Saturday, July 11, 2009

Working For A Living - Popproperly

John from here in Brisbane has ripped and uploaded this rare
and fantastic piece of Brisbane's musical history.
Popproperly are a name I haven't heard in such a long time,
I'm sure I saw them somewhere, the Maleny folk festival is
a possibility. I love the story of how John came to know this
band and have to tell that I saw Bob Geldolf play in the car
park at Dooley's many years ago, a great time indeed.
Many thanks John for bringing this back to life.


I discovered Popproperly by accident.
One Sunday afternoon in the very early 90's

I was bored so I decided to try and find some music
to listen to.
I had thought that Jazz would be the go,
no complaints there as I like jazz,
but instead I ended
up at Dooley's Hotel in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley

and got the shock of my life to find a well packed Irish
bar with a slate floor
thick with split Guinness and
a slightly Pogues sounding band thrashing it
out to the
dancing crowd. I watched a great folk/bush/pop band
playing a mix
of covers and self written material having
a great time and the crowd also downing
beer and
dancing and singing along. I was hooked and made sure
that I went
every Sunday afternoon whenever I could.
Later I got chatting to a band member,
sorry no memory
who, and he told me that the band had had it's genesis during

Expo 88 as side walk balladeers and had been at Dooley's
for a good while.
I have no memory of how much longer
Popproperly played their residency,
it is a long time ago
and many a brain cell has been fried, but in the end it did

sadly end. They went on to make a couple of albums and
tour Europe with a
very different lineup than the one that
had the Sunday residency.

This EP was sold at Dooley's and contained their signature
tune of the time,
Working For A Living.
A terrific song live that had the crowd dancing, singing

and drinking. Great times. Please enjoy a rare EP from one
of Brisbane's
better but sadly unknown folk bands.

Download Here


10 comments:

exilestreet said...

This sounds good. I just got turned on today to a Sydney band (80's/90's) called Roaring Jack and just found their 'Smoke...' album. Do you have anything else. Promise that cover will be with you next week, been trying to avoid going out of the house as it is SO bloody cold down here. Son # 1 actually heading up to Whitsundays and Pt. Douglas (little bugger!)
Regards/

bob nebe said...

No never heard of em, if you like you can upload a rip and I can post it , its Irish too I'm guessing.
Its been cold enough here in the sunshine state I'd hate to think what its like down there.

exilestreet said...

Roaring Jack/Alistair Hulett The Ballad of '75
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHkZspRVOfo

Roaring Jack/Alistair Hulett The Old Divide and Rule
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSYPecZI_AI

Hulett is from Glasgow, now back in Scotland, he toured and even came to my local last Dec.

There is info on the net about RJ and here is the 'Smoke of Innocence'
(as I found it on the net but my upload:)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dyzgzqomrct

Regards/

bob nebe said...

You are fantastic Tim thanks

Anonymous said...

hello again from Biloela!

I saw this band play in Cork (Ireland) years ago. I have the original poster for the gig somewhere and I bought an album they were selling called 'Homelands'

never saw them in Dooleys as they had broken up by the time I landed in Qld...sadly Dooleys is now gone as well


didnt have this ep...thanks for uploading it

Unknown said...

Hi!

I just discovered your blog by accident, through ripping some Popproperly CDs to mp3 and the software picking up one of the images from this post... I sang and played mandolin in Popproperly and it was touching to see that somewhere someone remembers ;-) ... I do, they were very good times...

Rebecka said...

I know Jim I was there, good times!
Love Rebecka (Malmberg)

R Tkal said...

Hi Guys I'm currently having a HUGE Popproperly resergence! Listening to every song I grew up with. My Dad was as Uni friend of the band and I spent my childhood watching them play in various Brisbane Pubs with my lte mother and dancing around the living room singing to Homelands. Jimmy your makeup and mandolin playing are one of my favorite memories. To this day they are still my favorite band.
They were beautiful fools. :)

Cam said...

wow, i've searched the net a few times in past years and never come up with anything :( i saw poproperly play in Dalby in 1996, my parents bought the E=MC2 album that they had on sale after the concert, what a memory :) and i still pull have that cd on my i-tunes and listen to them regularly (although half the songs aren't named :( ) how i'd love to get a hold of some of their other cd's :)

Anonymous said...

Memories, Dooleys & Popproperly used to rock!