Sunday 14 April 2013

Thorburn - Brick Wall 7" Mouth MTH.SP.001, 1978

Euan Thorburn was a fringe dweller in the early Melbourne scene and is vaguely remembered by various participants we've polled. As we hope you'd figured out by now, we love fringe dwellers, especially to the fringe scenes we cover. We'd like to be able to pinpoint exactly where he fit in but he hasn't answered our emails! Work with us, Euan. Anyway, Thorburn was a graphic artist (one of his better pieces appears below), who diversified into recording in 1978, the wonderfully loony Brick Wall / Charlie being the result. With its unique, DIY take on R'n'B, Brick Wall is the kind of thing that would have appeared on Charly, or Stiff, or maybe even Chiswick, had our man been in London, rather than the bleak city. We're also partial to the downer B-side.

Brick Wall eventually reappeared on Missing Link's Inner Sanctum LP, Keith Glass being a fan of the record through his record shops.

Thorburn still sits on the fringe, plying his trade as an artist - you can shop for his art here.

Brick Wall [Download]


Charlie [Download]


"Artwork by Euan Thorburn"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recall 'Brick Wall' featuring on the TV Show Flashez. Mike Mead thought it was great, but Ray Burgess wasn't so sure. Was there a film clip? I can't remember. Maybe they just played part of the song.
Steve

Anonymous said...

P.S. I trust this will be the only time we see Jon English on the site?
Steve

Anonymous said...

Steve's correct - there was definitely a film clip with this song.

Unknown said...

Definitely a film clip.....Ive been looking for it....my favourite song

Erica said...

Great bllog

Elaine said...

Back in the mid-1960s, Euan was part of a group called Blacksie’s Babies. He was working in advertising, at J. Walter Thompson at the time.