Little Band scene
The Little Band scene was an
The scene served as the backdrop for the 1986 cult film Dogs in Space.
History
"There were impromptu bands with noise guitars, drum machines, briefcase synthesisers, being played by people that had never learned to play music. The bands didn't really exist; they just played in loungerooms, and occasionally at venues. It was all low-tech equipment, but at the same time it was almost state-of-the-art, cutting-edge equipment—not what you'd consider rock'n'roll instrumentation."
– Ash Wednesday on the Little Band scene[3]
In 1978, members of
Many of the little bands were composed of painters, poets, filmmakers, performance artists, and other non-musicians who enjoyed the opportunity to realise their naive musical ideas. Little band member
Little band member and radio announcer Alan Bamford began recording Little Band Nights using a TEAC reel-to-reel tape recorder and a Shure microphone. Immediately following each gig, he caught a tram to 3RRR's Fitzroy premises, where he broadcast the tapes on his midnight show.[4] The scene continued to grow, and at later nights, up to ten little bands would perform. The little bands interacted with other distinct post-punk scenes in Melbourne, such as the St Kilda scene centred at the Crystal Ballroom, where they occasionally supported The Birthday Party and Crime & the City Solution. The "wild and chaotic" nature of the little bands stood in stark contrast to "the more academic form of experimentalism" of Tsk Tsk Tsk, Essendon Airport, Ernie Althoff, David Chesworth, and others associated with the Clifton Hill scene. According to Murphy, the little bands reviled the "Clifton Hill mob" for being against emotion in music,[6] while Tsk Tsk Tsk founder Philip Brophy regarded the Little Band scene as anti-intellectual, and its music "harsh and sometimes painful".[7]
After the Calculators and Whirlywirld left Melbourne for Europe and London in early 1980, the Little Band scene centred on the shared spaces of Use No Hooks and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies. The scene had effectively ended by early 1981.
Aftermath
Several lasting musical partnerships were forged in the scene:
Recordings and releases
Alan Bamford collaborated with Max Robenstone, owner of Climax Records in Fitzroy, in paying for the pressing of Little Bands (1980), an EP featuring studio recordings by Morpions, Ronnie and the Rhythm Boys,
Since the scene ended, little band recordings have appeared on
Legacy and influence
Influenced by the little bands concept in Melbourne, post-punk group Pel Mel started a similar scene in Sydney in 1980.[18]
The Little Band scene was represented, albeit semi-fictionally, in the 1986 cult film Dogs in Space, directed by Richard Lowenstein and starring INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. Primitive Calculators briefly reformed to star in the film, playing a new version of their song "Pumping Ugly Muscle". Original little band Thrush and the Cunts also appear with the song "Diseases", and little band figurehead Marie Hoy performs a cover of "Shivers" by the Boys Next Door. The live music scenes were supervised by Whirlywirld's Ollie Olsen, who also appears in the film.[19] Coinciding with the film's long-awaited re-release, Lowenstein revisited Dogs in Space, the Little Band scene and Melbourne post-punk in general in the 2009 documentary We're Livin' on Dog Food, featuring rare footage and interviews with various members of the scene.[20]
In 2010, the
List of little bands
Bands listed in bold went on to become fully fledged gigging groups.
- $2.50
- 66 Johnsons
- The Alan Bamford Musical Experience
- The Albert Hammond Megastar
- Anne's Dance Marathon Band
- The Art Circus
- Bags of Personality
- The Band of Hope and Glory
- The Beaumaris Tennis Club Quartet
- BeisselBoyceBoswell
- The Buck Stops Here
- The Child Molestor + 4
- Clang
- Club Allusion
- Company I Keep
- Consider Town Planning
- Corporate Body
- Delicatessants
- The Devils
- The Eastwood Family
- The Egg
- The Franging Stuttgarters
- The Great Mastabini
- The Go Set
- Government Drums
- Hey There
- The Incredible Metronomic Blues Band
- The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies
- Intro Muzak Band
- The Irreplacables
- The Ivan Durrants
- Invisible Music
- The J P Sartre Band
- The Jetsonnes
- Jim Buck Solo
- Jimmy Haemorrhoid and the Piles
- Junk Logic
- Kim and Mark
- The Klu
- The Leapfrogs
- Lest We Forget
- The Lunatic Fringe
- The Melbourne SS
- Morpions
- The Nookies
- The Oroton Bags
- The Pastel Bats
- The Persons Brothers
- People With Chairs Up Their Noses
- The Potato Cooperative
- The Quits
- Rosehip and the Teas
- Ralf Horrors
- Ronnie and the Rhythm Boys
- Sample Only
- The Sandmen
- The Saxophone Caper
- Seaside Resort
- Serious Young Insects
- Shop Soiled
- The Shower Scene From Psycho
- Simplex
- Small Men Big Cars
- Somersaulting Consciences
- The Soporifics
- The Spanish Inquisition
- Stand by Your Guns
- The Swinging Hoy Family
- The Take
- Tarax Show
- Three Toed Sloths
- Thrush and the Cunts
- Too Fat to Fit Through the Door
- Too Many Daves
- Use No Hooks
- World of Sport
See also
References
- ^ Vice Magazine. Retrieved on 5 October 2010.
- ^ a b Knowles, Julian (2008). "Liminal Electronic Musics: Post-Punk Experimentation in Australia in the 1970s–1980s". Proceedings 'Sound : Space', Australasian Computer Music Conference, 2008, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. p. 40-41
- ^ Best, Sophie. "Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978–82". Beat Magazine, Issue 785. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
- ^ a b Courtney, David (2016). "MELBOURNE: Post-Punk, the Little Bands and the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre". MagnetoPhonics – Australian Underground Music 1978–1986 (Media notes). Germany: VOD Records. pp. 14–15.
- ^ Schaefer, Rene (8 February 2009). "Primitive Calculators", Mess+Noise. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ a b Walker (1996), p. 68
- ^ Brophy, Philip (1987). "Avant-garde Rock: History in the Making?". Missing in Action: Australian Popular Music in Perspective. Graphics Publications (Melbourne).
- ^ Hennessy, Kate (16 December 2014). "Sanvean by Dead Can Dance – pining after Australia in an invented language", The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
- ISBN 1-891241-18-4.
- ^ Australian Post-Punk: 1976 to 1981 Discography Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 5 January 2011.
- ^ Terse Tapes, innercitysounds.com.au. Retrieved on 29 September 2010.
- ^ Fast Forward, innercitysounds.com.au. Retrieved on 27 December 2010.
- ^ Little Bands, innercitysounds.com.au. Retrieved on 5 January 2011.
- ^ Primitive Calculators and Friends CD, chaptermusic.com.au. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
- ^ Can’t Stop It! CD, chaptermusic.com.au. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
- ^ Can’t Stop It! 2 CD, chaptermusic.com.au. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
- ^ Crawford, Anwen (March 2020). "The future was foreclosed: Post-punk and Use No Hooks’ ‘The Job’", The Monthly. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
- ^ "Other Post-Punk Bands In Sydney", No Nights Sweats. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
- SBS Film. Retrieved on 29 December 2010.
- ^ Tofts, Darren (November 2009). "chronicles of the blank generation", RealTime Arts. Retrieved on 29 December 2010.
- ^ 3RRR and Melbourne Fringe present: Little Bands #1 Archived 20 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine, melbournefringe.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
- ^ Hughes, Harry (18 May 2014). "Primitive Calculators Presents Little Bands #3", The Music. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
Further reading
- Kritzler, James (2014). Noise in My Head: Voices from the Ugly Australian Underground. Melbourne Books. ISBN 9781922129352.
- ISBN 1-86508-072-1.
- McHenry, Paul; Nowara, Zbig; Spencer, Chris (2001). Who's Who of Australian Rock. Moonlight Publishing. ISBN 0-86788-668-4.
- ISBN 0-7329-0883-3.