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Fading Fast
Thursday, June 14th, 2007
As an inspirational era falls through the cracks of history, one of its forgotten pioneers laments the current state of affairs in Australian music today.
On SBS, during a show called Rockwiz, filmed at the Gershwin, one night, Sean Kelly of the Models is asked by the presenter what the first record he ever bought was.
“It was a beaten up album, torn on one side: the album was Still by Madder Lak.”
The audience is struck silent with incomprehension. Yet, Stillpoint by Madder Lake was one of the biggest sellers of its time – the progressive rock era that shone briefly before the scene changed forever with the arrival of Skyhooks in 1975. In a show filled with music history aficionados, not a single soul had any idea who Sean was referring to.
“But it’s not just us,” says bassist Kerry McKenna, now in his mid 50s. “There are so many that have fallen through the cracks. Bobby Bright, Ray Brown and the Whispers, The Dingoes, you name it: they’re either dead or playing in some filthy pub circuit somewhere, just trying to survive. Now Lobby is gone; but who remembers him?”
Surely some people know who Lobby Loyde is?
“Maybe, now that he’s died and been on TV. Lobby once paid a visit to Musiclink Australia, the biggest distributor of musical equipment in the country, where I work part time as the guitar quality control tech. Not a single person working there knew who he was, except for my son, who was filling in for me that day. Lobby ended up buying around $15,000 worth of guitars and gear, but it wouldn’t have happened if my son hadn’t been there. Imagine that.”
Four of the original five members of Madder Lake were available to play for the Lobby Loyde benefit gig in late 2006. Industry politics had by no means abated, even on such a momentous occasion.
“We were approached by Billy Thorpe personally to play for Lob. We agreed to do it for a paltry $500 per gig, of which there were three. Yet, after the gigs, Thorpe refused to pay us, citing other expenses.”
Did you get paid in the end?
“Yes, eventually. Trevor Young [Coloured Balls] stepped in for us and we finally got some cash to cover our own expenses. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Lobby himself didn’t see a cent of his benefit money, somewhere around $80,000, for three months. He had to get a lawyer to step in and have a serious chat with Michael Chugg.”
A long, weary sigh escapes him then. “But no one really appreciates musicians in this country, anyway. I saw about 10 cameras filming the event, but you won’t see the film until after Lobby passes on. You watch how much comes out now he’s gone.”
So what happened way back when? Where did all of this start? What was the scene like?
“Madder Lake formed through art school, most of us doing graphic design at Swinburne. That’s where Brendan and I met Mick and Jack, who rang in John. Everything was all so new back then, like mucking around with a brand new PS3, no one understood it.”
“Whereas now rock bands are a dime a dozen, so few people played around town back then and so it was a novelty – you’d go to a country town gig and you were like aliens landing … even in the city it was new; just having long hair was pretty extreme, and in the real rough pubs in, say, 1970’s Wangaratta, it was pretty touch and go.”
“All the bands were young, about 20 or so, and we had camaraderie among peers, seeing each other’s bands and hanging out in the city.”
“There was a kind of innocence: it was always in Gudinski to become a sort of modern day robber baron, but he started as a babe in the woods same as the rest of us. Ignorance was their way of pulling the wool over us; nobody understood the business of creativity. We didn’t even know we could own our songs. It was always kept from everybody.”
“Nowadays you can do a course and go into the industry armed to the teeth, but back then we didn’t even have an air rifle, so to speak.”
He chuckles as the memories come flooding back. “Gudinski knew all the artists and all the right contacts, so he was just following a natural progression. He named the company Mushroom and then took some to initiate the celebrations and totally freaked out.”
The heady days of progressive rock lasted briefly in the scope of history. It was an era before Lobby Loyde and Billy Thorpe introduced pub rock.
What were the gigs like?
“All the places we played were totally alcohol free. In those days most places weren’t licensed, like Garrison; it’d be packed to the rafters but all you could buy was coffee, or cordial. Kew Town hall was the same, Berties and Sebastians; no grog at all. In those days it was all town halls by day, schools at night time. When Thorpe came in he and Lobby opened up the pub rock scene. The music itself had to change to go into that scene; it went to big barns like Village Greens from places like TFM Ballroom.”
“The music in pubs became more primitive, less complex than what we could get away with in the barns full of hippies. It comes down to the question of the art of the times imitating the life of the times.”
So what was happening in the absence of alcohol?
“Everyone was either tripping or stoned, and the dope back then was really good stuff, all natural, so you didn’t need grog. There was never any violence; the only rough ones were the roadies, in fact. They’d come in with boxes on their shoulder but they wouldn’t warn anyone to move or watch their head, and so they’d knock people out, most of which didn’t know what had hit them, they were all so out of it. When the big beer barns started happening, we started seeing more and more saloon brawls.”
Do you think pub rock incites violence?
“No, but alcohol mixed with pub rock does. It’s a recipe for thugs.”
So what changed our audiences? What makes people sit and listen and do nothing?
“Audience changed after Disco came in. I remember Ronnie Charles would get his shirt torn off every night, sometimes before he even got to the stage. In those days everything was new, so at first the audiences would go wild. I remember playing with Sherbet at Festival Hall, and you walked out on stage feeling like the Beatles with all the screaming and carrying on … Then, one time in Adelaide, as Disco crept in, they’d start putting disco tracks on during the band breaks; so while we played, no one moved; then, the disco would come on, and suddenly the dance floor was packed, maybe precision dancing to Nutbush, or whatever. It was insulting. I think DJ’s undermined live acts then as now. Dancing along to a rock band just isn’t done anymore, even frowned upon.”
So what happened to bands like Madder Lake and The Dingoes?
“First you have to remember we were all ignorant of copyright, it was a mystery. We had no idea how the business worked, or even how our gigs were booked. APRA was the light in the dark, tracking what these guys did. The only way we discovered we were selling in New Zealand (through the Interfusion label) was because I went there. I even heard a radio edit of our single, 12lb Toothbrush, on a bus in Paris.”
“Gudinski was out of it when negotiating contracts, and was always onto the next big project. He’d no sooner have signed one band than he’d find another that was more interesting, or whatever, leaving the other band to rot. We realized we weren’t going anywhere so we wanted off the label. It was then we realized the kind of Mafioso-style power he and Frank Stivala had over the industry.”
Without any competition, Festival and Mushroom had all the local acts signed to them.
“So then Gudinski black-balled us; told all the venues that if they hosted us again, they’d never see another live act come their way. We had to put an ad in the paper; it read ‘Madder Lake regrets their fans can’t see them, but due to industry politics beyond our control we can no longer play live’.”
In 1975, the next big thing for Gudinski was Skyhooks.
“That ended the progressive rock era, and perpetuated commercialism above content. The Dingos copped the same punishment after some communication breakdown, saying Gudinski was fickle as a manager, and they wanted off the label.”
Many bands have since received poor treatment from the label, fleeced for their flavour of the month and shelved on a contract, never to be heard from again.
“They’ve created a league ladder mentality: if you’re not in the top 10, you’re not anybody. It’s that kind of mentality that is so damaging to artists. Poor Ray Brown, such a talent, used to sleep on the floor of our motel and eat whatever we could spare. He died of a heart attack in the streets. He was comparatively as big as Farnham, once.”
What do you think is causing this decline?
“The record company party line is population; there isn’t the regard for the artists for lack of numbers in Australia. But the reality is there are no gigs here; population might be a factor, but it’s a lack of support and recognition of local talent. Look at the Badloves; Mushroom sucked them in, set them up for great things, and then they disappeared off the face of the earth. They had something really going on, you know. They’re probably still playing at some pathetic pub circuit trying to survive. Whatever happened to the Baby Animals? What about Bobby Bright? And so on it went, until suddenly our premier act is Missy Higgins … Venues are gone, quality is gone; it’s just a general musical malaise.”
Is there anyone from your era that is still playing?
“Mike Rudd and Bill Putt from Spectrum are still playing. They’re real rock n roll soldiers; they always stuck to their guns. One time many years ago, Mike put it all on the line for one album; sold his house and went to Germany to record an album. I think the producer had a nervous breakdown; the band smoked too many drugs and the album never saw the light of day. But they recovered, and are still going strong, despite the lack of regard among the younger people.”
Who was the first band to receive an all-Australian Gold Record?
“We were, actually,” he laughs. “The first totally Australian Gold Record, produced by Australian artists, making Australian songs, awarded by a totally Australian company; Mushroom was a subsidiary of Festival. I think that was 1974. But you wouldn’t know it if you asked Gudinksi. He’s been waging a private war on history, erasing our part in it. Quite successfully, I’m afraid. Even people my age don’t remember us anymore, although it was a pleasant surprise from Sean Kelly to give us a mention. Good on him.”
In 2001, Mushroom released ‘101 Greatest Australian Hits,’ a 4 disc compilation of number one chart hits over the history of the label. Madder Lake, who’s single ‘12lb Toothbrush’ sat high on the charts for weeks, was not to be found. Instead, it had the Uncanny X-Men, who were a self-proclaimed spoof band, and also Merril Bainbridge, who had one song and vanished entirely. There was also a supposed documentary on Australian Rock History, but it “completely overlooked our era and when it got to Billy Thorpe, it stayed there. They were under Lobby’s spell, at the time, but this documentary was all about Thorpe and Gudinski.”
What do you think might be a solution to this malaise?
“If Gudinski had supported this kind of talent, he’d have a legacy to leave. They went into the forest and logged it bare. What’s his legacy? Kylie? Skyhooks? The public needs to learn to appreciate what it has before it’s gone … Australian musical inspirations are given no due respect, and our musical heritage has become a ‘cringe’ factor of some kind.
At least Americans appreciate their musicians, whether on the street or in a dodgy pub in New Orleans. In Australia, you’re nobody until you’re somebody overseas.”
Is there any hope?
“With noise pollution complaints all the rage, I’m not sure; people seem to move into places next door to venues with the sole intent of shutting it down and ruining it for everyone else. It happened to the Armadale and Windsor, and now I hear the people in the St. Kilda flats over the road from the Sidney Myer Music Bowl are kicking up a stink. Just recently the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were playing a gig there, and they were forced to turn their PA down so low the sound was just shit-house.”
“As a result, the pub scene is reverting back to acoustic measures. There was a brief acoustic era that came through Melbourne in the late 70s, in places like the London Tavern and so on. Pubs had maybe three stage lights, green, amber and red, and if you stayed in the red longer than 3 seconds all the power to the stage would fail!”
Kerry chuckles at the memory.
“So, it feels like its going to be the only acceptable music thing in live venues. I went to the Brunswick Club a little while ago, and it was packed to the gills so I thought there must be a really good band about to play. But all that fuss was for two acoustic duos – the Handsome Family from the USA and Darling Downs – in a room as big as the Gershwin, packed out, for $25 a head … I thought; what social phenomenon am I witnessing here?”
Has there been any attempt to revitalize the progressive rock artists?
“The Sounds of Sunbury was a project we were going to launch, but that failed because none of the bands of that era exist anymore; Johnny Dick, the Dingoes, musicians with astonishing talent, all of them fallen through the cracks. Musicians with the kind of talent you don’t find in young bands today, because their mentality is different, the scene is different; it’s about expendable albums rather than substance, going with fashion, copying the images of the old legends, wanting to be accepted for a quick buck rather than making a statement they believe in, or even just enjoying the music.”
Are you recording?
“I’m working on my solo project, Alien Hand Syndrome. Well, I’ve been working on it off and on for around twenty years. I’m using the internet to publish it, however. I think it’s a wonderful tool for artists. It’s the only thing that allows us to bypass the pricks in upper management. As Lobby said, it’s a means of liberating ourselves from them, and they know it. Look at how they fight tooth and nail against downloading. But they are beaten, whether they realize it or not. The removal of the protection laws on importing was the first real step towards liberation. Gudinski had it sown up so you couldn’t import unless you went through his company. He sold it after protection laws were removed.”
Would you put the social influence of your era on a par with, say, the Anzacs?
“Well, I wouldn’t compare us with the Anzacs, no – people still remember them, but our social and musical influence was quite significant at one time, and the people and all the bands that came after are a product of these things; whether they like it or not. Raising awareness and shining lights into those dirty little cracks is a good thing, and Sean Kelly giving us a mention proves there has been a chain of influences in the Australian music scene, largely unacknowledged or buried in the past.”
Do you have any favourite memoirs?
“Probably when Queen first arrived in Australia; we got into an argument about who supported who – we wouldn’t go on first, and neither would they. It caused both our roadies and theirs to get into a vicious brawl. Eventually we went on first and played a killer show. As a result, Queen came up with their weird British stuff and got booed offstage. Freddie himself swore never to return, and they didn’t. History books have changed that, strangely enough; I have a book that says it was AC/DC who got booed off, which is totally untrue. Both AC/DC and Madder Lake were highly popular with the locals, so it just wouldn’t have happened.”
Is there any solution to the current disregard for local talent that you can see?
“I can’t see a solution to it, no, but the internet is the only way bands can overcome the current dilemma, and I’ve always believed that because of bootlegging, eventually live gigs will become so exclusive that that’s where they’ll make their money, with tickets from 150 – 200 bucks … Hopefully that would also recreate an interest in buying albums and investing in their cover art, with respect and loyalty to an artist. Only time will tell.”
Editor’s note: The article above is strictly off the record; the opinions of the interviewee are not necessarily the opinions of this company.
For further information see:
http://www.myspace.com/alienhandsyndromeonline
and
http://www.myspace.com/madderlake
Please note individual items are the those of the autor, not Pith Records. Don't blame us.
This entry hereby entered into our archives by lansirlot at the hour of 3:36 pm
on this very Thursday, June 14th, our year of 2007.
Duly filed under Interviews, in accordance with standard practices.
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