Decline Of The Reptiles were born on the sweaty inner-city pub circuit in 1982, with Gary Munro on drums, Dean Coulter on guitar, Bruce Tatham on keyboards, Phil Kerney on bass, Bruce Tindale on guitar and Mark Roxburgh on vocals. The band spawned a single ''What I Feel / Flesh'' one mini album 'The Hammer Speaks' and the EP, 'Too Much Armour, Not Enough Brains' before going into hibernation five years later. They played at venues like the Bondi Hotel, Leichardt Hotel, the Trade Union Club and the Mosman Hotel. The inclusion of their song ''Don’t Look Down'' on the first 'Do The Pop!' retrospective collection prompted a re-group in 2009 with a re-tooled rhythm section. A year of constant gigging followed before the Reptiles recorded their debut long-player, '13 Songs For The Rodeo Grrls'. Sounding like the blues-rock bastard offspring of The Stooges, The Doors and the Stones, this is an album that’s stunning in both its broad musical vision and sonic intensity. [SOURCE: HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC FROM 1960 UNTIL 2000]
Minuteman were a 1980s Sydney garage band whose only release was a 7" single: ''Voodoo Slaves / I Wanna Be Your Minuteman'' in 1982 produced by Rob Younger (ex-Radio Birdman). Guitarist John Needham set up Citadel Records to release "Voodoo Slaves" "because no one would put it out". The single was also released in France on the Sonics label. The band disbanded after that single, but Citadel went on to release records by Radio Birdman, The New Christs, Died Pretty, The Screaming Tribesmen to name but a few. Bassist Clyde Bramley would go on and join the Hoodoo Gurus. [SOURCE: HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC FROM 1960 UNTIL 2000]
Sunnyboys successfully combined the new wave energy of the early 80s with the guitar sounds of the 60s. They came on to the Sydney scene in 1980, with a softer sound, a refreshing change from the heavy rock sound that dominated Sydney at the time. They were popular in New South Wales, but were unable to match this elsewhere with only three singles making the lower reaches of the Australian charts, perhaps owing to their inconsistent live performances. By their third album the band had lost its way, and went to the UK to re-assess their career. There they produced a strong album which did not do well, and so they disbanded in 1984. Jeremy Oxley re-formed the group in 1987, with Peter Hiencenberg (drums), Nick Freedman (guitar) and Phil Smith (bass), and completed one album. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The Fun Things earliest beginnings started in the mid 1970s with Brad Shepherd and John Hartley meeting each other to practice at their homes. According to Brad Shepherd, they used to practice Zeppelin and Sabbath and Deep Purple songs in Hartley's rumpus room, or at his place. He lived at The Gap, which is in the western suburbs of Brisbane and Hartley lived at Tarragindi, which is South. They were 14 at the time so they would get their mothers to drive them to each other's place and practice on Sunday afternoons. They did that for a couple of years until Shepherd started reading in RAM (Rock Australia Magazine) about Radio Birdman.
The Fun Things existed between 1979 to 1980, however, they were previously known as The Aliens in Brisbane during 1978. Coincidentally, there was another band called The Aliens from Adelaide at the same time. This other band were considered more new wave orientated. The Brisbane punk rock Aliens members featured Brad Shepherd on guitar and vocals, bassist John Hartley, and Murray Shepherd on drums but dissolved to form The Phantom Agents for a phase without Hartley.
After The Phantom Agents, the original Aliens reformed as The Fun Things with The Phantom Agents guitarist Graeme Beavis. This outfit rapidly gained a strong local following, which was due to their tight and energetic live shows. The Fun Things were still teenagers but managed to record a self-titled EP in 1980. In 2000 the EP was re-released on Pennimann Records from Spain. Some of the tracks in the past had been subject to bootlegging from outside Australia.
The Passengers appeared in Sydney following the demise of Radio Birdman. Among the many bands who blazed bright in the post-apocalyptic era at the turn of the decade, The Passengers stood alone. Their music was compelling and different, and their following was fanatically dedicated. The Passengers were born from the Sydney inner city punk culture in 1979. They were the first band released by Phantom Records recording ''Face With No Name / Girlfriend's Boyfriend''. Taking their name from an Iggy Pop song, the band was fronted by Angie Pepper, and also included former Survivor and future New ChristJim Dickson on bass, with Jeff Sullivan (later of The Flaming Hands) on guitar and Steve Harris on keyboards. Pepper's vocals and the sixties girl-group nature of the lyrics made an instant comparison to Blondie inevitable, but Harris's electric piano sound was substantially different from Blondie's approach. Unfortunately, the band was short lived, and they disbanded at the end of 1980. In 1990 French label Revenge Records released an album full of unreleased demos titled 'The Passengers with Angie Pepper'. [SOURCE: HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC FROM 1960 UNTIL 2000]
The Visitors were an Australian rock band formed in 1978 after the breakup of popular punk rock band Radio Birdman. The songs were written by Deniz Tek but unlike many other Tek bands, Tek did not sing vocals in The Visitors. Instead the vocals were sung by long-time friend of the band Mark Sisto. The addition of Sisto's vocal alongside a predominantly ex-Birdman lineup, created what many [who?] believed as the next generation of Birdman, with a vocal which mirrored that of The Doors. They played only 12 shows in the Sydney area starting in late 1978 and continuing into August 1979.
In 1978, when Deniz Tek and Rob Younger returned from the United States to Australia, their band Radio Birdman had taken heavy losses on the British tour which resulted in the dissolution of the band. Tek and Younger expected to reconstitute the band in Australia, but the damage done on the British tour was too great to repair. Ron Keely had already quit, Warwick Gilbert had said nothing but was expected to leave. What they didn't expect was Chris Masuak informing them, upon their return, that he would no longer play in the band, choosing instead to join the band The Hitmen.
Tek and Younger had decided that the days of Radio Birdman were over, as they felt there was no longer a critical mass of dedicated original members to work with. Younger stayed in Sydney where he formed the band The Other Side, whilst Tek relocated to Newcastle to finish his medical internship. He didn't play for about 6 months until the pain of withdrawal became too great and he began to collaborate with Mark Sisto, the old Birdman master of ceremonies and bodyguard who had remained loyal even after being unceremoniously ejected from the British tour a year earlier.
It was from an intense desire to play that the energy came to form The Visitors, the same desire fuelled the live performances and recording of the album. From 1978 to 1979 The Visitors were Deniz Tek on guitar, Mark Sisto on vocals, Ron Keeley on drums, Pip Hoyle on keyboards and Steve Harris on bass. Their style was a dark mixture. The band being 3/5ths Birdman, including the chief songwriter, was almost like the next phase of Radio Birdman had that band continued on. At the same time, the sound of the band was more like the early Birdman days with the single guitar plus keyboard format.
There was much more technical ability this time around. The music was hard and heavy, while maintaining a melodic sense unusual in those immediate post-punk days. The band was crushingly loud, the guitar stage setup being two 100 watt Marshall Super Lead heads pushed through 16 twelve inch speakers. This in small clubs! But with the top end rolled off and compression applied, the overall effect was survivable for the audience. Sisto brought a strong Doors influence. Visually they were striking, combining black clothing and shades with various dada/surrealist accoutrements.
The band reformed for two shows in Newcastle and Sydney December 2005 with a new rhythm section of Art and Steve Godoy (bass and drums respectively.) The pair were members of California punk band the Exploding Fucks Dolls and The Golden Breed, a power trio headed by Deniz Tek.
A new line-up convened in February 2008 and supported The Hitmen in Sydney and touring US band the BellRays in Brisbane. Tek, Sisto and Hoyle remained at the core with Andy Newman on bass and Nik Rieth on drums (ex-Celibate Rifles, Deniz Tek Group, Radio Birdman and Tumbleweed.) The band added sax player Jack Shanley as a new member. A mini tour of Wollongong, Sydney and Melbourne took place in August and September 2008 to coincide with the re-issue of their album on the Citadel label.
[SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
The Hitmen were originally an outgrowth of Radio Birdman, with most of its membership passing through the ranks of what was originally a party band. Their all-enduring member was frontman Johnny Kannis, whose Greek-Australian lineage didn’t preclude him from being a descendant of the Dictators’ Handsome Dick Manitoba and Elvis Presley. He leaned his stagecraft as Radio Birdman’s Master of Ceremonies and one-half of their back-up singers The Glutonics. The other constant in all but one post-Birdman Hitmen line-up was Chris “Klondike” Masuak, a Canadian-born teenage schoolmate of Kannis and close spiritual guitar kin of James Williamson and Ross the Boss.
Johnny and The Hitmen became The Hitmen soon after Birdman collapsed in on itself, reaching well beyond the radiitonal inner-Sydney haunts and staking a claim for the hearts, minds and dancing shoes of suburbia. With high-energy music breaking out all over Australia, The Hitmen became big business, signing to a major label and becoming part of “the industry”. Just the sort of behaviour to burn bridges with fickle inner-city fair-weather friends. Carrying themselves with a swagger born of near fanatical self-belief and arrogantly brushing aside any detractor or musical pretenders deemed to be not up to the mark, The Hitmen were impossible to ignore.
Shifting line-ups and a music business that didn’t know what to do with their derivative but always entertaining stock-in-trade meant The Hitmen never quite broke through to the big time. They were a band that packed ‘em in live but their albums ('The Hitmen', 'It Is What It Is' and 'Moronic Inferno' in the studio, 'Tora Tora DTK' live) never did the proportionate numbers in sales. Nevertheless, scores of beer and testosterone-fuelled Aussie youths grew up with the hard rock soundtrack that The Hitmen provided ringing in their ears, and discovered some fine music in the deal.
A near fatal car accident in 1983 all but buried Johnny Kannis and the band in the process, but for more than a decade, off-and-on, The Hitmen carried a torch for hi-energy fun. Kannis’ injuries hampered his on-stage activities to the extent that he mostly moved into band management. A farewell tour and the occasional re-emergence (with the appendage “DTK” to the band name, to avoid an overseas copyright clash) kept things simmering into the mid-’90s, when Kannis’ move interstate took the wind out of the sails. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
Johnny Kannis is one of Australia's most powerful rock voices with an impressive and influential catalogue of material.
Starting his career as backup singer for the iconic Radio Birdman, Kannis left to form The Hitmen -originally called Johnny & The Hitmen.
The Hitmen, and subsequently The Hitmen DTK, produced some of Australia's most powerful, yet melodic rock tracks and Johnny Kannis was front row and centre.
He has had a numerous solo projects as Johnny Kannis, and Johnny Kannis Explosion. [SOURCE: LANEWAY MUSIC]
The Psycho Surgeons, later known as Lipstick Killers, were an early Australian punk band, playing in Sydney during the mid-1970s. They supported Radio Birdman on many occasions and inherited their mantle as Sydney's most prominent punk act.
They played the first and last shows of the legendary Oxford Funhouse. At the latter, singer Paul Gearside was attacked by a group of Hell's Angels and consequently left the band after the show. The group recruited Paul Tillman, singer of Filth to take over, and they changed their name to Lipstick Killers (after a New York Dolls album of the same name). The band moved to Los Angeles to further their career, but broke up after a frustrating 12 months in the USA.
The group had one release as The Psycho Surgeons, a seven inch, 45 rpm vinyl single. The a-side was "Wild Weekend," and the b-side was "Horizontal Action." A fanzine from Chicago adopted the latter title as an homage. As Lipstick Killers, they released "Hindu Gods of Love" (a-side)/"Shakedown USA". There were two posthumous Lipstick Killers releases: the live album 'Mesmerizer' (recorded at one of their few US shows) on Citadel Records, and the single "Sockman"/"Pensioner Pie" on Vynil Records. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
Angel Corpus Christi (a.k.a. Andrea Ross) is a San Francisco singer/accordionist who began releasing vintage-sounding pop albums in the '80s. Her husband Rich Stim, a frequent musical co-conspirator, first became an important figure in avant/fringe rock in the mid-'70s with MX-80. In 1984, Angel Corpus Christi debuted with an album of NYC-related covers (by the Ramones, Lou Reed, etc.) called, fittingly, 'I Love New York'. 'Wake Up & Cry', which primarily consisted of originals, emerged the following year. 'Accordion Pop Vol. 1', a collection of accordion covers, came out in 1989. That same year saw the release of her first CD effort, 'The '80s', a collection that included both retrospective tracks and new material. Re-emerging in 1995, Angel found herself on a mainstream label, Almo Sounds. That year she released the immensely catchy and fully realized 'White Courtesy Phone'. Craig Leon played keyboards and produced, while Almo head Herb Alpert added some guest trumpet to "Lazy." Legendary session percussionist/drummer Hal Blaine also shows up on the effort. Corpus Christi has also added accordion to the Spiritualized album 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' and collaborated with Luna's Dean Wareham on a cover of Serge Gainesbourg's "Je T'aime (I Wanna Boogie With You)." [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
