that's like a lot of albums. They sound better at certain times of the day.

Guitar Romantic by The Exploding Hearts 2003

 So what am I listening to now? One of the great things is finding rock bands and music that you missed when they were around. Even better when you find records that you can't take off the turntable and soundtrack weeks or months of your life. Guitar Romantic got stuck on my turntable a few weeks ago and is fighting off all comers. It is also reconnecting me to some of the pop-punk bands I haven't listened to for a while like Generation X.

I had been hearing the name Exploding Hearts ever since I went on my first trip to Japan a few years back. I also saw their name on radio song lists and quite possibly heard their records played inside a mix of great other songs. But as I was online shopping about a month ago their album popped up on eBay when I was looking for something else. Something about the algorithms innate in the system does that. Sometimes they are annoying. This time they struck gold. 

I thought I would give them a listen and jumped on Spotify to check them out. The songs blew a hole in my computer speakers. They reminded me of all those singles I was into in 1979 like The Boys, The Jam and the tracks on the Powerpearls series of records. Next thing I was blasting them out of the car stereo and ordering the vinyl.

I looked them up I found that sadly almost all the band died in a car crash not long after this record was released. This is their only studio album. And it's brilliant!

Shake Some Action by The Flamin' Groovies 1976

 It began with the song "Shake some Action'. In 1978 Wednesday nights at the Tiger Lounge in Richmond was the place to be. It started off with the Keith Glass band or KGB having a residency and inviting some of the new punk bands like the Boys Next Doors to support. This was one of the few places we got to see all the new bands and it was pretty exciting waiting to see who would turn up as the scene grew. Not just bands but punters too, Eventually Keith's band finished their residency and Laurie Richards began running something similar called the Beat Club with a poster that copied the early Who Marquee posters from the sixties. All the punk bands played there. For some reason The Fiction never did.

With KGB we went for the punk bands but we stayed for Keith Glass cos he had a great rocking band and we were not that far along the path that we had outgrown our Pub rock roots. The Sports were still popular as one the early Jo Jo Zep. The one song that stood out in Keith's set was "Shake Some Action" I had to find a copy. 

I couldn't find the song anywhere until they released a punk compilation with some guy spitting beer at the camera. (Actually, there were a lot of great tracks on the album) It kind of satisfied me until I started hearing about the album. With the same title as it's prime cut.

Luckily I stumbled upon a second-hand copy in the basement of a record store in the city. Still can't recall the name of the shop. The record was in that delicious thick cardboard the Americans use. The song's parent album was fantastic with the Groovies really digging into their sixties roots and playing a cross between the Beatles and the Stones. A strange way to go in the era of punk but just great to listen to and it became a source of inspiration as my band moved into Mod and power pop. Shake Some Action was on constant rotation at my place. And it is still a regular on my turntable after 40 years.

Debut by Bjork 1993

 

I saw Bjork at the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre on March 12 1996. It was right up there with the best concerts I'd ever seen. And although her albums were full of beats and lots of club atmosphere she replaced strings with an accordion (the band was also very simple) and just let the songs and her fantastic voice do their work. My attention was glued to the stage. My mind didn't wander once. Those songs on Debut sounded better plus she had the new songs from Post which had just come out. It was also the only night I've ever taken a pair of binoculars to a gig. And they were good ones so they brought me up real close. Unfortunately, I've never taken to another gig. Maybe they made me too conspicuous. Oh, and I was on the side so I came away with a bit of a sore neck. But while the music played and Bjork just glowed I didn't notice.

Bjork was previosly the lead singer of the Sugarcubes who I found a bit hit and miss. When they were good thery were very good but they could also be qnnoying. Mainly the squawks of the other singer in the band. Debut was all Bjork and much the better for it. We had a huge poster of the album cover on the Lizard Lounge wall however we played only a few of the songs off the album and they didn't become crowd favourites. There was always they risk that it would clear the dance floor.

So Debut became an album I played a lot at home. I was totally enamoured with her voice. And it's a brilliant album as were her next two.

Abattoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2004

 Back in 1977 the first Melbourne punk band I ever saw was The Boys Next Door playing some church hall in Ashburton in the Eastern Suburbs. I was forming The Fiction with Rob Wellington and he knew them and took me along. It was riveting. Nick Cave had something special as soon as he walked on stage. And everyone there knew it. And gradually the whole of Melbourne seemed to fall under his spell. And a sizeable proportion of the alternative rock world later. The Fiction would play gigs with the Boys Next Door as would Little Murders a bit later. I rated The Boys Next Door the best band in Melbourne and I would go and see them any chance I got when my band wasn't playing. 

But I didn't get into the records. Birthday Party or early Nick Cave (though I did think Release The Bats was fantastic) I guess I was out there being a mod, playing power pop or DJing in sixties discos. It was later when I started DJing alternative clubs that tracks like Deanna packed the dance floors. Or I would go round friends' places and they would be singing along with the Mercy Seat in a mildly demented way. Then I started listening to the albums.

And he made some great records. But it was this one that knocked my socks off. (though thinking back now the best-of album was brilliant too) This was like a best-of album made up of totally new songs. And it refused to leave the turntable (or CD deck) for ages. One of the few great double albums. Brilliant!

(on a footnote to double albums.. it seems a lot of those CD albums we bought on the 90s are coming out on vinyl because of their length but I don't see those as intentional doubles)

Eternally Yours by the Saints 1978

I'm Stranded was an adrenaline rush of a single but I never rated the first album very highly at the time. I was more into the sounds of the Clash & the Jam. In hindsight, I can appreciate it a lot more now. However, Eternally Yours was a blinder from its first song. This Perfect Day. But even that didn't prepare me for the sonic brilliance of Know Your Product. And the horns!

I first heard The Saints just outside the Balwyn Swimming pool in 77. The DJ was talking about an Australian band that had been picked up by EMI UK as a punk band. I pulled the car over to listen. The record was Stranded and it was brilliant.

We heard they were going to play a short tour of Melbourne before leaving for England. So we went to see them at Martini's in Carlton which was kind of a hotel/ pizza parlour that had bands on. There were only about 15 people there. The only person I recognized was David Pepperoll who owned Archie and Jughead’s Record Shop which later became Missing Link.

When the Saints came on Chris Bailey refused to go anywhere near the front of the stage preferring to keep himself behind the huge PA speakers. The sound was great but of course, there was not much action onstage. Pepperoll kept calling out for Chris Bailey to come out. He never did.

After the show, the band talked to us. They made it plain that they couldn’t wait to get out of this country.

They went to the UK and made this brilliant album.

Sunny Boys 1981

 The first time I came across the Sunnyboys was at a party I went to on Little Murders first tour of Sydney. They were kicking the crap out of one of those old-school lockers. Together. I don't know if they were trying to get into it or what. But because they looked similar I thought straight away they were a band. This was confirmed by our manager who told me that this was the Sunnyboys and we were supporting them the next night.

On stage, they were electrifying. I mean, they rocked. Great songs, great guitars, solid rhythm. They liked us and they offered us other supports and so we found ourselves in an NSW RSL in god knows where playing to over 1000 rabid Sunnyboys fans. I couldn't get over how good they sounded. And how popular they were. And a lovely bunch of guys to boot.

I bought their first EP when I got back into town. Brought it back to Melbourne and played it to everyone. But Melbourne was ahead of me. The name Sunnyboys was already doing the rounds of the tastemakers. Mushroom Records even left Melbourne to go and sign this Sydney band which was big news at the time.

The result was this brilliant album. When it first came out we supported them at the Crystal Ballroom. Now that was a wild night! Then we did a number of supports with them all over the Melbourne suburbs.  

In September 1982 Little Murders supported the Sunny Boys at the Commodore Hotel in Sandringham. The place was packed. It was a hot night and everyone looked like they had just come from the beach. I had a spirited discussion about the words to Australian Crawl's "Beautiful People" with Mick Barclay's girlfriend Sandra. James Reyne's style of singing did leave him open for interpretation.

I've seen the Sunny Boys in recent years and they've still got it! Now just waiting for the next support!

Pin-Ups by David Bowie 1973

 I was thinking about this album the other day and how I often make light of it. A lot of bad cover versions of great sixties songs. But then I found one of my old diaries and there was me as a young teenager raving over Bowie's Pin-Ups. Of course time had altered my opinion of the record because eventually I got to hear all the real versions. I mean when the album came out I didn't have a clue who the Pretty Things were. When I did get to hear the originals was the time I started playing in bands, collecting records and on my way to becoming a Mod about time. So I dismissed Pin Ups as a folly.

But at the time it came out I was in love with the record. I would sit in the front room of my house in Blackburn South with the Christmas lights stuck to the walls and the photos of my Glam heroes on the wall just digging this album. If anything Bowie was leading me towards Sixties music with an edge. That I would eventually have all the original singles is proof of that.

Then there was Sorrow which was a massive hit single in Australia. It was always on the radio. First time I heard it was standing outside Batman Records in Swanston Street. I used to spend school holidays travelling around Melbourne by myself checking out movies and record shops. I loved it. 

A few days ago I went back and listened to Pin Ups once more. And it's brilliant!

Different Class by Pulp 1995

 

In 1995 in Pop Music all we heard about was the battle in the UK charts between Blur and Oasis. In the end neither of the singles they released were much cop. Blur's single was a bit on the nose and a little too jolly for the Lizard and Oasis seemed to have moved from their Beatles influences to Status Quo. Britpop was less fireworks on the bridge and more sparklers in the backyard.

However the one album that seemed to really stand out and transcended all the hype was Different Class by Pulp which along with their single Common People really stood out as the zenith of all things Britpop. Everyone else was a little too earnest. A little too self conscious in their posing and posturing. Jarvis Cocker was telling a different story. 

Common People was a big track down at the Lizard as was Sorted For Es and Whizz however the one that ended up filling the dancefloor was Disco 2000. The opening riff straight from Laura Branigan's 1982 hit Gloria brought everyone on to the dance floor. and everyone sung along. One of those songs where everone knew the words.

In 1998 Pulp came to Melbourne to play at Festival Hall. Most the Lizard people were there for Jarvis and the boys to play their hits. However when the encores were over and the lights went up we looked at each other in amazement. They didn't play Disco 2000. Did they forget? What the hell was going on? Surely they weren't sick of it.? It's a topic that still perplexes my friend who were there with me.

Thinking back though it was 3 years after the release of that record. It was the end of Britop for many. Maybe they just moved on. it seemes we would have to wait until 2011 to hear it live. I missed that gig though.

Raw Power by Iggy Pop 1973

 There was a pub in Daylesford called the Royal Hotel that would put The Fiction and Little Murders on regularly on a Saturday night. At one stage the owner of the pub told us the two biggest bands in Daylesford were Little Murders and Men at Work. Same thing at the Market Hotel in Prahran.

When we played there the band would get rooms upstairs. We would arrive late in the afternoon and I would start on the brandy and dry straight away. That was my drink of choice before gigs. We played a lot in winter so it would be a few drinks while setting up then a pub meal followed by the first of three sets. The room we played in had a bucket with mirrors glued to it hanging off the ceiling. DIY mirrorball. The punters danced underneath and I often envisaged mayhem if it ever fell down with the ragged shards of glass penetrating skin and muscle.

On our first gig in 1978  a girl flying too close to the wind and breathing scotch and coke into my face came up real close and said "Play "Search and Destroy" She kept doing this all night to my face. In between sets. 

Search and destroy is of course the opening song to "Raw Power' my favourite of the Stooges albums. Maybe it was because it was produced by Bowie. Maybe because some of the songs were just so raw and majestic. After picking up the album I quickly put it onto the cassette so I could play it in my car. This was Saturday night music. Pre-gig warm-up.

As for Search and Destroy I would never be able to pull that off. I saw Radio Birdman play it at the Tiger Room and it crashed the place. I knew my path was going to be a little different.

Radio City by Big Star 1974

 In the early 90s, I was living in the first house I ever bought. Well, there have only been two. I bought a house in John Street in Elwood next to the canal. Great place and a great walk to the beach. At first, I didn't particularly want to live there alone. So I got my old bandmate Rod Hayward in to share the place with me.

I met Rod back in 1982 when the third version of Little Murders broke up after a tour of Sydney. Rod came from the band the Pete Best Beatles who I loved to go and see. Bit of a comedy cabaret band, At the same time, we got Mick Barclay (Japanese Comix) on drums and Chris Hunter (Cuban Heels) on bass. The 1982-1985 Murder line-up was magic from the word go.

With the eventual breakup in 1985, Rod went back to the Pete Best Beatles for a while before joining Dave Grayney's band (White Buffaloes and Coral Snakes) and from there to overseas tours and gold records. That's his wonderful guitar work on Dave's track "You're Just Too Hip, Baby" From there to Lisa Miller and back to Little Murders for the last 20 years. He is the guitar man.

But going back to 1991 when Rod moved in he brought along a double CD of Big Star which was the first two albums. I had never really listened to them before or if I did I had only heard bits and pieces and their "hits". So this was a revelation. We'd sit and play chess, drink beer and listen to Big Star. Songs would leap out of the speakers. September Gurls, I'm in Love with a Girl, Back of My Car. I could have put down their first album too but Radio City seems to be the one I go to first when listening to Big Star.

Bryter Later by Nick Drake 1970

 The music of Nick Drake kind of seeped into my world bit by bit and song by song over the years. Either by compilations or movie soundtracks or journalists writing pieces about his work. But it was a recording of Northern Sky by Anna Burley of the Killjoys that really piqued my interest and got me to buy this album, Anna's version is brilliant and I'm still playing her recording God knows how many years since my friend and producer Craig Pilkington passed it onto me. I've been working with Craig and Audrey Studios since the mid-90s and Anna has sung on every Little Murders album since "We Should Be Home By Now". Hers is the voice that probably makes my voice on our albums a little more bearable to listen to. Especially when she is joined by some of the other great voices that I surround myself with. Bruce Minty, Mick Barclay and Chirpy to name a few. Craig is no slouch in the vocal department too.

So I bought Bryter Later and loved the atmosphere Nick Drake creates. Very English Autumn weather, the music and the imagery combining to place me in some other place and time. Sitting indoors while the sky drizzles down the outside window. I bought both his other albums. He only made three before dying in 1974. They are all great albums.

Northern Sky is still my favourite Nick Drake song. On the original, there is this kind of folk-pop breakdown at the halfway mark where the piano just lifts the song. It has this emotional impact that gets me every time. 

Tea For The Tillerman by Cat Stevens 1970

 

I was in Form 3 at Box Hill High School in 1970. I was besotted by records and sometimes I would talk about records I wanted as if I really owned them. Such was the case with Tea For The Tillerman by Cat Stevens. I had looked at the back cover in the record store so many times that I knew all the songs in order which helped in my subterfuge. When my friends at school talked about it I knew the song order on both sides. For a long time, I knew a lot of song orders of records. I used to take a lot of pride in knowing that.

I couldn’t swim so that year for a sport I was sent to a swimming pool just off Elgar Road in Box Hill North. I was going to get my Herald Swimming Certificate. After a number of weeks, I managed to swim the distance and collect my certificate. To tell the truth, my foot touched the floor as I was swimming but I wasn’t caught. 

I had to ride my bike from school to the centre. On the last week of the course I was speeding down Elgar Road when I hit a pothole and me and my bike hit the ground. There was a bus behind me that kept going so I was basically run over by a bus. Well, a little. I was 14. I wasn’t frazzled. I looked up to see the undercarriage of the bus. I dragged myself and the bike out from under the bus told the passengers who had come out to see me that I was alright and went onto the pool. And got my Herald Certificate. 

When I got home Tea For the Tillerman was on my bed in a brown paper bag. My mum knew how much I wanted it and had bought it for me that day. I didn’t tell her that day about being run over by a bus. Not even sure I told her about the Herald Swimming Certificate. I played that record until it was worn out. 

20 years later I’m in a rented Peugeot driving across the former East German border and Tea for The Tillerman was the only cassette we had. Still sounded good.

Daddy Who? Daddy Cool by Daddy Cool 1971

 In 1971 I was 15 years old. The big thing to do on a Sunday afternoon was to go to Ringwood Iceland Ice Skating Rink which meant a bus ride to Laburnum Station followed by a train ride to Heatherdale Station which was the closest to Iceland.

I tried to look as good as I could at that age making sure my jeans weren’t ironed and I didn’t have sweat stains under my armpits. I was fond of a pink shirt I used to wear. My friends and I would go round and round to the latest pop hits. One afternoon I went down onto the icy layer of water and the dye on my jeans bled into the shirt so that was the end of the pink shirt/blue jeans look.

The aim was to get a girl to hold your hand as you circled the rink. Preferably one that wouldn’t fall over and bring you down with her. We all heard stories of the poor kid who fell over and had their fingers sliced off by a speed skater.

One day someone did hold my hand. And we skated together for ages. And she lived somewhere near me. So her friends and my friends caught the train to Laburnum and then walked all the way up Middlesborough Road to the garage on the corner of my street. There was a phone booth on Fulton Road and we stood together in the small space and I showed her how you could ring a number that played the hit of the week. That week it was “Come Back Again” by Daddy Cool. It was like a summer day and started to get warm inside that small space. We stepped out and she told me she had to go and so she and her friends walked off. My friends went back to their side of Middlesborough Road. It was a perfect day. I never saw her again. I always looked out for her in Iceland but to no avail. 

And the Daddy Cool record was playing everywhere I went. And it sounded so good on the transistor radio.

Marquee Moon by Television 1977

 In the midst of what could be termed a punk rock explosion in the UK landed this incendiary record. And the fact that the album is still a favourite talking point for guitarists over 40 years later sustains it's recognition as a classic album.

In the seventies I treated my weekly copies of NME like a bible. Yes, it was already 2 months old before it got to my local newsagent but I would read it from cover to cover. Looking for clues about what was the best music out there. Often records would be bought without ever hearing what they sounded like. None of this punk rock was on the radio. There was no Spotify. There was only print. Or word of mouth. Or we went into the record store and asked the guy behind the counter to play it for us. After reading about it.  We trusted the journalists to describe what was on the piece of plastic. 

So I would buy The Ramone's first album because the reviewer compared it to the sound of jackhammers on a New York Street.

Marquee Moon was reviewed by Nick Kent in the NME. It was a two-page spread. And it sold the record to me. Actually, I would more often than not buy a record if Nick Kent recommended it. He was uber cool.  Maybe because of the time delay of when we got these magazines but often the records would be in the shop when you read about them. So I was on my bicycle to Box Hill and home within the hour with the LP. And it was almost as Nick described it. Especially the sprawling title track. A lot different to what had been coming out of the UK. 

It was great. And with all the great records, the first thing I wanted to do was get some friends around to listen to it.