Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Behind the Banana Curtain - Various Artists CD1

4ZZZ burst onto the airways of the otherwise dull Brisbane airways
on the 8th of December 1975, this cd is the first of a 2 disc set
that celebrates 25 years of 4ZZZ broadcasting and their contribution
to Brisbane's music scene.But first many thanks to Chuck who lives
here in Brisbane and contributes this fine collection,
here's what Chuck says about the discs.
This cd set seems a perfect blueprint for a blog named
stripedsunlightsound so its in a very high quality bitrate
And so it is, 320 kbs to be precise,
so I've had to spilt each disc into 2.
Brisbane was a very conservative place politically, from 1968
till 1987 Queensland was ruled by Joh, the National Party
Premier, one time peanut farmer,(that's Joh in cartoon form
at the top of the blog holding the cross out to the radio)
who with corrupt politicians and police created a state
which people from the southern states would joke about,
for those who traveled across the border it was often
refer to as traveling behind the banana curtain,
turn back your clocks ten years.
It was in this atmosphere that the Brisbane sound was made.
The first cd of the two is a definitive collection of Brisbane
bands from 75 to say 88. The music changes as did the times,
if as Robert Forster says there's a 100 years between 77 and
78, when telling people the go-betweens started in 78 not 77
as some claim, then there's a millennium between 75 and 88.
We have 7 of the pig city bands on this cd, plus so many others
that should of been. There's at least 2 bands I knew people
from and songs which I grew up to.
All the songs are fantastic but I'll single out a few for special
mention. The Leftovers came out of Sandgate, just over the bridge
from me. It was a working class suburb with a rough reputation,
these days its a bit of a yuppie enclave, working class punk that
was the leftovers. Many years later the fabulous Loves e blur
would come out of the same place with their acid cabaret.
Mop and the dropouts also lived around here. The big 4 are
here the Saints, Gobs, Riptides and the Apartments all
who went onto bigger things. The Screaming Tribesmen and
Ups and Downs also made it onto the national stage.
Presidents Eleven with their song Summer Vacation became
the first Brissy band to be voted No 1 on the ZZZ hot hundred,
and the Colours should have with their haunting and beautiful
tune Blue Shirt. The Parameters song Pig City, recorded live
at 4ZZZ studios became the anthem for the city and
La Fetts tune SEQEB Scabs an anthem for all that was wrong
in Queensland. Last but not least I'll mention the wonderful
Cyclone Hits Expo by Choo Dikka Dikka, it was in 1988 that
Brisbane hosted world Expo, while it had a positive influence
on Brisbane there was a negative side, especially the loss
of much of the cheap inner city living space that was
taken over by the site. Cyclone Hits Expo is a protest song
that was played a lot at the time and never released until
this record. The only band that isn't here and should be
is JFK and the Cuban Crisis, I can't understand the
omission.


Track List
01 - (I'm) Stranded - The Saints
02 - Karen - The Go-Betweens
03 - Task Force - Razar
04 - Cigarettes and Alcohol - The Leftovers
05 - Sunset Strip - The Riptides
06 - Help - The Apartments
07 - Savage - The Fun Things
08 - Crazy Eddie - Xero
09 - Brisbane Blacks - Mop and the Dropouts
10 - Buzzsaw Rockstar - The Vampire Lovers
11 - Black Banned - Mystery of Sixes
12 - Blue Shirt - The Colours
13 - Igloo - The Screaming Tribesmen
14 - Alice D - Lovs e Blur
15 - Summer Vacation - Presidents Eleven
16 - Pig City - The Parameters
17 - SEQEB Scabs - La Fetts
18 - Winter Moving In - Post No Bills
19 - The Living Kind - Ups and Downs
20 - Too Much Acid - Pineapples From The Dawn Of Time
21 - Cyclone Hits Expo - Choo Dikka Dikka
22 - Death Row Road - Hotel Breslin

Download Here
Part 1
Part 2

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the high quality rips and excellent music!
Brings back memories of days gone by.

bazzil said...

Great post this one I never picked it up myself as i have most of this on record anyway but I'd recomend it to everyone.
My only complaint about this release though is that The Riptides Sunset Strip is the Live version of the much later Resurface album and not the original single.

Cheers
bazzil

bob nebe said...

Yes bazzil, why did they do that?
My only complaints is the omission of JFK's pagan and some tangled shoelaces.
On the 1st disc anyway, and while im at it the sharks.
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

The links to Sharebee seem to be broken at the moment. Any chance it could be re-uploaded somewhere else?

Anonymous said...

As one of the people who chose the tracks, sourced them from the artists and got all the legal stuff sorted for this compilation I can tell you that the reason the live version of Sunset Strip was used was due to the band, well Mark Callaghan. He insisted on this version being used. Tangled Shoelaces was considered, however, I can't remember the reason why it wasn't included.

Cheers
Terry

p.s. love the blog mate, been visiting for a few years from Prague, but not often enough.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff - any chance of disc 2 ?

bob nebe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bob nebe said...

http://stripedsunlight.blogspot.com.au/2008/11/behind-banana-curtain-various-artists_26.html

Art Desert said...

Hi Bob,

It seems none of the download links work anymore, any chance of re-uploading? I'm preparing a radio program on Brisbane in the 1970s and would love to use some of these tracks. Impossible to find the CD elsewhere.