Calling from a Country Phone

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Calling from a Country Phone
Calling from a Country Phone.jpg
Studio album by Robert Forster
Released 24 October 1993
Recorded Sunshine Studios, Brisbane, Australia
Genre Rock
Length38:14
Label Beggars Banquet
Producer Robert Forster
Robert Forster chronology
Danger in the Past
(1990)		Calling from a Country Phone
(1993)		 I Had a New York Girlfriend
(1995)

Calling from a Country Phone is the second album by former Go-Between Robert Forster, and his first self-produced disc. Drummer Glenn Thompson would later join Forster and Grant McLennan in a reformed Go-Betweens years later. The album also features Custard frontman David McCormack on lead guitar. [1]

The Go-Betweens band that plays indie rock

The Go-Betweens were an indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 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.

Robert Forster (musician) Australian singer-songwriter

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 biggest chart hit in both Australia and the United Kingdom. The follow-up single, "Was There Anything I Could Do?", was a No. 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.

Glenn Thompson (musician) Australian drummer

Glenn Thompson is an Australian musician who first came to prominence in Brisbane QLD playing in the popular local bands Madam Bones Brothel with Pearly Black and John Rodgers, and COW with Robert Moore and David McCormack. Thompson played drums with Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens on his second solo album Calling from a Country Phone in 1993. He then toured Europe in 1994 with Forster and members of German band Baby You Know, Robert Pöschl and Michael Schott. For Robert Forster's world tour of 1996, Thompson was joined by Adele Pickvance on bass. Thompson and Pickvance were called Warm Nights after Forster's fourth solo release which was also titled Warm Nights.

Contents

Details

Forster had recently returned to Australia from Germany. "I came back with an agenda, because I had an album written. I wanted to come back and find some musicians in Brisbane, and I wanted to record it probably at Sunshine. There wasn't a better studio in town." [2]

Forster was unsure where to find local musicians. He said, "So I went to the one place in Brisbane where, if you’re a little bit disoriented, you’re looking for information, you’re looking for people – there’s only one place you can go. So I walked into Rockinghorse Records, and I said to Warwick Vere – who’s run the shop since 1975 – 'I need a band. I need some young musicians around town.' He told me to go to the Queens Arms on a Sunday night, down there on James Street. I walked in and there was a band on stage called COW. " [3] COW (Country or Western) were a Bob Moore band that featured Dave McCormack from Custard and future member of the Go-Betweens and Custard, Glenn Thompson. As Forster's backing band, they toured under the name the Silver Backwash.

Custard are an Australian indie rock band formed in 1989 in Brisbane, Australia. The band is colloquially known as "Custaro" due to frequent misreadings of its name.

Reception

Professional ratings
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Track listing

All songs written by Robert Forster.

  1. "Atlanta Lie Low" – 3:13
  2. "121" – 3:28
  3. "The Circle" – 3:45
  4. "Falling Star" – 4:05
  5. "I Want to Be Quiet" – 3:34
  1. "Cat's Life" – 3:52
  2. "Girl to a World" – 4:18
  3. "Drop" – 4:08
  4. "Beyond Their Law" – 5:03
  5. "Forever & Time" – 2:48

Personnel

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References

  1. ↑ "Calling from a Country Phone - Robert Forster | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  2. ↑ Clinton Walker (1996). Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977–1991 . Pan MacMillan. p. 290-91. ISBN   0-7329-0883-3.
  3. ↑ "Robert Forster: 15 Songs About Brisbane". Collapse Board.
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