Australian popular music of the late 80`s took on a more polished
and contemporary direction, acts like The Little River Band and
INXS had achieved quite resounding commercial success in the
US, and all that could be put down to the fact that these bands
were not only capable of writing catchy hook laden and matic-
uously produced songs but because they were soulful as well.
Glenn Shorrock was no Michael Hutchence, but both of them
had the stage charisma and the vocal range to take the bands
further than the average aussie pub rock band, in the notori-
ously fickle 80`s american pop rock market. One australian
group which started out as just another bunch of wannabes,
a band that could have so easily been just another pub rock
band in around `87 doing the rounds with the Choirboys or
Cold Chisel (if they had still been a group) was the enigmat-
icly named `1927`. 1927 ended up being a burnt out bunch
of pub rockers by about 1990, but not before they churned
out one of the great contemporary australian rock albums.
The name of it was `ish`, and it was released in 1988. Dont
ask me what ever happened to 1927, they seem to have it
all, most probaly it was a case of too much success far too
soon. They did release a worthy follow up to `ish` a year
later with `The Other Side`, but by the time their third
self titled album appeared in the early 90`s, it was clear
that the magic of the debut had long dissolved. 1927 was
made up of Erik Weideman (vocals, guitar and keyboard),
Gary Frost (guitar, keyboards), Bill Frost, his brother, on
bass and James Barton on drums. There is a real unique
story to how the band originally came about. Sometime
in 1986, Gary Frost saw Eric Weideman perform on the
Red Faces segment on Channel 9`s Hey Hey Its Saturday,
and he was sold on him that much that he drove hundreds
of miles to Melbourne within the day to recruit Eric Weid-
eman into a band which at that stage didn`t even have a
name yet. How many contestants on Red Faces ended up
fronting one of the best bands in australia around the late
80`s, not too many i`m sure? I dont know why the band
named themselves what they did, but dodgy name aside,
the album ...ish was an emphatic and confident affair that
was rich in atmospheric structure and soul. Of course the
most famous 1927 song is `Compulsory Hero`, a wonder-
ful and powerful song which tells of the pitfalls of compul-
sory conscription in the armed forces from a young mans
perspective. The breezy ballad `You`ll Never Know` still
gets some airplay on AM radio to this day, but it rarely if
ever features on the corrupted FM dial. The maudlin and
rather melodramatic `If I Could`, is convincingly good for
an australian band as far as love ballads go. `Thats When
I Think Of You` is another prime example of Weideman`s
effortless vocal delivery and his capabilities to hit the big
notes when needed. ....ish is just one of the best polished
rockers ever to come out of our shores, it did sell alright
in the states, but 1927 lost momentum before their com-
mercial potential there could be realised fully. Their sec-
ond album `The Other Side` as i said earlier was a very
decent follow up, not quite as charming as ...ish, but the
album still contained some pearlers, namely `Dont For-
get Me`, `Tell Me A Story` and the title track. Number
three isn`t even worth talking about. Weideman has at-
tempted to get 1927 back together over the years, in re-
cent times he has toured as 1927 with a completely new
band backing him, for a couple of tours around Australia.
It mightn`t be really 1927 anymore but the man respon-
sible for belting out `Compulsory Hero` is still there and
what a great song that is. 1927 deserve to be remember-
ed for creating two top notch and innovative rock albums
which set a new benchmark for studio gloss in Australia.
No comments:
Post a Comment