Hi everyone. Just a quick note to let you know that the Loaded Dice CD reissue is now available to buy at www.zerohourrecords.com.au
Oct
06
I got some sad news today that George Heathcote, frontman for the great Chalice lost his battle with cancer this morning. I am working on releasing their complete anthology on CD early next year.
R.I.P. George
Sep
09
Hey power pop fans. I have been given the rights to re-issue this classic lost Australian album from 1979 onto CD for the first time. This is a truely hard to get LP down here and it’s finally see’s the light of day again. Great catchy little power pop rock songs with Beatlesque harmonies… take a listen to the post below and if you dig it.. then order it.. it really is a cool CD. Nice booklet included with history about the band and I have added their 3rd single which was never released as a bonus.
more info at www.zerohourrecords.com.au
Aug
28
I must admit I don’t know a lot about Cheek and there isn’t much on the net, so I will just write what I can remember about them. Cheek were more than likely a manufactured band judging by this slogan written across their two Australian single releases, it read “An Exercise In Powerpop”. It’s obviously a “Who Knows Who” release with the executive producer being rock jornalist and historian, and Easybeats fan Glenn A Baker. Baker obviously paid for these recordings and two where recorded at the famous Albert Studios with ex Easybeats members Vanda & Young producing. The first song on the EP is actually an Easybeats song, not one of their best either. The other two songs were produced by Charles Fisher (INXS and other big Australian groups). Being a rock writer, Baker also wrote articles and snippets for Greg Shaw’s BOMP magazine in the USA and of course that’s where this release comes from. Shaw released the four songs on his VOXX label in 1980 but ommiting one song for another (Leave My Heart Alone) while Baker released the two singles in Australia in 1977 and 1978. The whole Cheek thing was definately an experiment because only one of the five songs they released was an original composition.
These are some fairly good powerpop versions of some well known songs from The Rolling Stones, The Easybeats, P.F. Sloan and The Rubinoos. “Still In Love” is the only original song and there is no more known recordings from Cheek as far as I know. Maybe Baker has some in the vaults? I’ll ask him next time I bump into him. I believe they have lots of these E.P.s over at Bomp Mail Order still available, well they did a few years back.
They came together, they recorded and then they disspeared forever.
City: Sydney
Year: 1977-1978
Label: Mushroom (Aust) Voxx (USA)
Format: 7″
Song: Do You Have Soul?
Song: Take Me For What I’m Worth
Song: So Much In Love
Song: Still In Love
Song: Leave My Heart Alone
Aug
23
Here’s a lost power pop gem from 1979. Loaded Dice where a hard working rock power pop band from band Perth that I would go see from time to time. They were touted as being the next big thing from the West and got signed to a major label, but like the “Boys” listed below, big things never happened. They had good songs and were very good at making the crowd rock in there home town but when they moved to Sydney it was hard to get the local crowds interested and it wasn’t long until they disbanded and returned home. They released a couple of singles and great album called “No Sweat” which had a lot of energy just like their live shows but poor sales pushed this album into the sale bins. I’m not sure if Mam’Selle is the first single or the second becasue I have never seen a copy of the other one. I remember seeing them on T.V. once playing the song “Telephone” which could mean that this one was the second.
Mam’Selle is rocking power pop track with lot’s of harmonies and hooks and a chorus sung in French no less. They should have toured France beacause this would have been a hit over there. Great stuff.
City: Perth
Year: 1979
Label: WEA
Format: 7″
Song: Loaded Dice – Mam’Selle
Aug
23
Formed in August 1976 as the Cheap Nasties and lay claim to the title of Perth’s first punk band. The original Cheap Nasties lineup was Kim Salmon (guitar/vocals), Neil Fernandes (guitar/vocals), Ken Seymour (bass/vocals) and Mark Betts (drums). Salmon left the Cheap Nasties in December 1977, to form The Scientists and then recruited Robbie Porritt as lead vocalist and changedtheir name to The Manikins. The raw punkj sound of the Cheap Nasties gradually gave way to a poppier, new wave-oriented musical direction.
The Manikins released two singles and a cassette only album between 1979 and 1980. After relocating to Melbourne, they broke up soon afterwards. Later in the mid 80’s the drummer registered the Manikins name and formed a new version of the band with a female vocalist and released some really bad new romantic synth style rubbish.
Premonition is a great skinny tie power pop song with a little punk edge in a kinda early Romantics or Stiv Bators way and is worth getting your hands on if you can afford it as it’s a high priced item these days.
The 1979 version comes from the self released single pictured above and the 1980 version is from a compilation called “West” and is a lot more slick in sound because it was recorded with a bigger budget. Their is also a different recorded version on their “Live Locally” cassette only release. (Now available on CD)
City: Perth
Year: 1979 and 1980
Label: Self Released
Format: 7″
Song: The Manikins – Premonition (1979 version)
Song: The Manikins – Premonition (1980 version)
Aug
22
The Innocents started out as a band call Beathoven from Tasmania circa 1977 who had a minor hit with a single “Shy Girl” After a year of touring and little success they got dropped by there label and the band split, only drift into Sydney seperatley and meet up again to reform as The Innocents. In 1980, They got signed to RCA and released two singles “Sooner or Later” and “Come Tonight” which I have put up here. The band didn’t last out the year and members slowly drifted apart and went their seprate ways which is shame as they were a great little power pop band. Luckily for us, the band reformed for awhile in 2000 and re-issued all their recordings onto CD, including the Beathoven recordings. As for the original singles, they are very hard to find these days but worth tracking down if you can because power pop this good is worth it. Think Raspberries and The Rubinoos and you have The Innocents.
City: Sydney
Year: 1980
Label: RCA
Format: 7″
Song: The Innocents-Come Tonight
Aug
20
Chalice were an English band that migrated to Perth, Western Australia in the early 70s and basically played covers of the day for a few years. After gathering a good fan base they moved to Sydney and recorded this one only album Produced by John English. Overflow is half originals and half cover versions including Seals and Crofts, Beach Boys and Mac Davis to name a few. The first single was the Beach Boys “Sail On Sailor” but is didn’t do very well with local radio picking up on the album track that I have featured here, an orignal called “In My World”. This track features a great Who sounding riff and the vocals are very reminicent of the Rubinoos, in fact if you didnt know who this was you would believe it was the Rubinoos. The album is patchy for the power pop collector and the song listed here is probably the best track on it. Still worth tracking down if you can find a copy. A classic lost power pop gem from 1975. enjoy
City: Perth
Year: 1975
Label: Polydor
Format: LP
Song: Chalice-In My World.mp3
Feb
05
Let me start off things with a great single which was the first for this part time combo. The band consisted of Dom Mariani (Vocals/Guitar), Gary Chambers (Drums) both from one of Australia’s best garage bands The Stems. Daryl Mather (Guitar/Vocals) from a great garage band called The Lime Spiders and Christian Houllemare (Bass) from a band called the Happy Hate Me Nots. These guys share a love for all things power pop and decided to cut a single together when the Stems where touring the east coast of Australia (The Stems are from the west coast) and found some spare time. The single took quite some time to record as parts where recorded in at least 3 different studios in Sydney during 1985.
This is an excellent jangly guitar pop song worth tracking down if you can (only about 1000 copies pressed) but you can also find it on an upcoming Someloves CD compilation which includes both sides of this single and their debut album plus bonus tracks. You can hear it here first ~ enjoy
City: Perth/Sydney
Year: 1986
Label: Citadel
Format: 7″
Song: Some Loves-It’s My Time
Jan
28
Welcome to my blog covering Australian Power Pop bands circa 1975 to 1995.
I have been collecting world-wide Power Pop bands for over 25 years and have a very large collection on hand. After communicating with people all over the world for some years I have found that not a lot of people have heard much Australian Power Pop music (especially the hard to get releases). Over the coming months I will be releasing 3 compilation CDs containing some of the rarest Power Pop bands from Australia, some of which I will preview here on this blog. These CDs will be available to buy from various sources via the internet but more on that when I finally get them pressed. Until then you can check back every now and then for updates and various samples from the CDs.
Until then ~ Sunny Daze
