Monday 28 April 2014

From Another Side #6


Back with anothery, this time following up on the songs and bands that appeared on the Sideroom Singles Blog #122 and #123, plus a few others from earlier appearance from some of the bands, plus a spurious link with Brisbane bands and My Three Sons...given I found stuff by them when I was searching for material for this one.


From Another Side #6 - 

  • The Words That - The Fizzbombs
    Watermeadow Dream - The Cudgels
    Hear My Please - The Cudgels
    As Fresh As Monday - The Odolites
    Watch The Walls - The Bats
    Believe in Me - The Throb
    I Know I'm Nothing Special To You - The Williams
    Roundabout - Esmerelda's Kite
    You Worry Me - The Fizzbombs
    Test Pilot - The Fizzbombs
    Blue Swimmer - The Fizzbombs
    A Stranger Calls - Even As We Speak
    Tender Object - The Odolites
    A Lower Class Of Heaven - The Climb
    After Hours - Who The Hell Does Jane Smith Think She is
    A Dream - The Prudes
    Californiagirls - The Saturday People
    The Boy Who Crossed The Street - St James Infirmary
    Summer Colours - Cudgels
    Call It What You May - The Odolites
    I Guess I'm Going - The Screaming Believers
    Green Bottle - The Tripps
    Blackout - Soggy Porridge
    Broken Romance - Soggy Porridge
    You've Changed ( live ) - Soggy Porridge
    City Opera - The Fishermen
    Sometimes The Night - Catchcry
    Congratulations - Catchcry
    radio interview about Catchrcy / Correct label 2SER-FM circa 1985
    So It Goes - Gone To China
    Ronald's Got A Raygun ( demo ) - My Three Sons
    Walkaway - My Three Sons
     

#6 - hear it


We have a heap of other sides / ep tracks from those played on #122 and #123, ie from The Climb, The Saturday People, The Throb, Who The Hell Does Jane Smith Think She Is, Even As We Speak, Gone To China, The Fishermen, The Tripps, The Bats, Luke Warm Weather and The Prudes. The Screaming Believers song comes from the Greasy Pop ep featured on #122, another Adelaide band.




Then it's a few Cudgels songs, "Hear My Please" the other side of "Joybang!" and then an earlier single "Watermeadow Dream" from a three way split ep ( we played the Dufflecoats song from this on #61 ) and also a track "Summer Colours" which is from the "Waaaah! CD" comp. A few more Cudgels tracks in the very near future by the way, both here and on the Singles blog.








"You Worry Me" by The Fizzbombs is from the split ep with Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes ( ala #122 ),plus we also look back to earlier appearances by The Fizzbombs - "The Words That" is the other side of "Sign On The Line ( #82 ) and the other two songs are from "The Surfin' Winter Ep" ( see also #84 )











Three songs from The Odolites, the other side of "Kathleen's Tantrum" ( #122 )"Call It What You May" plus "Tender Object" which comes from the 7" ep "The Users Club" ( featuring also Sea Stories, Jacks World & An Ordinary Field - see #53 ) and "As Fresh as Monday" one of two songs on the other side of "Chimes" ( see #31 )







Another couple of the "other track" on a split flexi type arrangement on #122 .... St James Infirmary who shared with Sunflowers and The Williams who shared with Esmerelda's Kite, plus the otehr track from the latter on this 3-tracker











LA few from Soggy Porridge to follow up on "How Can I Tell You" on #123 - two songs from the NZ Mini LP comp called "Slurp Track" and a live song from the Lp version of "Live At The Wireless", the song "You've Changed" recorded at the Sydney Trade Union Club on 25.7.83 for 2JJJ. 







Then we have a few tracks by Catchcry - "Sometimes The Night" ( the other side of "Blueprint #9", see Singles Blog #104 ) and "Congratulations" the other side of "Climitization" ( #123 ), the latter being on the Correct label. Somehow whilst cassette trawling I found a radio interview about this record label with Rosemary Blight from the label ( well she was from Hot Records as a matter of fact and Correct was tied in with Hot. Also popping up on the interview is Andrew Leitch from Catchcry ( at one stage in The Riptides ). It's from 2SER-FM from sometime in 1985, on the show called Zootime - the host on this particular morning was Leah Haynes ( sounding a bit hazy around the edges, understandable given this show used to broadcast early Saturday morning )



Then finally while sniffing around in the cassettes I found a classic demo tape from Brisbane band My Three Sons called "Ronald's Got A Raygun" and wanted to play it ( and also chucked in an album track from their LP "Wages Of Sin". The demo track is from another 2SER air check ( and on a crap quality cassette ) so technically a bit suss, but happy to blog it because it was an awesome demo doing the traps around SER circa 1986
 










Sunday 30 March 2014

From Another Side 5A & 5B ( XL Capris / Scribble )


This is a follow on from Sideroom Singles #121 and again another double.

5A ( no relation to the old ABC TV channel )features stuff Gol Gappas, The Go-Betweens, Jack Frost, The Crystal Set, Ups And Downs, Tactics and Yapocks.

5B features Scribble / XL Capris

From Another Side #5A - 
  • St Lucy - Gol Gappas
    Roman ( West 14 b-side ) - Gol Gappas
    Chicken Pox- Gol Gappas
    Clouds ( 7" b side vers ) - The Go-Betweens
    Casanova's Last Words - The Go-Betweens
    Rock and Roll Friend - The Go-Betweens
    Love Is A Sign - The Go-Betweens
    Love Goes On ( Album vers ) - The Go-Betweens
    Providence - Jack Frost
    Even As We Speak - Jack Frost
    Number Eleven - Jack Frost
    Furious Mess - The Crystal Set
    Don't Be Surprised - The Crystal Set
    Who Needs Who Now - The Crystal Set
    Hubble Bubble - The Crystal Set
    Never Ending - Ups And Downs
    The Living Kind - Ups And Downs
    Solitary Man - Ups And Downs
    Pleasant - Ups And Downs
    Should Be Will Be - Tactics
    Cool Night Air - Tactics
    Know It All ( b-side of Coalface vers ) - Tactics
    Body In The Field - Tactics
    Edge Of My Seat - Tactics
    Committee Of Love - Tactics
    Annie Edson Taylor - Yapocks
    Take A Leap - Yapocks

#5A - hear it


From Another Side #5B - 
  • Kaze- Scribble
    Tokyo - XL Capris
    Hi Rise Heart - XL Capris
    Police Exhibit - XL Capris
    Elevator - XL Capris
    World War 3 ( Live Governors Pleasure 1981 ) - XL Capris
    Small Screen Cowboy - XL Capris
    Refrigerator Town - XL Capris
    Dusty - XL Capris
    Killer Seas - XL Capris
    Chains - Scribble
    Laws Of Motion - Scribble
    Mr Calico - Scribble
    It's Blue - Scribble
    Lowdown - Scribble
    Prettiest Smile - Scribble

#5B - hear it


5A


Gol Gappas

On the Singles Blog #121 we heard a later / revamped / remixed version of "Roman", that song originally on the b-side of their "West 14", which is the version we here on this mix today. Also 2 songs from the "Dinner With Nougat" ep - the awesome "St Lucy" and "Chicken Pox".











The Go-Betweens



Then we have some Gobs b-side and album tracks from around the 16 Lovers Lane era - "Casanova's Last Words" from the 12 of "Streets Of Your Town" and "Rock & Roll Friend" from the other side of "Was There Anything I Could Do". "Clouds" & "Love Is a Sign" from the album and because the single version of "Love Goes On" which kicked off #121 is a "remix" of the album track I put the original on. What ?? no "Quiet Heart" I hear you mutter ? Standby on that front, more Gobs coming up on the Singles blog later in the year and I am planning a special Gobs feature "tracing the evolution of the perfect pop song", tentatively titled "From being quite plain in Brisbane to a ( quiet ) quiet heart"..more on that when it happens.





Jack Frost


Then we continue on in a GW McLennan frame of mind, joined by SJ Kilbey - in their Jack Frost guise - with a couple of tracks from their first ( self titled )album as well as "Even As We Speak" from the other side of the 'Every Hour God Sends" 7". By the way more SJ Kilbey solo stuff soon on both this and the Singles blog. Earlier we played "Thought That I Was Over You" ( also on the album ) on Singles #107














The Crystal Set



Then Kilbey bro-ism continues with some b-sides etc - "Don't Be Surprised" on the other side of "Benefit Of The Doubt" ( see also Singles #6 ), "Hubble Bubble" from the other side of 'Wholly Holy" ( #39 ) and "Who Needs Who Now" is a double A on the other side of "From Now On" ( #121 ).

"Furious Mess" was a 7" - and shock I don't have that 7, but it is also on the 12 inch "Cluster" Ep, which is where you hear it from today.





Ups & Downs

Some b-sides etc from Ups And Downs - "Never Ending" from the b-side of the Waterfont version of "The Perfect Crime" ( see Singles #42 ) and "Pleasant" which the b-side of "Moments Away" ( #50 ). Plus two tracks from their "Sleepless" LP - 'The Living Kind" and "Solitary Man"











Tactics



Lately on the singles blog we've had a few "last period" singles from Tactics - "Turn" ( on #116 ) and "Coalface" ( #121 ) so on this particular mix I thought I'd bring out some more songs froma round that period, ie "The Great Gusto" album as well as from around the "Blue & White Future Whale" era. Previously on the singles blog we have tracks from the earlier Tactics eras, and we'll look at those era another time on this blog ( especially on an upcoming Post_Punk extravangza that's coming soon ).

As far as today goes, from "Blue & White Future Whale" we have "Edge of My Seat", 'Should Be Will Be", "Body In The Field" and also "Know It All", though that song resurfaced on the b-sign of "Coalface" ( along with "Birthday Girl" also on the album ) and the single b-side is where I played the song today. At one one point I was going to play "Football Cards" but didn't think I could explain "Mal Meninga" well enough...

"Cool Night Air" is from "The Great Gusto" and "Committee Of Love" is a single, another double A vibe with "Coat Tails" ( see #37 )



Yapocks

And lastly some Yapocks, another band of Snajik from Tactics, and 2 songs from their ( one and only ) four track ep, earlier on the Single blog we had "Passionfruit Creek" from this ep ( #30 )













5B


Scribble & XL Capris

We had 2 Scribble songs, "Adaptability" & "Alligator" on the Singles Blog #121 , plus some other Scribble and XL Capris in previous posts

#9 - World War 3 - Xl Capris
#37 - Igloos - Xl Capris
#72 - Red Bikini Runaway - Xl Capris
#32 - Silly Girl- Scribble
#43 - Sunday School - Scribble


so I thought I'd dig up some b-sides and album tracks from both bands


Scribble b-sides



We've got "Lowdown" from the other side of "Sunday School", "Mr Calico" from the other side of "Silly Girl" and "Laws Of Motion" which is the other side of "Alligator". A b-sides only except Laws of Motion which is on the "Pop Art" album.












XL Capris b-sides


"Dusty" is the other side of "World War 3" and Elevator is the b-side to "Igloos". I didn't include "K-Tel City" from the b-side of "Red Bikini Runaway' because my copy has too many jumps in it...sorry.









XL Capris LP tracks


From the first album "Where is Hank ?" it's "Refrigerator Town", "Hi-Rise Heart" and "Police Exhibit", the latter somehow I don't think Wills and Kate visited on their recent trip to the Easter Show !

From the 2nd album "Weeds" it's "Tokyo", "Killer Seas" and "Small Screen Cowboy".







Scribble LP Tracks

Three from the Scribble self titled mini LP - "Kaze", "Chains" and "It's Blue". I'm not sure what's going on with the weird phasing / mastering on It's Blue. Kaze with help from Ricky Tanaka, he of "Nippy Rock Shop" fame on 2JJJ and also of the band "Guido & Yakatori Go To The Barber" ( along with someone else who I'm sure wishes to remain anonymous )










Then shock horror I have had to resort to a CD copy of the Pop Art album ( disgraceful I know , because my vinyl copy was destroyed in the great "loss" of 2008 ( as described here ), so this CD is actually the re-issue on Almacantar, from which we hear "Prettiest Smile".



This lovely ancient cassette was recorded off air 2JJJ on 13-2-1981, and it's a live version of "World War 3", the rest of the tape is in pretty bad condition and virtually unplayable - on this side at least, the other side is a live to air from Sunnyboys ( a week previous ) and a lot of that plays quite well and I'm sure that will get a run at some point. ( The sticker with the 3 is a new one and I'm starting to make an attempt to catalogue some of my cassettes as I go through them, mostly for this blog. This is a very daunting task because there's so many of them )





Another Mr Calico


And finally a stray cat who has well and truly adopted this household...he's probably more a Tortico than Calico though I am told. 

He's game hunter too ( in his own mind at least ).













Sunday 9 March 2014

From Another Side 4A & 4B

Again another double, following up on the Singles Blog #120, plus some other similar bands & related ( earlier ) blog posts from the Singles blog.

From Another Side #4A - Result Records label
  • Man And Machine - The Jukes
    No Time - The Jukes
    We All Know By Now - The Jukes
    I'm Bored - Silent Movies
    Hot Spot - Silent Movies
    Girl Upstairs - Silent Movies
    Dead To The World - The Motivaters
    Slipping - The Motivaters
    Coming Up - The Motivaters
    Kicks ( 'Top Of The Class' version ) - The Motivaters
    So Scared ( Album version ) - The Motivaters
    At This Point In Time ( 7" b-side ) - The Motivaters
    Just Don't Care ( Album version ) - The Motivaters
    I Wanna Be A Millionaire - The Eighty Eights
    You're Gonna Get What's Coming To You - The Eighty Eights
    Tragic Accident - The Eighty Eights

From Another Side #4A - hear it

------------------

From Another Side #4B - early 80's 'Oz Rock' & New Wave
  • Star System 5 ( Album version ) - Ward 13
    Robot Wizards ( Ep Version ) - Ward 13
    Robot Wizards ( Demo vers, off air 2JJ ) - Ward 13
    Electric Detective - Ward 13
    Time We Live ( 7" b-side version ) - Ward 13
    Look Inside Yourself - Outline
    Sleep - Outline
    Stay With Me - Outline
    It's A Living - Outline
    Committed - The Eyes
    Bent On Repair - The Eyes
    Bluegrass Radio - The Eyes
    Get It Strait ( 7" b-side version ) - The Eyes
    Snapshots - The Eyes
    Coming Home ( original 7" b-side vers ) - Little Heroes
    Pretty Shadow - Little Heroes
    She Says ( Album Version ) - Little Heroes
    India Was Calling Me - Little Heroes
    Machine - Vixen
    Do It Again - Vixen
    Short Memory - Vixen
    Money Won't Run ( 7" b-side version ) - Ves 8
    Love In A Vacuum ( 7" b-side version ) - Ves 8
    Nice ( 7" b-side version ) - Ves 8
    Lorralei - Ves 8
    Like A Ghost ( 12" Extended Version ) - Ignatius Jones
    Brave New World - Jimmy And The Boys
From Another Side #4B - hear it

4A --- bands on the Result Records label - 


This one features bands & music from the Result Records, a short lived semi-indie label released through Polygram Australia and run by Sebastian Chase ( who had previously managed Dragon and later ran the Chase label ).

The starting point is the 3 singles on this label that appeared on #120 from The Motivaters, The Eighty Eights and Silent Movies and previous releases on this label that have popped up along the way

#48 - The Motivaters "After The Fall"
#64 - The Jukes "Driving Me Crazy"
#89 - The Eighty Eights "She Fell In Love In With James Bond"
#89 - The Jukes "Don't Put Me Away"
#94 - The Motivaters "Summer"
#106 - The Eighty Eights "Everybody Wants You Tonight"
#106 - Colin Stead "Wheels Of Love"
 

Kicking off this mix with The Jukes / Silent Movies


the latter being the name change sometime around early 1981 ( the exact reason I have forgotten, no doubt to avoid confusion with others who had a similar name as The Jukes at the time ). Today we start with The Jukes "Man And Machine", actually the a-side of this single, for some reason when I originally blogged this 7" way back in 2007 I chose to play "Drivin' Me Crazy", the b-side from this ( 3 track ) ep. Then it's "No Time", the b-side to "Don't Put Me Away", followed by "We All Know By Now" one of the songs from the split ( debut ep ) callled "The Top Of The Class" which The Jukes shared with The Motivaters ( more on them later ).

Then it's the band under the later moniker of Silent Movies, firstly with "I'm Bored" which is the b-side to the single of "Can't Say No". Then we have 2 songs from the "Moving In Circles" album. 



Which brings us to The Motivaters and we have some album tracks here from their self titled - and only album ; "Dead To The World", "So Scared" & "Just Don't Care", and though the song "At This Point In Time" is on the album I played it today from the b-side of the "New Blood" single. There is also one of the songs ( "Kicks" ) from the aforementioned "Top Of The Class" ep they shared with The Jukes. There's also 2 b-side songs "Slipping" & "Coming Up" which are from the other side of "After The Fall".
The other band on this label was The Eighty-Eights, today we have some b-side tracks - "I Wanna Be A Millionaire" is one of four songs on the "Live Pop" ep, recorded live ( and the bands debut release ) and 'You're Gonna Get What's Coming To You" from the b-side side of "She Fell In Love With James Bond". And we finish off with a track from their "Top Of The World" album.  


4B --- 80's Oz Rock & New Wave

Again this one starts off with related to songs on #120 - from Little Heroes, Vixen, Outline, Ward 13 & Jimmy And The Boys, and then I thought I'd chuck in some other similar era bands like The Eyes and Ves 8, both of whom have made appearances on the Singles blog over the years. So other than those on #120 we've previously had -

The Eyes on #49, #86 and #106
Ves 8 on #89, #106 and #112
Little Heroes on #73 and #106
Vixen on #49 and #106
Outline on #49 and #88
Ward 13 - on #106


Starting this second mix with Ward 13, firstly "Star System 5", the version from the album "Flash As A Rat" - another version of that song was on their debut 12 Ep "Robot Wizards".Speaking of Robot Wizards we hear 2 versions of it today - firstly the officially released vinyl, later released in Germany and it's from the German version I'm playing the song today ( that's the browny looking one in the photo, the black and silver version is the Aussie version ). I played the German version because I prefer how its sounds - they are the same mixes / versions but the mastering sounds better. The original Aussie was mastered with some new at the time weirdar*e mastering process called "Maxicut" which to my ears makes the record soound thin and lacking in some areas. Possibly they hadn't worked out how to best use this new process and they thought they'd try it out on Ward 13's debut ep. The Germans obviously cut new masters over there, all of which is my reasoning for playing that version in lieu of the Aussie version.

Anyway after that digression....the 2nd version today of Robot Wizards is the original demo tape version, taken from an off-air recording from 2JJ - yes Double Jay - circa late 79 / very early 80 from show called "Fridoz", a weekly Friday night Australian music show, running from 10pm-2am, hosted by the likes of Suzanne Dowling, Pam Swain and sometimes Sammy Collins ( she is on the tape today ) - essential listening for me as a ( disjointed and spotty ) young teenager stuck out in the 'burbs. The quality of the cassette is a bit shaky but you'll understand.

Then finishing off the Ward 13 section today with 2 others from "Flash as A Rat", though I physically played "Time We Live" from the b-side of the "Slow Dancer" single.


Next up is a little adventure with Outline, starting with 2 b-sides "Look Inside Yourself" ( the other side of "Cities" and produced by Peter Dawkins ) plus "Sleep" from the b-side of "How Can I Get Out".

After that we have "Stay With Me" from their "Maybe It's A Game" album and then a live track "It's A Living" which is from a bonus 12" 4 track ep that came with the album.



Then it's time for some album tracks and b-sides from The Eyes. Their album was called 'Tube Vision" and "Committed", "Bent On Repair" and "Get It Strait" are all on it, though I played the latter from the other side of "City Livin". "Bluegrass Radio" is from the b-side of 'Riding In My Favourite Car" and "Snapshots" is the other side of the "Black and White" single


Little Heroes are up next with some tracks for their self titled debut album - "Pretty Shadow" and "India Was Calling Me". The song "She Says" was re-recorded for this album ( we hear that today ), the original version of the song was the band's first single and we also hear the b-side of that record today "Coming Home"





Three b-sides from Vixen follow, having featured all the a-sides at various times, I'd thought I'd flip them over.




By the same logic it's 3 b-sides from Ves 8 as well as a track from their Vesania LP ( though all the songs are in fact on the album )

Lastly it's a track from the Jimmy & The Boy's Teddy Boy's Picnic album ( which "Mirror Mirror" was a single from )and because we had the 7" of "Like A Ghost" on #103 I thought I'd drag out the ( Australian ) 12" Extended Mix. 

All for now, see you next time...

Sunday 26 January 2014

From Another Side #3A ( Sydney ) & #3B ( Melbourne )

Because so much potential follow up stuff came out of Sideroom 7" Singles #119 I decided to break this edition of From Another Side into two halves - one from Sydney & one from Melbourne.

From Another Side #3A ( Sydney ) 
  • Don't Slow Down - Love Positions
    The Garden - Love Positions
    Trespassers - Skolars
    City View - The Pranksters
    Crystal Palace - The Tripps
    It's Like A Zoo - The Tripps
    Another World - Skolars
    Sick - The Honeys
    Time Of Our Lives - Skolars
    Love Of Loves - The Singles
    Dave's Song - Fast Cars
    No Love Today - Fast Cars
    Can't Find Things - Fast Cars
    Pretty Pretty - Skolars
    She's Just Not Anybody - Division 4
    Brightside - Spy vs Spy
    Never Be Your Man - The Personnel
    No Room For Happiness - Skolars
    Take Me When You Go - Fiction Romance
    Young and Liberal - Skolars
    Telefone - Surprise Surprise
    If You Break It - Moving Parts
    Dress Up Picasso - Moving Parts
    Heart Of Darkness - Moving Parts
    Tell Me Why - Moving Parts
    People Laughing - The Products

From Another Side #3A - hear it

------------------

From Another Side #3B ( Melbourne )
  • 2 People Per Sq KM - Models
    Pate Pedestrian - Models
    Local &/or General ( UK vers ) - Models
    Bantam Had ( Aus album vers ) - Models
    Two Cabs To The Toucan ( Cut Lunch vers ) - Models
    Two Cabs To The Toucan
    ( UK vers ) - Models
    Atlantic Romantic ( Cut Lunch ver ) - Models
    Atlantic Romantic
    ( UK vers ) - Models
    Man O'Action ( Cut Lunch vers )- Models
    Man O'Action
    ( UK vers ) - Models
    Tearing Hair Out
    ( UK vers ) - Models
    I Walk Away ( 12" Extended Mix ) - Split Enz
    Doctor Love - Split Enz
    Great Wall ( Extended Version ) - Boom Crash Opera
    Things - Serious Young Insects
    radio interview 2JJJ, 1981 - Serious Young Insects
    Nerve - Serious Young Insects
    Music To Watch Girls By -
    Serious Young Insects
    On Time -
    Serious Young Insects
    Unsafe -
    Serious Young Insects
    Trouble Understanding Words -
    Serious Young Insects
    Lowdown - Paul Kelly & The Dots
    Promise Not To Tell -
    Paul Kelly & The Dots
    Seeing Is Believing -
    Paul Kelly & The Dots
    Hard Knocks -
    Paul Kelly & The Dots
    Is Nothing Sacred ( live ) - Sacred Cowboys
From Another Side #3B - hear it

3A "Sydney" - 


This one is mostly being driven by Skolars tracks from various eras ( and associated bands ) - ie the Waterfront / Method Records eras. 

But before that we start with Love Positions..


The single "Light Of Day" kicked off #119 so we start here with 2 songs from the ( red vinyl as you can see ) "Billiepeebup" album from Love Positions, both featuring Robyn ( St Clare - late of The Hummingbirds ) singing ( the others feature Nic Dalton's vocals ). If there wasn't so much more to play in this edition, and so little time , I would have dragged out some Hummingbirds, them having already featured a lot on the Singles blog. I will save that for another day on this blog...


Then one of my favourite Skolars songs "Trespassers", from the "On The Waterfront" compilation . This Mini-LP has 2 songs each from The Tripps, The Pranksters, Love Minus Zero & The Skolars. In a lot of ways one of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to play songs like Trespassers, awesome yet not on 7" and thus it would never appear on the 7" Singles blog. So here it is today. Also played from the comp are "City View" by The Pranksters & "Crystal Palace" from The Tripps ( perhaps an ahead of it's time tribute to Mile Jedinak - ha ha ).


"Like a Zoo" from The Tripps is the other side of the "Sometime Today" single feature on #119. And speaking of The Pranksters way way back in the past on #17 we heard their single called "Living Edge" ( also on Waterfront ).

Still in the Waterfront era we then have a Skolars ep called "Next To The Oyster", and "Another World", we actually heard another song "Hammer In The Nails" from this ep on #97 as part of a sub-plot there called "The Rescued 12's", a concept I guess which is now hereby nullified by the existence of this blog.



Then, staying in 'great Waterfront bands' mode, we've got "Sick", a Honeys b-side, the other side of "The Man Who Was Through With The World", which was played on #71.

Then it's one more Skolars Waterfront thing ( for this episode that is ) - "Time Of Our Lives", from a double A side 7", the other side being "Love Of Loves"....

...which was a cover version by The Skolars ( see #17 )and originally a single by Sydney band The Singles - and as odd as this may seem I don't have a copy of that original 7" version of "Love Of Loves"...despite being able to somehow trudge through the piles in my room and find a million other original releases from this era I have to admit failure on that particular 7"...I will just have to live on with the disgrace. However....last year a compilation of singles, demos and live stuff from The Singles was released called "Use It For Yourself", which you can buy direct from the label - Off The Hip Records.

For now that song is a way to bridge us back in time to the earlier Method Records era for The Skolars ( and friends ).


The numero uno starting point for this new part of the journey would indeed have to be Fast Cars, firstly because band member Fabian Byrne ran Method Records ( along with the legendary figure Doug(ie) Lee  ). Secondly because the band were pretty much one of the centrifuges of the Sussex Hotel "Mod" Sydney scene of the time.


This ties with a bunch of tracks on the mix from the Method Records compilation "Sound Of Sydney Volume 1".

We start this section with "Dave's Song" by Fast Cars ( referring to band member David Pye ). This was originally on a live cassette ( called "Fast Cars" ), but later on vinyl on the b-side of the "Love Child" single ( that's the spunky blue 7" shown above ) ( see #29 ). Then we have "No Love Today" from the other side of the "Saturday's Girl" single ( see also #13 ). Then it's "Can't Find Things" a track from the 12" Ep "Annual",produced by Martin Plaza. Another track from this Ep "No No" is on "Sound of Sydney Vol 1" ( as is Saturday's Girl ).

At this point I'd like to present for your edification some info from that album regarding the recording info / release dates of various tracks on the album.

 

Then just to be contrary and possibly to test if you're paying attention, I then chose "Pretty Pretty" from The Skolars, a single not on this comp - though on Sound Of Sydney Vol 2. The other single shown in the photo is "Something Should Be Done", see #72 if you're busting to hear it, this IS on Sound Of Sydney Vol 1 ( and was also a giveaway single with the comp ). This is when the band was "totally ska" - ska being another major component of the Sydney scene of the time.

Getting back to the Sounds of Sydney Vol 1 comp, other tracks from there today are Division 4 with one of the sides of their only single ( not on Method by the way ) ( and another one of my failures / disgraces in that I didn't buy a copy of this at the time for some reason, which I now regret of course )... then we have early Spy vs Spy ( also not on Method, rather on Green Records at this point ). "Brightside" ( sic ) was originally released on the "Four Fresh Lemons" 12 Ep. Also on the comp is "Do What You Say" their earlier 7" single ( see #110 for that one ).

Another on the comp is "Never Be Your Man" by The Personnel, this is the a-side of their single ( yep, on Method ), earlier on #99 I played "Working Day Song" so here's the a-side ( complete with a jump...sorry about that ). Although we will return to this comp and it's era a bit later ( via Moving Parts and The Products ), we now move forward a bit in the Method Records timeline...

"No Room For Happiness" was a 1985 single for The Skolars.

A year earlier in 1984 Fabian Byrne was in a new ( post Fast Cars ) band called Fiction Romance and they released their 1st single "All Of This Is New"  - listen on #104 if you're interested.




Leap ahead to 1987 for the Fiction Romance album called "Marching Orders" - "Take Me When You Go" is from that. 

Then we have 2 b-sides from tracks played on #119 - late late late era Skolars with 'Young & Liberal" the b-side of "Where Is She" ( not on Method ) and also "Telefone" from Surprise Surprise ( on Method, 1985 ) the other side of "Cried All My Tears".


Then we whizz back to the Sussex Hotel era, firstly from Moving Parts ( ie the Sydney band not the US band of course ).

"Dress Up Picasso" was an unreleased track - at that stage anyway - on "Sound Of Sydney Vol 1"

"If You Break It" was one of 3 songs on their debut indie ep ( see also #68 ).


Then we have the two songs from the b-side of the legendary "Living China Doll" ( as heard on #1 back where this whole thang began for my blogs ) - the songs are "Heart Of Darkness" and "Tell Me Why".


Finally today in our disjointed look at Method Records we have MR-1, at least the b-side "People Laughing" by The Products which was pre-Fast Cars short lived project of Fabian Byrne ( he and Richard Mann ), "Powerplant" is the a-side of this and you can listen that on #25.



That wraps up our Sydney half...now over to the Melbourne half.


3B "Melbourne"


This one is mostly to do with various Models songs - mostly because on #119 we had the appearance of the single of Local &/Or General with 2 different releases ( Australian and UK )and I thought I'd compare the differences between the singles and some album tracks between the UK the Australian releases.


Again just to confuse you / throw the cat amongst the pigeons I thought I'd start  with a couple of songs from the album before Local &/or General - ie "Alphabravocharliedeltaechofoxtrotgolf" - We'll look into other periods for the band ( ie later and earlier ) in the future here (  I know there are singles from both eras coming up in the Singles blog ).

First up is a "promo only" 12" from the album, of "Two People Per Sq Km", it was "promo only" because the band wanted the album to be a "no singles" album - so this "radio stations only promo" was a compromise with the label I suggest. "Uncontrollable Boy" and "Young Rodents" from the LP are also on this 12".



Then it's "Pate Pedestrian" from the album ( which would have also made a great single ). The band at this point was Kelly / Duffield / Ferrie / Freidenfelds ( aka Johnny Crash ).




Then it's onto Local &/Or General......over on the Singles blog #119 we had 2 different copies of this song, the Aussie and Uk 7" singles of the title track. Over on that blog I played the Aussie a-side ( Local &/or General ) and the UK b-side of the same song "Bantam Had". Here they are reversed....ie we have the UK version of Local &/Or General and the original Aussie album mix of Bantam Had.


The UK album is different from the Aussie one via a changed tracklisting and it is a total remix / re-recording in some cases. Although originally recorded in the UK for Mushroom with producer Steven Tayler, A&M in the UK had it remixed and reversioned with Steve Brown. The band at this point was Kelly / Duffield / Ferrie / Stiggs.


There's a few songs totally remade for the UK LP which were originally on the Australian Cut Lunch 10" Mini LP.

The different versions are herein contained ( including the orig Atlantic Romantic" which was produced by Eddie Rayner ).

To close up the Models set I chose "Tearing Hair Out", which seems to predict the direction the band would next take....that side of their story to be continued at some later time...

Next up Split Enz, following on from the 7 version of "I Walk Away" on #119 - I thought I'd dig up the 12" Extended version ( a rare concept for the Enz ) - including the b-side 'Doctor Love", the funkiest I've ever heard Split Enz.


Another follow up from #119 is Boom Crash Opera, over there we heard the 7" of "Hands Up In The Air", an extended version does exist of that ( but I don't have it ), so I thought I'd dig out the 12" version of "Great Wall" - I don't have a 7" of Great Wall either, so a good excuse to play the 12. 

Then we move onto to a connected band...

the short lived but much lauded Serious Young Insects, firstly with "Things" from their ( only ) album "Housebreaking".

Then we have a radio interview with the band and the legendary Virginia Moncrieff on 2JJJ, circa 1981. Recorded on the much maligned "G-Tape" cassette brand ( pictured below ), often criticised yet the tape still plays perfectly. Incidentally on the other side of this cassette is an interview with Wild West which will also get a replay here one day soon.

Songs today are -

"Nerve" - on the album and b-side to "Be Patient" ( see #110 )

"Music To Watch Girls By" and "Unsafe" b-side to "Faraway Places" ( listen at #101 )

"On Time" - b side to 7" of "Trouble Understanding Words" - the a side was featured on #85, by all means listen there but the song is also featured again today, this time from a radio promo 12", I chose to play it again today because the 12" pressing is better quality than my slightly scratchy and well loved 7". ( This 12" has the one song on it,  a side = stereo version, b side = mono version in case you were curious ).


Then we move onto Paul Kelly in the "and the Dots" era. The single of "Lowdown" came up on #119, but as I mentioned there the a-side has a dirty big scratch on it, so I played the b-side "Want You Back"...knowing I had the "Talk" album and that Lowdown was on that ( with no scratch )...hence here we are today with Lowdown...also on the album is "Promise Not To Tell" and "Hard Knocks", although I in fact played Hard Knocks from the b-side of "Billy Baxter" ( see #86 ) and to tie up this era we have "Seeing Is Believing" a non album single. Although Paul Kelly himself seems to disown this album ( and Manilla, the follow up ) here we go today playing it....oh well. By the way there WILL be some Manilla stuff later in the year when the "Clean This House" single pops up on the Singles blog - which it will - and then some Manilla stuff on here.

Finally closing up today's double whammy with a live version of "Is Nothing Sacred", a live to tape version on Fast Forward Cassette Mag #13.

Hope that's enough for you for now !!!!!!!!