Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...
Mourners Recollections - by Ben Vernon
I am indeed a stranger in a strange land. It's 1986 and my shoes are stuck to what must have been carpet when they built this bizarre suburban “tavern” in Belconnen, one of Canberra's northern suburbs. The patrons of this place are an eclectic group – giant menacing bikies break character to warmly hug some hot young office worker girls, wild dreadlocked stoners laugh uproariously with a bunch of skinhead-looking guys and despite the incredible breadth and range of this generous demographic, I am definitely “one of these things that's not like the others” as they say on Sesame Street. And that's a good example right there, no one else in this place would get that reference, but Big Bird, Elmo and Ernie and Bert are still pretty fresh in my memory. But all that is about to become completely irrelevant, because I am about to hear the greatest live band I've ever heard (still true today, three decades later) and have the kind of face-melting transformative musical awakening you remember for the rest of your life.
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This band...
This band. Jeez, what a journey. Dan and I started out as starry eyed young blokes from the Northside of Canberra (where all the roughnecks resided, you know who you are) and having found some kindred spirits managed to smash out some excellent original music along the way. The new record has been a labour of love for a good few years now and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, thank goodness. The early years with this band spoiled me for life really - I was lucky enough to meet and play with a great and talented bunch of musical buddies and writers very early on (and make money doing it), and since then have been chasing that elusive chemistry, with mixed and sometimes interesting results. We still nurture plans for complete world domination and are currently devising a sinister yet cunning range of electrical wheelchair devices from which to prosecute our dastardly vision for modern music and humanity. Seriously though , back on top.
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