REPOST: Skyhooks - Guilty Until Proven Insane (1978) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1973-1980, 1983-1984, 1990)
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In February 1977, Red Symons left Skyhooks and was replaced on guitar by Bob Spencer (Finch, later called Contraband). With Symons' departure the band dropped the glam rock look and used a more straight forward hard rock approach.
Shirley Strachan introduced Red's replacement at a gig during a surfing contest at Phillip Island on March 27, 1977: "He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he's into the ecology and he's a shit-hot little @unt"
The new guitarist was Bob Spencer. Greg had contacted Spencer on February 21 - the day before Red's departure was announced. Rumoured to replace Red had been ACDC's Malcolm Young, Sherbet's Clive Shakespeare, and Phil Manning, who had fronted his own band. But Greg settled on Spencer, a 19-year-old vegetarian, who he had spotted in the Sydney hard rock band Finch - they supported the Hooks in Wyong in 1976.

Greg told Juke that "Spencer is almost as energetic as Shirl". Spencer said of Greg: "He's a nifty human being ... I had a jam with the band and it was great. H.A.P.P.Y! My mind was made up." Spencer's first Skyhook bio called him "a real spunkrat, astonishingly talented, an overbubbling extrovert with a 25-inch bum".
Spencer recalls: "Before we saw them, Finch didn't like the Skyhooks. They dress up too much, blah, blah, blah'. But then I saw them under Harbour Bridge and I was converted. I knew all the records, my girlfriend had them." Spencer had been the guitarist in Finch since he was 15. Out front was Owen Orford (now a successful booking agent), and bass player Mark Evans joined after he left ACDC.

The band released the album Thunderbird in 1976. "We made the dreaded mistake of moving to Melbourne and living together," Spencer recalls. "We were living with a couple of wives and kids, and we became very disenchanted. Living separately in Sydney had been much better, Greg contacted me and said: 'Well, what do you think, do you want to join the Skyhooks?' I went to Sydney with Greg and spoke to my Parents about it." They were happy about him joining but one mate of Spencer's criticised his decision to join the Hooks - non other than the legendary ACDC frontman Bon Scott!

Guilty Until Proven Insane was released on March 13, 1978 (the first 5000 copies appeared on red vinyl - and I have one !)
Symons:- "By that stage, I no longer listened to the record to have an opinion. I looked at the 3XY chart. I was no longer perceiving success on my own terms."
At first, Red was worried. The album rose to No. 6 on the national charts. In Melbourne, it got to No. 2, but it couldn't dislodge "Saturday Night Fever" from top spot. But then it dropped back. The set did not contain another "Women In Uniform". Only one more single was released off the album — "Megalomania" (which was backed by "BBBBBBB Boogie" — Freddy Strauks' Skyhooks songwriting debut). It failed to chart.
"It's a weird album this one," Greg said of 'Guilty Until Proven Insane' in Rolling Stone. Ads proclaimed that it contained "Australia's new national anthem" — "Why Dontcha All Get *ucked". The album was to have been called either "Bill And Pam Go To The Supermarket" or "Bill And Pam Go To The Races". But Gudinski freaked when he heard the options. The band thanked "Bill And Pam" on the album's credits.
Macainsh:- "They were just imaginary characters. Bill and Pam were characters that appeared in a song we demoed around this time, 'The Great Australian Male'. Gudinski said no to the title straight away. In many ways, it was put up to annoy him."
A Juke cover story on April 1,1978 was headed: "A Sense of Humor Is Very Important In Rock And Roll — Greg Macainsh On The New Hooks LP". Calling Guilty Until Proven Insane a "comeback album", Al Webb wrote that the "Skyhooks camp is aglow with confidence . . . Macainsh is uncharacteristically enthused".

Greg spoke about the tracks. "Women In Uniform", he said, was "a fetish song. I have known a few women in uniform. It's part real life experience, part fantasy." The track had been inspired by a security guard Greg had seen in Atlanta, Georgia. "She wore a mini-skirt, she had a beehive hairdo. She was swaggering around this plaza. She had a Colt .45, baton, handcuffs, walkie-talkie, the whole trip ... an incredible symbol of, you know, sexuality and power. I thought it was great! I just watched her wiggle her arse around the plaza for a while and kept it in the back of my mind." Back in Australia, Greg saw a photo in a fashion mag of "chicks in khaki leaning against tanks". Remembering that one of the Hooks crew had once gotten off with a policewoman, Greg had his song.

"Hotel Hell" (which featured Wilbur Wilde on sax) was vaguely based on Melbourne's larger suburban pubs like the Matthew Flinders in Chadstone, and the Manhattan in Ringwood. It was not overly positive about the punter's pub-going pursuit: "Hotel/Hotel hell/bad place to visit and a rotten place to dwell/ Hotel/Hotel hell/ain't nothing like, there ain't no parallel".
Of Freddy's songwriting debut, Greg said: "Freddy writes a lot of pornographic songs. He's got quite a few songs, usually either pornographic or very philosophical — not a great deal in between which is sort of like Fred, I guess."

Strauks "The pornographic songs were only comedy songs, they were never meant to be pure porn. I thought that all these people were writing love songs, but they only allude to doing it, they never actually talk about doing it. So I wrote a couple of dirty ditties and everyone who listens to them has a laugh. One day I might release them, but the time has to be right.
"BBBBBBBBBBBBBBoogie started life as "The Businessman Boogie", but Eddie Leonetti persuaded me to rewrite the lyric in the studio. To make it interesting, I made it "BBBBBBBBBBBBB (13 Bs) Boogie"."

Both Ram and Juke continued to support the band. Anthony O'Grady wrote: "The idea is to present the band roaring and raging. And they are a Powerhouse. In the Hooks overall scheme of things, 'Guilty Until Proven Insane' is an affirmation of their status as a rock band who can deliver the goods in forthright fashion".
Al Webb concluded: "Ain't no doubt about it, this is a very strong album from what's become a very solid band . . . the musical quality is all there and the lyrics are still well ahead of most Australian writers, so theoretically this should be a successful album for the Hooks. Whether the public can adapt to the band's move towards riffy American rock is another question."
Ross Wilson remembers Greg invited him to his house in Hampton to listen to the record.
"I thought 'Women In Uniform' was great, so I was really looking forward to it," Wilson recalls. "But the rest of the album for me just didn't measure up. My opinion was the songs just weren't there. I remember feeling quite disappointed because I still wished them well."

.Skyhooks at Nambassa 3 Day Music Festival (1978) - Photo thanks to Jeff O'Donnell

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Lyrically the album showed Greg was tiring of his Mr Serious image. On "Twisted Innocence", he revealed his unhappiness with being a deep thinker: "Taxi driver with the science degree/He says he's got it rough. But he can daydream while driving around/I wish him half the luck". (This might even have been a cryptic reference to Red Symons. Red has a science degree, and he also had a taxi licence, but he never drove a taxi). The lyrics lacked his local references (Leonetti decided against releasing songs such as "Daughters Of Brighton" and "Sitting In A Bar In Adelaide"). Greg defended "Why Dontcha All Get *ucked": "I don't think it's sensational for the sake of being sensational. To me, it's a pretty definitive statement, a very commonly used expression. It's like that scene in Network: 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!' There's something of that in it."

The song did attract attention. Shirley and Fred appeared on the Mike Walsh Show, where they were treated with contempt by guest host Brian Bury. He called Fred "Greg" and then asked how they wrote their songs. Freddy freaked Bury out by writing the song's title on a piece of paper and asking him to read it out. During the same month, Melbourne public radio station RRR was threatened with losing its licence after one of its DJs played the unedited version on air. The DJ was none other than Red Symons. On ya Red! [taken from Ego Is Not A Dirty Word: The Skyhooks Story by Jeff Jenkins p125, 130-131]
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Album Review
Guilty Until Proven Insane opens with one of the finest rock tracks you’re likely to hear and possibly the only track on the album familiar to people who are not aware of the band: "Women In Uniform". Familiar as a D’Anno-era Iron Maiden single, the track was written by, and was a huge hit for Skyhooks from this album and features a great vocal from Graeme “Shirley” Strachan with the rest of the band providing one of their heaviest backing tracks. Women In Uniform has all the ingredients of a great rock track as will be apparent from the video clip below and the funky intro which is returned to mid-way through makes for a more multi-dimensional track than other versions!

"Life In The Modern World" is a slow burner of a bluesy rock track with a good use of the twin guitars of Spencer and Starkie and some well-crafted observational lyrics. The latter half of the track also features a good guitar solo not in the shredding vain but more akin to mid-70s Thin Lizzy style which continues over a repeat of the opening verse at the close.
"Trouble With The Computer" opens with a frantic computer ‘conversation’ through which fades-in drums and then into the main riff which is again of strong blues-rock origin. As the title suggests, the track identifies troublesome issues in various scenarios with computers which, considering the year of release, was very contemporary thinking and somewhat prophetic as the same problems are still experienced today: “the computer’s lost its logic and has started to erase” – for a pre-Windows generation that’s some foresight!

Moving into a heavier style, "Bbbbbbbbbbbbboogie", as the name suggests, is a hard-rocking boogie shuffle with a hint of Rose Tattoo who, I’m certain, would have been influenced by their countrymen. Graeme Strachan really spits out the lyrics here with some venom and there’s plenty of guitar breaks throughout making for a very solid track and demonstrating the musical skill of the band members to good effect.
Suddenly, the heavy blues-rock fades and "Twisted Innocence" opens which is a funky almost new-wave track and, as with the majority of the Skyhooks’ tracks, examines the troubles of urban 70s Australian society with in this instance through the eyes of the young and their largely inability to perceive the problems around them. Twisted innocence referring to the blinkered enthusiasm of youth blinding the young to social ills.
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"Hotel Hell" moves back to more traditional hard rock territory for a mid-paced track telling the tale of trying to find a good night out but only coming across ‘Hotel Hell’: “if you think the beer is rotten, you should see the clientele”! The track also features a sax solo in the mid-section (C/- Wilder Wilde - photo above) where the track drops to bass and cymbals over which Strachan further describes the scene at the bar and paints a picture that is so well described you can almost be there.

Gig Review - Roadrunner Mag - March, 1978

 Slow bass and guitar harmonics open "Point In The Distance" with a spoken word intro accompanied by some high wailing backing vocals and then the track kicks-in with a funky guitar and heavily echoed vocals with Strachan singing more smoothly than on the rockier tracks. As with "Twisted Innocence" the sound is somewhere around early 10CC and early Thin Lizzy but, whilst not one of the stronger tracks on the album, certainly shows another side to Skyhooks and a side that they exploit to a high standard here. The undistorted guitar solo is also a highlight.

A calypso intro to "Meglomania" continues the shift in direction begun by "Point In the Distance" and the overall sound is rather ’sweet’ but if you tune-in to the lyrical content, it’s far from it! Quite cleverly, one of the hardest hitting tracks lyrically is backed by the mellowest, poppiest musical backing tracks – as with previous tracks, however, the guitar solo adds some balls with a new riff taking over in the mid-section to boot!
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Closing the album is the ‘classic’ Skyhooks anthem Why Don’tcha All Get *ucked? Originally released on their debut album, in censored form, here it is in all its glory. It features a series of lyrical ‘vignettes’ about various disaffected characters where Strachan paints the picture of their reasoning for their eventual nihilistic attitude and cry of "Why Don’tcha All Get *ucked?" “there’s one thing that you got to do and I suggest you do it today, stand up in your office, school or street and this is what you’ve got to say . . . Why Don’tcha All Get *ucked?”. Pre-dating Rage Against the Machine’s “*uck you I won’t do what you tell me” battle-cry by some 10 years, it’s a sentiment I’m sure we can all relate to from time to time today as much as back in the 70s!
All-in-all this is an awesome album from a great band who should have gone on to globally great things . . . but sadly it was not to be. To compound matters, the album is really hard to come-by on CD but is definitely worth purchasing should you find a copy [ review by Andy Doherty-2009 ]
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This album has always been a favourite of mine as I believe that Skyhooks had finally grown up and were producing songs that were suitable for a broader audience. My red vinyl copy of the LP is another prized possession in my record collection, but I play my CD copy to maintain the condition of the vinyl.
Rip was taken from a long deleted CD release of the album in FLAC format and I have provided both CD and LP cover scans along with select photos of the Skyhooks band MK II. I have also included as bonus tracks, the two songs that were rejected by Leonetti for this album, "Daughters of Brighton" and "Sitting In A Bar In Adelaide" (taken from 'Demos and Dialogue' thanks to Bluecent.
Finally, thanks to Mushroom Records, Peter Green and the Skyhooks Fanclub and Jeff O'Donnell for the various photos displayed in this post.
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Hint: I suggest you listen to this album using headphones, to avoid any conflict with your neighbours, who might take the last track on the LP the wrong way!
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Track Listing
01 - Woman in Uniform
02 - Life in the Modern World
03 - Trouble With the Computer
04 - BBBBBboogie
05 - Twisted Innocence
06 - Hotel Hell
07 - Point in the Distance
08 - Meglomania
09 - Why Dontcha All Get Fucked
10 - Daughters Of Brighton (Bonus Track)
11 - Sitting In A Bar In Adelaide (Bonus Track)

 Band Members:
Graeme “Shirley” Strachan – Vocals
Bob Spencer – Guitar
Bob “Bongo” Starkie – Guitar
Greg Macainsh – Bass
Imants Alfred “Freddy” Strauks – Drums
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* NEW IMPROVED FLAC RIP *

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Skyhooks Link (326Mb) 

REPOST: Various Artists - Sunbury '74 (Parts 1 & 2)

(Various Australian Artists 1974)
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The 70's was a period in Australian Rock Music when the industry showcased its very best at the annual Sunbury music festival. On each Australia day weekend from 1972-1975, 35,000 plus people would travel to a picturesque site 30 minutes from Melbourne, in anticipation of witnessing some of the greatest performance of our own rock bands. For those who attended it was an event not to be missed and still considered today to be the most successful rock music festival of its kind held in Australia.
The Sunbury Music Festivals were organised by a group named Odessa Promotions, said to be members of the Melbourne TV Industry. The principal of the company was John Fowler, and it’s said that the company included people who had previously worked on shows such as Uptight, a pop TV show of the late ‘60s. The company went into liquidation after the final concert of ‘75, which was a financial disaster compared to the previous festivals.

There’s just as much mythology about the spirit of the Sunbury Music Festival, with some regarding it as Australia’s Woodstock, a keypoint in more innocent times that embraced peace and a laid back life, while others saw the Sunbury festivals as an event that mirrored the decline of that flowery period with some suggesting that the festivals steadily became a beer-soaked yob fest.
While the Sunbury Music Festivals did much for the Aussie music scene, featuring an all-Australian line-up in ‘72’s first festival, it also attracted well-known acts from overseas in the later festivals with British bands Queen appearing in ‘74 and Deep Purple taking the stage in the festival of ‘75.
John Fowler's Odessa Promotions flexed their muscles for Sunbury '74. But getting Daddy Cool to reform wasn't enough. They decided to impose their first 'international' act on the festival.    So far, Sunbury had been a celebration of Australian music. Their international guests were unproven and no one had heard of Queen. They were just two albums old and yet to make any significant name for themselves. Where Queen were treated like. . kings...down to being chauffeured to the site, the Australians of course made their own way. (Nothing's changed of course. Ask the Australians who were forced to appear for free at Rumba recently). The rest of the Sunbury '74 performers resented Queen being there, resented everything their presence represented. The audience also resented the English band being there. For them, the Australian music was more than enough. Making things just a little worse, there was a mix-up over daylight savings. Queen had been booked to appear an hour before they expected. They made everyone wait until the sun went down. Queen didn't do themselves any favours, but they were SO unknown, and SO insignificant no-one held it against them later. Only for Queen was it a day they would never forget.
When Queen took to the stage, the band was largely unknown at that time on Australian shores and they were unfortunately heckled from the stage following their performance, allegedly after the announcer of that year’s festival asked the audience, “D'you want anymore from these pommie bastards or do ya want an Aussie rock band?”

 
Before leaving the stage to jeers that labelled them “pooftahs” who should go back to Pommyland, Freddy Mercury, Queen’s iconic front man (who was nonetheless fond of bottoms) boldly and bravely fired a parting shot back at the audience. He declared that when his band Queen would next visit Australia, they would be the biggest band in the world. And true to his word when they returned to our shores in ‘76, QUEEN were indeed one of the most globally acclaimed bands. [extracts from onlymelbourne.com.au]
 
The following is an account of the Sunbury '74 concert through the eyes of one of the festival's compares (and a well known celebrity from the Countdown era) - none other than Ian 'Molly' Meldrum. Reporting in his regular weekly column 'Ian Meldrums Keyhole News' (GoSet magazine, Feb 9,1974. p10), Molly gives us a wonderful run down of each band who played over the three days, and helps capture some of the excitement that occurred at what some people consider to be the best Sunbury of all. For more information about the Sunbury festival, see Milesago.com.

 

SUNBURY BLOODY SUNBURY …POP ORGY…well, that was the headline in one of Melbourne’s better known Sunday papers…their editorial went on to describe how Sunbury became Sin City…of how sex, violence, drugs, and beer-swilling teenagers turned the festival into an orgy.  Wow, SUNBURY ’74 must have been sensational…I wish I’d been there…the funny thing is that I was there for the whole 3½ days and apart from a few isolated incidents involving some yahoo’s, no way known could you describe Sunbury as a violent festival…and as for the open use of drugs, well the drug squad who were there in full force must have been blind-folded because they only made a couple of arrests…thousands of contraceptives sold??...strange that the Chemists report that they only sold about a dozen. 
In other words, WHAT A LOAD OF BULL!...in fact, I would go as far as to say that Sunbury’74 was one of the most peaceful and most organised festivals you could ever hope for…Nude Bathing?...Well, why not?...I mean, who cares?...we have, thank you, grown up at least that much…and let’s face it, it’s papers like this Sunday rag that have made us immune to it all…they thrive on the Tits and teeth bit…unfortunately the thing they forgot to mention was the great line up of talent that kept us entertained over the three days…unfortunately this column is too short to give mention to everyone…but believe me, in one way or another, all deserve a pat on the back…my fear that this year’s Sunbury would be dreary and boring like Sunbury ’73, was completely unfounded…

Friday Night and Sherbet Slayed ‘em
Friday Night…a beautiful clear sky and the satellite city is already in full swing…and wouldn’t you know once again I opened my big trap once too often RE: SHERBET…I did say a couple of weeks back in the column that I couldn’t understand why the group was performing on the first night when most of the audience would be still hitching up their tents etc etc…Wrong…the audience hill was packed and I must say that Sherbet were magnificent…but the guys should give thanks to PIRANA, ROSS RYAN and BAND OF LIGHT who were on before them because they really put the audience in a great mood…PIRANA played a beautiful set and it’s hard to believe that they are not a bigger name in this country because they deserve to be…ROSS RYAN was good but Ross’s outstanding performance was to come on Sunday…BAND OF LIGHT were, I thought, tremendous… surely they are destined to do big things on the Australian music scene this year…and then there was SHERBET… what a performance!...it was their first ever Sunbury and let me tell you right here and now that they made up for the previous two years when they were unable to appear…For months I’ve been raving about their stage act and musical talents but every time I see them they just never cease to amaze me…I’ll go as far as to say that they have probably one of the finest stage acts in the world…and I’m sure the likes of Bowie, Rod Stewart and Elton John, if they were ever given the chance to see them, would agree with me…need I say that Sunbury loved them…it should, in SHERBET’S book, go down as one of the highlights in their already dazzling career…because Sunbury is a fest and in my book, and they may disagree because I believe they weren’t happy with their performance, they get 10 out of 10
To finish off Friday night, HOME, one of Australia’s up and coming groups put the final seal to the night’s superb display of entertainment.

Hot Saturday
Saturday was HOT, really, really HOT…and the drink and watermelon stores were doing great business…sure, people drank booze and happily I report that gone from the festival were the dozens and dozens of kids that were there last year staggering around till the early hours of the morning…by mid-afternoon temperatures had soared to 35 but this didn’t put a downer on UPP’s energy…here is another group that’s full of visual excitement…sure, they’ve got a long way to go but I have every confidence that over the next six or seven months they will build up the following they need and they’ll be up there with the best of them…next on were the 69’ers and as usual they provided the laughs for the day…they really are an incredibly funny group and I hope that they never lose their sense of humour…like last year, they more than wowed the crowd…and to finish off their set they had an all-out cream cake fight…as compare, they were the first act that I had to bring off stage and I’m sure you will agree that it was rather fitting that I ended up with a complete sponge-cake and cream all over my face.  SKYHOOKS were the next on and unfortunately I feel that this group needed a night-time spot when they could make full use of the lights…because they are as much into theatre as they are into music….but one thing’s for sure, watch out for the name SKYHOOKS…they’ve arrived

and they’ll be here for quite a while…SID RUMPO proved to all and sundry what fine musicians they are and after their performance I eagerly await their forthcoming album…MATT TAYLOR was on next doing his solo bit…and what can I say about MATT?... he defies all convention of a ’74 pop star… I mean, name one other pop star who gets out on stage, sits down, and says to 30,000 people, Gidday…but you can’t help but love his music…and as usual, in his own peculiar way, he got the audience going… MATT was rewarded with a fine ovation and an encore…but Matt had a surprise in store for them the following day…DINGOES were next on and boy, can they rock and roll…I absolutely love this group and obviously with the response they got, so did the Sunbury crowd…but the one thing that I feel is missing is visual projection from lead singer, BRODERICK SMITH…he possesses an incredible voice…he looks good, but for some reason he fails to project….there’s an old say Brod, If Ya Got It, Flaunt It, so Start Flaunting!  Next on were CHAIN…and has this group got themselves together up in Brisbane…all the reports and fears that the group would break up were dispelled five minutes after they started playing on stage…we all know what a fine group of musicians there are but now with the added confidence that the Australian public really do appreciate them, this group has really come alive…fortunately or unfortunately for Barry Harvey, they don’t miss him as a drummer at all…the group is tight as I’ve ever seen them…why even Phil’s developed a personality…it was a brilliant musical set and it put the crowd into a great mood for what was to come.

And what was to come was four hours of sheer musical entertainment…the BALLS hit the stage with LOBBY not far behind…and did that audience develop balls!..Wow!...sure, the skinheads and the tattoo freaks love them, but so did everyone else…and I think it would be fair enough to say that the group put on their best performance ever…and LOBBY, me boy, there’s no denying it, you’re every bit a Pop Star…and what a great sight it is to see 30,000 people cheering and yelling and rocking their hearts out…ooooh, it sends shivers up me spine…and thumbs up (in the rude sense) to all those self-appointed critics who have written in to the paper over the past few months criticising this group and labelling them boring…cause when 30,000 get their rocks off on Ballpower, they must have something…next on was a surprise…it was the LA DE DAS and I thought they were bloody fantastic…it would be hard for any group to follow LOBBY successfully but the LA DE DAS did it and did it in fine style…it’s amazing the sound that can be created by just three musicians…and watch out girls because lead singer KEVIN BORICH is about to become a sex symbol…a job well done LA DE’s…

Go Set Magazine Article

Billy’s Not Over The Hill – A Rainbow Fixed That
 Next was one of the two Sunbury miracles…I must admit I felt like an ant walking out on stage with all these towers of equipment surrounding me…it looked as if we were about to restage the Commonwealth Games…but Aztec energy was about to be let loose…just before I made the announcemen I asked BILLY if the group would be wanting to do an encore…and he replied, Don’t Ask Me Man, You’ll Know From The Reaction Of The Audience…and I must confess that I thought, God, I hope last year’s no indication of audience reaction…’cause in ’73 an encore they did not want…Sunbury ’74 was possibly the greatest test this group had to go through, and I mean the Greatest…and BILLY knew it…gone is the denim and replacing it it are the superb tailor-made velvet and leather jackets etc…the next hour was one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever witnessed since I’ve been connected with pop scene…the AZTECS didn’t Wow the audience…they destroyed them!...BILLY had them literally eating out of his hands…you know, words can’t describe what happened…they did new songs, they did old songs…and ten minutes into their set BILLY was wearing the biggest smile you could imagine…he knew he had them back…one song, what was it?...you can’t go round saying What on stage??....F*CK I think…front of stage in the press and group arena it was packed…the COLOURED BALLS were down there, the DINGOES…you name them, they were there, all clapping and cheering…and the audience of 30,000 up on the hill with their arms above their heads, the bare-breasted ladies up on guy’s shoulders weaving and rocking, the Excitement…it was really Too Much…and what about when part of the audience  started chanting the AZTEC “Suck More P…” slogan…a saying that derived from their days at the Whitehorse Hotel…it spread through the audience like wildfire and BILLY said “Keep it up, Keep it up”…and then he and the group wrote a song, there on stage about suck more p…
I firmly believe that audience was ready to do anything for BILLY at that stage…after a couple more numbers like Oop Poo Pah Doo, BILLY announced that he was going to do a number that we’d either hate or love…”Here’s One For The Knockers”, he said…and, my God, he did a song that he made a hit eight years ago, ‘Over The Rainbow’…we all looked at each other in disbelief, but it was sounding great!...and on his alone THORPIE can take the title of Australia’s Top Superstar, because that he is…well, the audience just went beserk after that and they just continued to scream and yell, clap and shout and rock and roll…they finally walked off stage and I passed BILLY and I almost felt tempted to say, well it doesn’t look as if you’re going to do an encore…but I didn’t exactly want to wear a guitar at that stage…and the crowd was just screaming for more, and I do mean screaming…in the middle of my Do Ya Wanna Hear More, my voice suddenly cracked in the excitement and like, for the next two days they had to put up with a rather croaky demented Meldrum…there was no doubt that AZTEC energy was back!
What a hard job for ARIEL to follow this…but like the LA DE DAS with LOBBY, ARIEL did a grand job…all the work and effort that’s been put into their visual stage act is really starting to pay off though I must admit that the big explosion on stage that they created fair frightened the daylights out of me…they performed A Strange Fantastic Dream and is it any wonder that the album is selling so well?...what a shame the group, due to an energy crisis in England, are unable to go there in March because at this stage they are very together…obviously the gigs that they have done supporting overseas bands have helped instill a lot of confidence performance-wise into the group…musically you cannot fault them…visually they are progressing in leaps and bounds…MISSISSIPPI were the next on and this group possesses a brilliant range of harmonies…they lack the visual side but they make up for it with their voices and playing…I’m sure everyone out there agreed that they’re really nice to listen to.

Sunday – Madder Seals Crown
Sunday was just as hot and the St.Johns ambulance brigade were working overtime treating people for cut feet, heat exhaustion and other minor injuries…what would a festival like this be without them?...I shudder to think…GLENN CARDIER played a beautiful set that afternoon and it’s easy to see why he was given a Commonwealth Grant…he may not be everyone’s cup of tea but with that selected audience he really does entertain…RICHARD CLAPTON is another who performed that day and although he was very nervous, he proved what a talent he has, both as a singer and as a songwriter…CAPTAIN MATCHBOX were very entertaining…like SKYHOOKS, they are more a theatrical group and it’s good to see that the Australian music scene has now found a place for this type of group…one highlight of that afternoon had to be KUSH and LINDA GEORGE…KUSH are a brilliant brass-orientated group and with JEFF up front camping his way through song after song, ’74 should see this group emerge as a top seller on the record market…LINDA GEORGE was superb…she’s undoubtedly one of Australia’s finest female singers and you can see her confidence growing day by day (an unintentional pun!)…It’s also good to see that Sunbury has come of age and is able to present artists of her caliber on such a festival…there were some fine vocal backings also by the COOKIES…

Matt Taylor

Next on were the DINGOES who gave another fine rock and roll performance…another appearance by MISSISSIPPI and then MATT TAYLOR hit the stage with a rock group backing him…and what emerged was the MATT of old, the MATT TAYLOR that we once knew as lead singer of CHAIN…he really got that audience jumping and in so many ways I strongly feel that MATT should perform with a rock group more often…and what a gas to hear him sing once again “Grab A Snatch And Hold It”…it was yet another great performance by MATT and the audience fully appreciated it…and then came the big wait…for the appearance of QUEEN…apparently there were a lot of hassles with setting up the equipment etc. and I am not going to attempt to go into who was right and who was wrong…but one thing I will say…I don’t think any group should be subjected to the insulting remarks that were made on stage prior to them going on…after all, they were asked to come here and they wanted to give the best performance they could give…the remarks made by this certain person who, I might add, was not one of the comperes, were unfair and totally unjustified… and worse still, it put a downer on the whole audience…QUEEN finally hit the stage,  with all the odds stacked against them…no, they didn’t receive the greatest applause in the world but with a very tight set, they did swing the audience back and at the end the audience gave them a polite but genuine applause…unfortunately the next day they could not appear because their lead singer was legitimately ill…perhaps a few people will have to eat their words over the next year if QUEEN make the top ranks on the international scene.

Queen at Sunbury

The saving grace of the night was the next act that was on…it was MADDER LAKE and they were really fantastic…first they had the hard task of pulling the audience out of their downer…once they achieved that they worked on the audience to bring them to what had to be the all-time high of the day…like the night before with THORPIE, the audience started to dance and wave their hands in the air etc…MADDER LAKE for the first part of their set, performed their new album, ‘Butterfly Farm’ and if you go by the audience reaction they should have no worry about it being a top seller…for the latter part of their show they performed numbers from their ‘Stillpoint’ album as well as their hit singles…and the audience ..well, need I say, just went ape…my only regret was that every programmer from interstate weren’t there to see MADDER LAKE perform…they are without a doubt one of Australia’s unique sounding bands…they are full of originality and are full of entertainment…just ask any one of the 30,000that were at Sunbury.

Queen's Setlist

After MADDER LAKE came JOHN GRAHAM and BLACKSPUR…Now there’s an under rated artist for you…but keep at it JOHN because they’re going to wake up soon…AYERS ROCK then hit the stage and what fine group of musicians they are…and full credit to them for getting the audience rocking and rolling again at 2.30 in the morning…they lack nothing in musicianship whatsoever and perhaps need a front man to give them some visual effect…once this is achieved I would imagine the sky’s the limit…both their performance this night and the following day proved that we have some really top-line Australian musicians…I thought they were great…to finish off the night, well as a matter of fact it was the very early hours of the morning, MACKENZIE THEORY played an amazing set…they really are an unbelievable group…there can be no other group like them I the world…and if they stick together then I’m sure someone from overseas is going to grab them…the worth of this group speaks for itself, but might I add that there were around about 4000 people who stayed up until 4 o’clock in the morning just to listen to this group…the group also played on the second stage and packed it out…

Daddy Who? Daddy Cool (Getting ready to go on stage at Sunbury 74)

Monday – 35C Cool Entertainment
Monday was a very tiring day…it was hot and muggy…once again PIRANA, AYERS ROCK, SID RUMPO and CHAIN entertained the crowd…ROSS RYAN made his second appearance that day and I would imagine it was one of the best performances he’s ever given…ROSS has always been full of confidence and unlike so many artists, he really knows how to work his audience…he has, over the last 12 months, emerged as one of Australia’s top singer –songwriters and his performance that day proved why he has become just that…
One group that emerged on that Monday who were virtually completely unknown before was BUSTER BROWN…they really got the crowd rocking so Watch Out For Them…that’s a definite name to put in your little black book…but Monday really belonged to DADDY COOL…they played as though they’d never ever broken up…and they somehow re-created the excitement of ’71…the crowd just went mad…Absolutely Deliriously Mad…just prior to the group coming on, they adored the stage with three giant Australian flags and during their performance they issued to the audience hundreds of toy flags…the scene was quite unbelievable…the did all their old hits…look, what more can you say…DADDY COOL HAD RETURNED…and so had the excitement…I really believe that they could have played all day and all night and the crowd still would have called for more…it was a great ending to a really successful festival…
I thank all and sundry who organised the festival, especially Odessa Promotions...and Mr. John Fowler…Sunbury ‘74 proved that the Australian music scene id very much alive…but more than that, it proved that Australian artists and musicians are amongst the finest in the world…
Sunbury Pop Orgy???...No!...Sunbury was full of Fun, Music and Entertainment…yes, this year at Sunbury a man died but also for the first time at Sunbury a baby was born… MOLLY xxxxxx
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Now, firstly it should be noted that there are some discrepancies in Molly's account which should be noted. It has been reported (by Milesago.com) that Skyhooks were booed off stage at Sunbury 74 (apparently the audience wasn't really ready for all of the glam and glitter that they brought to the table) and it is because of this that their first lead singer 'Steve Hill' left the band and was replaced by Graham "Shirley" Strahan, and of course the rest was history.  So, I guess Molly forgot to mention this in his report.
Another discrepancy lies with Milesago documenting that Blackfeather performed at Sunbury '74, yet Molly makes no mention of them playing in his extensive account. Likewise, another Sunbury review in GoSet by columnist Mitch entitled 'Front Row Reviews' (Feb 16, 1974) makes no reference to Blackfeather in amongst his listing of bands.  So, unless someone can provide direct proof, I think Milesago has got it wrong.
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One real mystery associated with the recordings released by Mushroom on their Anti RipOff label (see below) is the inclusion of a recording made by an unknown group called 'Full Moon'. There has been much speculation about who they were yet 'Full Moon is absent from any reviews or articles in the GoSet Magazine at that time. There was a UK group with the same name (but are certainly not the same band) based on their style of music.

One hint that might help, is when Molly refers to a 'second stage' when discussing MacKenzie Theory's performance. It is possible that Full Moon may have performed "Freedom Jazz Dance" on this second stage to a smaller crowd, and the recording used to diversify (or fill) the Mushroom release - Part 2.
Apparently, the new concept of a 'second performing stage' was added to the Sunbury festival in 1974 to include "alternative performances such as jazz recitals, theatre, dance, mime, poetry and acoustic music." which seems to fit in with this explanation.
As to the identity of the band Full Moon, ChickaMunro provides us with the only info at hand, on the Midoztouch forum when he reports:  'From the front cover of a promo booklet from Open Sky Productions, who were putting on a gig at the Dallas Brooks Hall, Nov 1975'.
Ayers Rock, Silver Sun, Phil Manning, in concert at The Dallas Brooks Hall
Conceived in our illustrious Gardenvale, Silver Sun makes it's first public appearance tonight.
After months of solid slogging in that fine suburb, the band features John Pugh, a former member of Healing Force and FULL MOON, on lead guitar and vocals. Barry Sullivan,...bass,...Sunil De Silva from Skylight and the Dingoes on drums...Sam McNally...Mal Logan...jazz, soul and blues...funky...Herbie Hancock...Marvin Gaye..."
This has something to do with the whole Healing Force thing - who also had their biggest gig at Sunbury 73, didn't they? Also the Company Caine precursors had Pugh - and so the trail leads all over the place in Melbourne.  Any further information about this mysterious group would be gratefully received !

One final note, before I close this 'rather long post'. Apparently, Sherbet was supposed to have "Hound Dog" included on one of the featured albums but pulled the plug at the last moment for some reason and Thorpie's XXX rated track "You Can't Go Around Saying F*ck On Stage" was pulled by Mushroom in fear of legal repercussions.  In addition, EMI would not allow its acts to appear on these albums, hence the absence of tracks by Ariel, Coloured Balls, Mississippi, Ross Ryan etc..
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This post consists of FLAC rips taken from vinyl, both in excellent condition.  Full album artwork is also included for both vinyl (mine) and CD (thanks to Bondie), a multitude of newspaper articles (from Go Set magazine thanks to RAM) and photos (sourced from The Age archives and anddum.com with gratitude).

Artwork and associated Sunbury literature are also included as a separate download for those you who already have the music, and only want this support material. 

IMPROVED RIP
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Track listing:
(Sunbury '74 - Part 1)
01 - Lizards (Madder Lake)
02 - I'm a Dingo (The Dingoes)
03 - Gonna miss you babe (Chain)
04 - Big Shake and Hi Honey Ho (Daddy Cool)

05 - New Orleans (Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs)
06 - Hey What's the Matter (Skyhooks)
07 - Roll over Beethoven (Buster Brown)
08 - Buster Brown (Buster Brown)
(Sunbury '74 - Part 2)
01 - Payday Again (The Dingoes)
02 - Morning Magic (Ayers Rock)
03 - Supreme Love (Mackenzie Theory)
04 - Love On The Radio (Skyhooks)
05 - We'll Never Do The Same Again (Matt Taylor)
06 - Wang Dang Doodle (Sid Rumpo)
07 - Sweet Home Chicago (Sid Rumpo)
08 - Freedom Jazz Dance (Full Moon)
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Sunbury '74 - Part 1&2 FLAC Link (476Mb) New Link 20/10/21
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Sunbury '74 Artwork and Photos (36Mb)

REPOST: Various Aussie Artists - A Reefer Derci (1976)

(All Australian Artists)
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The Reefer Cabaret was the successor to the fabled TF Much / Much More Ballroom concert 'happenings' promoted by Bani McSpedden and John Pinder in 1971-72. The Much More events ended in December 1972, reportedly because of complaints from St Patrick's Cathedral (who owned Central Hall, where the shows were staged) about the type of music being performed and the use of drugs by audience and performers. During 1973 Pinder and McSpedden reportedly promoted similar events under the title "Stoned Again" (a name no doubt inspired by the famous Robert Crumb dope cartoon) but we've been unable to locate any details about these events as yet.

Like the Ballroom, the Reefer Cabaret was not the name of a venues per se (like Catcher or the Thumpin' Tum) but rather the title for a regular concert event held in one of the large community halls Melbourne that could be rented on a casual or regular basis for dances, meetings and similar functions -- in this case, the Dallas Brooks Hall in inner Melbourne, and built by the local chapter of the Order of Freemasons.

Like the Ballroom shows, the Reefer Cabaret events were usually held monthly and typically featured long concert-style performances, with multiple musical acts on the bill, interspersed with comedy, poetry readings, theatrical, dance or novelty performances.

The first Reefer Cabaret show was held on 3 August 1974 at the Dallas Brooks Hall. It starred The Dingoes, soul group Skylight, the avant garde group Wind and rising stars Skyhooks, with its charismatic new lead singer Graham "Shirley" Strahan. The night cost $1200 to stage, and attracted 850 people. Unfortunately the Freemasons, who owned the Hall, were not impressed by the type of music (or its volume), nor by the copious quantities of illicit substances which were consumed by the audience. Roberts was obliged to move the Reefer Cabaret to the Ormond Hall in Prahran, owned by the Blind Institute of Melbourne, who apparently didn't have the same qualms about the moral dangers of loud music and dope-smoking. The shows were then presented on a monthly basis, with newer bands such as Madder Lake, Ayers Rock, Split Enz, The Renee Geyer Band and Ariel, who gained invaluable experience before a relatively discerning audience.

The Reefer Cabaret shows ran until sometime in 1976. As with the Garrison venue (which closed in 1974) the Reefer Cabaret gave considerable support to artists on the fledgling Mushroom label and (like the earlier Garrison: The Final Blow double album) Mushroom commemorated the Reefer Cabaret by recording the final concerts and compiling a selection of tracks on the valedictory 2LP set A-Reefer-Derci, (1976), which featured performances by Ariel, Ayers Rock, the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, the Renee Geyer Band, Skyhooks and Split Enz (Extract from Milesago).

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Standout tracks are Ayers Rocks cover versions of the Rolling Stone's 'Gimme Shelter' and Weather Report's 'Boogie Woogie Waltz'. Their live work is nothing short of spectacular. Another personal favourite is Split Enz's rendition of 'Time For A Change' which showcases the superb vocals of Tim Finn and the haunting keyboards of Eddie Rayner.

This rip was taken from a Vinyl pressing in FLAC format (thanks to Sunshine) and includes full album artwork (thanks to Micko at Midoztouch)

Reposted in FLAC format for your pleasure

Track Listing
1. Intro/Welcome
2. Intro To Renee Geyer Band
3. Renee Geyer Band: It's A Man's Man's World
4. Intro to Split Enz
5. Split Enz: Amy
6. Split Enz: Lovey Dovey
7. Split Enz: Time For A Change
8. Ayers Rock: Boogie Woogie Waltz
9. Ayers Rock - Gimme Shelter
10. Ariel - I Can't Say What I Mean
11. Ariel - Rock 'n' Roll Scars
12. Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band - Roll That Reefer
13. Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band - The Prefect
14. Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band - Out In The Suburbs
15. Skyhooks - Revolution
16. Skyhooks - Smut
17. Skyhooks - Saturday Night

A Reefer Derci FLAC Link (474Mb) New Link 03/09/2023

Skyhooks - Straights in a Gay Gay World (1976) with bonus tracks

 (Australian 1973-1980, 1983-84, 1990, 1994)

"Straight ln A Gay Gay World"
I'm just a straight in a gay, gay world
I'm carryin' the banner, tryin' to keep the flag unfurled
Well, I'm just a straight in a gay, gay place
I might look a little odd but I'm part of the human race

It was to be The Skyhook's most expensive album to date. The budget was $60,000- four times what it cost to make 'Ego Is Not A Dirty Word'. At the end of the American tour - as the guys were itching to return home - the band entered the $100 per hour Record Plant in Sausalito, California to make their third album. The studio was a long way from TCS in Bendigo Street, Richmond - both in distance and in style. The Record Plant had a Jacuzzi and a pinball machine. Also on hand was a speedboat, which could take you to trendy restaurants. If that was unavailable, there was a Rolls Royce with the number plates "GREED".

In the studio next to Skyhooks had been Fleetwood Mac. Red remembers the stories about various Mac members taking nitrous oxide. The band lived in a big cedar house, where the Eagles had written "Lyin' Eyes". The house had a spa. The guys were joined by their wives and girlfriends, who after a couple of weeks went for a trip to Mexico while the band was rehearsing.

Ross Wilson flew to America after he finished work on the Oz soundtrack. He was to produce the album. An American, Bill Halverson, was to engineer the record.

'Straight In A Gay Gay World' should have been Skyhooks' finest moment. Made in America at a state of the art studio with a big budget, it was a chance for the band to make the album which would break them worldwide. Instead they made a record that disappointed them and added to the pressure on the band. The major players have differing versions of events.

Macainsh
"It was hard to capture the sound we wanted. The studio in Melbourne had a much more live sound. The studio in Sausalito was a dead sounding space. "We weren't hearing the sound on tape we wanted and knew was there."

Strauks
"It was unfortunate that we had to do it at the end of the tour because we were all really tired and really sick of living with each other 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The sessions were very, very tense. We hadn't had a chance to really perform the music. Greg had been writing in his hotel rooms. He'd come up with quite a few interesting songs but because he was starting to withdraw a bit and he wasn't being so friendly, for us it became more of a job, rather than doing it for the love of it."

Symons
"We just wanted to go home. We'd been touring the states for five months. It was a contractual album".

Macainsh
"It was rushed. At the end of the tour, the idea of making a record was kind of nice, but they also wanted to make it home. So in that sense, it was more pressured. I guess that is the word. We wanted Ross Wilson to do it. However, I don't know if Ross was that crazy about doing it."

Strachan
"There were obvious tensions with Ross Wilson. The biggest problem was that the studio was so pure, as far as sound and clarity goes. We had so many fucking tuning problems. It ended up stressing everyone out. You'd go to do something and the guitars would be out of tune."

Symons
"The first two albums were good, I reckon. Part of the reason they were good albums was all that material was conceived before the band was successful. When it came to a third album, we had a whole lot of associated pressures, like being in America (away from home). But it was a struggle because it was post-success material. All the motivation had gone. It had become a job.

Wilson
Ross remembers the making of the Straight album as 'the start of a crappy period for him' for a few years. He got bogged down with running a record label, OZ, with Glenn Wheatley, and he had an unhappy time producing Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons. "That's when I decided I didn't want to be a full time record producer. There was constant disagreement, It was even tougher than the Skyhooks."
Wilson's post-Straight blues mirrored the Skyhooks."

"This ls My City"
This is my city
This is your city
This is our city now
This ls My City

THE HOOKS ARRIVED HOME from the U.S Tour on Wednesday, June 16, 1976.

The Melbourne Sun reported: "Skyhooks came home from the US to a screaming, hysterical welcome."
Shirley, Red, Freddy and Bob were met by more than 100 fans at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport. Greg flew in by himself a couple of hours earlier. Red had his coat torn off and his shirt ripped. When he was asked whether that was the sort of reception the band got overseas, he said: "Yeah, except it was us banging on the doors." He told a press conference that America was great because the band had learn't words like "cheeseburger", "far out" and "funky". As for his immediate plans: "To go home and have a nice cup of tea".

Shirley told the Sun's Pat Bowring that the U.S "brought us down to earth. We were over-confident at first. And we were brought down to our level fast. The workload was huge, the pressure great and the future uncertain . . . there wasn't much time for fun."

Shirley announced that the band's next trip overseas would most probably happen in October and would include Britain and Europe. But the Hooks never again made it overseas. In 1975, they conquered Sydney and Australia - going much further than any other Australian band had dreamed. In 1976, most of the band found that they didn't have the desire to go further.

Macainsh

"All in all, it (the US) was a fantastic experience. But it dawned on us that if we were going to continue, it would be basically 10 years of sitting on a bus doing that same sort of thing over and over again. All the bands were doing that. We played with lots of bands there who subsequently became big in America four or five years after we met them, bands like Styx and Journey. That was the career path, how long it would take. I don't think that interested Red. I remember having conversations with him and he'd be asking: 'Do you really want to do this?' I think he didn't want to do it. And maybe ir wasn't stimulating enough for everybody."

Michael Gudinski continued to hype the overseas angle. He said that he got a telex from Mercury saying that they were ecstatic about two tracks from Straight In A Gay Gay World, "Blue Jeans" and "Crazy Heart", as potential singles. But Mercury never did release any more Skyhooks singles. They did release the Straight album (with the track "Living In The 70's" replacing "The Girl Say's She's Bored), in 1976.

Gudinski and Strachan promote the Brats Are Back Tour

Creem Magazine reviewed the album in the U.S, saying that Skyhooks was different to 'bland-outs' like LRB, Sherbet, the Bee Gees, Helen Reddy and Olivia Newton-John. "But whether they'll break big here is a big ? I mean, can a group of self-confessed weirdos inhabiting a nebulous nether world between Alice Cooper, Steely Dan, The Stones and The Bonzo Dog Band really make it? Yeah, well, a little like that, but I am glad there are bands like these guys. It just makes living in the 70's a little more interesting." But with no promotion from Mercury, Living was dead on arrival in the U.S

Ross Wilson filled the Sun readers in on where the Hooks were at, in an interview at the end of June: "When a band has been together for two years and gone through the various trips - fame, fortune and all that - it reaches a point where it re-evaluates things. This is the point Skyhooks is at now. When Skyhooks started, it was more like a hobby thing to them. Now, it';s more like hard work."

Wilson also announced that he would not be producing any more Skyhooks albums. "It's a completely amicable decision. I just feel that after three albums, both the group and myself should move on to other things."

Bongo on ANZ Rooftop For This Is My City Clip

The band released its new single, a double A-Side, " This Is My City" / "Somewhere in Sydney", on July 12. It just made it into the National Top 20. This is despite a strong clip for "This Is My City", which had the band filmed from a helicopter as they were on top of the 16-storey ANZ Bank building in Collins Street in Melbourne.

On July 28, the band started its return Australian tour: 'The Brats Are Back'. The tour captured some of the old excitement. The band became the first major act to play in Alice Springs. Half the town turned out.

Straight In A Gay Gay World was released on August 21. Unlike its two predecessors, it did not top the charts, instead it peaked at No.7 nationally. There was irony in the title - a band that wore make-up and outrageous costumes saying it was straight. The cover - a lone black sheep on the front, a lamb chop dinner on the back cover - led to some talkback on Melbourne radio. Bob Starkie reported that the lamb had since died. Red Symons said "Everyone has their own interpretation of it, but I think it's how this band is all lambs to the slaughter!"

The album opened with their 1975 hit single "Million Dollar Riff", which had reached #2 on the national charts, only being kept out of the top spot by Abba's "Mama Mia"

The next track was all about Greg's American observations, "ls This America?". "lt's about hotel rooms, and blacks and whites, and New York Subways. I wrote that one in a hotel in a night, just like the good old days when the songs were coming thick and fast." The album also featured two songs about the sexual revolution, the title-track and "I'm Normal". "'I'm Normal" is about a guy who's dissatisfied with the sexual revolution, so he's going back to holding hands and making out like he used to when he was young. Degeneracy seems to be the norm . . . of course, some of the guys in the band are pretty degenerate."

The album also included a track that Greg had written before the first album, "Blue Jeans". He told Ram Magazine: "I wouldn't like to limit myself to the field of social comment all the time. "Blue Jeans" is more of what you'd call social comment. We used to do it when we first started. Ross Wilson has always tried to get it recorded, but we've never been real keen on the idea until we got stuck for a song on this album." Red said: "We knew when we recorded it that it'd be a pain in the arse. It's like with 'All My Friends Are Getting Married', where all these jewellery shops selling engagement rings were using it on radio ads. Lyrically, it makes a statement about how people try and look different, but in the end they look similar.". "Blue Jeans" became the band's first major hit in New Zealand, when it crashed into the Kiwi Top 10. It was Mushroom's first gold record in NZ.

Bongo grooms the Black Sheep for the Album Photo Shoot

Straight In A Gay Gay World closed with perhaps Greg's "nicest" song ever, "Crazy Heart". "lt's been described as a song of social impotence. It's about a guy who fantasise about a whole lot of different types of girls but can't quite get himself together to do anything about it. It's almost an extension of the sentiments on 'Love's Not Good Enough'.

Greg described Red's solitary contribution, "Mumbo Jumbo", "as the nonsense song to end all nonsense songs. It's his reaction to disco music - mindless lyrics and mindless music. It's the best song he's written, I think."

‘Freddie’ Strauks, ‘Shirley’ Strachan, Red Symons and

Bob ‘Bongo’ Starkie during an interview in 1976

The Straight album was launched at a lavish reception in Melbourne, broadcast live on 3XY, and during which the band was also presented with seven platinum records for Living and Ego (marking sales of more than 350,000, which grossed more than $2 million). Straight was a slow starter sales-wise, taking two months to finally go platinum. In local sales, the Hooks had been overtaken by their support act, Ol'55 whose 'Take It Greasy' had sold more than 100,000 copies. 

The writing was on the wall - things had to change if the Hooks were going to survive. [Extracts from 'Ego Is Not A Dirty Word - The Skyhooks Story' by Jeff Jenkins.Kelly & Withers 1994. p104 - 117]

This post consists of FLACs ripped from a remastered CD (released in 1994) and includes full album artwork for both Vinyl and CD media. When I originally bought the album on vinyl, I must admit I was a little disappointed, even though there were a couple of typical 'Hook' tracks (Million Dollar Riff and Blue Jeans). They seemed to have lost the magic that was evident in their first 2 albums. However, I have since grown to like this album over time and consider it to be an important piece of the Hook's discography.  

I have chosen to include a couple of bonus tracks, the non-album B-Side of Million Dollar Riff "Forging Ahead" and a rare live recording of 'This Is My City' - recorded in Perth during their Brats are Back Tour.  

Tracklist

01 Million Dollar Riff 3:50

02 Is This America? 4:30

03 Blue Jeans 2:30

04 Somewhere In Sydney 3:40

05 This Girl Says She's Bored 3:20

06 This Is My City 3:40

07 Straight In A Gay Gay World 4:30

08 I'm Normal 3:15

09 Mumbo Jumbo 3:20

10 Crazy Heart 5:00

11 Forging Ahead (B-Side Single)*     4:07

12 Somewhere In Sydney (Bonus Live Perth)     4:05

The Hooks were:

Shirley Strachan (Lead Vocals)
Red Symons (Guitar/Vocals)
Bob Starkie (Guitar)
Greg Macainsh (Bass/Vocals)
Freddy Strauks (Drums/Vocals)

Straight In A Gay, Gay World  (312Mb)

New Link 20/04/2021