"Really awful is more interesting to listen to than pretty good" - Eno ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. welcome to the drivel blog of "music detractor, Simon Reynolds"
Oh yes - the start of the great Aussie Pub Rock Continuum. The dominant strand of Australian music until at least Jet's second album. Needs more Hush though!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaZjaZz7WAM
(sorry can't embed link)
Some very nice sharpie dance moves on the side of the stage
Lobby Loyde actually produced Buster Brown's one and only LP 'Something To Say' in 1974.
On another note I recall an interview with Angry Anderson singer with Buster Brown who went on to become lead singer of Rose Tattoo who funnily enough were formed by Ian Rilen of X. Anyway this interview with Angry would have been around 10 years after the release of 'Young Spunk', around 1984 I reckon. I have a vague recollection of him saying something along the lines of 'Well it doesn't get much sexier than 16 year old girls in school uniforms.'
I think I thought that was quite normal at the time as I was a teenager then but now when I think about it 'Young Spunk' was released when Anderson would have been around 27. Then at the time of that interview (which I'm pretty sure was on ABC's Beatbox) he would have been in his late 30s. Hmmm.......
Nice try Young Bill but are you actually drunk in the great Aussie pub tradition? Have a good think about that in terms of the 'Hardcore Continuum' which I'm guessing is where you are coming from with that and your comment won't actually make any sense.
I've seen that sharpie footage so many times in my life, it never occurred to me it might actually be of interest to anyone outside of Melbourne or the state of Victoria. The national broadcaster the ABC has trodden these images out ad nauseam throughout my life so now it's uniqueness is totally lost on me. The music part of it remains of interest but the sharpies kinda attached themselves to those bands. I'm sure those bands wanted an audience and I guess beggars can't be choosers. I'm pretty sure though that The Coloured Balls broke up because of the trouble surrounding the band. Not any kind of musical differences or anything. Don't quote me on that though. Read the liner notes to the deluxe editions of Ball Power & Heavy Metal Kid for more accurate info. Might read those myself tonight. Maybe someone like yourself Simon could come in with a fresh perspective, research it and write a book on it.
the sharpie dance is sort of related to the "shoulder jive" which Mud did in some of their videos (check out "Dynamite") and the fans of Slade did (not the band though I don't think)... don't know where it originated... i think maybe the rockers (i.e. the enemies of mods) invented it, it's a sort of biker dance... it's something that went deep into the folk memory of UK youth culture such that you could see it still at farmer's discos in the Eighties (albeit only when they played an oldie from the glitter era)
but the sharpie dance is much more.... involuted? baroque, even? i dunno, it's really strange. but rather than being inspired by the shoulder jive, it must have sprung instinctively from some deep recess of race-memory - perhaps the shoulder jive and sharpie dance have shared roots in the folk dances of the British Isles, and were just applied to rock'n'roll when it arrived as an import?
anyway to fresh eyes it's quite a remarkable sight - and in combo with the short hair with the wispy bits at the back also makes me think vaguely of gabba culture and some of the strange very white dance moves it generated like jumpstyle ...
so what was the trouble that surrounded Coloured Balls then? And why did the sharpies disappear and what replaced them?
There was just too much violence between rival sharpie gangs at Coloured Balls shows. The media got a hold of it and the band were accused of inciting the violence. So Lobby got fed up and walked away from the band. I guess the natural progression from the sharpie was the bogan. This was more of a generic subculture, not so much of a gang thing. The hairdo turned to your more trad mullet ie. short on top and sides with much more business at the back. AC/DC, Cold Chisel and The Angels were the bands that were followed by this lot. Other ex-Sharpie types become skinheads as well. So there were a couple of branching off points.
Interesting parallels between Gabber culture and Sharpies though Simon, nice one!
Lobby Loyde ended up doing a couple of solo records including a faux soundtrack to a book he wrote called Beyond Morgia. This 1976 LP only got issued by Aztec Music in 2007 before that record company folded. It was space rock Aussie stylee. Try and track it down, it's pretty good. It was engineered by Birthday Party/Nick Cave producer Tony Cohen. I think Lobby ended up burning the manuscript to the novel at some stage. Lobby had another group for a short time called Southern Electric. Anyway Loyde moved to the UK in the late 70s for a while looking for a record deal but ended up doing a lot of live engineering before returning for his brief stint with Rose Tattoo. After that in the 80s he stuck to mainly producing. He did bands like X and The Sunnyboys but even dance-rock stuff like Machinations.
Funnily enough I worked for a couple of years in Box Hill an outer Eastern suburb of Melbourne which was one of the Coloured Balls main stomping grounds. I think Lobby lived there as well. I'd pass The Town Hall every day and Coloured Balls would always cross my mind. I'd wonder what the hell used to happen in there and how much blood was shed? Loyde deep down was a sensitive soul so it was a great shame the media made him out to be some kind of villain.
I guess Sharpies who had the gang mentality deeply ingrained in their souls would have joined biker gangs once they were old enough. Many would have just grown up, got jobs and started families. Other international subcultures would have attracted some of the others ex-Sharpies like anarchists, punk, hardcore etc. The ephemerality of it all is a bit of a mystery though. As far as I know there haven't been any younger generations taking up the lifestyle as a revival. That could be ripe for the picking now!
Sharpie culture was very white, as white as you could get so it definitely fits parallels with Gabber, Skinheads etc. This could be a reason why it hasn't been revived as Australia became more multicultural from the 80s onward. Take a very popular underground band from the 80s like The Hard Ons. They were a punk/thrash/pop band that had no members with their roots in Anglo-Saxon culture. The original three piece had backgrounds from Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia and Korea, I think. This was the face of 80s youth culture.
7 comments:
Oh yes - the start of the great Aussie Pub Rock Continuum. The dominant strand of Australian music until at least Jet's second album. Needs more Hush though!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaZjaZz7WAM
(sorry can't embed link)
Some very nice sharpie dance moves on the side of the stage
Weird alignment of planets or what Simon? Here's something I wrote a couple of weeks back
http://cardrossmaniac2.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/lobby-loyde.html
Lobby Loyde actually produced Buster Brown's one and only LP 'Something To Say' in 1974.
On another note I recall an interview with Angry Anderson singer with Buster Brown who went on to become lead singer of Rose Tattoo who funnily enough were formed by Ian Rilen of X. Anyway this interview with Angry would have been around 10 years after the release of 'Young Spunk', around 1984 I reckon. I have a vague recollection of him saying something along the lines of 'Well it doesn't get much sexier than 16 year old girls in school uniforms.'
I think I thought that was quite normal at the time as I was a teenager then but now when I think about it 'Young Spunk' was released when Anderson would have been around 27. Then at the time of that interview (which I'm pretty sure was on ABC's Beatbox) he would have been in his late 30s. Hmmm.......
i missed that post... it was the Sharpies and their dancing that drew me into this netherworld...
I wouldn't worry about Hush they were shite.
Aussie Pub Rock Continuum
Nice try Young Bill but are you actually drunk in the great Aussie pub tradition? Have a good think about that in terms of the 'Hardcore Continuum' which I'm guessing is where you are coming from with that and your comment won't actually make any sense.
I've seen that sharpie footage so many times in my life, it never occurred to me it might actually be of interest to anyone outside of Melbourne or the state of Victoria. The national broadcaster the ABC has trodden these images out ad nauseam throughout my life so now it's uniqueness is totally lost on me. The music part of it remains of interest but the sharpies kinda attached themselves to those bands. I'm sure those bands wanted an audience and I guess beggars can't be choosers. I'm pretty sure though that The Coloured Balls broke up because of the trouble surrounding the band. Not any kind of musical differences or anything. Don't quote me on that though. Read the liner notes to the deluxe editions of Ball Power & Heavy Metal Kid for more accurate info. Might read those myself tonight. Maybe someone like yourself Simon could come in with a fresh perspective, research it and write a book on it.
A chapter for your next book perhaps?
the sharpie dance is sort of related to the "shoulder jive" which Mud did in some of their videos (check out "Dynamite") and the fans of Slade did (not the band though I don't think)... don't know where it originated... i think maybe the rockers (i.e. the enemies of mods) invented it, it's a sort of biker dance... it's something that went deep into the folk memory of UK youth culture such that you could see it still at farmer's discos in the Eighties (albeit only when they played an oldie from the glitter era)
but the sharpie dance is much more.... involuted? baroque, even? i dunno, it's really strange. but rather than being inspired by the shoulder jive, it must have sprung instinctively from some deep recess of race-memory - perhaps the shoulder jive and sharpie dance have shared roots in the folk dances of the British Isles, and were just applied to rock'n'roll when it arrived as an import?
anyway to fresh eyes it's quite a remarkable sight - and in combo with the short hair with the wispy bits at the back also makes me think vaguely of gabba culture and some of the strange very white dance moves it generated like jumpstyle ...
so what was the trouble that surrounded Coloured Balls then? And why did the sharpies disappear and what replaced them?
There was just too much violence between rival sharpie gangs at Coloured Balls shows. The media got a hold of it and the band were accused of inciting the violence. So Lobby got fed up and walked away from the band. I guess the natural progression from the sharpie was the bogan. This was more of a generic subculture, not so much of a gang thing. The hairdo turned to your more trad mullet ie. short on top and sides with much more business at the back. AC/DC, Cold Chisel and The Angels were the bands that were followed by this lot. Other ex-Sharpie types become skinheads as well. So there were a couple of branching off points.
Interesting parallels between Gabber culture and Sharpies though Simon, nice one!
Lobby Loyde ended up doing a couple of solo records including a faux soundtrack to a book he wrote called Beyond Morgia. This 1976 LP only got issued by Aztec Music in 2007 before that record company folded. It was space rock Aussie stylee. Try and track it down, it's pretty good. It was engineered by Birthday Party/Nick Cave producer Tony Cohen. I think Lobby ended up burning the manuscript to the novel at some stage. Lobby had another group for a short time called Southern Electric. Anyway Loyde moved to the UK in the late 70s for a while looking for a record deal but ended up doing a lot of live engineering before returning for his brief stint with Rose Tattoo. After that in the 80s he stuck to mainly producing. He did bands like X and The Sunnyboys but even dance-rock stuff like Machinations.
Funnily enough I worked for a couple of years in Box Hill an outer Eastern suburb of Melbourne which was one of the Coloured Balls main stomping grounds. I think Lobby lived there as well. I'd pass The Town Hall every day and Coloured Balls would always cross my mind. I'd wonder what the hell used to happen in there and how much blood was shed? Loyde deep down was a sensitive soul so it was a great shame the media made him out to be some kind of villain.
I guess Sharpies who had the gang mentality deeply ingrained in their souls would have joined biker gangs once they were old enough. Many would have just grown up, got jobs and started families. Other international subcultures would have attracted some of the others ex-Sharpies like anarchists, punk, hardcore etc. The ephemerality of it all is a bit of a mystery though. As far as I know there haven't been any younger generations taking up the lifestyle as a revival. That could be ripe for the picking now!
Sharpie culture was very white, as white as you could get so it definitely fits parallels with Gabber, Skinheads etc. This could be a reason why it hasn't been revived as Australia became more multicultural from the 80s onward. Take a very popular underground band from the 80s like The Hard Ons. They were a punk/thrash/pop band that had no members with their roots in Anglo-Saxon culture. The original three piece had backgrounds from Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia and Korea, I think. This was the face of 80s youth culture.
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