Australian Power Pop 1975~1995
Covering 20 years of some cool releases from some great bands

The Manikins ~ Premonition

manikinsprem.jpg

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)

9 Responses to “The Manikins ~ Premonition”

  1. An out-and-out classic. Long-time fave. The riff is pure Gen X and will not quit!

  2. That version is off the later album. The version on the EP was much more subtle.

  3. I uploaded the wrong version of the song when I posted, that’s now fixed.

  4. There are at least 3 versions of this brilliant song, the version on West is even more produced than these two.

  5. Yay go the Manikins! ((ken is my dad ))

  6. Met my first girlfriend at a Manikins gig at the (Old) Vic in Subi back in 1980.. What a GREAT band!!! I used to have their singles but they have gone missing over the years..

    Does anyone know where I can acquire CD/MP3 of the following songs (not included on their CD release from a few years ago):

    Nuisance
    All I Care About
    Laugh 2 Loud

    Thanks
    Chris

  7. any chance of converting them to MP3 and emailing them to me?


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