Fun Things - The sound and the fury !

The single has been posted on Striped blog before-- here

This post is a pdf of a funtastic article / interview about the Fun Things and other Brad Sheperd related goodies from the rock historian guru Ian McFarlane

Download PDF here

Four Horsemen - World to End all Wars

I did get to see these guys play once.. supporting Ups and Downs and Died Pretty at Easts Leagues Club in 1985 I think. I found this ad for the gig in an old 4ZZZ radio Times booklet.

This is the last Shane Cooke related thing I can find today... after this band he joined up with Matt Lenoury, fellow Vampire Lover and guitarist from Four Horsemen in the Hitmen DTK.  info on the VL wiki shows the evolution.
This band has Murray Shepherd from the Fun Things / Screaming Tribesmen and others on drums. He is the brother of Jason who played with a late line up of VL and also the brother of  Mr Guru Brad . ... small town this Brisbane . . . ....

A good article can be found over at Prehistoric Sounds blog on the Sheperds

Download single here

The Girlies

Another legendary Brisbane band I never got to see live . :(

The good news is I see on the newly updated Girlies Myspace that they have been featured on the long awaited Do The POP! vol3, the bad news is - no download for stripey fans for the single "Pussycat" until I find out if it is the song on the new CD. I cant see any other details for the elusive Vol3 that was due years ago according to notes inside Vol2, so if anyone has some inside gossip on this please email Bob so the Stripey blog doesnt clash with its contents. In keeping with Bob's ideals of not stepping on ppl or stuffing up an income source you will have to download this little gem someplace else.
More good luck is that you can stream this song and many others from the myspace, while you read the incredible story that the Girlies lived. Lots of Lime Spider connections here and Shane Cooke again, amongst many others.

The second pressing was a Pink background front cover - a bit easier to see the graphics and runs with the pink fettish of the band .. .The myspace says it should be Fluro orange as the pic they have but this jpg came with a download from years ago..

Vampire Lovers - poster

This post is to start a few Shane Cooke related goodies. The poster here shows a support slot for Iggy Pop on his Instinct tour of 1989. Supporting the Ig ! I missed this gig but sure sounds like fun.

Shane played with the Vampire Lovers for years and had interests in the Girlies and with VL guitarist Matt Lenoury in the Four Horsemen and later in 1991 was in a line up of Hitmen DTK with Matt for the Moronic Inferno LP.
Not bad for a bass player !

Robert Forster - 15 songs about Brisbane

Go out and spend all your money on this man NOW!


download pt1 here and pt2 here

Robert Forster - Lee Remick 2010

I got to see Robert Forster on saturday night doing his 15 songs about... tour. A great show at the Powerhouse, well actually a piece of scaffolding erected up against the wall at the Powerhouse.. .. no roof covering and the threat of rain for days looming made this an uncomfortable setting (byo cushion ffs..) I cant imagine the stress for professional artists to get ready for a possible washout gig, but I can imagine being a punter trying to see a professional artist in a potential washout gig. The Gods were on our side however, after a bit of spitting rain early into the gig, all remains dry.
QUT scaffolding co. - FAIL !
Robert Forster and co. - SUCCESS !

Mr Forster travels through his extensive back catalogue entertaining the crowd with camp fire stories of ye ol times gone past. A great concept and well structured gig. The big suprise of the night was Robert Vickers playing bass for the encore songs. It's been a long time since I've seen Mr Vickers do that little dance he does when he is channeling fine music. The usual suspects -Karin, Adele, Glenn and Matt appear for a few songs but most of the gig is Robert standing tall with acoustic in hand reinterpreting a 30+ year collection of his music. A couple of cover versions including the Saints song "The Prisoner" that comes with the Foruli version of his book - the '10 Rules of Rock n Roll' and Redcliffe's finest export - the Bee Gees song "I Cant See Nobody". He also revisits his pet project friends - The John Steel Singers song "Strawberry Wine".

I managed to get a video of gig opener "Lee Remick" before eagle eye nancy drew usher lady did the dreaded tap on the shoulder... - "No recording here sir!"



Thankfully she didnt spot the dat deck....  audio coming soon :)
Clearly a winner for the chuck award "100% fuking awesome" of September 2010... even penciled in for the year 2010 award.




This clip is from abc radio national that features Robert singing "Born to a Family" and chatting about his "15 songs about Sydney" gig for the Sydney's writers festival of May 2010.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2904433.htm




This is an old clip from 1988 and has a 'pre-return to live in brisbane Grant' chatting about this lil' town.

→ ↑ → - Venitian Rendezvous E.P.

This is the first E.P. from the band → ↑ → (pronounced as three clicks, often written incorrectly as Tsk Tsk Tsk or Tch Tch Tch)called Venitian Rendezvous released in april 1979.

The cover is a fold around single paper sheet and the single has a blank label with a 33third written in texta on presumabably the a side ... DiY :)
I think this is a second pressing as indicated by cover notes.

→ ↑ →  was an Australian experimental music project formed in Melbourne in 1977 and led by Philip Brophy. Aside from performing music the project displayed artwork, made films and plays, and wrote literature.

 Clifton Hill's Community Music Centre was the base for Philip Brophy's project, → ↑ →. Sometimes compared to Andy Warhol's Factory collective, the group provided experimental music (Brophy on drums or synthesiser), films, videos, and live theatrical performances exploring his aesthetic and cultural interests, often on a minimal budget. Musically the group touched upon a wide range of experimental styles including minimalism, punk rock, muzak, krautrock and disco, usually with no vocalist. (info from wiki)

A good article from Brophy appears in ratsack fanzine posted here.
Check out www.philipbrophy.com for details on post → ↑ → work..

Download ep here

Some other → ↑ →  (tsk tsk tsk) stuff is on the mutant sounds blog and worth checking is the terse tapes compilation "One Stop Shopping" from the good folk at severed heads.

Pineapples From The Dawn Of Time - Too Much Acid

The Pineapples From The Dawn Of Time are great !

I dunno what else to tell you..  the back story has already been posted on here at stripey before...

This is the double A sided single - "Too Much Acid" / "Saha". It also is great!
Download here.

The band still gigs from time to time so better keep a regular eye on the myspace for details.





The cd "Shocker" is still available on turkey neck records.
while you are over that way check out "the lobster prophet"..  also great :)

I've seen this next video hundreds of times over the last 20 years and it still makes me laugh...
Who is George Negus I hear you ask... well good ppl - he is Brisbane of course....The video came to me in 1989ish (date of concert unknown) so an early line up of the band, performing in what looks alot like Dooley's hotel in the valley.





Lots more vids on the youtube if you go looking, including a few songs from the fantastic Pig City concert courtesy of that mr Schmuddich.

Pel Mel - a few singles

Here are a few Pel Mel singles from the collection. The original version of "No Word From China" was recorded at the Double Jay radio station and gathered so much interest that it was rush released on the band's own label "Primate Records". Six months later it was re-mastered and re-released through Gap records.
(info from liner notes of the must have cd - Tales from the Australian Underground)
Both versions are in download here.

Surprising for the times this little post-punk gem got a live (well mimed) spot on countdown.




Pel Mel was an Australian Post-Punk music band. They formed in Newcastle, Aust. in mid 1979 and moved to Sydney, Australia in late 1980. They toured and recorded until 1984.

Pel Mel's early lineup included Graeme Dunne (guitar & vocals), Judy McGee (sax), Jane McGee (guitar), Glenn Hill (bass), Dave Weston (drums) and Nigel Savage (sax). By early 1980 Nigel Savage had left, and by late 1980 Lindsay O'Meara (ex-Voigt/465) replaced Glenn Hill on bass. Judy McGee began playing keyboards in 1980 and began sharing vocals with Graeme Dunne. Jane McGee left in February 1981, and Craig Robertson replaced Lindsay O'Meara on bass in late 1981.   (info from wiki)


The other single included is "Shoes Should Fit" from later in their career.

Pel Mel features in the radio hindsight doco i was raving about a few posts back. In the doco they talk about their close association with the good folk at M Squared. They also appear on the compilation "A Selection"

I found these two posters a few weeks back..  long forgotten in the thermal mass down in the dungeon..

Tims Surprise Visit.

Well a fantastic and big surprise last night, Tim aka Mona who runs
the greatest blog in blogworld, flew up from Melbourne for our
wedding which is tomorrow. Both Tim and Carmen have been
planning this for months and keeping it a secret.
We all when to Fortitude Valley to Chinatown and I showed Tim
the sights such as they are in the Valley, ending up at the walk of
fame the the Brunswick mall at the Go-Betweens plaque.
Its all shaping up for a very exciting time!

You can all follow our travel adventures on our travel blog

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bobandcarmen/

Or on face book.