Hard News: Friday Music: The Wizards of Oz Rock
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This is day-appropriate, and appears to be an actual live performance!
Thanks for the shout out for Aotearoa Futurism, it is a goodie.
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The sale in the old Real Groovy store is nuts. Some of the $2 singles (much dross, a few gems) and a rare NZ compilation I got for $3.
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You could compare the Go Betweens and The Triffids, Paul Kelly etc to the Flying Nun bands to be fair, rather than the bogan legends. There was so much going on courtesy of a booming local 45s market and some really aggressive booking agencies.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
You could compare the Go Betweens and The Triffids, Paul Kelly etc to the Flying Nun bands to be fair, rather than the bogan legends.
Oh, for sure. The Church and others too.
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Also, the size of the market in Australia was such that a commercial rawk band would make enough money to guarantee its members a rock and roll lifestyle (even if, for some, it degenerated after 30 years into snorting crack with low budget hookers in Tauranga).
Which meant that if one was an Aussie musician, one might do the big rawk commercial thing to chase the dollars. NZers, having pretty much no chance of wealth and fame, were "free" to be more experimental and original.
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Ah, memories…
A The Church short ‘The Quest’ with a wandering knight 2 or 3 of their songs played before it if memory serves.Very much appreciated the K Rd Metro article Russell.
First time I’ve bought the magazine in donkey yonks. -
Cheese on Toast has the details for watching Lemmy’s funeral service from 11am on Sunday morning.
And you can help the petition for one of the new elements to be named Lemmium get to 150,000 names. It's well on the way.
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Surely Lëmmiüm with the metal umlauts, which also correspond dot-for-dot with the 5 outer shell electrons of element 115.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Very much appreciated the K Rd Metro article Russell.
First time I’ve bought the magazine in donkey yonks.Cheers Tim. Everyone seems to like it except Paul Reid.
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Pete McDowell, in reply to
I don't think anyone was making a lot of money out of Australian pub rock except Gudinski, Chugg, Stivala, in the agencies.
There are other studios like AAV and Richmond Recorders with big stories to tell. -
It seems appropriate to remind you of what was happening in fringe Brisbane at the same time. If AC/DC set a hard rock template that a million bands took up, in 1976, a bunch of snotty kids helped invent punk rock with this timeless debut single:
Did The Saints risk arrest from the then-ruling Sir Joh administration, by chance?
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And funnily enough, NZ was the only place where Jo Jo Zep's version of "Walk On By" hit the Top 10.
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
I wish him (John Wright) well but the road could be a tough one, as suggested in this Guardian article:
New elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist
Quite what category Lemmy would fit in (!!)...anyhow in a more rigorous article in Chemistry World, Lemmy has better leverage:
discoverers do not have an automatic right to choose a name
So on that count, as he was spending far more time on stages and in studios than in laboratories, Lemmy getting the nod for Lemmium has as good a chance as any!
Oh, and for the hell of it, here's Tom Lehrer in his element...
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
Not sure, they may have done. The Dead Kennedys who visited Australia in 1983 certainly did. Drummer DH Peligro was arrested after their Brisbane gig for 'public drinking', his can of beer reportedly unopened. East Bay Ray tried to intervene and was hustled away too. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Jello Biafra had this to say:
summing up Brisbane, all I can say is it was the closest thing to a heavy, heavy, junta-style police state I've ever been in
There's more on the tour in this which I came across on Rest Assured - includes a lengthy analysis by Jello himself on the then Oz music scene. Worth a look.
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Grate expectorations...
It was an environment that chewed up and spat out Toy Love...
I don't think that's quite true.
Toy Love left Australia (well Sydney) to tour NZ with every intention of going back and building on the following that had been steadily built up. They did every gig asked of them unflinchingly. Played the silly games when necessary, the tiny pubs, the big surf suburb barns, RSL clubs and cast pearls before wine bars...
If anything it was the cynical NZ tour experience that masticated and expectorated their spirit. -
Rich Lock, in reply to
And you can help the petition for one of the new elements to be named Lemmium
Since the element in question is a heavy metal, and Lemmy consistently insisted that he just played rock 'n' roll, I'm refusing to sign on principle....
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Russell Brown, in reply to
There’s more on the tour in this which I came across on Rest Assured – includes a lengthy analysis by Jello himself on the then Oz music scene. Worth a look.
It's also covered well in last year's Stranded documentary, which loses its way somewhat when it gets on to a survey of Brisbane music (a lot of which wasn't that good) but is compelling on the political and social environment of 1970s Queensland.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I don’t think that’s quite true.
Toy Love left Australia (well Sydney) to tour NZ with every intention of going back and building on the following that had been steadily built up. They did every gig asked of them unflinchingly. Played the silly games when necessary, the tiny pubs, the big surf suburb barns, RSL clubs and cast pearls before wine bars…Fair enough. I just recall the received truth from Chris that the whole thing was pretty evil.
I was going to mention INXS as another band that didn't fit the pub mould. The early friendship between them and Toy Love makes more sense in that context.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Dungafferin Estates...
...the received truth from Chris that the whole thing was pretty evil.
I was going to mention INXS as another band that didn’t fit the pub mould. The early friendship between them and Toy Love...Oh, it was 'pretty evil' all right, old school and neanderthal... mostly a mere stagger from a mid '50s zeitgeist.
They're a weird mob, indeed, Australians...I wouldn't go so far as saying there was a 'friendship' between INXS and Toy Love, the road crews got on well enough, they double-billed / supported them often - same record company, management company and booking company - though I don't remember any barbies with the boys... then again wine was very cheap over there... I may have missed things... Not privy to any dressing room banter, when and if there were dressing rooms...
working I was ...
ever vigilant...
<cough>
Don't just sit there
gaffer something!
<cough>
that's me..
</cough>... nurse?
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This is interesting. Nielsen has released figures on 2015 US consumer spending on music – and 52% of it was on live music events.
And that's not even accounting for merchandise et al.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I wouldn’t go so far as saying there was a ‘friendship’ between INXS and Toy Love
You may be right (as usual). I just seem to recall something about Chris and Michael Hutchence getting on well.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Don’t just sit there
gaffer something!Ah yes. Back when gaffer tape was a precious traceable commodity – as well as a universal panacea.
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I am possibly the sole proponent of a theory that Cold Chisel were the equivalent of the Smiths - by chronicling the teenage experience of growing up in Australia.
Don Walker is certainly an under-rated songwriter.
They sounded better with Ian Moss' soulful voice: The Party's Over or Misfits -
“I don’t drink milk. And I never will. You arseholes.”
An out-take from a Finnish milk commercial shot a month or so ago.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Sorry Imran520 I'm NOT following that link - I think you are spam!
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