Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Redgum - Frontline


By 1984, the Redgum line-up comprised Schumann, Truman, Atkinson, McDonald,
Stephen Cooney (bass,didgeridoo, mandolin, banjo), Michael Spicer
(piano) and Brian Czempinski (drums).
Redgum's fifth album, Frontline, was released in August 1984.
A compilation album 'Everythings Legal Anything Goes' was released
in November 1984.
Redgum toured the UK and Europe in the latter half of 1985
and released a compilation album in a number of territories.
The band was well received on the festival circuit
and earned itself a strong and loyal following in London during its time there.
By May may 1986, co-founder John Schumann had left the band, it
was the beginning of the end for Redgum.
So in a way this is the last Redgum Album, it is the last John appears
on and many fans believed John was the bands greatest asset.
Newest member Hugh McDonald contributes "Spirit Of the Land "
showing he is worthy, but Micheal Atkinson is the song writing star
penning 4 of the strongest songs on the album.
This is a brilliant Lp, many consider it to be their finest, it produced
the hit single "I've been to bali too" perhaps Redgum's funnest song.
Full of fantastic songs, covering rock , country and folk it is sublime.
The political and social commentary is as strong as ever and the
earlier more clumsy songwriting is gone, we have a confident
mature band who are at their peak.
"Asio" is a fantastic rocker, "Friday night" even more so was released
as a single, "Spirit of the land" is one of their finest songs,
"Gladstone Pier " is a heart wrenching epic, of course we
have the full band version of the beautiful "Working Girls"
and the album finishes with the beautiful instrumental "Hira"
One of the best albums ever released by an Australian act,
it is unmistakably Australian and a true masterpiece.

Link thanks to kelvin1962 at Ausrock forum

Download Here

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob - thanks for that.
If you're on Facebook please join us at the Redgum fans group page. You'll also find pages for John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew and Hugh McDonald.
His website, which I created for him is www.hughmcdonald.com
Leanne

bob nebe said...

Thanks for the invite Leanne I'll get along and check it out.By a strange coincidence I saw your work on www.hughmcdonald.com on the weekend when I was doing a bit of Redgum research.Have you seen the most recent post on Redgum here, it was sent to me as a unreleased Redgum album and I can find nothing on the web about this material. Its fantastic anyway, check it out.
ciao bob

bob nebe said...

Leanne I'm afraid I cant find the redgum fan group if you can point me in the right direction, I have found the other two which is a good start, so I'll join those.
Thanks ciao bob

Scot of the Antipodes said...

Bob, you LEGEND!!! I could kiss you but you probably wouldn't appreciate the beard rash. I've been hunting the Frontline album since the late 90s. Hunting for a variety of reasons, all of which you touched on in your review - it was Redgum at their peak, all angry and sharp. For me, Beyond Reason captured captured all my adolescent cold war fears and I listened to it over and over again. That Didj is chilling and then there's the sublime Hira to sooth your soul. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

bob nebe said...

Hi Scot, glad to help a fellow old Redgum fan out. Great review I can tell your a writer, unlike me.
Have a look round the blog and I'm sure you'll find a heap of stuff which you may not have.
I've posted all Redgum releases, including a vinyl rip of their Cut to the quick EP, which I couldn't find anywhere and their unreleased final album, also John and Hugh solo.
Theres plenty similar stuff, Shane Howard heaps of Murrie stuff, bushwackers, just check out the archive or search the blog, also I take requests if I can help.
ciao bob

fletcherkane said...

Error - file not found! :(
Can we get a re-up on some site that isn't Rapidshare? :)

Diceman said...

Hi, just wanted to report that the link is dead.

Thanks for all the work in getting this music out to people who would never be able to hear it otherwise.

Anonymous said...

...or can we get a re-up at all? Would be great, this album is nowhere to be found...especially not on CD.

Anonymous said...

great! Thank u very much!

fletcherkane said...

Can you please re-up Frontline? It's still sadly languishing in the out-of-print file, 30 years after release...