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The Little Band Scene was an experimental post-punk scene which flourished in Melbourne, Australia from 1978 until early 1981. Instigated by local group Primitive Calculators, this scene was concentrated in the inner suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda, and was characterised by large numbers of short-lived bands, more concerned with artistic expression than mainstream success. The bands played in small inner-city venues, often pubs, and their music was recorded live and broadcast by Alan Bamford on community radio station 3RRR. In the scene, the distinctions between performers and audience were blurred; many audience members were either in little bands or ended up forming such.
Contents
The scene was dramatised in the 1986 cult film Dogs in Space.
History
In 1978, members of Primitive Calculators, an experimental post-punk group from Melbourne, formed a short-lived side band, the Leapfrogs. Using it as their own opening act, Primitive Calculators decided to form other "little bands" with friends, including members of Whirlywirld, who lived next door to the group in Fitzroy North, with rehearsal spaces in each house. By sharing their equipment with the little bands, it made it easier to practice and set up for each gig. Soon they started staging "Little Band nights" at various inner city venues, and at first, rules were strictly imposed: no little band was allowed to play more than twice and could have no more than fifteen minutes worth of material. According to Primitive Calculators frontman Stuart Grant, it was "the punk ethos of disposability, novelty and working against the grain of the standard modes of procedure in the music business." Many of the little bands were composed of non-musicians who enjoyed the opportunity to realise their naive musical ideas. One journalist described their output as "sloppy, clangy and discordant. By turns, they could sound equally fantastic: a mixture of epileptic drum machine rhythms, stabbing synth lines and creepy/witty lyrics making for oddly compelling results." Some in the scene had received proper training in electronic music and composition, including members of Whirlywirld, who studied under Melbourne-based composer Felix Werder.
Little Band member and radio announcer Alan Bamford began recording Little Band nights using a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a Shure microphone. Immediately after each gig, he caught a tram to 3RRR's Fitzroy premises, where he broadcast the tapes on his midnight show. He collaborated with Max Robenstone, owner of Climax Records in Fitzroy, in paying for the pressing of the Little Bands EP (1980), featuring Morpions, Ronnie and the Rhythm Boys, The Take and Too Fat to Fit Through the Door. The scene continued to grow, and at later nights, up to ten temporary bands would perform. Several lasting musical partnerships were forged in the scene, including that of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, who went on to achieve international fame as Dead Can Dance. The little bands interacted with other distinct post-punk scenes in Melbourne, such as the St Kilda scene centred at the Crystal Ballroom, where they occasionally supported the Boys Next Door (later known as the Birthday Party). The "wild and chaotic" nature of the little bands stood in stark contrast to "the more academic form of experimentalism" of Tsk Tsk Tsk, Essendon Airport, Ernie Althoff, David Chesworth, and others associated with the Clifton Hill scene.
After the Calculators and Whirlywirld left Melbourne for Europe and London in early 1980, the Little Band scene centred on the shared spaces of Use No Hooks and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies. The scene had effectively ended by early 1981.
The first phase—up to the departure of the Calculators and Whirlywirld—was documented on an unreleased double LP, No Sin Like Dancing, that is catalogued in Clinton Walker's book Inner City Sound. Several little bands can also be found on the 1981 One Stop Shopping compilation released by Tom Ellard through Terse Tapes, as well as on issues of Fast Forward (1980–82), a cassette magazine founded and edited by Bruce Milne of Au Go Go Records. Bootleg copies of Alan Bamford's live recordings of the little bands are also known to exist. Little band recordings have appeared on Chapter Music releases, including the 2007 Primitive Calculators and Friends CD, and the Can't Stop It! compilation series. In 2016, German label Vinyl On Demand released Magnetophonics: Australian Underground Music 1978–1984, featuring several little bands.
Legacy and influence
Influenced by the little bands concept in Melbourne, post-punk group Pel Mel started a similar scene in Sydney in 1980.
The Little Band Scene was represented, albeit semi-fictionally, in the 1986 cult film Dogs in Space, directed by Richard Lowenstein and starring INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. Primitive Calculators briefly reformed to star in the film, playing a new version of their song "Pumping Ugly Muscle". Original little band Thrush and the Cunts also appear with the song "Diseases", and Little Band figurehead Marie Hoy performs a cover of "Shivers" by the Boys Next Door. The live music scenes were supervised by Whirlywirld's Ollie Olsen, who also appears in the film. Coinciding with the film's long-awaited re-release, Lowenstein revisited Dogs in Space, the Little Band Scene and Melbourne post-punk in general in the 2009 documentary We're Livin' on Dog Food, featuring rare footage and interviews with various members of the scene.
In 2010, the Melbourne Fringe Festival revived the little bands concept with two shows dedicated to scene's ethos of ephemerality. Participants included members of contemporary bands The Boat People, The Bowers, Bum Creek, The Crayon Fields, The Devastations, Dick Diver, Digger and The Pussycats, The Emergency, Fabulous Diamonds, Jessica Says, New War, The Parking Lot Experiments, Pikelet, Rat Vs. Possum, The School of Radiant Living, The Summer Cats, Teeth and Tongue, and Twin City Radio, plus Chapter Music's Guy Blackman, members of Primitive Calculators and special guests The Take, an original little band who reformed for the first time in 30 years.
Alan Bamford intends to release his little band recordings.
List of little bands
Bands listed in bold went on to become fully fledged gigging groups.