[MUSIC/Pop/Synth ~ AUS]
Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Fri 25 Nov, 2022.
Ahh the 1980s! What a brilliant time for shiny synthy-pop music. Everything seemed so futuristic and modern. The charts were full of impossibly glamorous looking pop groups like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Howard Jones, Soft Cell and Australian audiences loved them all, in their glittering Smash Hits glory. Especially as the biggest Australian acts were pub rock juggernauts like Cold Chisel, The Angels and Midnight Oil, tough, no-nonsense rock, the equivalent to the best in the world. But it must be said that when we embraced the modern pop sound here there was a brilliant fusion of synthy-pop and pub rock grit. Partly because no matter how much eyeliner and hairspray you might be working, you still had to be tough enough to play for Australian crowds in Aussie pubs. So, we got a hybrid of rock guitars, funky baselines and synth pop glamour. Bands like INXS, Models, Machinations, Real Life were all delivering weapons grade pop with a modern sound.
The weekend life for a ‘youth’ in those days was centred around six pm on a Sunday night, when Countdown beamed into loungerooms across the nation. In June of 1983 Countdown’s main man and talent coordinator Molly Meldrum invited the unsigned Pseudo Echo to appear live on the show; a huge move to make that went against all guidelines and expectations. After seeing them in a club, Meldrum saw Pseudo as stars in the making. Countdown made a video for listening. The song was fantastic, they looked great (asymmetrical hair do’s, bit of eyeliner) and they had an electric drum kit; it was like they had been transported direct for the future. They were quickly signed to EMI and the song was officially released in November that year. It was a top ten hit. The debut album Autumnal Park was released in June the following year and spawned four hit singles. And suddenly Pseudo Echo were one of the biggest bands in the country.
Here we are, 29 years on and front man Brian Canham still dresses like a rockstar – and tonight’s audience is out to party. The intro tape is the instrumental Autumnal Park, which while the first albums name wasn’t on the original release (it was the B-side of A Beat For You) but then it’s straight into Stranger In You and for the next 90 minutes Canham and his impressive five-piece band, reproduce the authentic sound of the hit songs, fan favourites and some nice surprises.
A kind of chronological let list starts with six tracks from Autumnal Park – Stranger In Me, His Eyes, See Through, Destination Unknown, A Beat For You and Dancing Til Midnight. While it’s the hit singles (Stranger, Beat Dancing) that get the biggest reactions, this record was so big, people know all the words to all the songs and Destination Unknown has been a long-time fave of mine.
The next bracket concentrates on the second album Love An Adventure (Try, I Will Be You, Lies Are Nothing, Adventure and the smashing Living In A Dream. While still very synth driven by Love An Adventure the sound was toughening up and by the third album Race they had ‘rocked up’ the look and sound quite a bit, but their cover of Funkytown – the Lipps Inc disco classic – was monster worldwide hit and helped solidify the tone of the third album Race in 1988. While the material from Race may not be quite as well known to some, tonight’s crowd embraces every beat of every song. Canham is having a great time and so are we.
In 2017 they released a killer version of the Ike & Tina classic Nutbush City Limits and they deliver it tonight with style and verve. Everyone is dancing their butts off. They pay tribute to their fellow Oz Synth rockers Real Life with a flawless Send Me An Angel. Brian tells the story about getting on Countdown before a deliriously good Listening. Still one of my favourite songs of the era by miles. But the fun is far from over, they crank into an extended and high octane Funkytown and it morphs into Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and then into Deep Purple’s Black Night.
They return for a one song encore the title track from the excellent 2012 album Ultraviolet. It’s a top night. Next time they return get yourselves to ‘Funkytown’… Pseudo Echo will have ‘A Beat For You’.
4.5 stars
Ian Bell
Images courtesy of Ian Bell
Set List
Stranger In Me (Autumnal Park 1984)
His Eyes (Autumnal Park 1984)
See Through (Autumnal Park 1984)
Destination Unknown (Autumnal Park 1984)
A Beat For You (Autumnal Park 1984)
Dancing Until Midnight (Autumnal Park 1984)
Don’t Go (Love An Adventure 1986)
I Ask You Why (Autumnal Park 1984)
Try (Love An Adventure 1986)
I Will Be You (Love An Adventure 1986)
Lies Are Nothing (Love An Adventure 1986)
Love An Adventure (Love An Adventure 1986)
Living In A Dream (Love An Adventure 1986)
Metropolis (Instrumental) (Race 1988)
Eye Of The Storm (Race 1988)
Take On The World (Race 1988)
Over Tomorrow (Race 1988)
Fooled Again (Race 1988)
Nutbush City Limits (Ike & Tina Turner Cover)
Send Me An Angel (Real Life Cover)
Listening (Autumnal Park 1984)
Funkytown/Dirty Deeds/Black Night (Lipps Inc/Ac-Dc/Deep Purple Cover)
Encore:
Ultraviolet (Ultraviolet 2014)
