Perculiar Clerk - Another Guy 7" Phoenix 13286, 1982

We always enjoy a band that can't even spell its own name correctly, but in this case we're not sure if we're more galled at the misspelling or the aesthetic blunder of referencing Petula Clark. Unlike previous Wallaby Beat illiterates, there's documentary evidence that Peculiar Clerk knew their way around a dictionary (see below), so we can't really blame the band itself. Perhaps lax educational standards at the EMI Custom typesetting department were at fault, but ultimately the buck stops with Tom Misner, owner of Phoenix Records (or, as he might prefer to call it, Phoenix Regords. Yes, Regords). The guy seems to cop the blame for everything else, so why not add proofreading to the list?

Peculiar Clerk formed from the ashes of Latis, a Zep/Heep/Quo cover band based in the western Sydney suburb of Blacktown. In 1979, the band ditched both its name and its heavy rock repertoire for revved up Beatles, Who and (of course) Petula Clark covers, a smattering of self-penned tunes, and the obligatory skinny ties. In lengthy self-analysis over at the Peculiar Clerk website, various members acknowledge that the arrival of punk made their former setlist obsolete, but are at pains to note that they were not a punk band themselves. All signs point to that subgenre we've come to know and tolerate, Oz Rock/powerpop, but setlist staples like the Undertones' Teenage Kicks and originals like Disco (Destroys Your Mind) show that their hearts were in the right place (though singer Peter Keen's assertion that disco sucks "starts with 's' and ends with 'k'" has us rethinking that entire first paragraph).

In 1982, two originals were recorded at Central Recorders by the then-active lineup of Keen, Rob Manego (bass), Peter Marples (guitar), and Steve Askins (drums). The resulting single, Peculiar Clerk's only release, pairs a couple of energetic powerpoppers which should get the job done nicely for fans of The Word et al., though we hasten to add that microscopic examination reveals no trace of a chorus on either side.

Peculiar Clerk folded in 1984 but not before playing an impressive double-header, performing firstly to around 30,000 people at a festival on the banks of the Parramatta River, followed by a nighttime gig at their Blacktown RSL home base. The band describes one of those venues as "a filthy cesspool" - take a tour of their website to find out which.

Another Guy [Download]


Miss You [Download]

Peculiar R Us

Manikins - Love At Second Sight 7" SMX55051/2, 1980

In August 1979, Perth's Manikins became the first of that city's Class of '77 to head East. A short tour of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne followed on from the good reaction to the band's first two singles. On their return to Perth the band released a great cassette called Live Locally featuring nineteen songs culled from their set. In fact the band had recorded fifty songs, almost their entire (all original!) inventory, in a midnight to dawn session at Sweetcorn Studio following the Talking Heads' February 1979 show at Perth Concert Hall. The cassette was a mixture of the band's favourite songs with those deemed to have featured least mistakes. Should you have trouble finding it, most of the tracks can be heard on the self-titled LP/CD from last decade.

Three of the songs reappeared the next year on the band's third single. These versions were re-recorded at Perth's Planet Studios and were mixed at Paradise Studios in Sydney. Needless to say the pro-studios cleaned up the band's sound and while not completely anodyne, it's a pity that the balls evident on the earlier versions had retracted at least part way inside the band's body. In particular the fantastic, sloppy guitar caught on the tape versions is toned down. Nevertheless, good songs all, and worthy of your time.

Like the Numbers and XL Capris, we can but warn you against approaching the band's later major label stuff. We again thank DNA fanzine for their excellent record of happenings in Australia's South and West; this time issues 7 and 34, the Perth punk issues.

Love At Second Sight [Download]


Nuisance [Download]


All I Care About [Download]

What should have been - the Live Locally version of Love at Second Sight.

Cocky Laura - Cowboys And Indians 7" no label 13260, 1981

At the risk of being wrong (again), we'll stick our necks out and say that Doug Ironside (guitar, vocals), Jon O'Rourke (drums, vocals), and Warren Slater (bass, vocals) were on a Gang of Four trip circa December 1981. But if that leads you to expect Cowboys and Indians to be some kind of Marxist allegory about dispossession, a narrative crucial to understanding Sydney punk (um, apparently), then think again. Lyrics are more F-Troop than Althusser - hey, there is an O'Rourke in the band, after all - with some added belching for good measure. Classy.

So the influence is purely musical rather than ideological. Fair enough - it'd take another decade for the schtick of printing layout instructions on a record cover to seem fresh again, anyway. With that in mind, we might expect Every Dog Has His Day to be a tribute to the band's touch-football-meets-Lord-of-the-Flies namesake. Nah, it's your conventional "I saw you with another guy" song, but at least it's spat out with some conviction and at an acceptable BPM. Making Albert Studios sound like Basilisk is a real accomplishment, though.

Every Dog Has His Day [Download]

The Dagoes - We Sell Soul 7" DAG 001, 1980

When it comes to Australasian bands covering Texas sixties punk the pantheon probably consists of Robbie Steele's Maid Of Sugar, Maid Of Spice, Tom Thumb's You're Gonna Miss Me and The
Lime Spiders' version of The Liberty Bell's That's How It Will Be. Radio Birdman might be considered but come on, Tom Thumb get points for getting there first, covering Roky in 1967!

Somewhere down amongst the lesser gods are Adelaide's Dagoes, who covered a song by Roky's first band, The Spades, as their first record in May, 1980. The original We Sell Soul is interesting as a song without much structure, so I can see why Spacemen 3 saw fit to cover it. According to Teenbeat Mayhem it's "crude intense moody howlin' punk", which I guess explains why The Lyres covered it too.

We don't know the vector which brought the song to Adelaide in 1979. Boots of the 7" had been around since 1975 so maybe they were ordered from the States. The Dagoes themselves had been going since March 1978, starting as Daryl Breakaway and the Niggers, becoming the Dagoes in May 1978, and spending a few months and lineups as The Tony Rome Band. They settled and stayed as the Dagoes in September 1979.

Around this time they were covering Pipeline, Teenage Head, (This Ain't) The Summer Of Love, Pablo Picasso, Frenchette, California Sun and We Sell Soul. A quick scan reveals the band were looking to America rather than other favoured musical climes of the time, though in 1980 they added covers of English bands the Flys and The Boys. Originals included crowd favourites Little Blackie, Let's Liquidate and This Perfect Band.

Anyway, after breaking up in December 1979 the band got together on February 26, 1980 and recorded the three songs presented here. Earlier recordings, three of them, had been deemed unfit for release. To avoid the risk of another lecture from Harry Butler, I'll quote him (almost) verbatim from DNA 6:

Being typically Daygoes, the whole event was fraught with problems from start to finish. Firstly they hadn't played together for over two months, so a couple of hours of swift rehearsals were in order. Not only to learn to play together again, but also because some members had forgotten how to play some of the songs. Next several guitar leads were found to be missing, and as playing began Johnny Tomato began breaking drum sticks madly. Despite it all, the group won through and the first song (Blackie) was successfully recorded. Then disaster struck. A combination  of having forgotten the songs and being totally "out of it" resulted in the bassist cracking up and walking out... They resolved to carry on, and overdub the bass parts later. 

The next song attempted was We Sell Soul, and they managed to get it down on almost the first take. Then to Let's Liquidate. No real problems occurred here, but some overdubs were necessary. Firstly the bass had to be put down, and there was deep discussion about what should be played - in the end two bass tracks were recorded. Then some synthesizer was stuck on top. Finally all that was left were the overdubs on We Sell Soul. It was decided that no bass was necessary, so it was just a matter of getting the vocals done. People who listen closely will notice some unusual noises in the background in Dick's rave in the middle of the song. These are the result of the activities of Tony Rome, Frankie Thomas and Harry Butler in trying to inject some humour.

That explains the "who needs a bass player" line, and we assume the Billie Jean King reference is a dig at Doug Thomas's hairdo. In the end, We Sell Soul is probably the weakest of the three tracks, the others displaying a tough yet limber garage sound. As evidenced by this and their later recordings, The Dagoes really only followed their own star anyway, not really caring to sound like anyone else.

We Sell Soul [Download]


Little Blackie [Download]


Let's Liquidate [Download]

Maureen Elkner - Dynamite 7" Infinity K-5373, 1973

Appearing the same year as a similarly-themed Chinn/Chapman masterpiece, Maureen Elkner's debut solo single came slap-bang in the middle of her two most notable claims to fame: singing back up on Russell Morris' 1969 Australian psych landmark The Real Thing, and her 1975 ocker novelty hit, Rak Off, Normie. In an ideal world, this excellent glam pummeler would've enjoyed the same level of success, but sadly it's been reduced to a mere footnote in Maureen's extensive CV - that is, when it's even mentioned at all.

Dynamite is a high water mark of early Aussie glam, but it could easily have been a very different beast. A couple of years ago, Kim Humphreys' wild production on the Toxic single showed us that sometimes you can polish a turd; as it turns out, Humphreys was no stranger to the Brasso. Take it away, Kim:

Dynamite by Maureen Elkner featured my band Stumble, a three piece which had in its ranks Gordon Heazlewood (drums) and Vic Pisani (bass). The flip side (Barley Rye) was another band doing the backing. I was contacted when they couldn't capture the feel for Dynamite.

Those tracks were originally intended for the singer from the band who did the Barley Rye side but for some reason she pulled out of the project, so I suggested Maureen, who I had just seen doing a production of Cabaret. She did a couple of novelty singles after that, but I was not involved with those. I believe they got John Robinson from Blackfeather on guitar for the later projects.

Barley Rye is a raga of sorts, competently handled, but of little interest to fans of distorted guitars, and evidence for Humphreys' claim that those musos were out of their depth when it came to the hard stuff (we'll come to the punk-era exploits of the Barley Rye band in a later post). Dynamite is where all the action is - an explosive rocker with Kimbo contributing some wild fret-shredding and a killer guitar sound, and Maureen bringing admirable grunt and sass to her obviously trained vocal style. Some rude, honking baritone sax rounds out the '73 glam signifiers. The only thing that could possibly make it better is a song-ending explosion, but the instrumental crescendo is a close enough approximation.

A second single on Infinity (K-5487, 1974) followed the more usual Australian glam archetype, pairing a cover (Wild Thing) with a weaker original (Sweet Morning). Wild Thing is about as essential as a cover of that song can be (i.e. not very) - there are moments when it swings convincingly, and it is saved somewhat by Maureen's vocals, but the formerly wild guitars have been tamed and the sax is far too smooth to match Dynamite's obnoxious blurting. The flip is a Barley Rye-level throwaway which would probably find a more appreciative audience elsewhere.

Dynamite [Download]

Progression Cult - New Blood EP Method MR6, 1982

Two weeks ago we bemoaned the fact that so few of Sydney's class of '82 made it to vinyl of their own accord. One who did was Progression Cult who put out this one record on Method. Perhaps we didn't miss out on too much because it's hardly the best example of the UK '82 sound that came out worldwide.  Nevertheless it has its moments in its mix of Crisis and Discharge (who the band covered live). But don't listen to us - the band impressed tastemakers elsewhere.

The lineup that recorded the 7" initially existed from late '81 through mid-1983. Drummer Doug Lees then left to join fictionromance and later The Snorkels with the record's producer, Fabian Byrne. Andrew Warren (later of the Hellmenn) became the new drummer and they recruited Jane on second guitar. The five piece line up lasted until November when Jane, Warren and singer Anthony Lange left to form Bedspreads. Bassist Nick Manole and guitarist Russell Jenkins swapped instruments and joined Heresy.

Your Religion [Download]


Death Of Innocence [Download]


Punk Ain't Fashion [Download]


Subordinate [Download]


Slaughterhouse [Download]

"Get a rat up ya fat baldy." From A Hard Days Rut #6, 1982.

Derek and the Wrecks - Play Wreck and Roll 7" Solid Records 13344, 1982

Dear reader,

Happy Valentine's Day!

With love from Wallaby Beat xx

Chuck Solids [Download]

It Never Ends: The Aberrant compilations

Looking back over Sydney fanzines from the '80s there was a hell of a lot of punk bands in the harbour city. A hell of a lot of bands who really didn't get around to documenting themselves. If it weren't for Bruce Griffiths' three Aberrant compilations even more of those bands would just be a faded memory.

The run started with Flowers From The Dustbin in November 1983, its title inspired by a line in God Save The Queen. Setting out to capture some of the bands who had been playing around that year it was successful, but as Griffiths later noted "a month after release just two bands remained and one musician was dead." While The Kelpies, Positive Hatred and World War XXIV would have more stuff released by Aberrant, and Box Of Fish went on to put records out on Method, this was it for Velocette, Queen Anne's Revenge (who became CHAOS) and What?!! (who only ever played one gig anyway!). The foldout poster sleeve for this was a real labour of love, with over 160 band photos, posters, lyrics and band histories.

Second was Not So Humdrum which aimed to use leftover Suicide Squad tracks from the first compilation, which had been mooted as a double at one stage, with some 1984 vintage bands. From memory the title was a riposte to Molly Meldrum's Humdrum segment on Countdown. If you were impressed by the sleeve layout on Flowers From The Dustbin then you were surely completely blown away by the sixteen page booklet sleeve for this record. Particularly strong on this record are the two tracks by the 1984 incarnation of Rocks, and special note must be made of Gavin Williams from WKOSA's "I Hate Oz Rock" t-shirt. The booklet also contains Griffiths' first Sydney family trees. Sitting here looking at them again for the first time in a few years I'm astounded by the amount of information on completely forgotten bands contained therein. "The Clits: Late '78. 1 gig in a chicken shed at a party on a farm". Amazing. Note that you need the stamped paper diecut sleeve to have a complete version of this release.

The third Aberrant compilation took a similar tack. Released in 1985, Why March When You Can Riot?, named after a line in the Rejex song Who Wants To March, mixes up '85 era bands like feedtime and Bedspreads, with early Hard-ons recordings, and late '70s tracks by Johnny Dole and the Scabs, XL Capris, X and Local Product. This was the first time that the X and Johnny Dole tracks contained were issued and they are fantastic. In fact this is musically the strongest of the LPs, though that may be our late '70s preferences showing through. Again the booklet (plus extra insert) is exceptional, with more photos, lyrics, interviews and family trees (pretty sure the only mention anywhere of pre-Nervous System band Farfisa and the Fucked Organs) than could fill yet another wet Sydney weekend.

So all up there's three essential records from which to garner more of an understanding of Sydney punk. There's an interview with Bruce by Steve Gardner that goes into details on how the records were put together, along with Griffiths' inspirations and philosophy - read it here. Everything from these records, plus an extra Kelpies track and the first Trousers In Action 7", was compiled on the Go And Do It double CD on Small Axe from 1996, which is still available here. When you've come back from purchasing it we'll get into the French issues.

All three albums were issued in France on the Ripost label: Flowers From The Dustbin in 1986, Not So Humdrum in 1987, and Why March When You Can Riot? in early 1989. The first contains a copy of the Australian sleeve as an "insert", while the second and third have cutdown 4-page inserts based on excerpts from the Australian booklets.

What we find most entertaining about these is the cover artwork, credited to Emmanuel on the first two, but we're pretty sure notre homme was behind them all. Manu burst out of the gates with three punk kangaroos going off. Some of the best punk novelty records and artwork originated from the French speaking world and the tradition is kept strong here with safety pins, mohawks, sunglasses, a chain necklace, and a midriff singlet emblazoned "FUCK". We're kinda partial to the zippered shut pouch, though.

We asked Bruce about these sleeves a few years ago.

Even having you remind me of that midriff top years later is making me cringe (as well as remember how much I cringed at the time) although I'd probably have enjoyed the zippered pouch had the other nonsense not been present. The extent of my memory is they wanted the covers to scream "Australian punk" so ditched the punk photos in favour of cartoon kangaroos with safety pins, which apparently the French would immediately 'get'. One of the covers isn't half bad, once you've adjusted to the whole, er, 'idea', but they're all pretty cheesy really. The backs they kept intact. 

[Wallaby Beat] As I remember you telling me you said "whatever you want" as long as there's no skulls or anarchy symbols and you were a mite horrified when you saw kangaroos with leather jackets and mohawks, and yes you're right - safety pins.

Ah, yes, you are correct. That's exactly what happened - I definitely specified "no skulls", and I strongly suspect I blacklisted the "(A)", and maybe that was it. I've remained partial to safety pins, so wouldn't have ruled them out, and leather jackets are harmless enough, but it never occurred to me they'd do cartoon kangaroos. I can only assume I didn't specify "no mohawks" (never liked them, so something I overlooked rather than consciously didn't do)... I wouldn't rule out zips either (pretty sure those kangaroos have many)... 

Emmanuel hopes the safety pins flying everywhere distract attention from the skull belt buckle and anarchy badge. The emu mic stand is kinda inspired though...

[Bruce] I don't mind the paratrooping one, in terms of the aggression, but if they'd said "We want kangaroos" I'd have done the art myself with a safety pin through a kangaroo's head a la Jamie Reid or somesuch, with infinitely more style and a nod to 'the master'. Ah well. Photo of kangaroo, pin through ear, zippered pouch, done. They sold out the pressings, so perhaps they knew what they were doing? 

As always we leave the real it-never-ends aspect to the very end. At some stage Ripost ran out of sleeves for Not So Humdrum. They recycled sleeves for Flowers From The Dustbin by turning them inside out and printing new Not So Humdrum artwork previously used on the labels of the three Ripost LPs. By now our only surviving kangaroo is looking bruised and battered and all the worse for wear after a night on the tiles. Not a single punk cliche to be seen though!

On the back of the sleeve for this one Emmanuel reveals his model for the kangaroos was rats, and rooting rats at that. I thought the tails on those paratroopers didn't look like roo tails!

Update 9 March 2013: Here is the xerox sleeve for Why March When You Can Riot mentioned in the comments. Used for 33 leftover copies of the record.

Systematics - My Life In The Field Of Cows 7" M-Squared M2012, 1982

Systematics are good and all, but their earlier records - the Pulp Baby EP on Doublethink and the Rural 12" on M-Squared - offer little for those of us who just wanna slam in the pit. Nice of 'em to rectify that deficiency with this fine stab at Metal Urbain via 2nd LP era Ultravox! from their last release, My Life In The Field Of Cows. Of course, this being M-Squared, the bass is a keyboard and the drums are a fucking robot or some shit, but who can hold it against them when the results are this impressive? Dig the outro from the choruses - guitar says up, synth says down; guitar says down, synth says up. It's like M-Squared's relationship with the post-Birdman Sydney scene encapsulated in two notes.

International Voltage [Download]


Hear all of Systematics' records and a couple of comp tracks on Ascension's Terrace Industry CD.

Marching Girls - Plain Jane 12" RTC MG600, 1983

We've discussed before meta-topics like songs changing hands between bands. If you're fishing for thesis topics there's a need for a Carducci-like discursion on bands changing genre through their life, and the almost universal deleterious effect on quality. I mean, we wouldn't read it, but go ahead and write it. Here's our minimal datapoint contribution.

The Marching Girls were Kiwi transplants to Melbourne who recorded a pop-punk high water mark in 1980. Following a few years playing around they lost Brendan Perry, took on a new vocalist in Debra Schulze and set about changing their sound. The recorded result was a 12" laid down at Richmond Recorders in January 1983, and only released in New Zealand later that year. Despite leaving True Love way behind and generically falling in the new wave camp we can't hate it unreservedly. There are some good ideas at play on the record, nowhere more so than on track 3, Plain Jane. Slow tempoed, with interesting percussion and a pretty great refrain, we're happy to champion it. The rest of the EP is less to our taste, being more gothy, atmospheric and dare-we-say-it, dull. If so inclined, youtube is your friend.

Plain Jane (1983) [Download]


Plain Jane resurfaced in 1985 on an Australian 7" (EMI, EMI-1438). Re-recorded, and a minute shorter, points are deducted for the 1980's drum sound. On the plus side however the guitar under the chorus is much heavier, placing the song as a precursor to the sound labelled shoegaze in England some years later. The flipside of the 7", The Man Who Knew Too Much, appears to date from the 12" sessions, based on the production credits. It's an instrumental, and we'll leave it to you to search out. There was one further 7" in 1987.

Plain Jane (1985) [Download]

From the Marching Girls myspace(!) page.