ictv episode 6: power pop
NICK CAVE: A lot of the other stuff going on in Melbourne at the time was great in a way, in that there was an attitude, because nobody was supported by the Australian music industry. They didn’t even really exist for us, no-one felt they were ever going to get anywhere so you could make the kind of music you wanted to make... or you could push the boundaries of the whole thing to where you want to go because there was... nothing being dangled in front of you to obtain. |
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JAMES FREUD: The Teenage Radio Stars were originally a punk band called the Spread and we were doing songs like “I Didn't Know I Loved You Till I Saw You On The Dole.” And, I don't know, various kind of like really nasty titles and I sang like Johnny Rotten. You know, we were just a poor imitation of the Sex Pistols. BRUCE MILNE: By about 1978 a lot of groups were putting out their own singles and EPs and there was a very loose sort of distribution network of friends around the country who - you would get 50 copies of it, you would take it round to shops, and Missing Link was probably the main shop in Melbourne for those records, although a lot of other shops were very supportive. KIM SALMON: What did they do with the Scientists on Countdown, they really didn’t know what to do with us, they had us back to back with a band called the Aliens, I don’t if anyone remembers the Aliens, supposedly we were going to hang out in the ally and check them out and then they were going to check us out and they had these Harleys on set, well, we wanted to get rid of the Harley Davisons and we didn’t want to be anywhere near the Aliens … it was a pity for the set designer, he’s spent a lot of time on it, my first go at lip syncing, pretty easy, we left the Countdown studio and drove back to Perth and did the trip in two days, we didn’t get beat up by truck drivers, they would have to if there were any around, because I was wearing all black and I had black died hair and was wearing these shiny white patent moccasins, yeah we went back to Perth , and told the booking agent yeah we’ve just been over east, just been on Countdown, yeah pull the other one mate, and we got dumped out of the regular gigs we had, so we split up after that, so fat lot of good being on Countdown did for us – but at least I did it. |
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DAMO LOVELOCK: I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening in Australia and these guys weren’t on Countdown and they weren’t on Happening 70 and, you know, I suppose to people today that means nothing because the alternate scene has become so established, it’s now the mainstream, it’s now the establishment, but back then this was serious left-field culture, you know. |
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