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.