The Moodists - starving in London in the 1980's
My teenage years were spent in in the 1970's in an inland country town in Australia. I look back at those times with mixed feelings. Radio consisted of one commercial AM station which played the the less challenging hits of the time like Abba, Pilot (remember them?) and Tony Orlando and Dawn, plus the ABC, which to my teenage ears was boring blah blah blah.
We had two television stations, a local jivey commercial station and the Victorian ABC. It didn't matter, we all listened to the rubbish AM station and watched amateur hour(s) on the local TV station. The ABC was for squares, although my parents made me watch the ABC news and 4 Corners.
The 1970's to me was soporific to the extreme, but the nevertheless there are many aspects to that life which I now appreciate in retrospect. Perhaps that will be the subject of a later post.
In 1974 the ABC TV launched Countdown which changed the Australian music scene forever. Suddenly kids all over Australia had access to music from the cities and overseas. The show was loaded with commercial dross of course, but there were always gems which snuck through the ABC cardigans like the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, the Go-Betweens playing Cattle and Cane, and the Ramones who hosted the show in 1980 during their commercial push with the 20th Century album. Just a side note here, the Ramones were so awkward and eccentric on that show, even as a teenager I could tell they were never going to crossover. They mimed Rock n' Roll High School on some corny Countdown set and were awesome.
Let's take a (another) detour for a moment. There is a defining moment in my life which I estimate to be around 1976, maybe 1977. I am 13-14 years old, in my bedroom late at night. I have an old valve AWA bakelite radio and I tune around the AM band and I hear this voice, one of those cool inner city type voices, introducing a song. "This is a song by the Modern Lovers called Pablo Picasso". I listen to this song and it opens an entirely new world to me. A world beyond the local AM station, Countdown and our country TV station. My life has changed forever when I hear this song.
This was 2JJ, the ABC's "experimental" radio station which at that time was run by a bunch of subversive acid freaks who played whatever they want. Could you imagine anything like that happening now with our buttoned down, false balanced, cowered national broadcaster? No way.
The Modern Lovers recorded that song in 1971 or thereabouts, but it was only released in about 1974, a year or two before the rise of punk. They became, and remain one of the most influential bands from that era, even though their sound quickly moved on. We may revisit the Modern Lovers at a later time, but for now, consider this a seminal moment in the life of your correspondent.
So what on earth has this to do with The Moodists? Pretty much nothing, but in my mind I like to draw connections with things and fantasise that in some way they are all connected. I see connections here in my fantasy world. Dave Graney is a few years older than me and he is still making music today with his partner in life and music Clare Moore. Dave grew up in a country town, Mt Gambier, which I expect was very similar to the town I grew up in. Perhaps he had a similar moment where he heard something like the Modern Lovers. Perhaps he was a more evolved being and knew this stuff by intuition.
Dave had the good sense to get out of Mt G and start a band, meeting Clare somewhere at that time. After a while they formed The Moodists and did what many Australian bands did in the early 80's: they moved to London to live in squats and make music. Critically acclaimed, but probably starving, they built a following in the UK and Europe before disbanding and being evicted from Thatcher's England in the latter part of the 80's. I didn't know of The Moodists at that time as they way too hip for me back in the country, even though I was vibrating to the sounds of the Modern Lovers and others. I found them later.
So I introduce to you Double Life by The Moodists. In the recent biography of Kim Salmon, he describes hearing The Moodists for the first time in London and being blown away by how loud they were. That's something. For me this song is everything great about post punk music. A repetitive bass line, dissonant guitars, pounding drums and a singer snarling and snapping out front. The video is kinda kooky, but it's a gem. I hope you like it.
Until next time - peace and love.
