Saturday 20 August 2011

The Word - I Think I'm Falling In Love 7" Infinity K7781, 1980

You're probably familiar with the Inner City Sound discography, and how after studying it for two decades you think you have a handle on it. Then you realise there's an obscure Infinity label record right at the end - no other mention in the book, or elsewhere really. Damn!

Well here it is. The Word were a punk band from Canberra who started in 1978. In 1980 they somehow got to record this single in Sydney. It was released on Festival subsidiary Infinity, continuing that label's flirtation with powerpop while they sat on money made from Sherbet. Festival house producer Martin Erdman sat behind the desk.

Members over the band's existence included Michael Moriarty (vocals/guitar), Peter Palij (guitar), Terry Sounder (vocals/guitar), Archie Van Der Glass (bass), Frankie Villegas (bass, on the record) and Darcy Deegan (drums).

The record is somewhat over-produced, and, at the best of times, if there's one word to describe the Canberran approach to playing guitar it's tentative. Nevertheless, the band's enthusiasm shines through, and the Only Ones style vocal inflections are effective. As poppy Oz Rock it fit the sounds of the time and we're kinda surprised it wasn't some kind of hit. The flipside, Angel, is less distinguished - ramping up the Oz Rock at the expense of the powerpop. Only Moriarty troubled the compilers of the Who's Who Of Australian Rock again, ending up in the Gadflys.

I Think I’m Falling In Love [Download]


The Word, from Canberra Punk & Beyond on Facebook.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Luke,
The Word ended up living in Bondi Beach and played regulary around Sydney traps in 1980 such as The Metropole Tavern and the Astra Hotel.
Darcy ended up in another Sydney band but i think he swapped his drums for a guitar the bands name escapes me at the moment .
Andy

Anonymous said...

I like it. There is another good photo on that Canberra site of a group of punks lounging about out the front of the Civic Hotel in Sydney with a poster for The Word right up front. Classic.
Steve

George said...

awesome.. sounds like Chinese Rocks a bit

Philippe said...

Yet another discovery thanks to this blog.I normally don't comment, but I just wanted to say thanks for putting this up on the web.