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| I remember once a little while back talking to an eminent Australian rock critic/historian of my acquaintance and he said to me, I think you’ve overrated the importance of the Young Charlatans. To which I replied, Actually, I think I’ve underrated them! And so it was a privilege to be asked to write the liner notes when Dave Lang at Eminent Vinyl took on the poisoned chalice of putting out an anthology LP of the Charlatans best surviving recordings from 1978. I was always familiar with some of these recordings, demos and live stuff, and so I knew they would stand as a fair-enough testament to this amazing band that was killed equally by its own internal volatility as well as music industry inertia. At a time when post-punk had still barely been recognised, they were a definitive post-punk outfit who showed how rock could re-start after punk had wiped the slate clean. After American pre-punk bands like Pere Ubu, DEVO, Suicide, Talking Heads and Television were actually a punk era transition to post-punk, new British bands like Magazine, Joy Division and the Human League may have set a certain new bar, but as ever the Australian component has never got its full due. And if Australian post-punk is supposed to have come down to bands like the Models, Hunters + Collectors, Pel Mel or the Machinations – that’s if bands like the Birthday Party, the GoBetweens and Laughing Clowns aren’t counted as such – then the Young Charlatans preceded them all and were at least their equal if not, given the degree of difficulty they faced, their better. Even listening through the tin-can cassette sound of this album, that should be pretty evident. On vinyl, these tracks sound better than I’ve ever heard them, and the presentation of the whole package is just superb. All I can finally say – apart from, Get in while stocks last – is, Job well done you Eminent folks, very well done. |
 Phot by Phil Moreland |
