If it wasn't released on Vinyl or as a bootleg / soundboard recording - then you won't find it here.
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Southern Lightning were a heavy blues band from Melbourne comprising of Dave Hogan (vocals, harmonica), Nik Guselev (bass), Louie Black (drums) & Manny Seddon (guitar). This album was produced by Trevor Courtney & John French. Southern Lightning had a very similar sound to George Thorogood & The Destroyers, and Dave Hogan's vocals could be easily mistaken for Thorogood's anyday.
Southern Lightning were formed in November 1978, when drummer Louie Black put an ad in Rolling Stone looking for a harmonica player and guitarist. It read: “Please, please if you do not know blues do not waste our time.” Adding Nik Guselev on bass, Dave Hogan on vocals and harmonica and Manny Seddon on guitar, Southern Lightning quickly made an impact on the club and festival scenes becoming Melbourne's premier blues rock band on the pub based live music circuit. Southern Lightning opened on tours for B.B. King, Canned Heat, Roy Buchanan, John Mayall and Long John Baldry. During this period they recorded two albums: 'Down The Road' in 1986 and 'Southern Lightning' in 1987.
Southern Lightning
In 2020 a compilation 'Muddy Waters Blues' was released comprising their first two albums remastered from the original vinyl, together with bonus live tracks from a 2014 Reunion (with John Stax on bass), and a laidback 2019 revisiting of "Muddy Waters Blues" by Dave Hogan and Manny Seddon, cut at Manny's home studio. [Info thanks to Kimbo at History Of Australian Music]
Stop Press: There was a lead up article published by Beat in 2014, regarding the proposed release of the compilation by the reformed band, and is worth a read
Band Members
During their time together they only released 2 singles and 2 studio albums, as detailed below:
SINGLES ''Down The Road / Stones In My Passway'' 1986 Cleopatra ''Moonlight Street / Don't Call Me Mister'' 1987 Cleopatra
ALBUMS 'Down The Road' 1986 Cleopatra 'Southern Lightning' 1987 Missing Link Compilation 'Muddy Waters Blues' 2020 Implant Media
Southern Lightning On Stage
This post consists of Mp3's (320) ripped from vinyl (thanks to BrianL at Midoztouch2) and includes artwork and label scans. As a bonus, I am also including their single which was taken from their LP - "Down The Road"/"Stones In My Passway" - however the 2 tracks have been ripped to FLAC (thanks to Tygerhead at Heavy Metal Rarities).
My favourite tracks are "Muddy Waters Blues" and "Blues For Breakfast" which feature some great vocals, harp, guitar work, and the wonderful Robert Johnson blues standard "I Believe" which closes the album. The only disappointment is the low resenance of the recording, requiring a higher than normal volume setting to really enjoy this album. Perhaps the remastered released in 2020 might have a better sound, but regrettably, I have yet to source a copy.
. Peter Cupples has been delighting Australian audiences for three decades. Originally with ‘Stylus’ in the late 70’s, then through the 80’s with the Peter Cupples Band featuring the likes of ‘David Hirshfelder’, ‘Virgil Donati’, ‘Ross Ingles’ and ‘Rob Little’.
Cupples is known by most singers as ‘the singers singer’ and is widely respected by his peers.
Some of his biggest fans come from far and wide ‘Bill Schnee’ producer of ‘Boz Scaggs’ Amy Grant’and ‘Huey Lewis and the News’, ‘legendary horn arranger ‘Gerry Hay ’ and ‘Harvey Mason’ to name a few.
He was the first white singer to sing on the Motown label with ‘Stylus’ and has always maintained a deep respect for soul music. Over the last few years Cupples has released two albums, a standards album entitled ‘About Time’ and another home grown album called ‘The Golden Miles’ where Cupples does his own arrangements of Aussie classics. My favourite is Goanna's Solid Rock - have a look at this video below.
So how did the Peter Cupples Band form? [extract from his now defunct website] .
As Stylus slowly broke up I started working on some new musical projects. A small band evolved and we took up a residency at The Hatters Castle in Melbourne. There was myself, Sam McNally, Mark Myer and Joe Creighton. I was happy to be off the road back at home and playing regular local shows. The touring had really worn me out, and this was where I wanted to be at this time in my life. Mark and Sam moved to Sydney and were replaced by two superb musicians, David Jones and David Hirschfelder. They had been playing in the critically acclaimed jazz outfit Pyramid with Bob Vinier on horns.
We hooked up with Mike Clarke on Bass, Linda Cable and Bill Harrower and started playing at the Grainstore Tavern. This band was musically superb. We played a number of my songs and often just belted out an extended blow session of sounds. We were creative and instinctive and this was a great time for me musically. The two Davids and Bob, along with Mike's work, formed an amazing outfit. This band pushed me to write some different music. I moved away from the soul genre and I wanted to explore new frontiers with my writing. This was the time that "Fear Of Thunder" was born. The song itself was really out there. It was exciting and different. It was me expressing the new direction that I had discovered around this time. It didn't fit into any specific musical category and, hence it was when recorded, a difficult record to pitch commercially. It was rock, pop, soul, reggae…. A publishers dream and a record companies nightmare!! . .
I was, and still am, very proud of the 'Fear of Thunder' album. or as I like to call it FOT. It was a vehicle for all of the musical influences of my career to date, and it was a new direction for me going forward. I had written these songs over a period of about 2 years, and was waiting for the opportunity to put them down in the studio.
The players on the album, read like a Who's Who of Australian music at the time. Besides David Hirschfelder, Ross Inglis, Rob Little and Virgil Donati, the album featured Tommy Emmanuel, David Jones and many other world class players.
The styles were abundant. There was rock, pop, ballads, reggae, soul and funk. Yet it flowed from song to song, and despite its diversity of sounds and moods,it was all very much a cohesive set of contemporary tunes. . .From the rock of the title track and "Our Evolution" to the ballad "I Remember". The sweet soul Stylus sound of "Sweet Summer Nights", with Ashley and Sam providing a familiar feel, and the boppy "Blame It On the Weather", a song also released by John Farnham around this time. "Here We Are" was a magic studio track that sounded just right from the start in much the same way that "Make Believe" had some 7 years earlier.
It was a kaleidoscope of sounds and images that had flowed out of me during this musically exciting period of my life. People still come up to me, 20 years later, and tell me that 'Fear Of Thunder' is their favourite Cupples album of all time. . The band played the Melbourne pub band circuit in the early 80's when pub rock was big business around town. We loved what we were doing, and we felt that we were forging ahead and defining new trends in music. We had a decent publicity machine behind us, and generated a good amount of interest in Australia and overseas. We supported some top overseas artists and received critical acclaim. The album and singles sold well, particularly in Melbourne, but we never received the commercial success that we needed to take the band to the next level.
We never managed to put together the sound that was needed for a big Aussie hit. Maybe we were a bit too different, maybe the timing wasn't right.. - it's hard to say - but we were playing the music we loved playing, and our loyal fans followed us around the circuit as we continued in our pursuit of success.
We started working towards the second album "Half The Effort Twice The Effect". The songs had already become part of our set, and the fans had received them well. We had enough material to put down a follow up to F.O.T. It was just a matter of working out with the record company which direction the album would take.
However, for the second time in my career I had reached a stage where the constant drain and grind of touring had worn me down. Similar to the end of the Stylus years, this period in the Peter Cupples Band signaled to me that it was time for a new direction in life. .
Peter was still gigging back when I first posted this album on the blog back in 2011, doing mostly solo stuff but also tied up with the legendary Jon English to form "Uncorked". They embarked on producing a lifestyle type program based around our music, wine, food and travel, all rolled in together. They played together at a number of vineyards, and filmed a pilot special in Tasmania earlier that year. They were hoping to expand the show, to cover the other parts of Australia, if they secured a network deal .
The post is a vinyl rip in FLAC format taken from my pristine copy of the album. I have included full album artwork for vinyl only, along with a selection of photos. Also included are a couple of singles, his big hit "Believe In Love" and a non-album B-Side track "Dryin' Time (thanks to Sunshine).
Although the album was released on CD back in 2005, it is no longer available from Cupples website which now appears to be defunct.
Nevertheless, there are more recent titles available, so have a look at his Facebook Page .
New Improved Rip !
Track Listing
01. Fear Of Thunder 02. Here We Are 03. You Never Know 04. Later Tonight 05. Our Evolution 06. Blame It On The Weather 07. I'm On Fire 08. I Remember 09. Sweet Summer Nights 10. I'm Into You Bonus Tracks 11. Believe In Love (A-Side Single) 12. Dryin' Time (B-Side Single) . Band Members:
Vocals – Peter Cupples Keyboards – David Hirschfelder Bass – Mike (Kelly) Clarke, Robert Little, Roger McLaughlin Drums – Trevor Courtney, Virgil Donati Guitar – Peter Cupples, Ross Inglis, Tommy Emmanuel
(Australian 1974-76, 1979) . In a classic case of pop reincarnation, Johnny Caves (born in 1950) became Johnny Cabe, then William Shakespeare. He then scored two Australian #1 hit singles and was never heard from ever again. Behind the scenes were ace production/songwriting guru's Vanda & Young (ex-The Easybeats) who wrote Shakespeare's hits "Can't Stop Myself From Loving You" and "My Little Angel", as well as engineering his carefully contrived image (Australia's answer to Gary Glitter). Johnny Caves initially sang with beat band The Amazons. By the early 70s he was working the Sydney clubs as Johnny Cabe. At the beginning of 1974 he came into contact with Vanda and Young, who had just recorded the backing track for "Can't Stop Myself From Loving You" for another singer who was unable to handle the high notes. The song seemed tailor-made for Cabe's falsetto voice, and he was promptly signed for the Alberts label.
Vanda and Young decided to create a new image for Cabe. They renamed him William Shakespeare and kitted him out in glam rock gear, replete with puffed Shakespearian sleeves and gaudy fake jewels. To top it all off, Shakespeare sported an immaculately coiffured, plum-coloured hairdo. His first single release "Can't Stop Myself From Loving You" came out in July 1974 and immediately hit Number 1 on the national Australian charts. With the help of regular appearances on Countdown, his second single, the Christmas-flavoured "My Little Angel", also reached Number 1. Two more Vanda and Young singles followed: "Just The Way You Are" (April 1975) and "Last Night" (March 1976), plus the album Can't Stop Myself From Loving You, but none charted. While his career was in decline Shakespeare was charged with carnal knowledge and received two years' probation. He left Alberts in 1977 and by the middle of 1979 was back working Sydney clubs, this time as Billy Shake. His career was temporarily revived in 1990 when listeners of Melbourne radio station 3MMM voted My Little Angel as the "daggiest song of its generation". Shakespeare began headlining "Dag Nights" on the nostalgia circuit and wore his 'Top Dag' appellation as a badge of honour. [extract from nostalgiacentral.com]
Singles: Can't Help Myself / My Little Angel
Sadly, John Cave passed away on 5th October, 2010 at the age of 61,as a result of alcohol abuse. The following is an article from the Sydney Morning Herald, August 24, 2009 entitled 'Countdown Star's Topple from Grace' (editorial by Brendan Shanahan) . Pop star William Shakespeare's ascent to No.1 was as fast as John Cave's descent into hell. ."I got a royalty cheque the other day,” says John Cave, better known as 1970s glam star William Shakespeare, “for 13 bucks.” There is a rare moment of ironic humour in his voice as he gestures at the letter on the table. At the age of 60, John Cave has seen better days. Then again, he's seen a lot worse. Almost since he had his first hit, Can't Stop Myself from Loving You, in 1974, quickly followed by another No. 1, My Little Angel, Cave has been on a downward trajectory. At the height of his career, his alter ego was a Countdown regular and, for a brief period, the most famous man in Australian pop. But, fairly or otherwise, William Shakespeare (also billed as Billy Shake) was not to be remembered for his musical contribution so much as a symbol of the excesses of the glam-rock era and the transience of fame. These days, Cave lives alone in a government flat in Riverwood, cared for by his neighbour, Rhyse, an extraordinarily energetic 83-year-old great-great-grandmother and self-described “hyperactive geriatric”. “I'm his carer, his friend, his surrogate mother,” she says, busying herself with tea in the kitchen.
Cave's story began in Sydney's inner west, where his parents ran a fruit-and-vegetable shop. Cave's father died when he was 14; his mother when he was 21. “She never even got to see me sing,” he says. After singing for various pub bands, Cave was one day confronted with a fateful decision. “I got the offer to be the lead singer of AC/DC, although they didn't really have a name then. I took the story back to my manager and he said, 'Well, do you want to sing in a bloody pub band all your life or do you want to be a star?' I thought, 'I want to be a star.' So that's the road I chose and I became William Shakespeare.” It was, needless to say, poor advice and soon a perfect storm of scandal, changing fashion and incipient alcoholism conspired to destroy William Shakespeare almost as quickly as he was made. In 1975, only a year after his debut, Cave was convicted of carnal knowledge with the 15-year-old president of his Melbourne fan club. It's an incident he refuses to acknowledge any responsibility for, dismissing it as a “set-up” and an extortion attempt. Whatever the truth, Cave was rapidly heading for a crash from which he would never recover, professionally or emotionally.
Depression has been a constant companion for Cave. Uncomfortable in the company of strangers, panic attacks have been a regular feature of his life. Even in his heyday, he says, he would get nervous for days before appearing on stage. Tragically, these problems would eventually bring him into the orbit of notorious psychiatrist Dr Harry Bailey, the man at the centre of the Chelmsford Hospital scandal in which many patients died during, or committed suicide after, Bailey's unregulated experimental techniques. “I started seeing Harry Bailey at my wife's recommendation. I was having these pains in my legs and Dr Bailey gave me injections in my back and the pain was just gone.” Eventually, Cave wound up at Chelmsford where, like his friend Stevie Wright, the former lead singer of the Easybeats and a long-term drug addict, he was subjected to so-called “deep sleep” and electroshock therapy. “They handed me a paper cup full of pills,” he says, holding out a shaking hand, “and said, 'Here, swallow these.' I woke up two weeks later and didn't know . . . what had happened.”
Cave blames Chelmsford for much of his physical and mental decline over the next few years. In the 1980s his alcoholism and mental illness accelerated until he found himself sleeping in the toilets opposite the St George Leagues Club in Kogarah. “If it wasn't for the people at the club, I wouldn't be here. They looked after me, gave me breakfast and kept an eye on me. I'd be dead if it wasn't for their kindness.” Cave found friends in other places, too. Upon hearing his story, the former drummer for the Go-Betweens, Lindy Morrison, eventually rescued the fallen idol. In 2001 she arranged accommodation and financial assistance through the charity Support Act, which helps members of the music industry who've fallen on hard times. Cave still relies on assistance from Support Act. His mental health, however, is a constant burden. “I will admit it,” he says, giving his walker a resentful shove. “I have thought about suicide on several occasions. But I've never really had the intestinal fortitude to go through with it. I've had friends who have gone that way, but I can't.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Cave doesn't seem to feel much bitterness for the music industry. Indeed, his recollections seem to be the only moments when the fog of depression lifts; with excitement he relates a story about his old mate Bon Scott shoving an ice-cream into the face of a man behind the wheel of a Mercedes; legendary songwriters Vanda and Young, he says, “did their very best for me”; and nothing gives him pleasure like singing. The convenient narrative of the fallen star, chewed up and spat out by an unfeeling industry, is too simplistic; Cave's problems run deeper: “It wouldn't have mattered what I'd done,” he says when asked whether an alternative career might have helped him avoid his current problems. “I was always like this. My whole life I've been a nervous person.”
Cave has regrets. He wishes he had "worked harder". His estrangement from his only daughter, too, causes him some distress: “I would love to see her again. Maybe she can read this and something will come of it.” Lately his health has been touch-and-go. Although he's now down to a single beer a night, he was admitted to hospital earlier this year, close to death. But despite this and complaints of loneliness, Cave still has a love of music. When asked what he wants his legacy to be, he stares intensely: “I just want people to know that William Shakespeare isn't dead. That he's alive, that he can still sing and he's living in Riverwood. I love every person who . . . bought one of my records. I just want people to remember me as someone who brought a lot of happiness into people's lives.” Suddenly, emotion overwhelms him. Rhyse grips his shoulder. “You're a strong bloke, John,” she says. “A fighter. And I love ya.”
Albert Record Labels
This post consists of FLACs ripped from CD. Full album artwork for both vinyl and CD are included, along with choice photos. I have also added several bonus tracks - firstly, a rare live recording of his hit single "Can't Stop Myself From Loving You" performed at the 1975 benefit concert held for Darwin, in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracey. His final single "Last Night" is also included (thanks to OzzieMusic Man for this single). I have also included the alternative front cover for the CBS Vinyl release of this album (as shown below), however my vinyl copy features the Alberts label (as shown above). It is interesting to note that each side of this album is labeled Act I and Act II , and tracks are labelled as Scene 1, Scene 2 etc respectively rather than the usual Side 1/2, or Side A/B. Anything for a gimmick hey !
New Improved Rip !
Track Listing 01 - Can't Stop Myself From Loving You 02 - Can't Wait For September 03 - Woman 04 - My Little Angel 05 - Can't Live Without You 06 - On Saturday Night 07 - Love Is Like A Cloudy Day 08 - Goodbye Tomorrow Hello Today 09 - Lean A Little Bit On Me 10 - Just The Way You Are 11 - Time 12 - Feelin' Alright [Bonus Tracks] 13 - Can't Help Myself From Lovin' You (Live Concert For Darwin 1975) 14 - Last Night (A-Side Single 1976) . William Shakespeare Link (267Mb)
Jane were formed in October of 1970 in Hanover out of the remains of the band Justice Of Peace. Klaus Hess (g), Peter Panka (dr) and Werner Nadolny (org) were looking for a new challenge and got together with Charly Maucher (b). In the Spring of 1971, they were joined by Bernd Pulst, a singer with a powerful voice. Shortly after that, the quintet signed a long-term record contract. After almost one year of work, Jane's debut album 'Together' was released in the spring of 1972. The German rock world reacted positively to the technically well-versed newcomers and their "unvarnished style of making music".
For the second LP, Wolfgang Krantz had to fill in for Maucher, who was sick, and Panka took the place of Bernd Pulst as lead singer. The initial success and their convincing live performances made Jane an attraction on the national touring scene. The band constantly commuted back and forth between stage and studio and absorbed numerous changes in the line-up effortlessly and without any quality loss.
Jane
In 1974, Nadolny left to form his own band, Lady, and Maucher returned to Jane. But his second stay with the band lasted for a little less than a year. He decided to form another band, Harlis, and was replaced in May 1974 by Martin Hesse, while Krantz left to be replaced by Gottfried Janko (keyboards, vocals).
Jane went through a maturing process and perfected their style, which had a certain tendency to mysticism and was by now well in demand all over Europe. For the 1975 album, 'Fire, Water, Earth & Air', the band (Nadolny had returned to take over Janko's place) experimented with the dummy head recording technique. Established music magazines like Record World compared their complicated song structures to those of bands like Pink Floyd. The national music press found it harder to warm up to the ambitious band from Lower Saxony and overlooked the impressive echo from the music press abroad, very good sales figures and filled concert venues.
When Jane set out on a sixty-concert tour through Germany in March 1976, Manfred Wieczorke from Eloy stood in for Nadolny and played the keyboards. The four musicians documented this phase of their career with a double album called 'Live'. In the first weeks after its release, 'Live' sold more than 100,000 copies, making them the best-selling German rock act of their time after Udo Lindenberg and Kraftwerk.
Jane 1976
Threatening musical images and "guitar riffs played Black Sabbath-style" (Musik Express) dominated the 1977 album 'Between Heaven and Hell'. By that time, Jane no longer needed to fear comparisons with the international competition. In Switzerland, they even outsold Pink Floyd for a while and reactions from the US were positive as well.
In the fall of 1977, Jane received the "Golden Brain Label" from their record company, recognizing 300,000 albums sold in Germany. A year later, in the summer of 1978, that number had already reached 500,000. This made Jane the third-best-selling German band in the country, behind Udo Lindenberg and Kraftwerk.
1978 saw the release of 'Age of Madness' following a new, better paid record deal, a sellout tour through twenty cities plus a number of appearances on TV. Jane stayed true to their ponderous, romantic rock. The eighth album was the first to be recorded in the band's own 24-track studio situated in an idyllic half-timbered house in the village of Sarstedt, 30 kilometres south of Hanover. Jane's top-form performance seemed to stem from their new independence and new-found motivation and inspiration.
'Age of Madness' rocked it out a little harder maintaining emotional spacey timbres and was released internationally, being presented in clear and red vinyl formats on the now defunct Canadian label Bomb Records. A successful European tour ensued but Weiczorke departed in early 1979, leaving just a trio to tackle their followup LP "Sign No.9" which was nothing short of a disaster.
Album Review
Age of Madness was the end of their space rock phase, and what they demonstrated on 'Between Heaven & Hell', you'd think they were able to continue on the greatness of that album. Unfortunately that's not quite the case. The instrumental title track is actually quite good, has more than a hint of Eloy in it, which is really no surprise when you know that Manfred Wieczorke is responsible for the keyboard playing (he left Eloy after the fiasco of Power and the Passion - itself a great album - for a more financially stable band, in this case, Jane).
That burst of classic Hammond organ grunge kicking off the album was a conscious throwback to an earlier, heavier Jane: the musical equivalent of slipping into an old pair of sneakers after a formal night on the town. The song itself was still uncomfortably in debt to Pink Floyd, but with a welcome economy of style compared to the bloated, faceless wall Roger Waters was erecting at the time.
The title of the next song is fully in accordance with its content. "Memory Symphony" is a very nice and tranquil instrumental song. A good balance with very expressive keys and of course a sublime guitar play (but this is a "Jane" TM). In my opinion, this is one of the highlights on the album. So much so, that I attemped to learn how to play this on my hammond synth, when I was in garage band back in the late 70's, but the other band members weren't really into Krautrock, and so it never got off the ground.
The next track Auroville is a great instrumental and could have featured on Floyd's 'Obscured By Clouds' and no one would have been none the wiser. These first three tracks are not complicated compositions, Jane has never been know for extravagant arrangements, but the athmosphere is very nice as always with wonderful keyboards and tasty guitar playing.
Jane 1978
The marriage of Jane's trademark psychedelia with country and western motifs in "Love Song" shows a willingness to break new ground; even if this may have been commercially motivated, it doesn't seem like compromise. For a heavier repeating loop, try "Bad Game" - again, Jane takes a riff where it has gone before, again and again, and does it better than anyone, thanks to Hess and Wieczorke, amply backed by the rhythm section.
Martin Hesse & Klaus Hess
"With Your Smile" is another highlight, kicking off mid-song and highlighted by some of Hess' best work and a near danceable beat. It is the ultimate expression of Jane's paradoxical blend of professionalism and amateurism.
The album is occasionally lit by incandescent flashes of energy, typically sparked by guitarist Klaus Hess, and the next track "Get this Power" sounds like a psychedelic jam with harmonica, guitar and a driving rhythm section lead by Panka on drums. This is definately the album's wake up call, in case the listener has dozed off earlier!
JANE ⚡ Get This Power ⚡ Live 1978, Germany
Finally we come back to progressive rock with the last 2 tracks, the wonderful dreamy instrumental "Meadow", a very delicate piece of music showcasing Wierczorke at his most sensitive (and another highlight of the album), followed by an encore "Age Of Madness Part II" which closes the album in a good symphonic way.
Overall, this is an enjoyable album to listen to and a personal favourite of mine. However, others may not agree - based on reviews that I have read at progarchives.com and alike. To be honest, I have a soft spot for this album as listening to it takes me back to the time when I nearly had a chance to perform "Memory Symphony" with my band some 45 years ago. Hmm...now that I think about it, it's a bit ironical that it's called "Memory Symphony" !
Left: My Cover [With incorrect track order] Right: Other Releases [With correct track order]
This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl copy (an import featuring Brain's orange label) and includes full album artwork for both vinyl and CD, along with label scans. One interesting anommily with my pressing is the incorrect track listing (order) on the back cover. Discogs lists this German release and appears to be the only release with this annomily. The track order and label listings are correct nevertheless (See scans of these covers above).
Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.
Now here's an album that's guarenteed to grab you (down! Igor. down!). Something new and different for all you Monstrous Music lovers. Half the tunes are vocals with great, horrifying lyrics, and half are swinging instrumentals guaranteed to wake the dead (go back to sleep, Igor, the sun's still out)
So whether you're in the mood to mash, jerk, watusi or swim - or just want to lie back on your slab and relax with some wonderful music for queasy listening - this album is for you. [Album liner notes]
This album is actually Dracula parodies of the Beach Boys and surf music in general. It's particularly notable for having come out in 1964, before the heyday of psychedelia. It perfectly presages a lot of retro interest in goofy halloween music, surf rock, sunshine pop, etc. among the garage rockers of the 2020s, purely innocently. No sinister psychedelia or subversion here, just good clean fun.
Cemetary Rockers will really dig this album
While I love hearing a 60’s-era monster party song any time of year, cemetery rockers and blood-sucking bops make up a substantial part of my diet come October. I’ve been reviewing a mix of gleefully ghastly and truly god-awful genre pieces through my Instagram stories all month long, but for Halloween-proper I wanted to dig a little deeper into a record that’s fascinated me for decades: The Ghouls’ Dracula’s Deuce, from 1964.
The Ghouls weren’t exactly a real band, but rather a studio project concocted by Gary Usher, a California producer/musician who carved out a career making music with various fictional ensembles.
Drac loves surf music too
Dracula’s Deuce is a weird beast. It pretty well trades off song-for-song between instrumental and vocal pieces. But it’s also a novelty record to the max, and painfully punny to the core. Considering Gary also had a dozen co-writes with Brian Wilson (most famously “In My Room”), it’s not surprising to see the Ghouls' macabre goofs on iconic tracks from Jan and Dean (“The Little Old Lady from Transylvania”), The Beach Boys (“Be True To Your Ghoul”) and even Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" ("Bela be Good").
While borrowing quite liberally from the surf and hot rod music scenes, it’s hard to miss that Dracula’s Deuce also owes an eternal debt to “Monster Mash”. Vocalist Richie Burns often works a similar Boris Karloff lilt as the Crypt-Kickers’ Bobby “Boris” Pickett; the Ghouls’ “The Graveyard Shift” is musically a beat-for-beat Mash, though it moves the monsters from the party to a back-breaking night of ditchdigging.
Drac's Red Deuce
The simmering, sax-loaded “Monsterbilly Heaven,” the album’s best vocal track, is an accidentally profound piece about monsters crossing over into a second afterlife, with Drac and Vampira having one last bash before ascending to that big black cloud in the sky. That’s kind of how the Ghouls avoid being mere “Monster Mash” retreads, putting them a rung ahead above more pitiful Pickett bites like Mann Drake’s “Vampire’s Ball”.
That’s not to say the record is without faults. Burns loves dropping these pained cries throughout the vocal pieces that are a struggle to listen to. It’s as if he’s constantly being staked through the heart (maybe he was !) For this reason alone, the instrumentals steal the show. Take “Dracula’s Theme,” a cool-but-creepy bit of whammy-undulated guitar exotica.
While they haven’t repressed The Ghouls’ lone record since the ‘60s, it is streaming through Apple and Spotify. It’s doubly niche, between the hot rod talk and the horror aesthetic, but when it comes to songs about vampires racing custom-plated hearses through a graveyard, you can’t get much better than Dracula’s Deuce.[BY GREGORY ADAMS]
This WOCK post certainly ticks the C box for being Creepy and of course the K 'Korny' Box [Coffin]
Happy Halloween my little Ghouls......have fun finding the link (it's dead easy).
Hobo’s 'Child of the Earth' is one of the most elusive and rare progressive releases from Australia’s 1970s scene, seemingly unknown to even the most knowledgeable Australian music historians. After appearing in one of Han Pokora’s books, the album has been placed on many wish lists created by record collectors around the world. The record is so phenomenally obscure that the last time it appeared on popsike was over a decade ago for the pricely sum of $800.
This obscurity may be attributed to the fact that the album supposedly sunk without a trace upon release in 1978, due to the small Sydney-based ‘Down Under’ label folding immediately after release. The only notable musician in Hobo is bassist Henry Correy who had been in the Australian Jazz-Rock band, Sun with Renee Geyer, releasing a rare album on RCA Victor in 1973.
Henry Correy
Musically, I would categorise the music as mid-1970s progressive rock. The arrangements are dominated by: densely layered analogue synthesizer colours, melodies and effects by the ARP Omni string synthesizer and Mini-Moog; trebly Chris Squire-esque bass lines that are high in the mix; and good lead guitar playing including occasional Steve Howe-esque volume swells, Richie Blackmore-like ferocity and space-rock guitar theatrics redolent of early UFO.
However, the music is firmly on the simplistic end of the progressive rock spectrum, with the band tending to focus mainly on heavily reverberated and symphonic space-rock textures rather than complex time signatures and unusual chord progressions. Thus there is a proclivity in the compositions towards atmosphere, mood and texture (which they do very well) rather than compositional complexity found in other 70s progressive rock bands such as Gentle Giant and King Crimson. Their dense and simple symphonic style is best represented on the epic 6 minute-long tracks ('Hobo' and 'Every Running Man'), and the 10 minute ode to a troubled friend ('Song for Mitch'), which features a great delay-inflected space-rock guitar solo over a drone.
Hobo (L-R Henry Correy, Michael Pandelis, Mark Riley, Ken Bunguric, John Faddoul) [Photo thanks to Michael Pandelis]
The band also explore up-tempo riff-based Hard Rock a la Deep Purple with some ferocious guitar leads ('Dizzy Girl'); swinging piano and bass driven Jazz-Rock reminiscent of early Spirit with a Randy California guitar solo and jazz guitar sound ('You Got Women'); and heavy blues / boogie rock with Hammond organ and lightning fast guitar leads ('Drive On'). The latter also possesses an intro that recalls Ariel’s version of Spectrum’s ‘I’ll Be Gone’ - isolated heavy drums with rural harmonica.
Ralph Morrison (Replaced Mark Riley in 1978)
The musicianship on this album is consistently good throughout - especially keyboardist and guitarist - despite unspectacular songwriting skills. Progressive fans I am sure will find something enjoyable across the album. [Review by ursamajor69 at RateyourMusic] And now a word from Michael Pandelis:
Micahel Pandelis
"Gday, Mick Pandelis here. I played guitar on the album ‘Child of The Earth’ by Hobo. Here's some trivia for you:
The band leaders name was Henry Correy who also had a classic oz jazz rock band in the late sixties early seventies called 'Sun'. This band has had Renee Geyer and I believe Richard Clapton at one stage. Sun appeared on GTK and many other iconic oz music shows.
Hobo appeared on Donnie Sutherland's Sounds on a few occasions. Mark Opitz was our engineer and producer at EMI, we were his first there. When we first met Mark it was in the mastering room, he had just received a master tape of " I Robot" by the Alan Parsons Project, and was getting it set for pressing. Sherbet was in the other studio recording Howzat.
A few years back I bumped into Henry again and did a blues album with him called ‘Prisoner of Desire’. Unfortunately Henry suffered a stroke a couple of years back and hasn't been himself.
Mark Riley was the original drummer in Hobo, but left to join another high profile band before we recorded the album and was replaced by Ralph Morrison. Mark eventually played with the Australian Jazz Rock outfit Crossfire on the Live in Montreux album in 1982. Sadly, Mark was killed in a motor bike accident in 1983.
In Chris Spencer's book 'Who's Who of Australian Rock', he lists Henry Correy as a one-time member of SUN, and also BLUESBERRY JAM from Wollongong as recently as 2000.
I am fairly certain that the label 'Down Under Records' has no affiliation with the short-lived Sydney indie label from the mid 1960s. Perhaps it is their own custom moniker?
None of the songs on this album are currently held in the APRA or ASCAP repertoires.
This post consists of FLACs ripped from Vinyl (Thanks to BrianL at Midoztouch2) and includes full album artwork and label scans. This album is a true Aussie gem, and needs to be listened to multiple times, to be fully appreciated. Although the vocals are not a strong point, the musicianship on this album is equal to any other Aussie Prog Rock bands at that time, like Sebastian Hardie, Airlord and Peak.
My favourite tracks are "Song For Mitch", "Ever Running Man" and the album closer "Hobo".
Track Listing:
A01. Dizzy Girl (03:41) A02. Song for Mitch (10:10) A03. You Got Women (03:58) A04. Love Torn Katie (03:50) B05. Drive On (03:19) B06. Ever Running Man (06:10) B07. Try (04:41) B08. Hobo (06:13)
Hobo were: John Faddoul (lead vocal, harmonies) Henry Correy (bass, vocal, harmonies) Mick Pandelis (all guitars, mini moog) Ken Bunguric (piano, oran, strings,
omni synth, harmonies)
Ralph Morrison (drums, percussion)
Recorded at: EMI Sydney; and Atlantic Studios,
Earlwood, Sydney; under a recording grant
from the Australia Council Music Board.
Produced by: Hobo and Ray Wight.
Engineers: Mark Opitz (EMI); Godfrey Gamble (Atlantic).
Sydney-based hard rock band Southern Cross had its roots in heavy progressive rock pioneers Buffalo. John Baxter had been sacked from Buffalo at the end of 1974. Baxter's savage guitar work had virtually defined the Buffalo sound and approach; his departure robbed the band of its most distinctive feature and boldest asset.
The band's spirit simply faded thereafter. Original line-up was: Alan Milano (vocals; ex-Buffalo), John Baxter (lead guitar; ex-Head, Buffalo), Michel Brouet (bass, vocals), Jeff Beacham (drums).
Southern Cross
Initially Baxter formed Boy Racer before teaming up with original Buffalo singer Alan Milano in Southern Cross. Milano was co-vocalist on Buffalo's debut LP 'Dead Forever'.
Baxter wrote much of the band's early live set, although he left six months after its formation. Seventeen-year-old Bruce Cumming replaced Baxter on guitar. Alongside the likes of Finch, The Angels, Kevin Borich Express, Rose Tattoo and Chariot, Southern Cross swiftly became one of the most popular hard rock bands on the Sydney scene. Southern Cross signed to the independent Living Sound/Laser label and issued its debut single, `Stormy Lady'/`Queen of Rock'n'Roll', at the end of 1976.
The funky, bluesy and heavy `Stormy Lady' was a good indication of the band's over-the-top style. The band's selftitled debut album (1976) featured melodic, raunchy hard rock in the vein of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs and UK band Bad Company. It mixed flat-out, riff-rockers (`You Need It', `Money Maker', `Stormy Lady') with moody rock ballads (`Jesse', `Story Teller' and `Games').
The album scored only minimal sales, despite its strong points. By 1978, Southern Cross had broken up and Cumming and Brouet moved on to 'The Press', another Sydney based band with a punk edged heavy metal sound. Steve Kot (vocals) and Rick Doolan (drums) completed the line-up.
Southern Cross
This post consists of FLACs ripped from a 2011 CD release of this highly sought after and rare Aussie rock album. (copies selling for $400+ )
Full artwork for both CD and Vinyl media is included, with the exception of a Side 2 LP label scan. If any blog followers have a copy of this LP, I would love to get hold of this missing label scan. Likewise, if anyone has their only single, I would love to get hold of a rip of the B-Side "Queen Of Rock 'n' Roll".
As a bonus, I'm also including a 'Southern Cross' rehearsal tape from June 1976, which includes album tracks - "Money Maker"and "You Need It"; and a non-album (Bad Company cover) "Movin' On", all featuring John Baxter on guitar.
The following is a transcript that was written by Bruce Cumming, describing the moment when he first auditioned to play with the band:
I walked into a teenage dream.......I guess…when I attended an audition for guitarist in this cramped room out the back of some shops in Bronte, an eastern suburb of Sydney in 1975.
John Baxter
The next guy to walk in the door was a local rock star, guitarist John Baxter, who had recently left Buffalo, one of Sydney’s biggest live acts…and it was he and former Buffalo singer Alan Milano who were putting the new band together.
I was 17 and I passed the audition! Even though Baxter didn’t stick with us for long, we all remained friends and you can hear him talking here as he passes constructive criticism on my guitar solos and jokes in a serious way about the overall sound.
We rehearsed in a dilapidated shell of a house that we rented in Harris St, Ultimo, an inner – Sydney City suburb…the walls were lined with egg–cartons, we set up a little PA in there and pretty much blew the roof off whenever we wanted to.
This stuff here was recorded in mono onto cassette…over 30 years later you can hear the tape scrunching over the oxide on the pad. The ‘quality’ is terrible, of course, but if you turn It UP, I don’t think you could possibly hear the energy in what we were doing long, long ago.
Tracks listing:
01. Money Maker (4:31)
02. You Need It (5:10) 03. Jessie (5:12) 04. What Am I Waiting For? (5:12) 05. Harris Street (4:42) 06. Story Teller (5:12) 07. Games (8:58) 08. Stormy Lady (4:51)
Bonus Rehearsal Tracks
09. Money Maker (8:08)
10. Movin' On (3:24)
11. You Need It (7:29)
Southern Cross were:
Alan Milano - vocals Bruce Cumming - guitars Jeff Beacham - drums Michel Brouet - bass, vocals
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