ictv EPISODE 9: POST-PUNK ART-FUNK

MARK SEYMOUR (HUNTERS & COLLECTORS): We're looking at the period from about late ’78 through to about 1982, the bands that I was first exposed to had started that early and I, around ’82 the whole music scene had started to really change in Australia, we're looking at a period of transition, that's the way I see it now, and by ’82 things had really changed, music had really altered, and I think also at that time the pub rock scene was really thriving and that wasn't really the scene that I was into initially, that was something we discovered later on, but that was more of a national phenomenon and it had a lot more to do with Sydney, you know, you had a lot of new bands emerging that were really loud driving  R&B-based rock’n’roll like the Angels and Midnight Oil, and they came out of a different scene that I got absorbed into later on for professional reasons, but I think the scene that we were involved in at the time was more alternative.

I think that that new wave of music that came out of New York and London really did penetrate into Australia. Even though the live music scene grew in the pubs and the bands that became famous grew out of that environment I think they absorbed a lot of the stylistic energy that was being generated internationally. Bands like the Talking Heads had a profound effect on Australian music, they were all over the radio for years and they were like a New York art school band and I remember at the time they were one of my favourite band in the late 70s, and that little enclave of wankers like myself who used to go to those pubs and thought we knew about the Talking Heads and no-one else did.

PAUL MAC: Like, I went to see Icehouse once at, you know, the Capitol Theatre or something, and it was like thinking that Icehouse, you know, they were one of the only Australian synth bands that I knew. And Simple Minds were the support. And it was like, what are all these strange people doing here for a start? And then it was like falling in love with the music. And then when I saw Human League I found the Models, and it was just like, it was definitely a real eye-opener being exposed to that, and it was just the culture that went along with it.

HELEN CARTER: In 1982 we had this plan that we were going to release four independent EPs, we ended up releasing two. The first one had I suppose a minor hit on Double-J with “Standing on Wires,” the second one didn’t do as well but it did get airplay, then we were approached by management, then we went overseas as of course every band went overseas to record those days… God I wish I had a brain in those days, I would have put my hand up and said, Excuse me but why are we spending all this money, why can’t I have the money and spend less? but we didn’t think that then, it was the 80s, so yeah we made this record and we were by that stage heading more toward mainstream, I mean we were never going to be straight up rock’n’roll, but with the success of “Man Overboard,” I don’t know if I was surprised by the success of the song, of course I thought all our songs were going to be hits but…… then again I wasn’t in radio or management or whatever and there was still very much a kind of, hit-maker mentality or people who thought they could identify a hit, and I think that’s why we really loved the fact that “Man Overboard” took off because people would say, It can’t be a hit, you know, it doesn’t have a chorus, how can this be? you’re talking about pubic hairs, oh my god, you know.

HELEN CARTER: The music scene I think from the early 80s to the late 80s changed beyond recognition almost for me, the early 80s you’d have your Art Units, you’d have your Sheppard & Newmans, all sorts of little venues that were set up by people that were not only musicians but were performance artists, they were film makers, they were, you know, screen printers, painters, photographers, so you would have a very what might be considered a multi-media event and that’s were Do-Re-Mi, you know, our initial growing period was done and then as it moved on and as other bands, I can’t remember bands from the late 80s, isn’t that terrible? I suppose it was the Eurogliders, Noiseworks, the kind of punk ethic where anyone would get up and have a go, it sort of went from the very left of centre to more in the middle and then more to the right with your kind of contemporary adult rock and at the same time the smaller, I guess, art venues seemed to be closing down.

The things that will be remembered from the 80s, hopefully it will be more than the bad hair-dos. I think that there were some very very good sort of left of field musicians and bands happening that did challenge to a certain extent the kind of homogeneity of what was coming out of England and America. I think that unfortunately whatever happened in the late 80s was that  hat sort of culture disintegrated, but I think when I look back at the 80s I think of excess, I think of creativity at a level that allowed you to be a bit more free with what you were doing, I think of hard work, I think of good times, people went out a lot, people liked going to venues and seeing bands.