Wild West

The post punk landscape slowly changed in Sydney at the beginning of the 80s with more emphasis being placed on melody and rhythm. More funk, less experimentation and so on. Wild West eased into this nexus with a taut style and a tidy little group dynamic. 

The sound of the band was unique without being startling. Peter Nelson's jangly, intricate guitar flitted around Gordon Renouf's liquid, pneumatic bass lines and Phil Turnbull's simplistic chords and sometimes grating synth riffs. Peter Macgregor added a necessary driving force. Eventually Rae Byrom joined with some surprisingly elegant and playful synth motifs.

They released the 'Beat The Drought' EP in 1980. Peter Macgregor left soon after this. He was replaced for a time by Dave Weston, the extra physical drummer from Newcastle's Pel Mel whose style was dissimilar to Peter's but still muscular. Around this time they continued performing including a great night supporting The Birthday Party at the Cell Block in Darlinghurst. Dave's increasingly heavy duties in extending the burgeoning Pel Mel popularity forced him to finally leave them in the lurch once again. 

Then they decided to keep it all fairly open at this stage with more reliance on smaller splinter groups whilst still keeping the Wild West name alive somehow. There were a large number of 'Little' bands around at this time including The Tame O'Mearas, Via Veneto and others who were all somewhat aligned to the Pel Mel / Wild West axis. Lindsay O'Meara joined them for drumming duties. 

A large M-Squared recording happened around this time, most of which never saw the light of day. Peter left to go overseas late in 1981 and that, finally, was that. Gordon continued on with Rod and others in Hope Is A New Coat and Moral Fibro and Rae and Lindsay joined forces for You Peghead You. [SOURCE: NO NIGHT SWEATS]