REPOST: Contraband - Selftitled (1979) + Bonus Single

(Australian 1973-1979)
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Initially formed in Sydney and originally called Stillwater, the band changed its name to Finch in 1973 and then, in mid-1978, they changed their name to to Contraband. Owen Orford was the only remaining member of the original 1973 line-up.
The band didn't work fulltime until 1976 when, as Finch, they recorded their first album, 'Thunderbird'. They produced and financed the recording themselves and its release, on the Eagle label, coincided with an upsurge in their popularity.
Originally Sydney-based, they toured Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and country areas of New South Wales. At the end of 1976, they moved to Melbourne and released a single, 'Short Changed Again'. The disc enjoyed moderate success, but its release was followed by a major upheaval. BOB SPENCER (guitar) left to join Skyhooks; then the group split completely leaving only PETER McFARLANE (drums) and Owen. The two of them spent the next three months (April '77 to July '77) auditioning new members. Eventually they came up with David Hinds, who replaced CHRIS JONES as second guitarist, Mark Evans (ex-AC/DC), and an old school friend of Mark's, Graham Kennedy.

Meanwhile the band was signed by CBS. In February 1978, their 'Nothing to Hide' album was released. A single, 'Where Were You', was lifted from it and, in March, became their first national hit.
The band's big break coincided with the album's release — they were picked up for worldwide distribution by American label Portrait. However, as there was already a Dutch band called Finch, Portrait recommended a change of name (to Contraband). Until October '78 the group used both the old and new names to help fans adjust.

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In March, Contraband set off on a national ten week tour with Dragon and, nearing the tour's end, released a re-mixed, edited version of 'Nothing To Hide' as a single. The band then headlined its own tour and, in July, supported Status Quo on its Australian jaunt. The same month, Contraband's album was released in the US. Apart from receiving favourable reviews, the LP got airplay on some of the major FM stations.
In October '78, Peter McFarlane left the band, basically over differing musical taste. He was replaced by Barry Cram (ex-Front Page and Russell Morris Band). Coinciding with the split they released another single, 'That's Your Way' (also a re-mix).
Contraband was scheduled to leave for the US in January '79 to record an album. However Portrait, which was financing the project, pulled out at the last minute without explanation. Undaunted, the band decided to go ahead on its own, record the album at Albert Studios in Sydney and aim at getting to the US later in the year. This selftitled album is the final LP that they recorded before splitting total later in 1979.  [extract from Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock 1978-79 Yearbook, p14-16].
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Finch (Contraband) On Countdown 1979

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my cassette tape (plays just fine) and includes full album artwork (which was sourced from Midoztouch with thanks). Also included is the non-album B-Side single from Rainin' Again.
Not a bad collection of tracks - probably their best songs musically, but I still preferred their heavier rock material from their early Finch days (see previous post)

NEW IMPROVED RIP
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Track Listing
01. Lead Me to the Slaughter
02. C-61
03. Rainin' Again
04. Twisted
05. Shot Down in Flames
06. Gimme Some Lovin'
07. Only a Fool
08. Jodie on the Break
09. Sittin' Pretty
10. I Want La-Huv
11. Too Drunk To Know (B-Side Single)
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Band Members:
Barry Cram (drums)
Owen Orford (vocals)
David Hinds (guitar)
Graham Kennedy (guitar)
Mark Evans (bass)
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Contraband Link (304Mb)
New Link 12/03/2024

Finch - Nothing To Hide (1978) + Bonus Live Track

(Australian 1973-1979)
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A terrific copy of this long deleted 2nd and final album from under-rated Sydney hard working rock band Finch. Their debut album Thunderbird is now considered a semi-progressive rock rarity and this effort isn’t that far from the mark either. Whilst their slow-tempo ballad single "Where Were You" rocketed to the top of the charts the remainder of the songs found here are in contrast consisting of more mainstream rock tracks with some neat guitar work.
This probably didn’t appeal to the teeny-bopper buying public at the time and consequently this album sold rather poorly and slipped between the cracks which is a shame really as it is a solid effort throughout with classy production and strong self-penned songs to carry it along at a great pace.
On the back of the No.1 single Finch ventured to the USA only to be told to change their name so as not to conflict with the local outfit of the same identity … so Finch was shelved and the new tag of Contraband emerged.
A highly recommended 70’s rock LP that is worthy of more than casual consideration … in fact I reckon it’s a real gem with some outstanding guitar rock tracks.
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Finch trace their roots back to the mid-'70s Sydney-based band Stillwater which featured the talents of guitarist Graham Kennedy, drummer Peter McFarlane, singer Owen Orford, guitarist Gary Quince and Bob Spencer, and bassist Tony Strain. By 1976 they were known as Finch, over the next two years the recording five  tracks for the 1974 soundtrack 'Drouyn', and two studio albums - 1976's 'Thunderbird', and 1976's 'Nothing To Hide'.   
And here's where is starts to get a little confusing.  By 1978 the line-up had coalesed around  former AC/DC bassist Rick Evans, guitarist Kennedy, drummer McFarlane, and lead singer Orford.  Following the release of their third Australia album 'Nothing To Hide' the band was signed by the American Portrait label.  The resulting exposure found the band's management concerned about the possibility of a lawsuit given there was a Dutch band operating under the same name.   With that in mind the band elected to morph into Contraband.   After making a slight and meaningless modification to the cover art, the album was released in the States under the Contraband moniker.  Produced by Peter Dawkins, 'Nothing To Hide' showcased material from three of the four members.
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As lead singer Orford was pretty good - exemplified by performances like "Changes", "Say You'll Be There" and "Leave the Killing To You" he had a nice hard rock screech that was well suited to the genre, but not as irritating as the late Bon Scott could occasionally be.  In fact, that served as a good baseline for the entire album - AC/DC-styled hard rock, but more melodic and musically varied than much of the competition, with a couple of tracks even incorporating a modest, but attractive southern rock feel ('That's Your Way' and the ballad "Say You'll Be There").  Kennedy and former member Chris Jones were both accomplished guitarists adding the right amount of crunch to these tunes, while the Evan-McFarlane rhythm section was first rate throughout.   Admittedly the band occasionally brushed a bit too close to anonymous AOR ("Foolin''), but luckily those were the exceptions to the rule.   As I said, a surprisingly good and largely unknown late-'70s hard rock release that's well worth looking for.
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Finch on Countdown 1978

Portrait  later issued Contraband’s debut single, "That’s Your Way", in October 1978 and in that same month, Barry Cram (ex-Avalanche) replaced McFarlane, who joined Swanee.
The Contraband Album was released in May 1979, accompanied by the singles "Rainin’ Again" and "Gimme Some Lovin" (a cover of the Spencer Davis Group track). The album created interest in the USA but was not successful in Australia. Portrait eventually dropped Contraband later in the year due to lack of interest and the band eventually broke up (Extracts from BadCatRecords with thanks].

.This post contains FLACs ripped from a vinyl copy supplied by an unknown member of the original Midoztouch forum, along with full album artwork.  Thanks to HipTony2 for the above video recorded at the Adelaide Festival in 1978. This video clip was aired on 'Rage Goes Retro', ABC TV Australia, 18th January, 2014. I have ripped this video to mp3 and included it with this post as a bonus track.
This album is certainly a difficult album to come by, although I do remember seeing it in the shops when first released and coming very close to buying it. I was well into heavy rock at the time, so it probably didn't meet my selection criteria based on the single that was on the charts at the time.  Hindsight can be a cruel sometimes!
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Track Listing

01. That's Your Way
02. Changes
03. Foolin'
04. Say you'll Be There
05. Leave The Killing To You
06. Nothin' To Hide
07. Dreamer
08. Where Were You
09. One More Time
10. Right Day For A Riot
11. Where Were You (Bonus Live - Adelaide Festival, 1978)
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Band Members were:
Owen Orford  (Vocals)
Mark Evans  (Bass, Backing Vocals)
Chris Jones  (Guitar)
Graham Kennedy  (Guitar, Backing Vocals
Peter McFarlane  (Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals)
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Finch FLAC Link (303Mb) New Link 21/12/2023

Finch - Thunderbird (1976) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1973-79)
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Finch was an Australian hard rock band, initially formed in Sydney as Stillwater in 1973, they soon became Finch. In 1973, they won a 2SM/Pepsi Pop Poll, winning a contract with Picture Records who released their first single in 1974 "And She Sings".
They released 2 more singles on their on label Eagle Records and contributed 5 tracks to the cult Surfing Soundtrack 'Drouyn' in late 74.
This followed with the release of their debut album 'Thunderbird', acclaimed by many people to be a classic Aussie release from the 70's.
After the release of their single "Short Changed Again", Finch moved south to Melbourne and embarked on a tour with Supernaut. Line-up reshuffles followed, including guitarist Bob Spencer exiting for Skyhooks (and eventually the Angels), and Mark Evans, freshly ejected from AC/DC, joining the fold.
The new-look Finch released the major label 'Nothing To Hide' LP in 1978, along with a number of singles. There are a handful of passable songs on the LP - "Nothing To Hide", "Leave The Killing To You" - both issued as 45s, but on the whole it was characterised by a lack of inspiration and tepid production.
In 1978, after signing a deal in the US with CBS Records subsidiary label, Portrait Records, Finch was changed to Contraband (due to the existence of the Dutch band also named Finch). Earlier Finch material was re-released under the Contraband name but they finally broke up in 1979.
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Article from RAM Magazine, December 5, 1975
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"Hey Syunky! What's your name?" Collectively it s Finch; individually it's four heavy metal tweetie-pies: Peter McFarlane, drummer, Bob Spencer, lead guitar, Tony Strain, bass, and Owen Orford, singer. Their music is hard, loud and heavy with an overlay of good humour that shows up in their own songs, like the aforementioned Hey Spunky.
They've been together for three years or so; if you haven't heard of them outside NSW it's due to a less than wonderful relationship with their last recording company. Picture Records. Finch released one single on that label. The A side was meant to be a heavied up version of The Eagles song Out of Control, with Finch s own And She Sings as the B.
"They did a switch and released And She Sings as the A side, which it wasn't meant to be and that was a mistake," says Owen, settling back against RAM's verandah rail (it was a hectic day inside the office and we'd taken refuge outside). "And then they said 'Look, we've got this really good deal here, this surf movie that's gonna be the biggest thing since Crystal Voyager.' And we thought that would be a good thing to get on to the soundtrack. But we had problems fitting into it; a lot of our music was too heavy and we weren't prepared to go into mellotrons and stuff because we'd tried it before and it doesn't work for us." The movie was Droun and Friends, for all you surf buffs. "What happened was we got very little time to do it in, the production was lousy, the mix was shocking; it wasn't what we wanted out of it at all.
"Anyway, after Droun we thought that's it, we re not going to do another thing. We just let our contract expire, which took twelve months, and that brings us up to now.
In the last few months, since Finch s support gig with Skyhooks on the New South Wales coast stage of the 'Hooks tour, another record company has extended its tentacles toward them. "This record company was pretending they were interested in us when what they were gonna do was monopolise all the Australian bands; they've signed up everybody. We thought bugger it, we're not gonna get slopped in there with everybody else and not be able to do what we want."
Bob Spencer, who has fine blond hair and equally fine chiseled bones in a face accentuated by rimless glasses, has just turned eighteen; '75 is his final year of school, but his attitudes are hard edged and uncompromising.
Finch assume cheerful smiles just prior to flapping arms and taking off.
"See we're real little bastards, we want lots of promotion from people who'll take a lot of interest in us."
All of which might sound arrogant, but, because they also throw in much guffawing and general pleasantry, Finch come off as being remarkably free of arrogance. Enterprising, too. "Our manager Brian Todd is starting his own record company. We're going to do our first album and release a single off that. Doing everything ourselves. Up till now we've always blamed everything on everybody else, so now we're all on our own."
"A nice big fat ballsy sound, that's how we want it." That's the sound they produce onstage alright, and it's much appreciated by their following, which is considerable. As singer Owen Orford says: "Everybody likes music they can dance to, no matter how cool they try to be. Older crowds might say they don't like songs like Hey Spunky but once they get a bit pissed they're gone. You can play stuff all night and if they can't dance to it they can say 'Oh, really great musical band' when they've had a bloody boring time. Anything we do that's a little bit self indulgent we make sure has got a reasonable dance beat behind it. Well, almost reasonable anyway.
The album, tentative title anything from 'Finch in Flight' to 'Birdsturd', should be in the shops first week in December. It will be original stuff.
Lately Finch has been going like a bomb, more work than they can handle, upstaging more established bands who have several albums to their credit, whooping audiences .... They estimate they'd sell at least four thousand albums if they released one now without any hype at all. A country tour of Victoria and NSW is being pressed for but the band.won't do it until they've got an album to promote. Over the background sound effects of a three car collision down the street and more laughter, they say; "Sounds a bit too good to be true doesn't it? All we've got to do is pull it off... we all believe we're the best thing since sliced bread, all we've got to do is let everybody else know too." It started to rain at this point but it didn't matter to Finch — they chattered on cheerfully. Solid, uncompromising, energetic and cheerful they are, and more power to 'em. [ed Annie Burton]
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Followup Article from RAM Magazine, May 5, 1976
'There's No Guano Like Finch Guano'
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But there's no nastiness in this story. A thoroughly likeable group charms the usually irascible Annie Burton. Toughen up lads.
Well, cocky popular Sydney based dance hand Finch have spread their wings just as they said they would. Their first album, Thunderbird, will be out and about with this issue of gutter rock press; it also conveniently coincides with the start of the Victorian leg of the epic Hush tour, for which Finch is the support band. Neat, eh?
Owing to Hush's recent American coup, there s been some confusion over how much of the tour Finch will do, but at this time they will definitely be there for the N.S.W. and Victorian sections.
And they'll have an album to back them up. What s even better is that it's good. This ain't the place for a review, but a' little preview won't hurt — it's solid, got depth and shades, is well-produced, has a measure of sophistication without losing their essential raunchy feel, and it has the group's best songs on it. One side is lighter. Pink Spiders, Hey Spunky, Poser, Crystal Country Gorge and Stay. which is being released as a single. Side two is er, more in the mind fodder line, with Sail Away, Valley of Tears. One Nighter and Mushroom.
The latter is far and away the best track musically, with Bob Spencer's guitar synthesizer giving a violin effect taking off from Owen Orford's voice, which is powerful throughout, and Bob coming back to lay down some sizzling guitar trails over the top. Much care was taken with this track, up to ten hours worth.
Owen: "We're confident, we're really proud of it for a first album; we know it s the very best we could do at the time.
They give off a smell of confidence, a son of corporate solidness. Cos they've done it all themselves, the whole shebang. "We've got our own publishing company, we write the songs, so we get all the royalties from them and the publishing rights.- Our manager Brian Todd has set up our own record company (Eagle Records). The album's being distributed through Tempo Records. Bob: "That's the only part we can't do ourselves, print it and distribute it." Owen: "And if they don't gel it out to the stores, we'll just run around lo the stores and hand out records personally." They would loo; half an hour with Finch is positively exhausting, all that energy ...
The band also has just made a thousand buck's worth of film clip for the single "Stay".The best is what they seek, and it seems to work for them. They didn't have the album out for Christmas because they wanted to use Trafalgar Studios, which were booked up — so they waited until they could gel the studio lime and the engineers they wanted. They found it all marvelous, the perpetual studio night, the fifteen hour stretches, the wonders of the equipment ... It's a reflection of their vitality, the enjoyment they get out of it all. not just the playing part of it which is the only pleasure for most bands while the rest is a confused hassle of mutual bullying. Constant improvement; they get out and do it.
"We're gelling it all in perspective, making sure everything's to our advantage, so that it all ties in with our professionalism. We're getting there slowly but surely, but the good thing is it's all done by us. Keen as a bean. They laugh a lot and there's no calculating or snideness going on in their eyes [Ed Annie Burton]
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This, their debut album, is the finest of the bunch. Excellent vocals and charging guitars punctuate this album, which is filled to the rim with hard rock goodness. There is a very slight progressive temperament to some of the material, but by and large, this is a hard rock album.
Sadly, Finch's output has never been remastered and pressed to disc. In the meantime, here is a clean vinyl rip - 320kps (thanks to Midoztouch) and see for yourself why collectors drool over Finch.
Full album artwork is included along with a multitude of bonus tracks comprising of earlier singles, the 5 tracks from the Drouyn Soundtrack and a live version of their single "Short Changed Again". I have also included scans of the two featured articles on Finch from RAM Newspaper. Thanks also to Wally Beat for the Eagle Label scan below and I highly recommend you pop over to his blog for a more thorough account of Finch's earlier single releases.
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Track Listing
01. Stay - 3:12
02. Pink Spiders - 3:20
03. Hey Spunky - 3:46
04. Poser - 3:51
05. Crystal Country Gorge - 5:15
06. Sail Away - 3:51
07. Valley Of Tears - 5:05
08. One Nighter - 3:16
09. Mushroom - 8:02
[Bonus Tracks] 
10. Short Changed Again (A-Side Single) - 2:56
11. Roses (B-Side Single) - 3:47
12. And She Sings (A-Side Single) - 3:11
13. Out Of Control (B-Side Single)  - 2:14
14. Sail Away (Drouyn Soundtrack) - 3:34
15. Roses (Drouyn Soundtrack) - 3:32
16. Lady Of Truth (Drouyn Soundtrack) - 3:31
17. Arabic Love Theme (Drouyn Soundtrack) - 1:08
18. Putting It Up (Drouyn Soundtrack) - 3:29
19. Short Changed Again - Live - 2:59
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Band Members:
Owen Orford - Lead Vocals
Tony Strain - Bass Guitar, Harmony Vocals
Bob Spencer - Guitars
Peter McFarlane - Drums, Percussion
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Finch Link (160Mb)
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Various Artists - Long Live The Evolution (The Best of DoubleJay)

(Australian Bands 1976/77)
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Now here's another true rarity, especially for those outside of Sydney. This is an album of specially recorded live performances by a wide range of popular Australian acts of the mid 70's. It was only ever given away as a prize to listeners to the then new and groundbreaking station DOUBLEJAY (2JJ). Some of these tracks (ie Jeff St John's) which is just brilliant, were never recorded and are unavailable in any other version elsewhere. It also holds the only recording by Adelaide band Tomlin and live recording of Pantha.

2JJ started broadcasting in Jan 1975 on an old ABC standby transmitter
They dived headlong into the stagnant pool of Australian radio and tried with varying degrees of success to stir the waters for a while; to continue the metaphor, to avoid drowning.
2JJ's programming philosophy was to play a broad area of rock/pop/blues/jazz/folk music that you could call “contemporary”, and at the same time remembering the roots of this music, and presenting news, comedy and features for the “young people” the ABC asked them to cater for.
They had several programmers, who listened to music and put records into neat little piles for their disc-jockeys to play on the radio.
Often the disc-jockeys got very artistic, referring to themselves as announcers or broadcasters, and spent hours blending the great sounds at that time, the hits of tomorrow with fascinating information, scintillating wit and sometimes remembering to read out the time.
Other times they came in late, suffering from the after effects of doing various naughty things, and played whatever was lying on the studio floor.

The “Creative Radio”, as they called it, was necessary because 2JJ played music for its own sake, rather than joining in with the old-fashioned Top 40 concept.
Some of them (well all of them, actually) had pretty strange and varied tastes, but what they did have in common was a desire to hear music as it was being played in Australia, day at that time.
So with their 16 track mobile studio, plus a few nice indoor studios at the ABC, 2JJ recorded the bands, singers, players and songwriters that they thought had talent or something to say or potential or any of the things that their publicists would one day claim to have known about all along.

2JJ had a lot of faith in Australian music, not just as a commercial product (good luck, get rich on it if you can), but as a continuing and developing part of all our lives. Long live the evolution !

The rip included here was taken from Vinyl in FLAC format and contains original album artwork. (Thanks to Sunshine for the FLACs)
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Track Listings

01 Skyhooks - Party To End All Parties
02 Dragon - Blacktown Boogie
03 Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons - If It's Love You Want You Can Count On Me
04 Pantha - Rushcutter Bay Heartbeat Reggae
05 Jeff St. John - I Can Hardly Wait For Summer
06 Renee Geyer - It's Been A Long Time
07 AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
08 Ariel - Keep On Dancing
09 Tomlin - 65 Directory
10 Radio Birdman - Burned My Eye
11 Feather - Free And Easy
12 Finch - Short Changed Again

Long Live The Evolution FLACS (306Mb) New link 12/11/2024