Little Band scene

Last updated

The Champion Hotel in Fitzroy was a popular venue among the little bands, hosting monthly "Little Band Nights" throughout much of 1979 and 1980. Champion Hotel Fitzroy.jpg
The Champion Hotel in Fitzroy was a popular venue among the little bands, hosting monthly "Little Band Nights" throughout much of 1979 and 1980.

The Little Band scene was an experimental post-punk scene which flourished in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from late 1978 until early 1981. [2] Instigated by groups Primitive Calculators and Whirlywhirld, this scene was concentrated in the inner suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda, and involved large numbers of short-lived bands, more concerned with artistic expression than commercial success. Frequently changing names, swapping members and sharing equipment, the bands played in small inner-city venues, often pubs, and their music was recorded live and broadcast by radio announcer Alan Bamford on community station 3RRR. In the scene, the distinctions between performers and audience were blurred; many audience members were either in little bands or ended up forming such.

Contents

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 Primitive Calculators, an experimental post-punk group from Melbourne, formed a short-lived side band, the Leapfrogs. Using it as their own opening act, they decided to form other "little bands" with friends, including members of Whirlywirld, who lived next door to the group in Fitzroy North, with rehearsal spaces in each house. [4] The little bands grew in number, sharing instruments and equipment, and the term "North Fitzroy Beat" was coined to describe their sound. Soon they started staging "Little Band Nights" at various inner city venues, notably the Champion Hotel in Fitzroy, the Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda and the Exford in Chinatown, with occasional appearances in Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond. At first, strict rules were imposed: no little band was allowed to play more than twice and could have no more than fifteen minutes worth of material. [1] According to Primitive Calculators frontman Stuart Grant, it was "the punk ethos of disposability, novelty and working against the grain of the standard modes of procedure in the music business." [5]

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 John Murphy explained that "a lot of the original participants were artists who applied the Dada sort of approach of their painting". [6] One journalist described the little bands' output as "sloppy, clangy and discordant. By turns, they could sound equally fantastic: a mixture of epileptic drum machine rhythms, stabbing synth lines and creepy/witty lyrics making for oddly compelling results." [1] Some members of the scene had received proper training in electronic music and composition, including Whirlywirld's Ollie Olsen, who studied under Melbourne-based composer Felix Werder. [2]

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

Dead Can Dance members Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard met in the Little Band scene. Brendan-and-lisa014 14177761344 o.jpg
Dead Can Dance members Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard met in the Little Band scene.

Several lasting musical partnerships were forged in the scene: Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry went on to achieve international fame as Dead Can Dance; [8] members of the Jetsonnes regrouped to form Hunters & Collectors; Kim Beissel and Chris Astley joined the Melbourne incarnation of Crime & the City Solution; and the Serious Young Insects later became Boom Crash Opera. Zorros also formed out of an impromptu jam during one of the Champion Hotel's Little Band Nights in early 1980.

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, The Take and Too Fat to Fit Through the Door. [9] The first phase of the scene—up to the departure of the Calculators and Whirlywirld—was documented on an unreleased double LP, No Sin Like Dancing, that is catalogued in Clinton Walker's 1981 book Inner City Sound. [10] Several little bands can also be found on the 1981 One Stop Shopping compilation curated by Severed Heads member Tom Ellard and released through Terse Tapes, [11] as well as on issues of Fast Forward (1980–82), a cassette magazine founded and edited by Bruce Milne of Au Go Go Records. [12] Bootleg copies of Alan Bamford's live recordings of the little bands are also known to exist. [13]

Since the scene ended, little band recordings have appeared on Chapter Music releases, including the 2007 Primitive Calculators and Friends CD, [14] the Can't Stop It! compilation series, [15] [16] and The Job (2020), which features previously unreleased Use No Hooks recordings. [17] In 2016, German label Vinyl On Demand released Magnetophonics: Australian Underground Music 1978–1984, featuring several little bands.

Legacy and influence

INXS frontman Michael Hutchence starred in Dogs in Space (1986), a film based on the Little Band scene. Michael-hutchence-INXS-1986.jpg
INXS frontman Michael Hutchence starred in Dogs in Space (1986), a film based on the Little Band scene.

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 Melbourne Fringe Festival staged two shows dedicated to Little Band scene's ethos of ephemerality. Participants included members of contemporary bands the Boat People, the Crayon Fields, the Devastations, Dick Diver and Pikelet, among others. Chapter Music's Guy Blackman also participated, as well as members of Primitive Calculators with special guests the Take, an original little band which reformed for the first time in 30 years. [21] Since then, several Melbourne venues, including The Tote, have helped to revive the little bands concept with shows headlined by the reformed Primitive Calculators. [22]

List of little bands

Bands listed in bold went on to become fully fledged gigging groups.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Kilda, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. St Kilda recorded a population of 19,490 at the 2021 census.

Australian indie rock is part of the overall flow of Australian rock history but has a distinct history somewhat separate from mainstream rock in Australia, largely from the end of the punk rock era onwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitzroy, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Fitzroy is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km (1.9 mi) north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Fitzroy recorded a population of 10,431 at the 2021 census.

3RRR is an Australian community radio station, based in Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick Street, Melbourne</span> Street in Melbourne, Australia

Brunswick Street is a street in inner northern Melbourne, known for cafés, live music venues and alternative fashion shops.

Chapter Music is one of Australia's longest-running independent record labels. Chapter Music has worked with a broad range of mostly Australian artists, in genres such as rock and roll, indie pop, post punk, country and western and folk. Between 1992 and 2013, the label released around 45 titles, including several compilation albums, such as Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-82 and Songs For Nao. The label's 2014 roster features bands such as Dick Diver, Beaches and Twerps.

Whirlywirld were an Australian post-punk band led by Ollie Olsen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy. They played in Melbourne and Sydney and were supporters of the Melbourne little band scene.

Ollie Olsen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. He has performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music since the mid-1970s. His post punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86) and No (1987–89). Olsen joined with Michael Hutchence to form a short-term band, Max Q, which issued an album in 1989. He co-founded the alternative electronic music record label Psy-Harmonics with Andrew Till in 1993. In 2014 he formed Taipan Tiger Girls.

Essendon Airport is an Australian electronic music, post-punk group formed in 1978 which explored experimental minimalist and funk music. Founding mainstays were the duo of David Chesworth on electric piano and drum machine and Robert Goodge on guitar. They were joined in late 1980 by Ian Cox on saxophone and Paul Fletcher on drums.

The Primitive Calculators were an Australian post-punk band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria in 1978. Described by British critic Everett True as sounding like "a very aggressive Suicide", the band is known for its mix of harsh guitar noise, fast and repetitive drum machine beats, and abrasive synthesizers. Along with fellow Melbourne act Whirlywirld, the Primitive Calculators played a leading role in founding the experimental Little Band Scene in the late 1970s, wherein both bands and numerous other acts formed large numbers of short-lived bands by frequently swapping members and inviting non-musicians to join in at live shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Zorros</span> Australian rock band

The Zorros were an Australian rock band, formed in 1979, comprising Nic Chancellor on lead vocals, Darren Smith on lead guitar, Alex Zammit on bass guitar and Greg Pedley on drums.

John Russell Murphy was an Australian drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumental session musician who played in Australian and British post-punk, ambient and industrial music groups.

Marie Hoy is an Australian musician and actress. As a vocalist and keyboardist, she was a member of Sacred Cowboys, Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86), No (1987–89) and a number of bands in Melbourne's little band scene. As an actor, she appeared in the 1986 film Dogs in Space, where she performed the Boys Next Door's track, "Shivers". She worked with performance artist, Stelarc, on a short science fiction film, Otherzone (1998).

→ ↑ → was an Australian music, art and performance group, best known for their experimental music. They formed in Melbourne in 1977 and were led by Philip Brophy. The group performed music, produced artwork, films, videos, live theatre, multi-media, and wrote literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Melbourne</span> Overview of the culture of Melbourne (Australia)

The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements. Since its founding as a British settlement in 1835, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by European culture, particularly that of the British Isles. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades the immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture. Over time, Melbourne has become the birthplace of a number of unique cultural traits and institutions, and today it is one of the world's most multicultural cities.

The Australian ska scene has existed since the mid-1980s, when it started enjoying the same sort of interest as it did in the United Kingdom, following the success of UK 2 Tone bands such as The Specials, The Beat and Madness.

A Music Victoria study finds Melbourne hosts 62,000 live concerts annually, making it one of the live music capitals of the world. Victoria is host to more than three times the live performance national average, making it the live music capital of the country. Melbourne is host to more music venues per capita than Austin, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal Ballroom (Melbourne)</span>

<i>Dogs in Space</i> 1987 film by Richard Lowenstein

Dogs in Space is a 1986 Australian film set in Melbourne's "Little Band" post-punk music scene in 1978. It was directed by Richard Lowenstein and starred Michael Hutchence as Sam, the drug-addled frontman of the fictitious band from which the film takes its name.

Bruce Milne is a prominent figure in the Australian music industry, a long-standing member of the grass-roots Melbourne music community who, after getting his start publishing a punk fanzine in the late 1970s, has done practically everything since – been a writer, radio presenter, DJ, run record shops, book shops and record labels, run bars and venues, and worked in A&R and as a tour promoter.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Potts, Adrian (2008). "Big and Ugly: Primitive Calculators on Kick-starting the "Little Band" Scene", Vice Magazine . Retrieved on 5 October 2010.
  2. 1 2 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
  3. ↑ Best, Sophie. "Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978–82". Beat Magazine, Issue 785. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
  4. 1 2 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.
  5. ↑ Schaefer, Rene (8 February 2009). "Primitive Calculators", Mess+Noise. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  6. 1 2 Walker (1996), p. 68
  7. ↑ Brophy, Philip (1987). "Avant-garde Rock: History in the Making?". Missing in Action: Australian Popular Music in Perspective. Graphics Publications (Melbourne).
  8. ↑ Hennessy, Kate (16 December 2014). "Sanvean by Dead Can Dance – pining after Australia in an invented language", The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Walker, Clinton, ed. (2005). Inner city sound (Expanded ed.). Portland: Verse Chorus. p. 187. ISBN   1-891241-18-4.
  10. ↑ Australian Post-Punk: 1976 to 1981 Discography Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved on 5 January 2011.
  11. ↑ Terse Tapes, innercitysounds.com.au. Retrieved on 29 September 2010.
  12. ↑ Fast Forward, innercitysounds.com.au. Retrieved on 27 December 2010.
  13. ↑ Little Bands, innercitysounds.com.au. Retrieved on 5 January 2011.
  14. ↑ Primitive Calculators and Friends CD, chaptermusic.com.au. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
  15. ↑ Can’t Stop It! CD, chaptermusic.com.au. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
  16. ↑ Can’t Stop It! 2 CD, chaptermusic.com.au. Retrieved on 17 June 2011.
  17. ↑ Crawford, Anwen (March 2020). "The future was foreclosed: Post-punk and Use No Hooks’ ‘The Job’", The Monthly . Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  18. ↑ "Other Post-Punk Bands In Sydney", No Nights Sweats. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  19. ↑ Galvin, Peter (7 September 2009). "We're living on dog food. So What?", SBS Film. Retrieved on 29 December 2010.
  20. ↑ Tofts, Darren (November 2009). "chronicles of the blank generation", RealTime Arts. Retrieved on 29 December 2010.
  21. ↑ 3RRR and Melbourne Fringe present: Little Bands #1 Archived 20 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine , melbournefringe.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  22. ↑ Hughes, Harry (18 May 2014). "Primitive Calculators Presents Little Bands #3", The Music. Retrieved 20 May 2017.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.