TripleX

17 Oct 2016

16 October 2016

Show 304

Safety Net by Shop Assistants. 1986 indie release from yet another Edinburgh-based UK 80s band.

+Broken Woman by Alicia Bridges. Final track on her self-titled debut album, from 1978. This is the same woman who loves the nightlight, loves to boogie!! Who’d have thunk it?? She’s been openly lesbian since 1998.

867-5309 Jenny by Tommy Tutone. Written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone that was released on the album Tommy Tutone 2 in 1982. There seems to be some disagreement about whether a real Jenny existed – Tommy Heath (Tutone) claimed yes, Alex Call the song’s writer says no.

+Trouble at the Cup by Black Randy and the Metrosquad. I found this on an album called From the Closet to the Charts: Queer Noises 1961-78. The band was a punk rock and joke band from the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Los Angeles punk scene. Among the vocalists who passed through Black Randy’s ever-changing regimen of backup singers, the Blackettes, were openly bisexual Jane Wiedlen and Belinda Carlisle. Today we’d be horrified by them as ‘Black Randy’ was a white guy, John ‘Jackie’ Morris, playing at being black… I’m not sure who among them, besides Wiedlen, was gay…but being on that album is good enough for me.

+Storm the Reality Studio by Dead Fingers Talk. (language warning) From 1978.

Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters. Request.

+Aliens in our Midst by Twinkeyz. American punk from 1977-80. Only released 3 singles and one obscure album, in Holland only, and played only 10 times…but got a track onto that queer noise album.

The Perfect Kiss by New Order. From their 1985 album, Low Life, their third.

Please Do Not Go by The Violent Femmes. From their 1983 self-titled debut.

I’ve had the Time of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. Request.

Aussies from Canberra

*+I want to Spill the Blood of a Hippie by Doug Anthony Allstars. 1990 single from this comedy music act, originally from Canberra as per tonight’s theme.

*New York Reel by Tactics. This is from My Houdini, their first album, released in 1980, 3 years after coming together in Canberra. They relocated to Sydney just as this album was released.

*I know You Know I Know by Naughty Rhythms. Canberra ska band active from 82-86. Not sure what year this is… Interestingly, their record company was called The Pink Label and those words were written over a triangle…message??

*Eternal Wedlock by Alchemist. Canberra based heavy metal band that got its start back in 1987. This is one of their earliest releases, a single from their first year.

*Anything you Want by Sidewinder. 1995 single release from this Canberra band founded in 1991 by brothers Nick and Martin Craft.

*Stephen McKenzie by The Bedridden. Track on their first album It’s All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye, recorded 1989 and eventually released through the Adelaide-based label Round Records in 1990. They formed in Canberra but moved quickly to Adelaide and considered that their home. There have been many line ups, break ups, other changes but the original members were Barnaby Baterz Ward (guitar), David M. Lewis (guitar), Spaemen (bass guitar), Kirsty Stegwazi (guitar) and Lillybub (cello). Baterz was hemophiliac and contracted HIV as a kid thru a blood transfusion; he did of the disease in 2002.

Thorn in my Side by The Eurythmics. Request.

Lips Like Sugar by Echo & the Bunnymen. From their 1987 self-titled album, their 5^th studio album and last with drummer Pete de Freitas who died in a motorcycle accident 2 years later.

Carolyn’s Fingers by Cocteau Twins. From their 1988 album, Blue Bell Knoll, their 5^th studio album but first to be distributed by a major label in the US – Capitol Records.

Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. 1983 song that was eclipsed in 1997 when they won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Love Shine a Light”. I always wondered how Katrina Leskanich, an American, won Eurovision but it turns out most of the rest of the Waves were Brits.

Jeopardy by Greg Kihn Band: 1983’s #2 smash, was spoofed by “Weird Al” Yankovic as “I Lost on Jeopardy.” Kihn currently is the morning DJ at a San Jose, California classic rock radio station; he also syndicates a show on many Classic Rock radio stations in the US and does the late night show on a classic rock radio station in Cumberland, Maryland.

Rock Me Amadeus by Falco. 1985 recording on Falco3 for the Austrian singer who also brought us the original …and that’s about it.

Maybe He’ll Know by Cyndi Lauper and Billy Joel. From True Colors in 1986.