Wide Open Road

One of the difficulties of being an incurable record collector is that there really isn’t an end to it. A collection is never finished, just abandoned. One of the difficulties of collecting Aussie records is that the bastards keep reissuing them, hence making you either want to find things you didn’t even know about, or decrease the worth of what you did. Let’s complicate the matter further; I live in London, nowhere near a good Aussie record store, with amazon and the internet, but still it’s a regular thing to spend hours going through all the labels and sites to find what is being reissued, only to find that an obscure Japanese label has reissued the complete back catalogue of the Victims on limited edition vinyl which sold out weeks ago.

So, with that in mind 2012-6 kicks off with three tracks from the recent Church re-issues featuring a host of b-sides and bonus tracks. Easy choice with ‘The Unguarded Moment’ to start from Of Skins and Hearts, ‘Electric Lash’ from Seance (for Xiola Blue who got me into this song in the first place) and finishing with ‘When you were Mine’ from Blurred Crusade. Next we come to the aforementioned Victims, a punk band from Perth in 70s featuring one D.Faulkner and James Baker later of the Hoodoo Gurus. Three songs from their extensive discography(!) all about TV, ‘TV Freak’, followed by Telethon Song and the very legendary ‘Television Addict’, with lyrics very much of their time. We round this set out with the original 7” version of the Hoodoo Gurus ‘Leilani’ which has just be reissued on the Greatest Hits compilation (what ever happened to the Electric Soup compile?).

Johanna Piggot was the lead singer of the amazing XL Capri’s (who have been featured on the show twice already). She put a band together in 1986 with Todd Hunter and future Church drummer Tim Powles called Scribble releasing one album and this single ‘Don’t give your heart away’. Three tracks follow all written by j.piggot for the almost-mythical ABC series Sweet and Sour reissued recently on CD. All bar one is from the stupidly rare Sweet and Sour vol 2 soundtrack which sold nowhere near the quantities of the first. Where is the DVD aunty, eh?

This song has been lauded in so many places as being one of the greatest Australian songs ever, but its only when you listen really closely that you hear why, ‘Quasimodo’s Dream’ was released in 1981 by Dubbo’s own ‘’The Reels”. We follow this up with piece of frivolity from Melbourne’s incredibly strange ‘The Shower scene from Psycho’ which I first heard on a JJJ ‘Cooking with George’ compile in 1985. They are hear covering the Mentals track, ‘The Nips are getting Bigger’ recently resiisued by OMNI recordings. Also from a very early era in my Aus listening comes ‘Date with a Vampyre’ by the Screaming Tribesmen. A band I managed in 1986/87 called ‘Dark Shades’ covered this amongst the various Van Halen, Angels and Led Zep covers. We didn’t conquer the earth, or Sydney, or even Dundas, but I still have memories of screaming ‘Take a long line’ by the Angels at the top of my lungs during a rehearsal standing in for the singer! I suspect the neighbour’s memories are even longer and more traumatic. Moving on. A live take on ‘Didn’t tell the man’ from the Hitmen reissue ‘Tora! Tora! Tora! DTK’ and the Visitors riding the ‘Haunted Road’ off their reissue of their one and only album. Try and link Masuak to Kannis to Tek. Easiest 20p ever. We finish the set with an absolutely brilliant piece of spoken word from Aerial Maps. There is something about Adam Gibson’s poetry that evokes a time, a place and a memory. This track is especially brilliant because on the greyest of grey days, drizzling large drops of rain as it is today, you can still remember why you left Sydney and moved to London in the first place…London still exists. ‘til next time. Peter

PS: Apologies for the numbering error – this is definitely Show 6
The Unguarded Moment – The Church
Electric Lash – The Church
When you were mine – The Church
T.V Freak – The Victims
Telethon Song – The Victims
Television Addict – The Victims
Leilani – Hoodoo Gurus
Don’t Give your Heart away – Scribble
I’m a Genius – The Takeaways
Can’t Imagine (Sweet and Sour) – The Takeaways
Sweet – The Takeaways
Quasimodos Dream – The Reels
The Nips are getting Bigger – The Shower Scene from Psycho
Date with a Vampyre – Screaming Tribesmen
Didn’t tell the Man (LIve) – Hitmen
Haunted Road – Vistors
London Still Exists – Aerial Maps

The Hitmen on COUNTDOWN – Listening to the screaming girls all for Johnny Kannis!

1992. I was living the dream working in a bookshop, earning bucketloads of casual dosh. I was spending it all on music, beer and train tickets every day into the city and nightride buses all the way back to the suburbs of Sydney. In celebration of music that is now 20 years old (I know!) this week’s podcast is all about 1992. Let’s start with three great female fronted bands of the early 90s. The Falling Joys originally from Canberra launched their second album ‘Psychohum’ with this piece of contemporary political agitation (Black Bandages), we follow that with ‘Say it’ from the Octopus mini-album by the Clouds, then the Australian Catherine Wheel with ‘Reach’ off the Self Portrait EP and finally we end with ‘Winters Tale’ by the Joys featuring Jodi and Trish from the Clouds on back-up.

The next set is linked by the mighty Waterfront records, which along with the shop of the same name were critical to the Sydney indie scene. Wollongong’s Tumbleweed with Daddy Long Legs from the debut album, Punchbowl’s Hard-ons with ‘She’s a Dish’ and finally nowhere in particular’s Mr Floppy with the EP version of the amazing 100,000 Morriseys. I will play the single version in another show, which featured on the 1993 album ‘The unbearable lightness of being a dickhead’

Two tracks from Melbourne now, linked by a piece of champagne comedy from the Late Show. Underground Lovers off their debut album do a moody piece of electronica/shoegaze with ‘Eastside Stories’ followed by the criminally maligned Frente with ‘Ordinary Angels’ of the Clunk EP. Dancing like a dickhead is quite a strain 
Three tracks from some go-betweens refugees. Firsly from his second solo alnum ‘Fireboy’ the late and missed Grant McLennan with Lighting Fires, Lindy and Amanda formed Cleopatra Wong and were signed to rooART and put this little track out on the Egg EP and finally we go back to Grant and a b-side from the Lighting Fires single, with a heartfelt rendition of Bruce Springsteen ‘If I should fall behind’. Speaking of rooART, the indie label that went major for a few years, we have three songs that were released in 1992 (that weren’t Wendy Matthews hits) – Watching the Wind Blow from Perth’s Tall Tales and True, the final Hummingbirds release for rooART (and probably their most poppy track – if you can the single, the other songs are amazing and point to the direction of the last two EPs) and finally Ratcat with Holiday off ‘Inside out’. There was no TV Week coverage this time.
We round out this week’s show with two completely unrelated tracks, although anyone who can make a connection I will give them something. Maybe a hug. The recently reformed Def FX with a piece of proto dance, industrial Goth and the always funny TISM with Lillie, caught Dilley, Bowled Milli Vanilli. And there was some vintage Daryl Somers mixed in there somewhere. See if you can spot some of the vintage 1992 advertising peppering the show. G-O-G-G-O..not the dart, they always think it’s the dart. Its a wee ripper.

Black Bandages – Falling Joys
Say it – The Clouds
Reach – Catherine Wheel
Winters Tale – Falling Joys
Daddy Long Legs – Tumbleweed
She’s a Dish – Hard ons
100,000 Morriseys – Mr Floppy
Eastside Stories – Underground Lovers
Ordinary Angels – Frente
Lighting Fires – GW McLennan
Thank You – Cleopatras Egg
If I should fall behind – GW McLennan
Watching the Wind Blow – Tall Talls and True
You gotta know my mind – Hummingbirds
Holiday – Ratcat
Space Time Disco – Def FX
Lillie, caught Dilley, Bowled Milli Vanilli – TISM

Wide Open Road throws out the rule book for Show 4. No themes, no links, no relationships and no limits. This show has no lyrical meanings. It’s just a bunch of songs to make you happy, to feel like the last twenty years have faded away, to feel nostalgic, to remember good times and to learn about stuff that perhaps you might have heard when you were growing up, swung around a blue light disco and danced to, or pulled out the poster from TV Week and put on your bedroom wall. In my case, I rejected at four of these bands to play at my school in 1985 and instead chose the Dynamic Hepnotics (in my defence, Soul Kind of Feeling was a REALLY big hit). Being an Aussie living away from home, these songs anchor us to a time and place that sometimes feel more real than perhaps it did when we were reliving at home. And yes, sometimes that time and place was Countdown, or the first years of MTV with Richard Wilkins, or Sounds with Donnie Sutherland or Nightmoves with Lee Simon. Enjoy!

We start the set with the amazing Sunnyboys, off their first single from 1981 and ‘Alone with You’. Does anyone remember Sunnyboys ice blocks? 5 cents they used to cost. I nicked that from the floor of my brothers green mini. We move to Icehouse or Flowers with ‘We can get together’ and round out the triple with Models and their classic ‘I Hear Motion’. If there were a theme to the next three tracks I would have to say ‘pop’. As much as this show celebrates the harder edges of Australian indie, the smoother pop seams should never be ignored. Electrics Pandas (Big Girls), Machinations (Pressure Sway) and Eurogliders (Heaven) all charted with these songs in 1984 (or late 1983 for the Machinations). OK, if we are talking pop, then the next three songs fit that bill. And you know, it’s time to revisit this era of our musical history. The Swingers were a one hit wonder with Counting the Beat (although I was just reminded that it ended up as a K-Mart theme – cheap undies anyone?). Mi-Sex were kiwi, but ‘Computer Games’ is a great song despite that slip-up and Mondo Rock had a large brace of classic songs, but Cool World is one of the best. Perhaps the next three songs represent a slight return to more classic DJ Ringfinger style, The Trilobites singing the praises of ‘American TV’, Paul Kelly and his recently convened Coloured Girls with ‘Darling it Hurts’ and XL Capris serenading Parramatta Road in Sydney (featuring Johanna Piggott and Todd Hunter of Dragon). More Kiwis with Crowded House off their debut with ‘Mean to Me’, Split Enz with Poor Boy and one of the first albums I scored free off a record company (from the old Festival Records factory in Pyrmont) ‘Whaling’ by DD Smash. We wrap up this very special show with the Hoodoo Gurus, Spy V Spy lamenting the end of heritage buildings in Sydney with ‘Don’t Tear it Down’ and finally we go back to square one with the absolutely seminal and amazing ‘Happy Man’ by the Sunnyboys .

This show is inspired by and dedicated to my dear friend, Joanne White @MediaMum

Alone with You – Sunnyboys
We can get together – Icehouse (Flowers)
I hear motion – Models
Big Girls – Electric Pandas
Pressure Sway – Machinations
Heaven – Eurogliders
Counting the Beat – The Swingers
Computer Games – Mi-sex
Cool World – Mondo Rock
American TV – The Trilobites
Darling it Hurts – Paul Kelly
Parramatta Road – XL Capris
Mean to me – Crowded House
Poor Boy – Split Enz
Whaling – DD Smash
Bittersweet – Hoodoo Gurus
Don’t tear in down – Spy V Spy
Happy Man – Sunnyboys