From the Slaughtermen via Mark Ferrie we come to the
Sacred Cowboys.If you are a regular viewer of the SBS series
Rockwiz you may now the bass player for the rockwiz orchestra
is Mark Ferrie.
Mark also best known as the Models bass player, played in the
Slaughtermen and this band the Sacred Cowboys.
The Sacred Cowboys' frontman is Garry Gray
(lead singer/lyricist), who as a member of the
'Negatives' ('77/'79) and the 'Reals'
('75/'76) was a pioneer of indie music in Melbourne.
He was a founding member of the 'Sacred Cowboys' in 1982.
Gray reformed the 'Sacred Cowboys' in 2006 with a stellar
line up which includes: Spencer P Jones (guitar);
Penny Ikinger (guitar); Nick Reishbeth (bass);
Stephan Fidock (drums); and special guest on keyboards
for the August 2006 shows, Ash Wednesday (keyboards).
Founding 1982 members include Johnny Crash (drums) and
Mark Ferrie (bass) who were both previously members of
Melbourne pop band the Models; Terry Doolan (guitar);
Andrew Picouleau (bass); and Ian Forrest (keyboards).
Nick Reishbeth joined the group in 1983.
In 1987 Stephan Fidock joined on drums.
The 'Sacred Cowboys' began playing inner city Melbourne
in early 1982. Gray thought of the name after viewing an
episode of Get Smart with Mark Ferrie, from the episode
where the Groovy Guru and his band the Sacred Cows set
out to subvert America's youth with prycadellic music.
Within six months, the 'Cowboys' signed with
Mushroom/White Label and recorded the 'Nothing Grows In Texas'
single. After their so-called 'legendary performance'
on Molly Meldrum's Countdown pop TV show on the ABC,
Molly said, "This is the worst group I've seen in 5 years."
This set the tone for their long career as one of Australia's
seminal alternative groups.
Between '82 and '85 the Cowboys relesed 2 singles, 'Texas' and
'Bangkok', a self-titled EP on the White Label, their first
self-titled album on French Label, New Rose, and the
live/basement tapes 'We Love You' album on ManMade.
Track List
01 - Nothing Grows In Texas
02 - Twisted Nerve
03 - Bankok
04 - Slow Kill
05 - Is Nothing Sacred
06 - Strip Cell
07 - The Absolute
08 - Pay For It In The Next Life
09 - Limbo Jig
10 - Nailed To The Cross
Download Here
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sacred Cowboys - Selftitled Album 1984
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14 comments:
Mate, I love what you're doing with this blog. I was too young to remember a lot of these bands, but it is great to see that blogs like this allow a new generation of brisbanites to delve into its music scenes past. Many thanks!
A new generation of Brisbanites and people from all over the world.
isn't the internet a wonderful thing, great blog by the way I'm adding you to my great blog list and its always fantastic to hear from fellow Brisbane people.
Keep em coming Bob. I little bit of this type of stuff passed me by in the early to mid 80's.
Blame marriage the mortgage and the kid. Haa haa!
I know the feeling John, good to hear from you.
I saw the Sacred Cowboys at one of their reformation shows in 1988 or 89 at Melbourne University. It was great, but the guy standing next to me was so drunk and excited that he poured his beer over my head. Bastard!
I have a friend who lived and hung around with em in Sydney I think, she tells a great story about the night one band member came up on stage with a chainsaw, started it up and cleared the room.
It didn't have a chain on it but the punters weren't taking any chances
Hi Bob,
And you know where Garry Gray is living now ????
one hour drive from...Marseille !!!
too funny no ?
xxx
Annie
That is too strange too be true Annie.
Picked up the single many many years ago, never did hear the album... THANKS!
Your welcome mate.
I am not sure how I feel about this as its my album you are giving away, not that I was in it for the money.
I would question some of your article which seems to come verbatim from an earlier wikipedia entry, Gary Gray actually wasnt a founding member , tho to hear it from his mouth he was, he turned up about 5 or 6 months into rehearsals. Gary no longer lives near Marseilles, having broken up with his family there. I understand he still visits his kids. Garry looks like Norbert the fucking Narc in that photo, not that he is any better in real life.
"Nothing grows in Texas" was written by myself and Greg Perano, it was perhaps misrepresented on the album, as were the credits for as number of other songs (limbo jig, is nothing sacred). A little known fact about this album is that, it got to number 4 in the charts in Paris. New Rose Records claimed they had only sold 360 copies. Mushroom took them to court, where they owned up to about 400K copies. Most of the money that was recovered, was shoved up the nose of our beloved manager at the time - Michael Lynch (ha ha slander !!! oh no its not its true.) Any way there is some cool rock 'n roll minutae for you, 'nuff said. Good on yer Bob
Thanks for the corrections and the inside info, never fails to amaze me how these indy record companies are as bad as the big ones.
i've never been to Australia although i have been travelling and living around the globe quite a lot during the past 15 years. I love many Australian bands which is strange when you grow up in the other part of the world in a small town in Greece called Ioannina near the albanian borders!!! As a teenager (and a punk fan at the time) in the late 80s-early 90s i picked up a vinyl copy of TROUBLE FROM PROVIDENCE cause i'd read a good review in some fanzine. I loved the record!!! Never came across the Cowboys until now and I'm happy that people are interested in these kind of bands...
So i'm gonna bring that black sleeve record back into the light and i'm gonna plan a - long overdue - 24hr trip as soon as my 1 1/5 yr old can fly without the fear of being lynched by the other travellers!!!
ps. great blog mate
I have known the group since before they started and was around when Mark and Garry came up with the name.There best song s Hell sucks by far.. from 87 to 89 shows ..Some guy Arthur has a rather bitter and twisted story happening there. I suspect he s the guy they fired way back.What did you think of Cold Harvest? Ange.
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