Guest Post: Rabz’ Radio Show 5 February 2022 – Ozzie Classics

Let’s have some of your favourite Ozzie tunes, people. For starters, here’s a tribute to poor ol’ Wheaters 

and the perfect Ozzie sunset tune

101 thoughts on “Guest Post: Rabz’ Radio Show 5 February 2022 – Ozzie Classics”

  4. Rabz, my contribution to your Aussie Music edition is a bit of a dedication. The drummer was a dear friend to my late brother in law. They both battled cancer together, visiting each other in hospital and being the epitome of “Mates”.

    Both lost their battle last year.

    For Lindsay.

    3

  12. thanks Rabz that’s cheered me up no end, bopping along in the lounge-room — found memories of my youth

    1

  16. Two of my favourites…..

    Hunters & Collectors “Throw your arms around me”

    Mental As Anything “Live It Up”

    I’m very nostalgic for the Australia of the 1970s and 1980s……a much nicer country.

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  20. No matter, I’ll just link stuff.

    I loved this song, but it drove me crazy trying to find it. Turns out it was only released on the extended US version of Kick.

    YouTube and Spotify to the rescue.

  22. Here’s a couple of tunes from Chisel’s East album. I went to see them at the Charles Hotel when they were touring the album. Jimmy Barnes was in the rig as seen below in the Ita clip. Jugs of beer were $2 at the time so me and my mates didn’t bother with glasses. I ended up wearing a roadies denim jacket home – it had ‘Cold Chisel’ stenciled on the back. Dunno how that happened but someone nicked it from me a short time later. Oh well.

    Ita

    Cheap Wine

    Great album.

  23. Hunters & Collectors “Throw your arms around me”

    Only the original. Whoever thought it was a good idea to take the rhythm out of it should be shot on sight.

    1

  24. Of course the greatest Aussie album of all time is TNT.

    Among some of their best original songs is this cover of the Chuck Berry classic. Superb. School Days.

    2

  25. They were legendary in their time – saw them play many times in the back room at the Strawberry Hills Hotel, 1984.

    Even witnessed a dust up between Nick Potts (the keyboardist) and Gary Grunge (the bass player) in Devonshire St while we were smoking a joint.

    Musical differences really can be a bummer, man … 😕

    2

  28. When it came to guitarists, few can compare with Ross Hannaford.

    Oh yeah, definitely. Thanks for that sfw.

    1

  29. One of the greatest tragedies of my life – losing my sacred pair of Burgundy Suede Chelsea Boots in one of many relocations. In some pictures in the film clip above the Moffs are wearing the black suede version.

    Windsor Smith – $50 at Fays in Pitt St in 1984.

    2

  30. Beery @ 8.39
    Yep that would have been Paul McDermott who did the bloodless (but still rapturously-received-within-ABC circles) cover version.

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  32. First time I heard “Throw Your Arms Around Me” was in the ANU Bar. It was brilliant!

    A ballad in amongst the rest of their stuff was just a great contrast.

    2

  40. Watching Jackie Chan, getting pissed on Coonawarra Cabernet, and following this thread, all at the same time, is bloody hard work…

    1

  47. A most underrated Aussie band got plenty of TV airplay, but never achieved much in record sales.

    I was one of small but very cult following of The Fargone Beauties who were just awesome live. Another band where the rudio couldn’t do them justice.

    Play that country music, white boy.

  50. Rabz, I didn’t know The Church was Australian for about 30 years. What happens when you don’t see them live. Great band.

  51. Rabz, I was too young for The Saints, but they really nailed the horn section in rock.

  53. Dammit, can’t do the linky thing but ‘Wild Scenes in Alburquerque’ by the Psychotic Turnbuckles was a mosh-pit fave for me back in the day, just had a little rock-out to it now !

  54. Dragnet, that was a travesty. Ballads have less margin of error. H&C did a few versions, but none compared to the original. Rhythm matters.

    1

  55. Beery – Kilbey and Wilson-Piper were born in England, but they grew up here.

    The classic Church line up (accept no substitutes):
    Kilbey
    Wilson-Piper
    Koppes
    Ploog

  58. Just to show that I’m not purely a rock dude, I had a thing for The Machinations in the mid 80s, who did funk with panache, but couldn’t maintain it.

    Eclectic stuff always appealed to me.

    1

  61. The IMMORTAL Doc Neeson and the Angels…

    I saw them at Manly Leagues in the 90s, and he took a break in front of me back in audience. I couldn’t see shit because he was about 6’6″, but he was a fabulous performer. I felt privileged to be there.

    1

  63. If we’re talkin’ the Hunnas I love ‘The Slab / Betty’s Worry’ – if one is a purist wanker, arguably from the last “proper” H & C album before they went mainstream.

    2

  64. Beery, Doc Neeson reached out and asked for my mirror sunnies. Wore them while the played Marsielles, and then gave them back. Class act the Doc.

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  70. Could somebody post the uncensored version of “Am I ever Gonna See Your Face Again?”

    General Peter Cosgrove tells the story of the Angels preforming that song in East Timor. Five hundred half pissed Aussie diggers are giving it all they’ve got, when the Catholic Archbishop of East Timor leaned over and asked Cosgrove if he knew what his soldiers were singing. Cosgrove replied that he was sorry, but he had no idea….

    2

  71. Saw Kilbey at the Mallard (?) in Brunswick about four years ago. Very little of the Church left in him. A sad, very disappointing show.

    On the other hand, Died Pretty, of similar vintage, just keep getting better.

    2

  72. Beery, Doc Neeson reached out and asked for my mirror sunnies. Wore them while the played Marsielles, and then gave them back. Class act the Doc.

    EB, is pretty much call bullshit on that, except that behaviour was classic Doc Neeson.

  75. Two minutes of the legendary “X” – featuring the great Ian Rilen on bass and Steve Lucas on vocals.

    I Don’t Wanna Go Out

    And here it is live, to give a flavour of what it was like to be there.

    They and Birdman were regulars at the Oxford Funhouse, a small upstairs room in a dingy Sydney pub. The most exciting venue in Sydney at the time!

    2

  79. Main mob I remember is the Models.
    Not because they were awesome, but because I got to do some roadie work for them.
    After the concert we were packing up and the dark haired lead singer and the skinny blonde gutairist came back supported by 2 smoking hot chicks each.
    Blondie could barely walk and the dark haired one was choosing a joint the size of a Havana cigar.
    He called us all over for a choof and after that blondie started shouting “ we didn’t sing Barbados” so we all had a sing along before they staggered off for some heavy duty carnal knowledge of the ladies.

    Pretty awesome evening for a 16 year old.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TsPz2bJkw10

    A few other groups, Party Boys, Eurogliders and some second string one hit wonder groups.

    2

  81. I’m reading Doc Neesons biography on line – born in Belfast, raised a Catholic in a largely Protestant area, graduated as a schoolteacher in South Australia, conscripted into the Australian Army, and served his time as a sergeant, in the Education Corps in New Guinea.

    Wasn’t there a former schoolteacher on this blog who graduated as a schoolteacher, was conscripted, went to the infantry, not the education corps, and was posted to Vietnam? Anyone remember his name?

  83. Never saw them.
    Nearly all my roadie was country circuit, promoter was doing big top events in a tent.

  84. Anyone remember his name?

    No – and I’m answering for everyone here, Squire.

    Mention this subject again and you’re off to Siberia with all of Bruce’s rejected rodents – after being forcibly stuffed into your trousers.

    1

  85. Mention this subject again and you’re off to Siberia with all of Bruce’s rejected rodents – after being forcibly stuffed into your trousers.

    Squire, does this mean you are no longer my friend? I would just die if we were no longer friends…

    2

  86. ZK2A – it was a figurative threat.

    Just don’t mention that preposterous syphilitic ol’ knobhead again, OK, Squire.

    Sheesh.

    1

  87. Women in uniform by Skyhooks. Great stuff. Somewhat apt right now. Thanks to all the women in uniform sticking their necks out in these crazy times.

    1

  89. Rabz: Yeah, Died Pretty, very much still going. Like most that generation’s Geritol groovers, they turn out for a tour once or twice a year (COVID permitting). I had tix to see them in April last year, but the viral madness scuttled that.

    A few years previous to COVID, they toured with Radio Birdman, alternating which band would lead the bill at their various gigs. Well at the Thornbury Ballroom, Birdman went first. They were the band I’d come to see and, truth be told, the idols of my youth seemed tired and uninspired, although Deniz Tek was hot as a cheap pistol.

    Then Died Pretty came on. Night and day! They were awesome, with a show that was light and shade, slow then fast numbers, building inevitably to a gloriously drown-in-the-sound climax.

    If they set aside their zimmer frames again and get on the road, don’t miss ’em. Best show in a donkey’s age.

    1

  90. Johanna, ever amble down the road from the Oxford to French’s? If so, you would have seen Cold Chisel, who had a resident gig in the basement every week, just as AC/DC learned their trade at Berties in Melbourne.

    That was the rhumb line in those days — French’s, the Oxford, the irregular Paddo Town Hall shows with the Oils, Saints and more (Matt Taylor and the band of Talabene playing great stuff when not rabbiting on about flying saucers coming to save us) and on to the Lifesaver.

    It was the summer of 1979-80, if memory serves, and AC/DC did the Lifesaver during a brief return from overseas. What a show! Bon Scott was awesome. Radio mikes were just coming in and he used that remote capacity to roam the length of the long bar on the left side of the room, having walked across the crowd’s shoulders from the stage to get there.

    A couple of months later, the bugger drank himself to death, and the Seedies have never been the same since.

    Clock forward a few months and I’m in NYC and the Seedies are too, launching Back in Black, which they did at the Palladium on 14th Street. If you’d never seen Bon, you’d have been most impressed. But, ah, no Bon.

    Highlight of that show, apart from the idiot who fell off the balcony and left in an ambulance, was the bloody big bell that was lowered as the show began.

    Used to see a lot of Oz bands passing through — including Men at Work, whose sound man (formerly of the Models) was a mate from shared-house days in Hawthorn, back when a band called Langford Lever paid his bills. Anyway, the American gal I was seeing was sooooo impressed that I had been invited to ride to the gig in their limo — so impressed she married me a month or so later. Mind you, I think a shared interest in amateur pharmacology had something to do with it as well. Anyway, we lasted 25 years and remain the best of cobbers, only splitting up in the end because my Dad was dying, I had to come home and she just couldn’t get NYC out of her system. Pity. We both regret it.

    Great memories are the legacy of those days — and tinnitus too.

    5

  92. We made such fun of the affectations in James Reyne’s singing voice when Reckless came out in 1983, but it has stood the test of time: it’s still being played on the radio 40 years later.

    1

  94. General Peter Cosgrove tells the story of the Angels preforming that song in East Timor. Five hundred half pissed Aussie diggers are giving it all they’ve got, when the Catholic Archbishop of East Timor leaned over and asked Cosgrove if he knew what his soldiers were singing. Cosgrove replied that he was sorry, but he had no idea….

    Remember this concert well…televised here in Perth and played L O U D at our place.

  96. Never a huge fan of Frenchs, Areff, although the lack of an admission fee was a bit of a drawcard. But yes, saw many a good show at the Wifeswapper, including a memorable one featuring Dragon when they were at the top of their game, and another with Rose Tattoo ditto.

    Sounds like you picked a good time to be in NYC. Between local talent and touring bands, there was a wealth of great music on offer in the US in the 70s, some of which I also experienced.

    It was a great time to be a young music fan.

    1

  97. Thanks all, some great tunes and some great memories. 🙂

    Areff and Johanna – most of the venues on Oxford St mentioned above had shut down by the time I was legal to visit them, although French’s (?) remained a notorious skinhead hangout until well into 1984.

    A fave venue of mine in the mid to late eighties was the Hip Hip Club, on Oxford St Paddinghurst.

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