Australian garage classic. The Missing LinksWild About You from 1965 was their 3rd single. Weird & wild. The Saints covered this on their first LP and there was a great rock book that used this title too. Sydney rocked.
More deranged garage from Sydney in the mid 60s. You're Drivin Me Insane was the 2nd single from The Missing Links. This has gotta be one of the greatest songs ever.
From the 2nd Saints album Eternally Yours (1978). Alright. Let's Shoot the professor. Yeah!
From The Saints 3rd LP Prehistoric Sounds released in late 1978. Rowland S Howard used to cover this live with his band These Immortal Souls.
The haunting sound of urban summer in Australia. Even though this song is particularly about Brisbane under the Police State of Sir Joh in the 70s it has a universal sound of a lethargic, irritating, paranoid and unrelenting Australian summer.
Speaking of Ugly Things compilations put out by Raven Records in recent posts, I just realised this has been released by Festival Records. I e-mailed Raven several years ago to ask if they'll ever be re-releasing any of the Ugly Things volumes, as I had one missing, and they said probably not ever. I thought oh well. Then later I thought its been so long since they were put out a whole generation or two have missed out. I also thought with the Internet this stuff would only be gaining in popularity. Then there was a resurgence of garage rock (mainstream crossover) in the early 21st century, so the market would be quite large for a reissue. So in the end I thought they were being stupid. In 2010 Ian D Marks and Iain McIntyre then published the fabulous book Wild About You: The 60s Beat Explosion in Australia & New Zealand. So not just the people in the know but a whole younger crowd were presented with all this (a lot of it quite enlightening) info on a bunch of the 60s bands. Some of which were quite obscure and some who were massive pop stars.
An incredible resource for lovers of Antipodean Raw Garage
Rock, Fuzz, R&B and Beat Soundz from the 60s. Contains
interviews with over 35 groops and features The Beat &
Garage top 100. One of the great books on rock.
If you've read my blog before you will know of my admiration for such groops as Peter & The Silhouettes, The Sunsets, Black Diamonds, The Elois, The Tol-Puddle Martyrs, The MastersApprentices, The Loved Ones, The D-Coys, Sunday, The Atlantics, The Wild Colonials, The Missing Links, The Throb, The Templars and so on. So those of you new to the game this will be a great intro to the cool, snarly, fuzzy, hormone fuelled and sometimes frightening sounds of the Australian R&B and Beat Soundz. Me well I really don't think I need to buy it. I'm pretty sure I could make this comp as a mixtape tonight. I guess Volume 1 of Ugly Things for me is the comp! Don't get me wrong this Downunder Nuggets is a bloody great compilation. I highly recommend to the kids and the uninitiated. By that I mean everyone on the planet not into this golden era of Australian pop culture yet.
Ugly Things the original compilation of this type of gear.
Released in 1980!
But there are other bewdies too. It's A Kave In: Kingsize Kollection-Wild Oz 60s Punk From The Caverns Of Time and Devil's Children: Hellacious Sixties Punk Rarities are two other classics. Let us not forget The Hot Generation and Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones released by Big Beat, which I think is a British label, and maybe still in print. It's all great music! Get into it. Get your shindig started. Push your coffee table back. Put on your dancing shoes on. Time to kut the rug.
Many Mary
Sunday
From It's A Kave In.
Come On Baby The Templars
Melbourne band of youngsters from 1965.
Half sung in Greek & half in English.
I can picture them in 1960s Richmond,
Melbourne has a massive Greek population.
This is great wild stuff!
Krome Plated Yabby The Wild Cherries
Lobby Loyde on guitar. This one's a bit more psych
than the others. It's like there's a pop song trying to
escape the weirdness but doesn't quite get out.
What a mental psych classic!
