Scientists on Countdown

[professor]

Couldn't find the thread about Aussie post-punk top 10s and what have you but I did find this, a little nugget of gold from our ABC Sunday evening chart show, Countdown.

[professor]

And those who got banned from Countdown after performing Erotic Neurotic and disparaging remarks about the show

[Mrs Trellis]

oh, I thought this was going to be a clip of Tubby's protege sat in dictionary corner!

[al]

nice one, prof!

[professor]

Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy levelled the city of Darwin, years later le Hoodoo Gurus with the Scientists' drummer James Baker wrote a pop song about it. One of the great live bands back in the day. As you can probably tell, there was a distinct 60s flavour to this period of Australian Rock and Roll.

[professor]

[professor]

Bands like the Scientists and the Gurus tended to get a little less hip and little more popular when James Baker left their number. The dude had some weird sort of star quality which made this song pretty hyped before it got released, a bit less when people heard it. As you can see his waistline was expanding as the drink took control of him. He was a beer monster last time I saw him. The pub at the start is the Hopetoun Hotel where I used to work back when this shit was all happening, it was good fun! One time the bassist from the Gurus, Clyde Bramley, brought PJ Proby out in an attempt to promote a tour. There were rehearsals, chaos galore, a lot of money blown and the Hopetoun had PJ Proby sitting there as a newly resident barfly, day after day drinking away Clyde's cash.

[Ekki]

Fine clips and nice stories, Prof!
Keep them coming

[professor]

a great band and this tune was the most played on the Hopetoun's jukebox along with the Beasts of Bourbon (featuring James Baker!)'s version of "Psycho". The beefy bassplayer is a mate of mine, Billy Gibson, who was once a Lemonhead and is part of my favourite covers band "Shaggin Wagon" who have been playing together since they met at high school in the 70s.
Singer for the Eastern Dark (named after a Phantom Comic) James Darroch, was killed when the band's van crashed on the Hume Highway on the way to gigs in Melbourne. There's necessarily a lot of driving done by bands in Australia and quite a few bands have had serious crashes. My good buddies The Re-Mains, a country rock and roll band, were touring in the NOrthern Territory (home of no speed limits and no fences) a few years back when a cow wandered out in front of them late at night. The steering column snapped and the van veered uncontrolled off the road coming to rest between two huge boulders - they were lucky in a way although the two blokes in the front seat were severely injured and aren't yet fully recovered.

[professor]

A bit lighter on the raw rock action but still very much a favourite band of mine. The Mentals first played on a pool table in an inner Sydney pub and became genuine pop sensations. Elvis Costello heard their early single "If you leave men can I come too?" loved the lyric and produced this tune. He has produced a couple of my favourite records over the years including "Rum Sodomy and the Lash" and "The Specials" and to have him team up with the Mentals was a bit of a dream match-up for me. The Kiwi guitarist with the distinctive slide sound is one of my heroes, Reg Mombassa, who left the band to pursue his art fulltime and has gone from doing t-shirts for Mambo clothing to be one of the country's most collectible artists.
www.regmombassa.com/

[professor]

Another part of the Beasts of Bourbon puzzle, Spencer P Jones, out front of his cowpunk combo The Johnnys. Very much in the Mojo Nixon (who they often toured with) mould, The Johnnys, were always nothing short of a drunken blowout hoot when they played. There were two Kiwis in the band (Spencer and bassist Graham Hood) who were both married, appropriately, to barmaids at the Hopetoun.

[professor]

from Dubbo, a regional town not too far from Goolie, the Reels had the pop chops and were a welcome dose of new wave regional weirdness in the guitar swamp.

[professor]

Back in the day I worked as a roadie for a while and, in the crew, was reputedly a member of the Psycho Surgeons. He never talked about it, I wish he did as every thing I hear from the Surgeons, I dig.

[professor]

So rare the band don't remember filming it and no-one I know recalls ever having seen it until this week!
This band were my favourites when I was at Uni in Canberra, Nic Dalton the bassplayer now heads Half A Cow records and was a Lemonhead for a bit, Geoff Milne the drummer lives up the north coast countryman style and unfortunately the guitarist Stevie Plunder is no longer with us having leapt off Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains. He was a gem.

[consciouspilot]

The Saints "I'm Stranded" LP would be in my top ten Desert Island Discs...just a brilliant record!
Cheers Prof,
Pilot

[gryffe]

seconded on the brilliance on "i'm stranded" pilot, although not in my top 10

[professor]

I love that record too - thrilling. Given the arch conservative state of Queensland at the time it was made it is a fucking miracle. They'd heard of Radio Birdman but pretty much invented themselves in the housing commission hell of Inala.

[Ekki]

[Ekki]

[professor]

coincidences galore in those postings Ekki firstly, the bassplayer in the Celibate Rifles clip is the singer in the Eastern Dark clip above (he left the year after that was filmed and, just the other night we had visitors in Gooloogong, which is rare enough, but in the dinner coversation it was revealed that our guest used to do sound for the Rifles as did my partner Jo's ex-boyfriend back in the day when they were both sharing a house with Rob Younger from Radio Birdman.

[diddleybop]

may as well throw johnny Kannis(?) and the hitmen into the mix.
And what about "the spectre's revenge" Another classic "North of the border " band that were around in the early 80"s before musical tags wer'e invented .. ah the good old days.

[diddleybop]

The Johnny's played a gig of sorts recently in Melbourne , which i could not attend. Much is the shame...still awaiting for local feedback. Mind you it may have been a beer fest, one reason I didn't attend..still " i think your cute" rules.. as i recall there was a strong Johnny's / corpse grinder's connection in the 80's

[diddleybop]

Proff are you uploading your own personal video recordings as this is a Donny southerland interview.. for scientist's. The quality is excellent. If you have amy more please post.

[Nick Pace]

Spencer P Jones of The Johnny's played at the Kings Arms in Auckland last sunday.
I was planning on going, but ended up with such a bad cold I stayed in feeling sorry for myself instead.
Am I the only person that thinks the only bad thing about Radio Birdman was Rob Younger?
The Visitors (basically Radio Birdman with Mark Sisto singing) were a great improvement.
I've been listening to lots of Deniz Tek's solo stuff recently, & he's a way better singer than Rob Younger.

[professor]

they're not mine diddleybop, all from youtube. I have mates who went to the Johnnys show in Melbourne the other week and it was the usual drunken carryon and great fun they reckon. they played the Tote in Melbourne earlier this year
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCiOGKK9A8w&feature=related
The original pre-Spencer line-up with Roddy Radalj played in Sydney not long ago too.
Corpse Grinders and the Johnnys shared bills a lot, not sure of any other connection as back in those days the Johnnys were Sydney and the CGs from Melbourne

[Ekki]

Haven't heard from Louis Tillett for a long time now.
I hope he's well.

[professor]

Louis never looks too well but he is still kicking and plays with a mate of mine at his old stomping ground, the Sandringham every now and then. I once saw him play a gig with both hands bandaged after burning both hands cooking potato chips on his stove.

[professor]

cool clip Ek, never seen that before.

[Ekki]

It's my fave song from the Wet Taxis and I was happy to find a clip of it, glad you like it

I discovered Louis when his first album "Egotripping" came out, since the Flying Nun heydays I always had an ear for music from Down Under. I once saw Louis & Charlie Owen live in the early 90s in a wonderful little club called "Negativ" in Frankfurt. I even spoke a few words with Louis but he seemed so irritated by my words (fanboy talk), that I decided it was better to leave him alone. The concert was wonderful.

I got the "From the Archives" album (with "Sailor" as bonus single) from a friend who made a trip to Australia (early 90's again) and was sent record shopping by me.

His main mission was to bring some Laughing Clowns stuff. All he could discover was the "Everything that flies" album and that turned out to be a German pressing ;D

Ah, the world was wonderful and much more mysterious in the days before the internet, it was bigger and you could discover real treasures

[professor]

Louis is an odd cove and guards his 'mystique' in most situations from what I've seen. He used to play at the Hopetoun when I worked there but I can't recall conversing. Charlie Owen is a champion guitarist, the consummate sideman. He did some good records with Tex Perkins from the Beasts of Bourbon (who he also plays with) and Don Walker from Cold CHisel.