flook in the perth daily news april 1952

So... Tuesday 1 April is missing, I can't explain it. 

This was 11 April - issue missing here. However, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the numbering/narrative. 

Union House 30 March 2016

Union House at the University of Melbourne was where I saw my first ever live music show (Serious Young Insects, Kids in the Kitchen and International Exiles supported Snakefinger the night he had a heart attack). That's not why I took these pictures, but I assume by the time they're visible on the blog, the building will be long gone.*

*Update March 2026: not at all, it's still there, empty, unused and completely undemolished. 

numbers (2)

Having had 'Alone' in my head all day yesterday I think perhaps I was too hasty in my 45-years-in-the-making outburst on the Numbers the other day. Perhaps what I'm really annoyed about is that they didn't have a proper trajectory in the vein of the Undertones, for instance, who packed so much progress and development into a few short years. Or the Buzzcocks, though they changed less. 

I suppose it's possible the Maybe Dolls fill this criteria (for people too bored by this to care to look it up, the Numbers was basically siblings Annalisse and Chris Morrow, and after the initial Numbers ended after two albums and some minor hit singles, they reconvened a decade later as the Maybe Dolls for another hit single and an album (actually they recorded two albums but the second one wasn't released).) (But if you were too bored by this to care to look it up, why have you read this far? Just silly).  

Picture stolen from the Maybe Dolls facebook page. I think it's a Tony Mott. 

OK I'm going to buy that UK Numbers album, what's money anyway, and I'm going to grab the Maybe Dolls album too, I'll get back to you. 

the numbers (1)

 

This picture stolen from https://historyofaussiemusic.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-numbers.html but I am pretty sure that this 'history of aussie music' site quotes extensively from an article I wrote for Mess+Noise without crediting me and even if it wasn't me that wrote it, whoever wrote it isn't credited... 

I've been listening to the Numbers CD Numerology in the car. It's a 2008 compilation released on Aztec which brings together most of the two Numbers albums, The Numbers and 39-51, alongside an EP that predates them. 

I could be wrong - this never occurred to me before and I don't know why it has now - but the first album now seems to me to be skeletal and undercooked, and the second album is a lot more polished and worthy. But in both cases it strikes me the band was let down by production - I normally never say things like that - and hung out to dry. It's weird because they had decent producers (Cameron Allan for the first, Graham Bidstrup for the second). 

They had two big hits in 1980, nowhere near as big as, you know, Dire Straits but their biggest hits. 'The Modern Song' is, by standards now and I suspect then, bizarrely stark. Annaliese's vocal is way back in the mix, the whole thing seems muffled and weird. 'The Modern Song', their other hit, is a little more conventional in sound, a mid-tempo pop number, with some catchily strange lyrics. But personally if I'd been the producer (I was 15 and very cluey) I would have put more instrumentation on there to bring out the best of the tunes, and I would have sent Chris Morrow to Byron* for a week to work out some endings for these songs and also some middle 8s or similar - just something to make them more punchy and memorable. They already are punchy and memorable, and Simon Vidale's drums are massive both in volume and impact, but the spare nature of these recordings just makes them seem threadbare rather than vital. Worst offender actually is 'Mr President', which was my favourite of their singles in this early phase - such a great record, but half the record it could be, mainly because its chorus is unvaried and the whole thing, once again, doesn't end with any aplomb. It needed aplomb. 

The singles off the second album are way better. 'Big Beat' is probably my favourite,  though 'Jericho' is brilliant too. 'Alone' is once again let down, IMO, by the production. Both these albums really sound like someone got the band into the studio to bash out their live set, and as a live set, you get all the tricks - they're such memorable tunes and the lyrics are often calculated to make you go 'huh?' 

I have heard some tracks of The Numbers in a later incarnation when they were joined by John Bliss and Colin (Polly) Newham formerly of The Reels. Now, that was an amazing version of the group, and I only wish they had recorded properly because it was incredible. 

I'm aware it's lame as to criticise something 45 years later like it's anyone's fault. I don't even know why I bothered starting writing this. I just really like them. If they'd signed to Mushroom or something like that, it all might have been very different. Look, I probably just don't get it. 

Anyway TIL there was a British release by The Numbers which seems to be a blend of the first two albums. I'm almost tempted to buy a copy and listen to it just to see if anything is different in the sound or perhaps even recording - ? I'm like that. 

*Or Bulgaria, just away somewhere to consider what could add to these great songs. 

do you remember the garry mcdonald show

Sydney Morning Herald 27 August 1977 p. 10

Well me, I vaguely remember it and I've always felt a little bit deprived that it has never really been available since it first emerged almost 50 years ago, but I also think, now's kind of the time for it to be seen again, because apart from anything else, it deserves reappraisal now all the fools above are, if not gone, probably a bit less upset. 

Sydney Morning Herald 'Monday Guide' 25 July 1977 p. 1

There should be a word for the kind of memory I have of the show's Harry Butler parody - like, I know it happened and not because someone told me. I also remember the Mo McCackey episodes and that he tried to avoid bringing Norman Gunston in but ultimately he couldn't avoid it, and he did bring him in, in later eps. 

Anyway it's all at the National Archives and I'm going to watch a few. I'll tell you all about it when it happens. Oh, and here's one more religious objection:

Melbourne Age 24 August 1977 p. 12

flook in the perth daily news 17-31 march 1952

It was an odd experience to see the Cyril breakfast-cement mixer sequences above because I've seen them before, somewhere - I vaguely remember them illustrating an article about Flook.