Various Artists - 1987 - Ugly Things #3

 The Loved Ones - Everlovin' Man/The Pleazers - Hurtin' All Over/Machine Gun Kelly's Rejects - I'm Going Back/The Others - Why Can't She Be Mine/The Twilights - I'm Not Talking/Tony Barber - I Want Her Too/The Lost Souls - This Life of Mine/The Throb - One Thing to Do/The Modes - Baby Please Don't Go/The La De Da's - How Is the Air Up There/The Chants R&B - Neighbour, Neighbour/ Blue Stars - Social End Product/Larry's Rebels - Flying Scotsman/14 Steve & The Board - Farmer John/The Bobby James Syndicate - Hey Hey Hey/The Showmen - Naughty Girl/Russ Kruger - Keep Me Satisfied/The Easybeats - For My Woman

 

 

 

 The preliminary studies of the unique garage-dwelling Antipodean marsupial known commonly as UGLY THING (Uglidendrom Thingamibob) which were commenced with volume one of this folio (RVLP-02) and continued with volume two (RVLP-13), have now reached a critical stage. We at the Ugly Things Unit of the Raven Institute of Advanced Rockology are greatly concerned by the escalated pace of extinction of the species and the paucity of choice examples of its primal utterances. Accordingly, research for this folio, due to be completed in 1984, was not able to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion until 1987. However, the location, excavation and restoration programme, although denied government funding, remains high on the institute's priority list and further folios, monographs and definitive statements on the matter can be expected during 1988. Meanwhile, footnotes to our research follows.

If Melbourne's Loved Ones had left us with nothing more than the magnificent Loved One, they would have been enshrined in Oz Rock history books. That they were able to come up with a second classic as cataclysmic as the first is a cause for both wonderment and celebration. This legendary ensemble began life as the Red Onions Jazz Band, moving over to 'beat' music when jazz engagements became a little thin on the ground. Gerry Humphreys' undeniable charisma and the band's deep, mysterious blues base gave the Loved Ones a primal appeal that has not diminished in two decades ............

The half Kiwi-half Oz Pleazers formed in Brisbane but came to fame in New Zealand, where they scored a string of hits on the Zodiac label around 1965, including Last Night, Gloria and Like Columbus Did. Bass player Ron Peel was the most notable member, ending up in the latter edition of the La De Das and his own Rockwell T. James & The Rhythm Aces. Hurtin' All Over is the meanest track the prolific outfit laid down ............

From Auckland we move to Adelaide, where Rick Morrison was emerging as a guitar hero equivalent to Brisbane's Lobby Loyde. After searing ears in the original Masters Apprentices, he formed blues-rock Others, who were poorly represented on disc by one Festival single, Dancing Girl. In fact, the band had another single ready for release but it was deemed too raucous and never saw the light of day. Why Can't She Be Mine? is one side of that lost single, made available by Ian Nancarrow, who leads the band to this day. After leaving the Others, Morrison put together Machine Gun Kelly's Rejects, a pile-driving unit never officially captured on disc. From the sounds of the demo tape I'm Going Back, that was a great shame ............

Adelaide's incredibly vibrant beat scene was dominated by the all-powerful Twilights, a consummate pop outfit who could handle hard-edged rhythm & blues as well as any maniacal garage band. Fronted by the venerable Glenn Shorrock, and powered by guitarist/songwriter Terry 'What's Love Got To Do With It' Britten, the musically superb Twilights left behind a few thunderous thumpers, Mose Allison's I'm Not Talking being one ..............

Englishman Tony Barber was the hip lad who turned Billy Thorpe onto what was going down in the British Isles, r&b-wise, in 1964. As a member of the ofiginal Aztecs he wrote quality songs, such as Blue Day and (for Ray Brown & The Whispers) That's Evil. He scored a big solo hit with Someday and cut one fine beat album for Spin, from whence I Want Her Too has come. Tony married Go-Set reporter Sue 'Pretzel' Peck in April 1967 and, when last heard of, was a partner in Billy Thorpe's 'Sunshine Friends' cuddly toy project. He is not and has never been a quiz show compere ............

Bassist Bill Putt began his recording career in New Zealand with Mike Rudd in the monumentally magnificent Chants R&B, who may possibly be the world's most ferocious garage band, ever. After driving the dials off the meters with I'm Your Witchdoctor (coming on vol. 4) and Neighbour, Neighbour, the band headed for the lucrative Melbourne disco scene and disintegrated soon after. By 1966, Rudd had popped up in the Party Machine with Ross Wilson, while Putt was leading The Lost Souls, winners of 3AK's Star Seeker quest (look for an EP of unissued tracks, on the Kavern 7 label). Putt and Rudd reunited in Spectrum which in turn led to Ariel, Instant Replay, the Heaters and W.H.Y . ............

One Thing To Do is the last of our cache of unreleased tracks by Sydney quartet The Throb, comprised of John Bell, Marty Van Wynk, Peter Figures and Denny Burgess, the various activities of whom have been well documented on other Raven albums ............

Not so documented is The Modes, a little known band from the rural Victorian city of Shepparton who made it through to the grand final of the 1966 Hoadley's National Battle of the Sounds (won by The Twilights) and should have been nationally famous. From that event comes a ferocious version of Mary Johnson's blues classic Baby Please Don't Go, which is at least as good as Them's and almost as good as AC/DC's. If you're out there fellas, please write for your royalties! ............

The superb La DeDas dominated the New Zealand pop/rock scene in 1965-66 and must be the only band in the world to take a Blue Magoos song to number one. That's exactly where their killer treatment of How Is The Air Up There? ended up, although Australia managed to ignore it. Axe master Kevin Borich is now part of The Party Boys with Status Quo's Alan Lancaster ...........

Of the Blue Stars we can tell you little, except that they recorded on the long-defunct Allied· label in New Zealand and that Social End Product is so good it's unbelievable ............

We can tell you all about Larry's Rebels, the inheritors of the La De Das pop crown in the land of the long white cloud. Led by Larry Morris they could turn their hands to just about anything, from religious Christmas hymns to great garage gunge. While supporting the Yardbirds around New Zealand, they were taught the chords to Train Kept A Rolling by Mr Jimmy Page himself and then proceeded, with his blessing, to transform them into their own instrumental piece, Flying Scotsman ............

Steve 'Physical' Kipner, like Terry Britten, used 60's Oz Rock as a springboard to international songwriting success. The son of record producer Nat Kipner, his Steve & The Board landed a deal with Nat's Spin label (funny about that!) and had some small success with Giggle Eyed Goo. Drummer Colin 'Smiley' Peterson was summoned to London to join the Bee Gees in 1966. Steve & The Board's version of the Premiers' Farmer John is immeasurably tougher than the Searchers'........

The Bobby James Syndicate were a straight 'clubby' looking quintet on the Go!! label who left behind one strong side in HeyHey Hey. After that, zilch ............

The considerably accomplished Showmen beat out 57 other hopeful bands to take out the 1965 Battle of the Bands at Sydney Stadium and land the support role on the Dave Clark 5 tour. lan Hamilton and Baden Hutchinson ended
up in the Missing Links while Tony Hamilton remerged in (Gus &) The ·Nomads and Pirana. Naughty Girl has been on the Ugly Things short list since vol 1 ............

Big voiced Russ Kruger the lesser-known brother of Johnny Rebb, is generally seen as a 50's style performer, despite his fine sides with the Atlantics. Keep Me Satisfied may well reorientate some erroneous conceptions .....

Finally, the bravest debut Australian single of the 60's. Signed to a plum recording deal, the young Easybeats could have played it safe and done a cover version or even a cute catchy original (which they could knock out in their sleep) to announce themselves. Instead, their calling card was a piece of harsh, uncompromising self-penned r&b, which dared radio to take them as they were. In fact, For My Woman did initially fail, though it became a late hit after She's So Fine took off. No wonder we loved 'em so!

Various Artists - 1989 - Ugly Things (Down Under Dreamtime) #4 FLAC

  James Taylor Move - And I Heard The Fire Sing/Wright Of Waye - Sun God/Inside Looking Out - Long Live Sivananda/The Easybeats - Peculiar Hole In The Sky/Wild Cherries - Krome Plated Yabby/Jeff St. John & The Id - Eastern Dream/House Of Nimrod - Slightly Delic/The Vegetable Garden - Hypnotic Suggestion/The Bucket - I Can't Help Thinking Of You/Hi-Revving Tongues - Tropic Of Capricorn/The Master's Apprentices - Living In A Child's Dream/Procession - Listen/Larry's Rebels - Halloween/Vyt & The World - Tiny Timothy/Simple Image - Spinning, Spinning, Spinning/The Twilights - Time & Motion Study Man/The Love Machine - The Lonely Hearts Club Christmas Party/The Questions - And Things Unsaid/Terry Britten - Bargain Day/The Dave Miller Set - Mr. Guy Fawkes

 

 

 More than ten years ago, in the liner notes to the double Festival album So You WannaBe A  Rock'n'Roll Star Vol. 2, I observed that, in Australia, "Mind-expansion failed because of the poor quality of raw material it had to work upon". What I was trying to say was that psychedelia was very much an alien concept in a frontier nation where brawling at a Saturday night suburban dance was closer to the prevailing community spirit than sniffing flowers or pondering eastern philosophies.

From 1967 to 1970, Australian rock, along with its creators, was swept along by the tide of history, with only a peripheral understanding of the forces at play. Pop music moved out of Melbourne's steamy discotheques into Sydney's thriving dances and finally onto open acreage. We intently observed
Monterey and Woodstock and then, following a long tradition of apeing the rest of the world, tried rock festivals ourselves.

Off we trooped to Ourimbah, with painted faces and lank locks, professing undying love for fellow man. However, it took only a few years of sitting in muddy fields dodging beer cans, watching stoned, hirsute guitarists gaping at their sandalled feet during twenty minute solos, for us to give the whole thing up as a bad joke and retreat to the more comforting strains of relentless pub boogie.

Given the stifling conservatism of radio and the recording industry in those years, it is hardly surprising that few remnants of Australia's psych years have survived. Many legendary entities, such as The Haze, The Trip, The Knack, The Square Circle, The Revolution, Nutwood Rug Band, Knomes Of Obelia,
The Optronic Eye, Sons Of A Vegetal Mother, Luke's Walnut, Compulsion, Plastic Tears and Molten Hue, did not make it to vinyl at all. Yet, as a few years of diligent detective work has revealed, there was considerably more to Australasian cosmic consciousness and feedback frenzy than we all might have supposed. This album, first thought to be an EP if it was lucky, filled rapidly with worthy inclusions. So much so, that a second volume might well be possible.

We begin with the plainly Hendrix-inspired And I Heard The Fire Sing, the A-side of a single flipped over to reveal the eventual local hit, Magic Eyes, Adelaide quartet The James Taylor Move was assembled by a sharp disco owner to cash in on the rising popularity of Hendrix and Cream. Leader Robert Taylor was joined by Trevor Spencer and, freshly returned from England, former Johnny Broome & The Handels members Alan Tarney and Kevin Peek (the latter a founding Twilights member). With Twilight Terry Britten (represented here with one side of his 1969 solo single -Bargain Day) in place of Taylor, the outfit later recorded in London as Quartet During his days in the Glenn Shorrock-led Twilights, Britten had been responsible for some fine pyschedelic moments, such as Comin' On Down, Patemosta Row and, included here, Time & Motion Study Man.

Tarney, now Cliff Richard's creative mainstay (and former producer of Bow Wow Wow and Leo Sayer), was also the producer of a fascinating one-off single by The Bucket, a band of impeccable pedigree. There was Ian Nancarrow (guitar) and Geoff Gurr (bass) from The Others, Albert Sawyer (drums) from Blues Syndicate, and Andy Wilkinson (vocals/harmonica) from Blues Rags & Hollers. I Can't Help Thinking Of You was written by the great Mick Bower of the Masters' Apprentices, who of course also penned that group's third national hit, Living In A Child's Dream (which in turn inspired the now-legendary Child's Dream Ball at Sydney University).

Certainly Adelaide (also base of Inside Looking Out) is well represented on this collection, but not quite as strongly as Sydney, Australia's undisputed psychedelic centre. It was in the harbour city that The Questions, gruff Doug Parkinson's second recording band (after The A-Sound) tossed aside
rudimentary r&b and pop and went in search of heightened awareness with the brooding And Things Unsaid, a real curio. Meanwhile over at the dank Here Disco in North Sydney, the blues-besotted Jeff St. John & The Id (soon to become the ultra-cosmic Varna) were delving into an Eastern Dream, to
the detriment of their mortal souls.

Vyt & The World, powered by songwriter/guitarist Chris Eggleton were responsible for the unashamed hippie cash-in Flower Children. The gentle, nursery room-whimsical Tiny Timothy is a rarer later single for the band who crashed through a mighty version of the Remains Why Do I Cry? on Ugly
Things #2. The Love Machine are best known to us as The Black Diamonds, whose I Want, Need, Love You was the undisputed highlight of Ugly Things #1. They later became Tymepiece and were then renamed Love Machine by producer Pat Aulton for the recording of the timely hit The Lion Sleeps
Tonight (to co-incide with the 1968 opening of the Warragamba Uon Park). The Blue Mountains band hung onto their new moniker long enough to record an album and an EP, which carried the phased (everyone wanted their own ltchycoo Park) Lonely Hearts Club Christmas Party.

The heavily publicised Wright Of Waye was led by Missing Unks member John Jones (recently responsible for the screenplay of Amityville Horror 3) and renowned for frenzied stage performances. They cut two singles -one for the independent Natec label and one for Philips (Sun God). Unfortunately, good press couldn't keep them together and they disbanded without the fame they so richly deserved. The Dave Miller Set came together in New Zealand as The Byrds and crossed the Tasman around 1966. By 1969 the unit's strength lay in musical centrepiece John Robinson, a fearsomely inventive and impressive guitarist who had previously played with blues outfit Monday's
Children and was, by this stage, besotted by Jimmy Page. The overpowering Mr Guy Fawkes -an absolute highwater mark in pop production of the era was put down on a humble 4 track machine at Festival by the ever-clever Pat Aulton, having previously been recorded (with far less grandeur) by obscure British band Eire Apparent.

The more rock'n'roll orientated Melbourne came over to the psychedelic cause with a little less enthusiasm than Sydney, although it can claim the most commercially successful pop-psych single of all in Russell Morris' The Real Thing/Part Three Into Paper Walls. The city's only inclusion here is Listen by the magnificent Procession, an ambitious band which evolved from New Zealand's Librettos and Normie Rowe's 'new' Playboys. Fronted by later Manfred Mann Earth Band vocalist Mick Rogers and creatively powered by superb songwriter Brian Peacock, Procession made history by debuting with
an a capella single and a live album and eventually recorded in England under producer Mike Hugg. Listen was the group's second single.

Perth's Vegetable Garden were not quite so substantial. In fact they were non-existant In the wake of the number one success of The Real Thing, Clarion Records boss Martin Clarke instructed Times (later Strangers) leader Terry Walker to whip into the studio with a bunch of local musos and come up with a cash-in. Not only did Hypnotic Suggestion not work in Perth, it was not even released nationally via Clarion's arrangement with Festival Records (and is thus unimaginably rare!)

And so to the Shaky Isles. So many New Zealand sixties bands seemed determined to be louder, wilder, harsher and more extreme than any outfits from Dublin to Dallas (to wit Chants R&B). There seems to be no end to the surprises contained on Kiwi 60s vinyl. We can't find anyone who knows anything much about House Of Nimrod, except that they recorded for Festival NZ and, apart from the engaging Slightly Delic, are known for another psych killer called (we think) Psychothartic, Simple Image were a
little more prominent, to the extent of having a number one national hit with the Howard Gable-produced Spinning, Spinning, Spinning, yet another phasing phun phest The outfit later recorded under Peter Dawkins (Ulla) and provided a springboard to solo jazz and rock success for leader Barry Leaf.

Auckland's Hi Revving Tongues are best known in Australia as early 70s Sydney based band The Tongues, who stirred a little action with their cover of Aphrodite's Child's European hit Rain And Tears on the Chart label. However, Tropic Of Capricorn takes us back to the perfumed garden of 1967 and
stands as one of the better antipodean 'period pieces'. The bass player on this track, John Walmsley, found his way to America, where he became a member of major chart act The Lemon Pipers (whose Green Tambourine is quite a pysch classic in its own right).

The prolific Larry's Rebels, the subject of one of Raven Records' finest but least recognised anthology albums, were adept at more styles of rock than any Australian band of the era. From snarling garage punk to sacred Christmas hymns to very classy psychedelic pop/rock, the band performed
confidently and imaginatively over a period of five years. Halloween, from the pens of vocalist Larry Morris and guitarist John Williams was the tenth of 15 commercially released singles.

And that, all things considered, is that GLENN A BAKER

Album compiled by Glenn A Baker, Pete Shillito and Kevin Mueller. Released by exclusive arrangement with Festival, EMI, CBS, Polygram Records, and Albert. Martin Clarke and Benny Levin Productions. All tracks recorded in Australia or New Zealand 1966-69. Front cover design by Cody Anderson. Back cover art by ADCO. Special thanks to Dean Mittlehauser, Chris Eggleton, ian Nancarrow, Martin Clarke, Vera Rizzo, Steve Fahey, Peter Dawkins. Album mastered by Warren Barnett.

 

Shihad - 1995 - Killjoy FLAC

 You Again/Gimme Gimme/The Call/Envy/Debs Night Out/Bitter/For What You Burn/Silvercup/Get Up

Shihad are a rock band formed in Wellington, New Zealand in 1988. The band consists of founders Tom Larkin (drums, backing vocals, samplers), Phil Knight (lead guitar, synthesiser, backing vocals) and Jon Toogood (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), who were joined by Karl Kippenberger (bass guitar, backing vocals) in 1991. The band were known as Pacifier between 2002 and 2004.

Six of Shihad's studio albums have peaked at number one–The General Electric (October 1999), Pacifier (September 2002), Beautiful Machine (April 2008), Ignite (September 2010), FVEY (August 2014) and Old Gods (October 2021). They share the honour for most number-one records for any New Zealand artist with Hayley Westenra. As of 2014 Shihad had the most Top 40 New Zealand chart singles for any local artist, with 25; three of these reached the top ten. The singles "Home Again", "Pacifier", and "Bitter" are listed at No. 30, 60 and 83, respectively, in the Nature's Best compilation, an official collection of New Zealand's top 100 songs.