The Manikins ~ Premonition

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)