Do the Pop! An interview with David Laing, Producer of Do The Pop!: The
Australian Garage Rock Sound, 1976-87 Australian band The Saints have the proud record of releasing the first ever punk single “(I’m) Stranded”, months before bands like The Ramones and The Damned got around to beginning what for many was a musical revolution. Alongside the equally-grand Radio Birdman, they chartered new waters in the Australian underground scene of the 70s, and laid the stepping stones for bands such as the Hoodoo Gurus and Nirvana favourite The Hard-Ons to go on and achieve international success. 25 years later, David Laing has gathered together for the first time fifty tracks that represent just over a decade of underground garage rock Australian style. I spoke to him recently about his involvement in putting Do the Pop! together, the relation of these bands to groups like The Hives and why Do the Pop! should interest someone who’s never even heard those majestic opening chords of “(I’m) Stranded.” How did you become involved with the Do the Pop! compilation? Was there some kind of personal connection to the bands/music that attracted you? Yeah, it was basically the music I grew up with. Radio Birdman and The Saints were two of the first bands that turned my head, together with The Ramones, and got me into punk and rock'n'roll when I was 13, at the end of '78. Birdman in particular really helped shape my tastes - through their influence I got in to the Stooges and the MC5 and '60s garage-rock bands like the Remains and the 13th Floor Elevators. One of the first bands I ever saw in a pub was New Race, and when I was old enough to not have to sneak into pubs underage the bands I would see regularly were The Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus, Hitmen, New Christs etc. Did the Saints and Radio Birdman ever get the type of appreciation they deserved in Australia, or was it similar to the situation with bands like The GoBetweens and Boys Next Door who had to go O/S before they could?
The Australian punk scene often found itself sharing similar venues to the standard pub rock bands of the time. Did Australian punk ever have something resembling a manifesto that targeted the mainstream bands, or was it less political/ antagonistic than say the UK scene. Did the Punk scene die out or go underground or was there ever such a coherent thing that could be described as a scene? This was all a bit before my time, but I really don't think there
was a manifesto. If you look at how quickly most Melbourne punk
bands jumped on board with Suicide Records ([rich Australian
music mogul] Gudinski's attempt to cash in on punk), it's pretty
obvious most of them wanted commercial success. News were
probably the one Melbourne band who stayed away from that.
Maybe Sydney was different - certainly a band like X existed for
the most part well outside of the mainstream. In regards to both
Birdman and The Saints, they were both banned from most
regular venues and had to create their own shows. not sure if
there was really any manifesto there apart from the fact that
they wanted to play the music they played without interruption
and without people pulling the plug on them. Moving on to the garage scene, what role did Sydney/ Melbourne bands play in shaping the sound of Oz music in the eighties? (I've got the info from the website about bands like the Hoodoo Gurus,etc, but I guess I'm intrigued by what was going on behind the scenes, behind what made the mainstream) Melbourne didn't really play much of role in this at all. There were a handful of bands - The Huxton Creepers, The Gas Babies - who fall into the category, but the real scene was Sydney-based. I think a case can be made that the garage-scene that had its roots in Radio Birdman and The Saints eventually had an influence on the charts first through The Sunnyboys, then The Hoodoo Gurus and to a lesser extent the Stems, Died Pretty, Screaming Tribesmen etc. The fact that all these bands had really strong live followings meant that their influence was felt beyond the charts too. And you could make a point that subsequent generations of Australian chart bands - You Am I, Spiderbait, Silverchair etc - were strongly influenced by a lot of the bands on 'Do The Pop!' as well. There's a bizarre resurgence in garage rock - bands you mention like the Hellacopters and the Hives - that's getting a lot of attention paid towards it. Why do you think this is? Yeah, it's weird. This stuff never really goes away, and there are resurgences every now and then, but The Hives are basically the hottest 'new' band in the world at the moment, so this is taking it to a new level. It's really been triggered by the UK press - the NME especially - who are always looking to create new trends. They've jumped on the Hives (like the Strokes and White Stripes before them) and have pushed really hard. Part of it is maybe that everything has been so anti-rock for so long, this is like a backlash to dance and pop. Is there an Australian garage scene still around, and if so, who are the main artists carrying the torch? How do you rate current bands that get a lot of media attention e.g. Something for Kate, George against these bands? There's always been bands around playing this kind of stuff. At the moment there's Asteroid B6-12, Sheek the Shayk, the Flirts, the Crusaders, The Stoneage Hearts, and the Powder Monkeys and Hoss are still around. Not all these bands are garage bands in a strict, authentically '60s-sounding style, but they all fit the definition I use for garage-rock in Do The Pop! Trying to compare these bands with Something For Kate, George etc - is chalk and cheese.
Hard-ons just completed another European tour, their second (at least) in recent years. They put out a new album a year or so ago. Keish, their drummer/singer just quit but they're still continuing. The Sunnyboys are all inactive as far as I know. What does Do the Pop! offer listeners from overseas and Australia who aren't familiar with the bands on the CD? Why should people be interested/buy it? It offers 50 killers tracks, together with a 28-page booklet with exhaustive liner notes and heaps of photos and other images. You get the music and the history in one cheap package! Meant to be played loud, Do the Pop! is also fantastic value, especially for US/UK readers. Retailing at around $16 U.S., it’s the equivalent of a box set and with comprehensive liner notes serves as an authoritative document of independent Australian music. For more information, web-streaming of the songs, and details on purchasing, go to the Do the Pop! site.
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Yes and no. The Saints and Birdman were both
revered by the underground scene here. I don't
either band at the time was ever going to get
mainstream success here. Unlike The GoBetweens
and Birthday Party who were both revered by the
influential British press, both the Saints and Birdman were
completely misunderstood overseas (the initial response to '(I'm)
Stranded' notwithstanding), so I really don't think that their
continued influence here has anything at all to do with their going
o/s. It's quite ironical that the UK press is finally acknowledging
both bands - especially the Saints - and that they are both
influential on the current garage-rock revival (The Hives in
particular are big fans of both bands).
I know Brad Shepherd (of the
Hoodoo Gurus) is involved in
new projects and the
reformation gigs at last year's
HomeBake, and a version of
The Saints is touring again.
What about other bands like
the Hard Ons or the
Sunnyboys? Do you have any
information on what they are
up to?
