New Saints live album hits the spot

Just in from Sydney retailer Mojo Music is news of a live Saints reformation album. I'd heard whispers about this but it's slipped out almost unannounced. I wasn't at the Pig City show in Brisbane but I've heard it and it's a damn fine gig.

On July 14th 2007, 6,000 people celebrated the band and their legacy in a concert called “Pig City – Brisbane’s Historic Soundtrack”. The show came about after author Andrew Stafford was approached to transform his book on the history of Brisbane music, Pig City, into a festival. Stafford says the set lived up to lofty expectations. "They ripped into" Swing for the Crime", and like most of the people in the place, I just couldn't believe it was happening," he said. "When they hit the horn solo, I died. And went to heaven."

Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay walked on stage to thunderous applause as a thank you and the band repaid the faith with a set that nailed your head to the back wall. This was not a nostalgia show, this was a band playing at the peak of their powers and showing what made them so relevant and so inspiring to a world of bands from The Go-betweens to Birthday Party to The Hives.

From the first strains of “Swing For The Crime”, through “I’m Stranded”, “Know Your Product””Messing With The Kid” and finishing off with their unique version of “River Deep Mountain High", this was the Saints fulfilling their promise in front of an adoring crowd. As Ivor Hay said “We had unfinished business and Pig City was the way to do it”. Originally only available for sale at The Stranded and All Tomorrow's Parties shows, it's now been repressed as a one off retail version of only 1600 copies. Buy now or miss out.

Click here to hit up Mojo Music for a copy.

X-Aspirations re-issue

X's seminal 1980 album has been re-issued on CD by Aztec Music. I think Ken from Forth Worth likes it.

Deluxe Pretty

One of the most eagerly-anticipated re-issues for this year has to be Died Pretty's staggering full-length debut "Free Dirt".

Aztec Music is planning to give it the luxury make-over with a pile of demo's, live-to-air tracks and both sides of the "Stoneage Cindarella" single making up a double-disc package. It's much the same way that Citadel treated the "Doughboy Hollow" re-birthing (a copy of which you'd be mad not to procure here.)

Roughly coinciding with the re-issue, there will be two gigs by Died Pretty - the already sold-out Homebake festival in Sydney on December 6 and the E.G. Awards at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda on December 4.

Full info on the Aztec re-issue here.

Harem Scarem- reissue and reformation

It's about time this thing got a run.

The good people at Atzec Music have just reissued Harem Scarem's astonishing 1986 LP, "Pilgrim's Progress", and its great to hear it again. It's been remixed, includes extra live tracks, b-sides and other good stuff, and also has a fat booklet of liner notes, including some very interesting observations from singer Chris Marshall, although no one's ever been able to explain that cover art to my satisfaction. I've had it on high rotation for the past week or so. The band are reforming for one show only (or at least, no other shows have been confirmed as yet) at the Corner Hotel on March 29th.

Anyway, another dig in the archives brought this to light:

Forgive my bias when I say that B Side was Australia's best fanzine for much of the 1980s. The Harem Scarem piece mentioned on the cover is an interview that the lovely Caroline Birkett, assistant editor, did with Chris about a month before the album came out, and is still a pretty good read.






As ever, just click on those images to enlarge.

Lethal Weapons reissue

The Lethal Weapons compilation was a milestone in Australian musical history when it was originally released back in 1979.
Now, nearly 30 years on, it has been re-tooled for reissue as an enhanced CD, by Aztec Records, and is due to hit the shelves in early August.
To mark the occasion, I’m doing a bit of a piece for the I94 Bar, and am seeking some input.
I want anecdotes and memories and thoughts on the album, the bands, the people and the era in general from those who were there, who played on the album, or who went to the gigs.
You can send me a paragraph or two as a simple email, or I am happy to get into longer exchanges- via email/chat, face to face, or over the phone.
All due credit will be given to those who put their hand up. Oh, and feel free to pass this on to anyone you think may have something to contribute.

Thanks in advance
email address- tjhoneysuckle@gmail.com

Vale Lobby Loyde

The passing of Lobby Loyde should not pass without mention.

For those not aware (and the media mentions have been low-key by comparison to some of his contemporaries), Australian guitar innovator Lobby Loyde died on Saturday night, aged 65. He had been fighting lung cancer.

Lobby was the quintessential outlaw who made his mark as leader of the (ultimately infamous) Coloured Balls, a searing and often innovative guitar band that influenced a long string of bands following in their wake. The obvious (Rose Tattoo, Billy Thorpe) and less so (Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain) owe Lobby a debt. Julian Cope and Steven Malkmus (Pavement) are among Lobby’s fans. The guy also went on to manage and/or produce acts like the Sunnyboys, X, Painters & Dockers and Sardine v.

The last few years have been something of a Lobby revival, with almost all of his prodigious output re-issued in generously re-mastered form by Aztec Music. It runs the whole gamut - from searing boogie-rock to blues excursions and trippy, psychedelic prog. “Ball Power” remains an Australian hard rock landmark. Half a Cow also compiled the entire recorded output of his earliest band, the Purple Hearts, and this week issued a collection chronicling his boundary-pushing rock-jazz outfit, the Wild Cherries.

I was lucky enough to interview Lobby for the I-94 Bar in 2006 in the midst of Aztec’s re-issues program. He was medicated (I later found out) to block out the pain and struggling for breath, but his raw enthusiasm for music cut through. Fuck, we’ve lost some good ones lately.

X (still) marks the spot

Whatever misgivings you might still have about a Rilen-less X treading the boards, consider putting them aside and having a gander at the re-formed band when they strut their stuff in Melbourne and Sydney. The occasion will be the re-launch of "At Home With You", shortly to be re-packaged (with bonus live disc) by Aztec Music.

May 3 at Ding Dong (Melbourne) and May 17 and 19 (the Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills, Sydney) are the dates. Most of what you need to know is on the poster above (click on i t to read it), except for the fact that Sydney punters can buy their tix from the Excelsior this week (probably from Wednesday.) Do not wait. The two nights will sell out fast.

The other thing you need to know if there's a distinct possibility that this line-up (Steve Lucas-Cathy Green-Kim Volkman) will be in a studio soon, recording a host of old previously unrecorded X gems.