This is part six of this story – if you want to go back to the start – click here
It was 1990 and we had claimed that year to be “1990 ~ year of the WORX”. We had started a quarterly newsletter from day one and we had built our database up to 2000 local musicians. We did not own a computer, so we had to hand write and cut pictures and assemble them onto a template to develop the newsletter. It was informative and critical of changes going on at the time and went beyond just “selling musical gear”. We even had our accountant, Cameron Patterson, a guitar enthusiast at the time, write about setting up your band as a business (still a new concept in 1990 to 90% of musicians) and comments about the local “industry” as we saw it.
One great grab from this little newsletter is a piece I wrote about in 1990, talking up the new acts at the time. Tower Principle, a funk band, had just won a national Yamaha band competition, Fear of Falling, a Brissie indie band with the talented Neil Coombe (ex-42nd Street, Mr Meaner), Kerry Lee, Mark McElligott, and Caroline Grubb had been a feature act on the latest rooART compilation album and signed with legendary Sydney label Phantom Records and Keith Urban was building some local momentum within the national music scene and winning the 1990 Country Music Star maker award. My article goes onto say that great acts CAN come out of Brisbane and this was a new sign of the times. My article goes onto say that great acts CAN come out of Brisbane and this was a new sign of the times. I also put my arse on the line by stating that Keith would go onto international fame (How would i truly ever know this? Greg Shaw was his dedicated Artist Manager and had focused solely on Keith and his career, setting sale to Nashville a year later – and what a ride that was. (more on that later).
So another year clicked over and 1991 presented a wave of more bands starting to ramp up locally and the buzz across a range of music styles from indie, country, rock, pop, metal, grunge were being born.
Rave magazine was also being born. This created some real headaches for the locally established “Time Off” Magazine, which had been a first in Australia and had started back in the mid ’70’s. Sean Sennett, had bought the magazine in 1990 from the receivers and at that time Gavin Sawford was the Editor and Linda Woodhead was the Advertising Manager. They saw a window of opportunity and kicked a rival weekly street paper, Rave, as a good juicy “alternative” competitor for the established Time Off (which started back when the first Brisbane FM station was established,in 1975, 4ZZZ ~ 102.1FM).
Tainted Violets were a hard working original band, rehearsing intensely and getting few gigs. Not being able to recall all the specific details of the band’s evolution, however, they had just had a major signing to the newly established BMG, who had set up in Australia. They went through a name change to ABS (Atomic Beat Squad) and recorded an album around this time. The key songwriter was Peter Kahn. We were all very proud of this band and what they had achieved, going to a launch that had a very large crowd in Brisbane and Ritchie Yorke (established author and journo talking them up). I remember that one day, out of the blue, there was a change in BMG record label management and Atomic Beat Squad were erased from Brisbane music history.
It was also the year that saw the creation of a compilation CD – The Spark. It was effectively a local collective of bands that put out a series of joint shows and a CD. It was a great idea and certainly for bands like Chalk, Pale and Jesus Garden amongst them, they gained some local attention for the indie scene.
The MIAQ struggled and major changes were needed. The government were interacting with the contemporary music world (thanks to the vision of Rob Brock and Milton Boyle) and it looked like the new music industry college was about to be started at SOUTHBANK TAFE college the next year, as part of COTAH (catering, tourism and hospitality school), which was also showing how out of touch the government were at this stage to the truth behind exports (who could blame them when the most successful Queensland band at this time was Wickety Wak – going on to sell two nights full house at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in 1992). But where was the new original music??
At the close of 1991 I had an invite to go see Powderfinger supporting a rising local band, Bulldozer.
Who would have known then that the band playing Neil Young covers and just starting to write their own music would be a part of an ocean of change about to grip Queensland.
And my own life was also going through change when I decided to buy out my business partner, Nigel Line, in Music Worx.
Greg Dodge ~ “Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” 