Wallaby Beat Visits Maximum Rock 'n' Roll Remote Radio

Some cheat notes from our episode of Maximum Rock 'n' Roll Remote Radio - listen here.

Our friends at Maximum Rock 'n' Roll have started a new series under the MRR Radio umbrella called Remote Radio. They're after peeps to cover their local area and we are more than happy to throw our hat in the ring and do a show on the punk side of Wallaby Beat, covering the blog's greatest hits, some stuff we would have covered if life didn't catch up, some stuff from the label, and some recent reissues that we rate. Contact MRR if you want do do a show from your scene.



Stiletto – Nuclear War
Unreleased, Melbourne 1978
Never released on vinyl, Stiletto were one of a number of Melbourne pub rock bands (Jo Jo Zep, Sports) asked to "react" to punk rock for an ABC late night show Rocturnal. Bassist Celeste Howden's (later in Stray Dags) one note open string bass is a highlight but everything from siren to explosion is great. Unfortunately, none of Stiletto's records sound like this. The drummer was later in the Traitors. Singer Jane Clifton was in Prisoner - Cell Block H.

The Rejected – Nuclear War
From First Offence 7", Sydney 1985
We wrote about The Rejected and their early example of Australian d-beat here. All we can add to the story is to revise the scum stats. The pressing size of 300 quoted in our earlier piece seems to have first appeared in a set sale list drafted by Gus Chambers from Rupture in the late-'90s, and has been repeated uncritically ever since (including by us). In fact, there were two distinct pressings, and the total quantity is larger - probably 500 between the two pressings.

British Jets - Another Day In The City
From only 7", Sydney 1980
Read more about the British Jets single here.

Invader - Don’t Blame It On Me
From only 7", Sydney 1981
Albert Studios, Machine Gun Rock. Read more here.

Flying Calvittos - Squeal Like A Pig
From Goodbye You Spaghetti Punks 7", Sydney 1980
Read more here. Take a deep breath, completists - there appear to have been two pressings of this one, too. Also now reissued on Insolito Records from Berlin.

Plastic EP and the Records - So You Want To Make A Record
Unreleased, Melbourne 1981
Our favourite nutcases. Read more here.

The Screaming Abdabs - We Don’t Wanna
From split LP with City Ram Waddy, Sydney 1978/released 2016
Paris Theatre 1978. Read more here.

City Ram Waddy - Walking The Dog
From only 7", Sydney 1979
Read more here.

Ulsers - Julius Sumner Miller
From Forget Them LP, Adelaide 1981-2/released 2014
We released the Remember Them 7” and the Forget Them LP. Read more here.
Buy it here or in Europe here.

Delegates - Never Let It Get Ya Down
From their only 7", Melbourne 1980.

Squadron Leader! - 1,2,3,4
From their only 7", Melbourne 1981/Gold Coast 1984.
Melbourne punk band who moved to the Gold Coast. The good side of their sole 45.

U-Bombs - It’s Automatic
From Live At The Marryatville cassette, Adelaide 1978
Live At The Marryatville was released by Simon Stretton of Black Chrome on his Tomorrow label, and documents 1978 live performances by the U-Bombs, the Dagoes and the Accountants. Both the U-Bombs and the Dagoes subsequently released their own records but by that stage had evolved beyond punk, making Live At The Marryatville an important document of the early Adelaide scene. The U-Bombs set is fantastic, and the Dagoes' formative, full-throated version of their later "hit" This Perfect Band must be heard to be believed. The third band on the comp, The Accountants, is remembered by Adelaide scenesters as one of the best bands of the era to never release a record, and from the evidence on this recording we believe it (heavy on covers though it may be). See the full track listing of the tape here.

Banana Republik - Make Her Yellow
Unreleased, Sydney 1982
Unreleased, unknown, unhinged. Any info on these geezers welcome in the comments.

Editions - Right To Be Famous
From Aggression cassette, Melbourne 1981
The Aggression cassette came on the Greville label from Melbourne. Drummer Fred Negro was in, amongst many others, I Spit on Your Gravy, The Band Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Brady Bunch Lawnmower Massacre. Singer Sherine was in Big Pig.

Babeez - Mainline Honey
From a Buttercup Records 7", Melbourne 1977/released 2015
A track from the Pacific cassette which was sold at gigs in 1977. The whole thing was also released on a Buttercup LP.

The Last Words - I Hate The Sun
From Product 45 7", Sydney 1977/released 2015
Previously unreleased early Last Words track. Copies here. Malcolm Baxter: "I think we hated the sun more than any political party at that time!"

Public Execution - T.V. Suffragette
From Short Fuse/La Vida Es Un Mus LP, Brisbane 1983
Originally released on a split cassette with Kicks in 1983.

Death Of A Nun - It’s Your Fault
From Swashbuckling Hobo 7", Brisbane 1984/released 2017
Prev unreleased Brisbane punk, named after a 1975 Belgian film. Great guitar solo from Mark Birkys (Hard-ons and Subsonic Barflies). Also featured Mickey Scott and Peter Thompson from the Lompoc County Splatterheads, and Peter Green from the Barflies.

Cheap Nasties - Johnny Is A Heartbreaker
From the Numero Group 7"/cassette, Perth 1977/released 2016
Kim Salmon and members of the Manikins. A really great 7" that came with the recent Scientists 2xLP rerereissue.

The Victims - Elvis Is Dead
From the Culture Shock LP, Perth 1978/released 2014
Recorded live at Hernando's Hideaway in Perth, Australia on 5th of Jan 1978.

The Orphans – Bored
From the Exposed double CD-R, Perth 1978/released 2005
Ross Buncle's band. More info than you can comprehend here.

Arthur Dunstan (a.k.a. Ric Melbourne) - Sea Plane Poo Wong
From The Ric Melbourne Crazy Album LP, Melbourne 1978?
We have no words.

The Screaming Abdabs / City Ram Waddy LP out now

Pressing of 500 copies. Limited edition of 100 on pink vinyl, available only from Wallaby Beat - CLICK HERE to order.

The Screaming Abdabs shone brightly but briefly in the early Sydney punk scene, absorbing references from The Glitter Band, John Waters films, late night TV, Australian ‘60s punk and of course the Sex Pistols to create something loud, charismatic and uniquely Australian. Side 1 presents the Abdabs' sole recording, recently unearthed, never before released, and essentially unheard since 1978. Side 2 compiles two raw/rare/remarkable 1979 solo records by Abdabs drummer Richard "City Ram" Waddy. The City Ram Waddy 7" sets a benchmark for primitivism in Australian DIY, while the City Ram And Ja Mystics 12" achieves propulsive Suicide/PiL-like repetition, all the while infused with Waddy's idiosyncratic worldview. Astonishing.

Includes a Spurt! fanzine insert that folds out to a massive newsprint poster with detailed interviews, photos and press clippings.

Available in Australia from Wallaby Beat and record shops around the country (Repressed, Egg, Revolve, Beatdisc, Rocking Horse, Phase 4, Vicious Sloth, Lulu, AG Picks, Round and Round, Clarity etc.).

Mailorder/wholesale in the US through Revolver, Get Hip!, Forced Exposure, and Goner.

Limited quantities available from NAT Records in Japan.

SOLD OUT through Florida's Dying and Ugly Pop - sorry!

Tracklisting:

The Screaming Abdabs
1. So Pretty
2. I'm A Rocker
3. We Don't Wanna
4. It's You
5. Money Not Love
6. Burnin' Up Over Me
7. Surfin' Bird
8. Norbie, Sorta Love Story

City Ram Waddy
1. Walking The Dog / Poem
2. Memphis Tenn. / Poem
3. Double Adaptor
4. Cortez The Killer
5. Get Off My Cloud
6. Under My Thumb

The Screaming Abdabs - We Don't Wanna: The Paris Theatre Tape 1978

---

Out now on Wallaby Beat Records - CLICK HERE to order:

The Screaming Abdabs / City Ram Waddy LP (WBRX-2603)
Recently unearthed, previously unreleased 1978 recording by Sydney punks The Screaming Abdabs on side 1, and two raw/rare/remarkable 1979 solo records by Abdabs drummer Richard "City Ram" Waddy on side 2. The Screaming Abdabs shone brightly but briefly in the early Sydney punk scene, absorbing references from The Glitter Band, John Waters films, late night TV, Australian ‘60s punk and of course the Sex Pistols to create something loud, charismatic and uniquely Australian. Pressing of 500 copies, with 100 on pink vinyl. Includes a Spurt fanzine insert that folds out to a massive poster with detailed interviews, photos and press clippings.

---

Carmel on the back cover of
In The Gutter

The Screaming Abdabs were assembled in early 1978 as a vehicle for vocalist Carmel Strelein. A true iconoclast, Carmel cultivated a wild sense of personal style that made her instantly recognisable in the formative Sydney punk scene: shaved head, exaggerated eye make-up extending across her scalp, tattoos, piercings and outlandish custom altered clothes (notably, a knitted jumper with three arms, the extra limb stuffed to accentuate its strangeness). Her extreme aesthetic - informed by John Waters, Salvador Dali, Lindsay Kemp, and greaser movies on late night TV - unsurprisingly attracted attention. British photographer Norman Parkinson, known for his portraits of the royal family, travelled to Sydney in 1977 specifically to photograph Carmel, and the resulting shots were published over two pages in his 1978 book, Sisters Under The Skin. Other subjects included Bianca Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Queen Elizabeth and Miss Piggy(!). One particularly arresting photo of Carmel was reused later that year as the back cover for Val Hennesy’s In The Gutter, a UK punk exploitation book masquerading as sociology text.

There were less desirable kinds of attention too - from the cops, and from her peers. Here, Carmel and Simon McDowell (aka Simon Diamond) are interviewed in issue 1 of Spurt fanzine (1977) by editor Ian Hartley:

Hartley saw untapped potential in Carmel’s extreme persona, and by the time the second issue of Spurt went to press in late 1977, the pair had placed a notice on the back cover (supplemented by a poster in the foyer of the Paris Theatre) advertising for members for a new punk band, with Carmel as frontperson. Conceptually, Hartley and Spurt collaborator Dave Apps proposed two guiding themes. Firstly, the band should be uniquely Australian - in musical style, lyrical content, and in visual presentation. Secondly, after being floored by The Glitter Band's rhythm section on Gary Glitter's November 1973 Australian tour, Hartley and Apps decided to replicate that rhythm-heavy rumble on a punk budget - the drummer would use two bass drums and no cymbals.

From the back cover of Spurt #2

Guitarist Bruce Tindale, immersed in the Funhouse scene established by Radio Birdman, answered the ad in Spurt. Drummer Richard Waddy, an acolyte of X in the early, Ian Krahe line-up, answered the ad at The Paris. Nobody can quite remember how bass player Nick entered the fold. Nobody can quite remember his surname, either. Hazy memories recollect only that he was more "straight" than his bandmates, and also more musicianly. (Nick, if you're out there our email address is in the sidebar to the right). Following auditions at the Paris Theatre, which was then hosting regular punk gigs in addition to underground films and theatre performances, rehearsals began in earnest both at The Paris and at Hartley’s Spurt office on Oxford Street, Paddington. There, the band worked up a set of originals and a few, mostly Australian covers (AC/DC, Johnny O'Keefe, and It's You by Terry Dean, also covered later by Brisbane's The Credits). Carmel also set about shaping the band's look, with Bruce's shoulder-length hair being the first priority.

L-R: Bruce, Nick, Carmel and Richard at the Spurt office, Paddington, early 1978. Walls adorned with a Sex Pistols poster and the infamous Rose Tattoo Spurt front cover.

Carmel enforces the doctrine of short-haired rock and roll, and Bruce plays along. Ian Hartley in the background. (Photos: Stephen Best)

Before even deciding on a name, the new band debuted at a hurriedly-organised, low-key gig on March 6, 1978 at Blondies in Bondi Junction. The show was documented in Autopsy fanzine: "Carmel, who as usual was dressed to kill, all black body suit, stilettos & false eye lashes, delivered the vocals in a screeching style matched by her posturing... The band was loose but promising". More shows were booked at The Paris and at Blondies (the latter with an early, three-piece line-up of Rocks), and a name was locked in: The Screaming Abdabs.

The Screaming Abdabs at Blondies, 1978 (photo: Stephen Best)

The Screaming Abdabs' Paris Theatre show on April 12, 1978 was a scorching triple-bill - The Press, Johnny Dole & the Scabs, and The Abdabs as headliners. The Paris was packed, and the bands were greeted enthusiastically with a barrage of money, food and shoes thrown on stage. Radio station Double J's mobile recording truck had been camped at The Paris, recording performances from the likes of X, News, Survivors, Rocks, and the Boys Next Door for broadcast on Wednesday evenings. The Screaming Abdabs' set was recorded that night, but was never aired - Carmel reportedly badmouthed Double J between songs. Attempts to retrieve the tape at the time were unsuccessful, and it no longer exists in the ABC archives. The only extant cassette of the performance, from the collection of Bruce Tindale, is unlikely to be the Double J recording. It's more probable that the source was Ian Hartley, who habitually set up a reel-to-reel recorder through the Paris PA, and who gave the tape to Bruce shortly after the gig (Hartley also used one song - We Don't Wanna - on a cassette that came with issue 5/6 of Spurt, along with a version with the tape spooled backwards in homage to The Missing Links). That tape, expertly mastered by Mikey Young, comprises their side of the LP on Wallaby Beat.

The musical drive that Nick's bass playing brought to The Screaming Abdabs turned out also to be the band's undoing. Recalls Bruce: "He might have just felt this wasn't what he'd been thinking about as a nice band... He could play, whereas I could hardly play. He was very tolerant, for a while!". With the loss of their bass player, the band fell apart before the end of 1978. An attempt to revive a Carmel-led Abdabs, with the recruitment of a female bass player and an advertisement yet again placed in Spurt for a new guitarist and drummer, amounted to nothing. Bruce went on to play with The Professors, Room 101, Coupe de Ville, and Decline of the Reptiles. Richard adopted the name City Ram Waddy, and his incredible records from 1979 are compiled on side 2 of the Abdabs' Wallaby Beat LP.

Carmel moved from Sydney to San Francisco, where she attended punk gigs and formed the band Pillar Of Salt, whose song Surfin' In The Sewer was a minor hit on local radio. She also engaged with the drag queen community, as she had done extensively in Sydney, and established a successful hair salon called the Pink Tarantula. Tragically, in 1997 she was murdered as she worked at the salon, a contract killing instigated by her ex-husband. Carmel's early life, her fascinating San Francisco years, and the terrible circumstances surrounding her death are detailed in this truly excellent noir-style article by Jack Boulware from the SF Weekly.

The Screaming Abdabs - We Don't Wanna

Carmel and Bruce, Blondies 1978 (photo: Stephen Best)

Carmel Strelein at the Pink Tarantula Hair Salon in San Francisco,
October 22 1989 (photo: Dan Nicoletta)

City Ram Waddy - Revelations: EMI Custom Records 1979

---

Out now on Wallaby Beat Records - CLICK HERE to order:

The Screaming Abdabs / City Ram Waddy LP (WBRX-2603)
Recently unearthed, previously unreleased 1978 recording by Sydney punks The Screaming Abdabs on side 1, and two raw/rare/remarkable 1979 solo records by Abdabs drummer Richard "City Ram" Waddy on side 2. The City Ram Waddy 7" sets a benchmark for primitivism in Australian DIY, while the City Ram And Ja Mystics 12" achieves propulsive Suicide-like repetition. Astonishing. Pressing of 500 copies, with 100 on pink vinyl. Includes a Spurt fanzine insert that folds out to a massive poster with detailed interviews, photos and press clippings.

---

The case of City Ram Waddy is among the most vexing of the Australian punk era. Who was this guy? What on earth was he on about? How does he fit into the grand scheme of Australian DIY? Why can't I find copies of these damn records?

The full Richard "City Ram" Waddy story can be found in a lengthy interview that will accompany our next release, an LP collecting Waddy's two exceedingly rare records from 1979, plus eight previously unreleased tracks by his former punk band, The Screaming Abdabs (the Abdabs' amazing story follows in its own post). In short, Waddy heard the Sex Pistols, ditched his high school blues band, and landed behind the kit with The Screaming Abdabs in early 1978. The Abdabs were done by the end of the year, prompting Waddy to pick up a guitar and launch an improbable campaign at solo punk stardom. The result: two almost non-existent records (EMI Custom pressings of 100), each containing drastic reinterpretations of the classic rock canon rendered unrecognisable by an overloaded cassette recorder mic (the City Ram Waddy 7") and clean, pro-studio minimalism (the City Ram And Ja Mystics 12"). The 7" sets a benchmark for primitivism in Australian punk, its shit-fi murk rivalling that of any DIY home-recording of the era. So reviled was this record that it was deemed unsellable by the only Sydney shop to take consignment copies; those records - up to half of the pressing - were unceremoniously dumped in the bin by a helpful employee (a young Roger Grierson from the Thought Criminals). The follow-up 12", recorded at EMI with Waddy on bass, achieves preconscious moments of sparse, propulsive Suicide-via-Jah-Wobble aggro. A few copies were sold on the streets of Sydney and London, but most were given away to industry contacts who, by and large, filed them in the same place as the aforementioned Sydney record shop.

Both records have homemade, photocopied insert sleeves with odd typewritten rants and then-topical local references (we are especially fond of the design credit to Brian Westlake on the 7"). Both records also make bizarre allusions to "conservation of sexual energy" that recall Jack D Ripper from Dr Strangelove, though as you'll read below, the true inspiration was even more astonishing. And both records are amazing, left-field oddness from a genuine iconoclast, the kind of noise from nowhere that makes us foam at the mouth.

What follows is an edited transcript of an interview we conducted with Richard Waddy in early 2015, the full version of which will appear as a fanzine/poster insert in the upcoming LP. Our gratitude to Richard for his enthusiasm and for being the best of sports.

Richard Waddy with The Screaming Abdabs, early 1978 (photo: Stephen Best)

Your solo stuff, the City Ram material, were you doing that at the same time as The Screaming Abdabs?

No, no I wasn't. I wanted just to be a drummer. I joined another couple of heavy punk bands in the inner city after the Abdabs, one was called The Proles, I remember. Like "proletariat", it was very politically oriented, like a very communist sort of band. Political science students. And then I got sacked from that band, they wouldn't even have me! So I really wanted to get some product, but I realised I couldn't work with people due to my attitudes. And I thought, y'know, "Stuff it, I'll become a solo act". And I tried to gig around, but I didn't even own a motor car. I tried to gig around Paddington in Sydney, Oxford Street before Oxford Street was really gay. It was pre-gay, it was more punk, I thought. Anyway, it was too hard, I was making no money. But I got all my money together and went down to EMI and said, "I want to make a single like the other punks". I wanted to stay punk. And they said, "Well, you need a couple of tracks". I think I recorded that original one on like a cassette recorder or something. I can't remember, but it was something like that.

So you basically recorded the first City Ram Waddy single at home?

Um...I think I did. I'm not sure, but I think I did, and that's why with the second record I said, "That was so terrible", so I paid for studio time either at EMI or another almost-as-good studio. But the whole punk thing was DIY for us amateurs, art school students and junk. So what I probably did was recorded on a cassette recorder and brought it in and said, "Can I have a record made please? How much is it?". They said, "A gazillion dollars!". So I gave them the cassette and they said, "Give us your money, kid", print print print, thank you EMI, thank you City Ram!

"CITY RAM WADDY...QUICKLY BECAME AUSTRALIA'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BAND. THEIR UNIQUE ARRANGEMENTS DEVELOPED THE CITY RAM BEAT WHICH IS TAKING THE CONTINENT BY STORM"

There were only a hundred copies of that first record, right?

Absolutely right. That's because I had no money. I didn't know what to do. I had no manager - my managers were all weird, right? There was Ian [Hartley, manager of The Screaming Abdabs] of course, who was one of the straightest shooters of the lot, but I had guys who were managing City Ram who were straight out of the political wing of Long Bay gaol! So it was desperate times, it was desperate to get this political statement out there.

What was the political statement you were making?

Well, I don't know! At the time I think we were in some sort of psychosis as young communists or something! I don't know, anyway the manager, it was all his thing. Well, it wasn't all his thing, but it was like, "Make money out of this, man". And I’m going, "Yeah, okay man", all I can do is, I'm a drummer who's trying to play guitar and sing a song and get some kind of...It was, "Okay okay, we'll make it what we can with what we've got", which wasn't much. Punk!

You did the City Ram And Ja Mystics 12" after that.

Oh yeah. It was sensational, it was a real sensation because it was a media saturation promotion. It went through the magazines internationally, and it went through the pop magazines. It didn't make a hit, but as promotion...lathered upon these kind of promotion and advertising agencies, they were keen to hear more of this weird crap! But not overly keen. Conservatively keen.

[laughter]

"THANKS TO THE PRISONERS WHO WORKED THE UNDERGROUND AND WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE LONG BAY RIOTS. THANKS TO THE HEROIC DRUG SMUGGLERS WHO PRESS ON FOREVER FOR THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM"

And how many copies did you press?

Okay, probably about a hundred again. Possibly, yeah. Because I took them to England, and I distributed them again, not trying to sell them this time, but just using them as promotional material.

Wow, you weren't actually selling them?

No, because there was no money in it. I didn't have the sales team, or the advertising, or the distribution to make a go of it. I needed some more money. I wanted to go to India, and I wanted to go to Europe, and I needed some bread to buy a share in a commune or something. I'd grown up a little bit.

[laughter]

One thing I've always wondered about is the spiel on the cover of the 12" that says, "City Ram the mystic rocker from Adelaide...". What was that about?

I was born in Adelaide. It was kind of like a little salute to where I was born, 'cause they weren't getting much product out there in the punk world, and I thought, as my mind must have worked in those days, "Oh, instead of being another Sydney band, if they don't like me I'll see if Adelaide does". Well, they didn't like me either! But you can see the marketing ideas. Trying to get some spin-off, and some kudos in lieu of cash, and getting record contracts and all that normal straight sort of mainstream ambition of every guitar kook in the world.

So your aim with the City Ram records really was just to get a record deal?

Exactly. I was trying to get a hit record just like Johnny Rotten. But I knew I didn't want to be like Johnny Rotten, I wanted to be a competitor to the Sex Pistols or any of them, and make money!

City Ram Waddy, late 1978
(photo: Bruce Tindale)

What was the reason that you recorded covers, rather than your own compositions?

Well, really I'm not much of a poet. I studied short story writing later to try to get the gift of the pen, but I had no talent. And these cats had written these okay songs, fairly easy to play, and I thought, "They're okay tracks, quite catchy", and I put my own little City Punk spin on them.

You certainly made those songs your own.

Yeah, and that's the best I could do as a product, really.

But you do have your own little lyrical turns in there, like the poems about celibacy on the first single, and the allusions to "conservation of sexual energy" on Double Adaptor [a reworking of Dropout Boogie by Captain Beefheart]. What's that all about?

That was sort of like trying to market the yoga experience through a punk format. Like, that basic essence of yoga 101 through a punk marketing format. And that's how I was going to be a millionaire.

[laughter]

After the City Ram 12", you headed overseas again.

Yeah, that's right. I took samples to the UK to try and crack it there. It's a hard market to crack, the UK. I had some limited smiles, but mostly rejections, as usual. Virgin Records were rather sweet, one or two others, but no real interest. You're the only people to ever show a deeper interest!

[laughter]

How long did you stay in the UK?

A year in the UK, a very, very, very hard year in the UK. I couldn't get a gig, I couldn't get an amplifier, I couldn't crack it at all. I got one night as a guest DJ at the Electric Ballroom with The Beat, I think, when they were just starting out. They were great, ska. Everyone was a skinhead at that time down there. The skinheads took over and they virtually adopted me, put me on a direction, a more professional, conservative direction. But still groovy, man. So I continued in the vein of music, but not so much bizarreness, more Anglo. More European, more straight rock or something.

Did you do any recording while you were there?

Nah, by then I was broke. I had to be liberated by Mum and Dad, back to Australia.

And did you continue the City Ram thing back in Sydney?

No, I went into rehab for like three years. I couldn't do anything, I didn't want to know about music. I had the classic rock and roll breakdown. And it took about ten years to come back. And I couldn't crack the scene because by then I had a reputation as a flake, or worse. I was really sick and I needed some money, so I actually became a gardener for about eight years, and then I went up north and lived in a hippie commune in about 1991. I also played football, rugby, and I wanted to play first grade but I only played fourth grade. So you see, I was on a health kick. No punk, no music!

[laughter]

One last obvious question. The name City Ram – where does it come from and what does it mean?

Well, there was a chant, one of those yoga chants, and the two words sounded like "City Ram". They weren't, it was "Sita Ram", about this god and his wife getting it on. I didn't want to get on the wrong foot with the Hindus, so I changed the words a little bit and made them more aggressive, which was probably in retrospect a very negative movement. But I'm tarred and feathered with it at the moment, and I'll probably be stuck with it for my working life.

It's a great name.

Yeah, yeah. I think it's right up there with Megadeth!

[hysterical laughter]


Walking The Dog / Poem
(from City Ram Waddy 7" Revelation/EMI Custom PRS-2610 1979)


Double Adaptor
(from City Ram And Ja Mystics - Project X 12" Revelation/EMI Custom PRS-2674 1979)

Some copies have the words "PRISONERS", "LONG BAY RIOTS" and "DRUG SMUGGLERS" redacted by hand

There's Life In The Old Wallaby Yet

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Wallaby Beat is not dead. Shortly we’ll have some exciting news to share on the label front, and there'll be new posts to follow after that. In the meantime, like us on Facebook for more regular updates and additional bits and pieces that haven’t appeared on the blog.

Now, here's a cool Ulsers flyer.

Ulsers - Remember Them 7" reissue and Forget Them LP available now!

Ulsers are go!

Read below for the skinny on the Remember Them 7" reissue, as well as the Forget Them LP of archival, never-before-released material. They look and sound great - we couldn't be happier with how they've turned out. Both records are pressings of 500, but we'll have 100 coloured vinyl copies of each available only through our Big Cartel site. We trust that Australian customers and internationals who are keen on the limited versions will have already clicked the shit outta that link. For non-Aussies who don't care about coloured vinyl, the black vinyl versions will be carried by Easter Bilby and Florida's Dying in the US, La Vida Es Un Mus in the UK/Europe, and NAT in Japan.

To reacquaint yourself with the mystery and majesty of the Ulsers, revisit our interview with Terry Wilson from August 2012.


Ulsers - Remember Them 7" (WBRS-2601)

500 copies. 100 on white vinyl, available only from Wallaby Beat.

Four songs of hilariously obnoxious avant-punk from the living rooms of suburban Adelaide. Originally released in a tiny pressing in 1980, Remember Them was (barely) circulated to friends and acquaintances, finding fleeting local infamy as "the worst record ever made" before disappearing from the collective consciousness for 30+ years.

Remember Them is now rightly regarded as a high-water mark of manic Australian DIY, taking punk rock as inspiration and bludgeoning it with the only instruments at the Ulsers' disposal - guitar, saxophone, harmonica, and cardboard boxes in place of drums. Paired with a slew of shouted profanity and stream-of-consciousness ranting, the result is unlike anything else before or since.

This legitimate reissue - reproducing the original and very rare cover, along with photos and a detailed band history - makes Remember Them available beyond the Ulsers' tight inner circle for the very first time.

Tracklisting:

1. Cabaret
2. Radio
3. Julius Sumner Miller
4. I'm An Italian


Ulsers - Forget Them LP (WBRX-2602)

500 copies. 100 on purple vinyl, available only from Wallaby Beat.

A full LP of previously unreleased recordings from the mighty Ulsers!

The Ulsers didn't manage an album during their loose existence from 1978-1983, but luckily for us, wherever they went a cassette recorder was never far away. Salvaged from the bottom of dusty drawers and long-forgotten boxes in the garage, those tapes survived just long enough for the Ulsers to personally cull their 10 favourite tunes.

Recorded in various Adelaide living rooms in 1981 and 1982, Forget Them captures the Ulsers in full-band mode, i.e. electric guitar, bass and drums. Don't let the conventional instrumentation fool you, though; there is nothing conventional about the sound which ranges from a sped up, punked-out take on their ode to Julius Sumner Miller to the 10-minute endurance test of Nerve Gas (think Flipper with chromosome damage tackling LA Blues). Forget Them's songs are more developed, the vocals more manic and the sax blurts even more spastic than on the Remember Them EP. The band states definitively that it's "better", and we won't disagree.

Comes with full-colour inner sleeve packed with more Ulsers photos than you ever thought possible.

Tracklisting:

1. Alternative City
2. Circumstances Were Conspiring Against Me
3. I'm Not Going To Brighton
4. JSM
5. Take Off Outta Here
6. In Your Eyes
7. I'm Not Going To Stay With You
8. Somebody Loves You
9. Cabaret
10. Nerve Gas

It never ends: Hitmen - I Want You, 1980

Hitmen's second 7", I Want You / Tell Tale Heart (WEA, 100129) sees them start the move from the perfect powerpop of the first 7" to the less interesting macho hard rock of the LPs. The band were nothing if not a great singles band however, and all the 45s are well worth getting. It was said at the time that the A-side, I Want You, was inspired by Kiss' 1979 hit I Was Made For Loving You. Hmm, we can't really hear it. Even down the decades that smells like Record Company bullshit, riding off the popularity of that year's hit. Further, we're pretty sure a man of taste like songwriter Warwick Gilbert would have ripped off prime era Kiss, like Deuce, Strutter or Cold Gin, if he was so inclined.

What is true though is that said Record Company were too cheap to stump up for a picture sleeve, so the band had some printed themselves and hand distributed them to at least the Sydney shops.

On the other hand, through WEA's worldwide reach, the single also got issued in Italy (WEA, Y 70005) as part of The Sound Of The 80s series. Both white label promos and coloured label stock copies exist.

There are mentions on the web of a German issue with the same catalogue number but we're dubious to the point of saying it doesn't exist.

What is maybe less known is the alternative version of I Want You which appeared on a K-Tel greatest hits LP called Squeezed Out later in 1980, alongside The Aliens, The Angels, The Reels and, um, Christie Allen. K-Tel mastering renders the song two seconds shorter but it's the same version with a different mix - louder rhythm guitar post-chorus (an improvement) and big '80s sounding drums (sad slide whistle).

I Want You (single version) [Download]


I Want You (Squeezed Out version) [Download]


Telltale Heart [Download]

Wallaby Beat Live

On Saturday night May 24, the esteemed R.I.P Society label will be hosting a fifth birthday event, at the Sydney Opera House no less.

Bands playing are:

The Dead C / feedtime / Bed Wettin' Bad Boys / Woollen Kits / Native Cats / Rat Columns / Cured Pink / Holy Balm / Ghastly Spats / Housewives / Constant Mongrel / Half High

More details here.

We'll be playing Wallaby Beat discs between bands. Below is some highlights of Opera House shows in the '70s. We'll be trying to recreate the feel of The Angels getting clocked by bottles at the end of 1979 - read about it in Blood, Sweat And Beers.

Finch - Out Of Control 7" Picture Records PRS 011, 1973

Finch covering The Eagles is borderline genius, but even better, their balls-out take on Out Of Control out-struts Strutter in the shameless Kiss-worship stakes - at least, it would do if it didn't precede the first Kiss LP by a whole year! The flip sees them bust out a rifftastic original that gets heavy when it needs to and swings nicely when it doesn't. The overall vibe leaves no doubt that Finch were no strangers to the bong, but alas, there are no overt weed references this time around - they were probably too buzzed on sugar and caffeine from winning the 1973 Pepsi Pop Poll (the first prize being this one-off deal with Picture Records. EMI Custom enthusiasts, note the unrelated catalogue prefix).

Things have been pretty quiet around here of late, and updates will continue to be sporadic over the next few months as we concentrate on the upcoming Ulsers 7" reissue and archival LP. More news about those soon.

Out Of Control [Download]


And She Sings [Download]

C. C. C. - Welcome To Cordial Land LP Starlight, 1976

So what else was happening in Brisbane in 1976? Apart from the unusual score in the Grand Final, orthodoxy says not much and we’re pretty sure that this time it’s right. If you couldn’t stomach 4IP approved cover bands, country, bluegrass or blues then you’d have been making a beeline for Club ‘76 with the rest of the uplifting gourmandisers.

But what’s this? Coming out of the upper levels of the Penney’s Building at 210 Queen Street (now in the mall), the CCC Band released this obscure LP in yes, 1976.

We’ve long been dubious about a Brisbane Sound – a twee, thin shouldered, short-sleeved shirt and short-wearing light pop. Sure, post ’83 there was a bunch of bands that could be viewed as having taken the Go-Betweens ball and run with it (to use a completely non-apt sporting analogy) – Let's Go Naked, Leap In The Dark, Birds Of Tin, Antic Frantic, Dog Fish Cat Bird, Too Green For Summer, Tangled Shoelaces and others. But prior to that the sounds of Brisbane were way too varied for us to find much of a common denominator (world class punk rock aside).  The Striped Sunlight Sound of the first two Go-betweens always seemed a one-off.

CCC though, at least on parts of their LP, showcase a lethargic, sun-affected whimsy that makes us at least reconsider our stance. Songs about cordial, the Golden Circle cannery (which every Brisbane schoolchild visited at least once), lollies and other childhood signposts make us wonder if those mid-80s era bands were actually riffing off copies of this record found at op-shops rather than Send Me A Lullabye and Before Hollywood. Probably not.

Elsewhere on the album there’s some fairly dire electric blues, and some aimless jamming but the charming faux-innocence means it’s mostly likeable. Faux? Well, Eating Snakes is clearly about fellatio. We’ve picked our favourite tracks below. If we’re really stretching our long bow we could posit Lemon Tree, which appeared on the Left Of The Middle cassette, as early minimal synth.

We once thought CCC were one of those bands who had a Department of Education gig touring schools and playing shows. Doing it for the kids, literally. But we can’t actually find any evidence of that, or of anything really. For now P. Richardson, D. Brown, G. Peters and T. Mullooly remain obscure.

Captain Cordial Rock [Download]


Eating Snakes [Download]


Lemon Tree [Download]