Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Coyle and The Commotions 1984

As Little Murders were winding down after some bad decisions and basically just getting worn out after constant gigging for six years (up to 5 times a week) I had more time to DJ at friend's clubs and generally just go out. After playing so much it wasn't that easy. I DJed at the Venetian Room now and again. An upstairs club run by Ronny and Michael in the city. The Church played there. so did the Go-Betweens. Actually some really great bands played there.
Anyway I had moved to the other side of town and was living in St. Kilda. Upstairs flat. Starting thinking about where I lived. My flat in Fitzroy looked like a teenagers bedroom. Rock posters everywhere. Records everywhere. I guess it was time to grow up a bit. Went down to Ikea and bought some furniture. Framed a few posters or picked them up from the art gallery. Lamps . A bit of art deco.
And a bit of Lloyd Cole and Rattlesnakes. There was something a bit Warholian about this record. Pop culture was all over this record. Also it had a retro feel with it's references to On The Waterfront and Eve Marie Saint.
The first song that I really got into was Forest Fire. Probably because I read about it first. I liked the allusions to love and fire. so I bought the record. The rest of the record turned out to be just as great.

n 1980 the Mod scene in Melbourne was really taking off. We had our own nightclub "Kommotion" at the Prince Alfred in Richmond. Our numbers were growing. We had Mod singles to play by bands like Secret Affair and Purple hearts. We had the ska bands and then along came Dexys. And Geno. Geno was a big hit in Australia. But to a lot of people, it was a novelty hit. For us, it was a back door into Northern soul and Stax and more soul. Especially through the track, Seven Days is Too Long, a Northern Soul Anthem. It basically got everyone digging a little bit deeper into those record crates at the fairs and markets. I began exploring the Northern Soul scene. Up until then, I hadn't realised that those nights at the Highland Room at the Mecca in Blackpool back in the mid-seventies were already on their way to becoming legendary. Little Murders started dropping soul covers into the setlist. Songs like "Right Back Where We Started From" by Maxine Nightingale and Stand by Me.

Blue-eyed soul Kevin Rowland called it. And it was great. Beginning with Burn It Down and the sound of a radio being tuned in (with snatches of Sex Pistols and Deep purple) we would listen to the album in one go. It was a record everyone I knew was getting into. 1980 was turning out to be a brilliant year.

Plastic Ono Band/John Lennon 1970

A Beatles obsessive just as they broke up I became fixated on John Lennon. My first rock and roll hero. My first bought poster. A picture of John in 'How I Won the War' ordained my wall by itself. I took down everything else. This was the first album I actually bought with my own money. Mum thought there was a bit too much shouting and screaming on it. It was censored with all the F words taken out of "Working Class Hero" ) A song I covered during my folk-rock stage. Didn't go down to well at the Gardenvale Pizza Parlour.

With all the brothers leaving home to get married I had a bedroom and a music listening room. I bought incense and locked myself away for hours listening to the Beatles and John Lennon. I pored over the lyrics that came with the album. This was John in his primal scream phase. The lyrics were dark. The melodies were denser and at times didn't exist at all. The guitar in places was almost punk.

I continued buying his albums faithfully although gradually his albums got worse and worse.

It was a horrible day when he got shot. Horrible.

I went to the memorial in the city at the old City Square. Vic and I went. It was pretty big. His death affected a lot of people all around the world. The end of a dream.

Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub 1991

1991 was a great year for music and I'm not even mentioning Nirvana. I was in England when Star Sign came out and it just blew me away. I still have the 7 inches I bought in Virgin London. Oxford street branch if I remember well. I had to wait until later in the year before I could get my hands on Bandwagonesque. And it didn't let me down. It reminded me of Big Star and Badfinger and all those guitar bands from the Seventies but it was very much a current album. looking backwards but zooming forward.
The moment I realised it was a stone-cold classic was sitting outside the garage on the corner of St. Kilda road and Alma road. I stopped the car for petrol but I couldn't get out because The Concept was playing. It was so good I wanted to keep driving and listen to the album.
So I drove to the Lizard lounge and filled my car with petrol on one of my breaks. Superb!

Is this the best Power pop album of the 90s? It surely is a contender and at the moment I can't think of anything better.
I was shopping in JB HiFI for CDs when the cover of this album just grabbed me. Sometimes you see a cover and just know the record inside is going to be good. And it was. Guitars, harmonies and great melodys with plenty of muscle plus a touch of sweetness. This was my kind of album. Girlfriend started to get radio play and we started playing the track at the Lizard Lounge.
My personal favourite was I've Been Waiting. I copied the album onto a cassette tape and played it in the car incessantly.
Matthew Sweet came to Melbourne on tour. He played the Collingwood Town Hall. In his band was Richard Lloyd from Television. It was loud. very loud. I ran into Paul Thomas who was in Weddings Parties Anything at the time. (later he would join Little Murders for one album) He told me the Weddoes were about to release a single and the B-side was my song Things Will Be Different. How cool!  It was on the single Monday's Experts. Mick Thomas had asked for the words quite a time before so I was always wondering what his plans for it were. My mates would go to WPA gigs and hear my song and tell me they heard Things being played.
I continued buying Matthew Sweet records. Altered Beast and 100% Fun were great albums too. And he's lately made some cool albums with Susannah Hoffs. covering other peoples work.

Oranges and Lemons by XTC 1989

Through 79 until 89 I was sporadically interested in XTC buying their singles and albums. liking them..getting bored with them but when this album came out I realised what a magical band they were and just how good their whole catalogue was . sometimes it takes one album to put a band's output into perspective and this one did it for me. Although I still skipped tracks (and this was a double album) most of it was wonderful and seemed to match the sunlight that streamed through the windows in my small house in Elwood. From the moment I heard Mayor of Simpleton I was hooked. I went back through their old music and looked forward to their creative spurts. they were English and a bit sixties and psychedelic. They just made 1989 for me. The best way to get over the eighties which although had it's fair share of brilliant music had a lot of ear burning rubbish. Thank God for XTC.

Mott by Mott The Hoople 1973

Being a massive Bowie fan there's no way I wasn't going to seek out Mott The Hoople. Bowie had written All The Young Dudes for them and produced their first Glam album. Later I would find all their older releases. However this was the first Mott album I bought because it was in the Australian Record Club catalogue. 

Storming through All The Way From Memphis I was instantly hooked. I became a bit fixated on Ian Hunter and let my hair grow into the style you see on the cover. Plus I wore dark shades and wore black. I'd listen to this in my record room in Blackburn South alternating it with Bowie and T.Rex. When I went to the movies and saw Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore I was so excited when they opened the movie with Memphis. 

My mate Alan Barnard who became our first sound engineer and roadie was also big on Mott and was always the first to dig up their other releases. I liked the one-upmanship where it was a race to see who could dig up the most obscure release by a favored artist. I got the Guy Stevens produced Mad Capers from Monash. actually I think all my Mott albums except this are American cut outs.