Australian indie bands who decamped to London in the eighties: classic or dud?

Yeah, there are a lot of bands I forgot to mention. Did the Church do time in London? Probably. It was a strange phenomenon though, these Antipodean Dick Whittingtons but when they got here no one was really interested. Were things that dire in Ausatralia at the time that the only solution was to get out?

That said, I've just looked it up on EveryHit and The Go-Betweens are not showing up.

The June Brides got on the front cover of the NME in 1985 - this tells us that there wasn;t much around.

http://www.jturner.dircon.co.uk/gb/gm&nc.htm

My memory of 1985 was that that guitar-driven indie bands were not really where it was at. The Aussies were a few years too late for that. Or perhaps a few years too early.

But with Grant McLennan in the same house?!?!?

No, I think we ordered them but got sent Icehouse by mistake.

80s Indie/punk/garage Aussie scene pretty much classic too. OZ - some great recent comps like 'Do the Pop' and 'Tales from the Australian Underground' show that the reviews of impossible-to-find imports I used to drool over at the time didn't tell the half of it.

yes, and they still are.

there was a not-so-recent reissue of almost their entire catalogue on CD, although i gather it's now out of print..

yes, and they still are.

huge distances, relatively small population - most of them idiots - you see?

j/k course.

x-post: Diesel was doing a residency at the Sando last year. How the shitty have fallen.

That Moodists comp was somewhat dissapointing. I keep on returning to vinyl and scrounged mp3s as the sound quality on the studio recordings made them almost unlistenable (unless my copy alone was freakishly flawed???).

Which reminds me, did the Laughing Clowns comp ever come out?

Each shivered in London squats, toasting a rat over an open fire. Probably.

hmm. the bites are excellent. from there i draw a bit of a blank.

xpost

From a global perspective it was INXS, and maybe Midnight Oil, whose lucky numbers came up in the back half of the '80s. The Triffids made do with critical acclaim and good company. In his book Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977-1991, rock journalist Clinton Walker shines a heroic light on these misfits that glows ever more brightly - certainly compared to the squandered radiance of INXS.

"The Triffids joined Nick Cave, the Go-Betweens, the Moodists (Dave Graney's band) and (Kim Salmon's) Scientists in exile in Europe," Walker asserts. Along with the Saints, Radio Birdman, Laughing Clowns and some others, "some of Australia's most vital talent had been run out of the country".

Hence his book's central drama, in which noble indie refugees flee the totalitarianism of Aussie pub rock to vouchsafe the "alternative" sensibility that would ultimately return victorious as the Big Day Out.

To illustrate why the Triffids left Australia, Graham Lee opens the Born Sandy Devotional CD book to a photo of a Queensland pub's events board: "Friday: stubbies welcome nite. Saturday: Triffids with Phil Emmanuel's Rockola. Sunday: wet T-shirt competition."

Dave Graney also recalls the '80s indie exodus in terms of cultural conflict. "These inner-city bands didn't want to engage in pub rock. They couldn't. Famously, the Scientists opened for the Angels at Parramatta Leagues Club (in 1983) and they were bottled off stage.

"But there were inner-city scenes in each city that were entranced by import records and import magazines. That's how groups like the Triffids could plug into that British scene, 'cause they were schooled in it. They knew the story and the dialogue."

Moodists: absolute classic thunderous gloom. Loved them at the time, and the vinyl holds up well. (No CD reissues yet?)

I thought 2 Fisted Art was out at the time that was asked -2005. Think it's the only cd of their stuff.
I asked Mick Turner about possibilities of reissues when Dirty 3 played dublin a few years earlier and he seemed tonot be into the idea. I think my vinyl had already been nicked at that point, at least what i had in Dublin. Think I have Engine Shudder now having recently brought it back from LOndon.
Moodists have since done at least one reunion tour haven't they? & Chris Walsh's punk era band the Negatives have had a compi released, that Ugly Things reviewed.
Somebody just upped a '86 German date to Dime earlier today too. Possibly too late since it'll lack the Walsh rumble. I like them best with Mick Turner anyway, his avant near-metal guitar scrawl really adds to Thirsty's Calling

Rumors have circulated for years about McLennan's possible experimenting with heroin. I can't believe it either: such a nice boy; you want to bring him home to mother.

I spent a long night talking to him around 1994 about which of his songs referenced heroin, and he didn't dispute any of it . . . and even mentioned one or two others! You can be a sweet and kind guy (which Grant certainly was) and still use.