The Saints were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1973. Founded by singer-songwriter Chris Bailey, drummer Ivor Hay, and guitarist-songwriter Ed Kuepper, they originally employed fast tempos, raucous vocals and a "buzzsaw" guitar sound that helped initiate punk rock in Australia and identified them with the greater international movement.
Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams is a New Zealand-born, Australian-based musician. He is a founding mainstay member of experimental, jazz trio the Necks (1987–present), collaborated with Melanie Oxley as a soul pop duo (1989–2003), and has issued ten solo albums.
Edmund "Ed" Kuepper is a German-born Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded the punk band The Saints in 1973, the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns and the grunge-like The Aints!. He has also recorded over a dozen albums as a solo artist using a variety of backing bands. His highest charting solo album, Honey Steel's Gold, appeared in November 1991 and reached No. 28 on the ARIA Albums Chart. His other top 50 albums are Black Ticket Day, Serene Machine and Character Assassination. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993 he won Best Independent Release for Black Ticket Day and won the same category in 1994 for Serene Machine.
The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout its existence. Drummer Lindy Morrison joined the band in 1980, and its lineup would later expand to include bass guitarist Robert Vickers and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. Vickers was replaced by John Willsteed in 1987, and the quintet lineup remained in place until the band split two years later. Forster and McLennan reformed the band in 2000 with a new lineup that did not include any previous personnel aside from them. McLennan died on 6 May 2006 of a heart attack and the Go-Betweens disbanded again. In 2010, a toll bridge in their native Brisbane was renamed the Go Between Bridge after them.
Laughing Clowns, sometimes written as The Laughing Clowns, were a post-punk band formed in Sydney in 1979. In five years, the band released three LPs, three EPs, and various singles and compilations. Laughing Clowns' sound is free jazz, bluegrass and krautrock influenced. The band formed to accommodate Ed Kuepper's growing interest in expanding brass-driven elements he had brought to The Saints' third album, Prehistoric Sounds, and by adopting flattened fifth notes in a rock and roll setting while using a modern jazz styled band line-up.
Peter Oxley was the bass player for 1980s Australian pop-rock band The Sunnyboys.
Tracy Franklin Pew was an Australian musician, and bassist for The Birthday Party. He was later a member of The Saints, and worked with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Grant William McLennan was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. He co-founded the Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977 and issued four solo albums: Watershed (1991), Fireboy (1992), Horsebreaker Star (1994) and In Your Bright Ray (1997). He collaborated with other artists on side projects. In May 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association called his "Cattle and Cane" (1983) one of its top 30 Australian songs of all time.
Robert Derwent Garth Forster is an Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and music critic. In December 1977 he co-founded an indie rock group, The Go-Betweens, with fellow musician Grant McLennan. In 1980, Lindy Morrison joined the group on drums and backing vocals, and by 1981 Forster and Morrison were also lovers. In 1988, "Streets of Your Town", co-written by McLennan and Forster, became the band's highest-charting hit in both Australia and the United Kingdom. The follow-up single, "Was There Anything I Could Do?", was a number-16 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. In December 1989, after recording six albums, The Go-Betweens disbanded. Forster and Morrison had separated as a couple earlier, and Forster began his solo music career from 1990.
Eternally Yours is the second album by Australian punk rock band the Saints, released in 1978. Produced by band members Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper, the album saw the band pursue a bigger, more R&B-driven sound, augmented by a horn section. The album also saw the introduction of bass guitarist Algy Ward, who replaced the band's previous bass player, Kym Bradshaw in mid-1977.
Prehistoric Sounds is the third album by the Australian punk rock group The Saints, released in 1978 via Harvest. This was the final album to feature founding lead guitarist, Ed Kuepper, who left the band shortly after its release. In October 2010, the album was listed in the top 50 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums with their debut, (I'm) Stranded, at No. 20.
One Two Three Four is the first 7" extended play by Australian rock band the Saints. The EP contained two cover versions of other artists' work and two re-recorded tracks which originally appeared on their debut album (I'm) Stranded. It was originally released in the UK as both a single disc EP and a double 7" with a gatefold shelve. An Australian edition of the EP appeared in the following month. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt their versions of "Lipstick on Your Collar" and "River Deep – Mountain High" were "ragged but inspired".
Paralytic Tonight, Dublin Tomorrow is a 7" extended play released in March 1980 by Australian Punk band The Saints. It was produced by the group's singer-guitarist, Chris Bailey using the pseudonym L. Lambert. It is their first release after founding guitarist, Ed Kuepper, had left the band. The Saints line-up for the EP was Chris Bailey on lead vocals and guitar; C. Barrington on guitar; Cub Calloway on guitar; Ivor Hay on drums; and Janine Hall on bass guitar. A 12" version with an additional track, "Miss Wonderful", was issued on the French label, New Rose.
Australian musicians played and recorded some of the earliest punk rock, led by The Saints who released their first single in 1976. Subgenres of punk music, such as local hardcore acts, still have a strong cult following throughout Australia.
"(I'm) Stranded" is the debut single released by Australian punk rock band the Saints. Issued in September 1976, it has been cited as "one of the iconic singles of the era", and pre-dated vinyl debuts by contemporary punk acts such as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Clash. In 2001, it was voted among the Top 30 Australian Songs of all time by APRA.
Christopher James Mannix Bailey was a Kenyan-born Australian singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He was the co-founder and singer of rock band the Saints.
"Know Your Product" is a song written by Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey of Australian rock band The Saints. Released in February 1978, it was the second single from the group's second album, Eternally Yours. Noted for its unusual mix of prominent brass with a punk rock guitar sound, the track has been described as a "pile-driving surge of raw soul power and one of the greatest singles from the punk rock period."
Brisbane punk rock had its main impact between 1975 and 1984 as part of the overall punk rock scene in Australia. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, the Queensland capital provided "some of the most anarchistic bands" of that era whilst it was "arguably the most conservative city" in the country. The development of the local punk movement differed from other cities because of its relative geographic isolation from other similar trends. The Brisbane scene also received a greater scrutiny by local police where early punk bands formed as "an obvious backlash to an oppressed society". This generated antagonistic and individualistic groups or "snot" driven punk bands.
The discography of Australian rock group The Saints consists of fourteen studio albums, seventeen singles, six EPs, two live albums and ten compilation albums. The Saints began in 1974 as punk rockers and released their first single, "(I'm) Stranded", in September 1976 on their own Fatal Records label. They were signed to EMI and released their debut album in February 1977, (I'm) Stranded. Mainstay founder Chris Bailey is the principal songwriter and record producer. Their sound became more R&B and pop rock. Their highest-charting album, All Fools Day peaked in the Top 30 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart in April 1986. Their cover version of The Easybeats' hit "The Music Goes Round My Head", issued in November 1988, peaked in the Top 40 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
"Happy Anniversary" is a pop music song by Australian group Little River Band, released in territories outside of Australia in December 1977 as the fourth and final single from the group's third studio album, Diamantina Cocktail. It was co-written by Beeb Birtles and David Briggs. The song became the band's second top twenty single in the United States, peaking at number 16 in March 1978 on the Billboard Hot 100.
