Kim Leith Salmon (born 24 January 1957) is an Australian rock musician and songwriter from Perth. He has worked in various groups including The Scientists, Beasts of Bourbon, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Kim Salmon and the Business, and Darling Downs. Australian rock musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described Salmon as one of the first Australians to "embrace wholeheartedly the emergent punk phenomenon of the mid-to-late 1970s" with The Scientists. He declared that Beasts of Bourbon were "masters of uncompromising gutbucket blues and hard-edged rock'n'roll". In 2004 Salmon was inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Association Hall of Fame and in 2007, into the Music Victoria Awards Hall of Fame.[1]
Kim Leith Salmon was born in 1957 in the Western Australian port city of Bunbury.[2][3] He later recalled wanting to be a nuclear physicist until, at the age of 13, he heard "heavy rock stuff" on the radio.[4] He bought his first guitar, "an acoustic steel string thing", for A$14 and taught himself to play "Black Night" and "Tobacco Road".[4] By the age of 18 Salmon had started a fine arts course at a university but deferred after a year, "I didn't really fit in with it".[5] At the age of 19 he was a member of Troubled Waters, a cabaret covers band playing in a Fremantle strip club.[6]
In August 1976 with Salmon on lead vocals and lead guitar, he formed Perth's first punk band, The Cheap Nasties.[5][6][7] His early influences include The Modern Lovers' self-titled album (1976), New York Dolls, and The Stooges.[5] Salmon recruited his high school mates:[5] Mark Betts on drums; Dan Dare on bass guitar; Neil Fernandez on guitar; and Robert Porritt on vocals.[7][8] After Salmon left in December 1977 they were renamed The Manikins.[7]
By early 1978 Salmon had joined The Exterminators replacing Mark Demetrius on lead vocals.[9] Fellow members were John Dowlings on drums; Roddy Radalj on guitar and vocals; and Boris Sujdovic on bass guitar.[8][9] The group were renamed The Invaders, and in May 1978 James Baker replaced Dowlings on drums (ex-Geeks, Beheaded, The Victims).[8][9] They changed their name to The Scientists and in August Sujdovic left. He was eventually replaced by Dennis Byrne on bass guitar in January 1979.[8][9]
The line up of Salmon, Baker, Byrne and Radalj recorded their debut single, "Frantic Romantic", which appeared in June that year.[8][9] It was co-written by Salmon and Baker.[10] However Byrne and Radalj had already left in April and were replaced by Ian Sharples on bass guitar and Ben Juniper on guitar.[9] In December 1979 and in February and March 1980, as a member of The Scientists, Salmon toured the eastern states of Australia and they appeared on TV pop music series, Countdown.[6][9]
They had issued their debut extended play, The Scientists, in February: Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described the single and EP as "one of the most collectable artefacts of the Australian punk rock era".[9] Further line up changes occurred with Salmon, Baker and Sharples recording a studio album of the same name in January 1981.[9] The group broke up and Salmon formed a briefly existing group, Louie Louie, with Brett Rixon on drums (ex-Screaming Fits), and Kim Williams on bass guitar.[6][9] By August that year Louie Louie had disbanded and The Scientists album was released by EMI.[9] McFarlane felt that Salmon was one of the first Australians to "embrace wholeheartedly the emergent punk phenomenon of the mid-to-late 1970s".[11]
In September 1981 Salmon and Sujdovic, with Rixon on drums and Tony Thewlis (ex-Helicopters) on guitar, reformed The Scientists and moved to Sydney.[8][9][12] McFarlane noted that the Sydney line up had "dropped the melodic, punky power pop of old for a more malevolent, psychedelic-tinged neo-rock'n'roll".[9] By December 1982 they had issued another single, "This Is My Happy Hour". In September the following year they released another EP, Blood Red River, which was an influential record of the post-punk era.[9] In March 1984 the group toured the United Kingdom and Europe playing an amalgamation of blues, punk and noise.[9][12] The Scientists remained in the UK and went through several further incarnations, with Salmon remaining as the sole constant member, before the band returned to Australia in early 1987 and broke up again late that year.[8][9]
Salmon's work with The Scientists in the 1980s influenced grunge music, which rose to prominence around Seattle, United States, before impacting on popular music in the early 1990s.[12][13] The Scientists relied on unorthodox bass-heavy rhythms and distorted guitars, the latter being a direct precursor to grunge. The term grunge was used by Salmon in the mid-1980s to describe The Scientists' sound, which he recalled for the audience in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary series on Australian music, Long Way to the Top, Episode 6: "Gathering of the Tribes 1984-2000" on 12 September 2001.[14][15] Everett True writing for The Guardian in 2011 disputed that Seattle was the origin of the genre, "[t]here's more of an argument to be had for grunge beginning in Australia with the Scientists and their scrawny punk ilk".[13]
In August 1983 while still a member of The Scientists, Salmon on guitar joined Beasts of Bourbon as a side project alongside old band mates Baker and Sudjovic; with Spencer P. Jones on guitar (of The Johnnys); and Tex Perkins on vocals (ex-Tex Deadly and the Dum-Dums).[6][16] In October that year they recorded the group's debut album, The Axeman's Jazz (July 1984).[8][16] In February 1984 Salmon and Perkins formed Salamander Jim with Richard Ploog on drums (also in The Church),[17] however by the following month Salmon had returned to his commitments with The Scientists.[9]
During The Scientists 1987 tour of Australia Salmon formed Kim Salmon and the Surrealists in Perth as an indie pop group.[6][11] Fellow founders were Brian Henry Hooper on bass guitar and Tony Pola on drums.[8][11] Their first two albums, Hit Me with the Surreal Feel (October 1988) and Just Because You Can't See It ... Doesn't Mean It Isn't There (February 1990), were described by McFarlane as having a "dark, confrontational sound powered by Salmon's scratchy, neurotic guitar and snarling vocals".[11] Also in 1990 Salmon issued his debut solo single, "Lightning Scary",[2] which appeared on the Surrealists third album, Essence, in September of the following year.[8][11]
From March 1988 Beasts of Bourbon reconvened and Salmon spent time with both groups over the subsequent five years.[11] By February 1991 Hooper and Pola had replaced Sudjovic and Baker respectively as members of Beasts of Bourbon.[8][11][16] In 1993 after touring Australia and Europe with Beasts of Bourbon Salmon, Hooper and Pola left the group to concentrate on the Surrealists.[11] McFarlane declared Beasts of Bourborn were "masters of uncompromising gutbucket blues and hard-edged rock'n'roll".[16]
In July 1994 Salmon issued an album, Hey Believer, with backing band STM (Sexually Transmitted Music) featuring Warren Ellis on violin and Jim White on drums (both future Dirty Three members), and Andrew Entsch on double bass.[8][11][18] Also that year Salmon released a solo live cassette album, Hookline and Singer, available at his gigs.[8]
The Surrealists line up changed as members left - Greg Bainbridge joined on drums in 1994 and Stu Thomas joined on bass in 1995. Micheal Redman and Leon De Bruin were the brass section for The Surrealists in 1998-9. Later, Phil Collings took on The Surrealists drum duties, and is the current drummer as at 2020.[8][11]
Antenna, and then The Business
Early in 1998 Salmon on lead vocals and guitar formed Antenna in Sydney as a collaboration with Dave Faulkner on lead vocals and guitar (ex-The Victims, The Manikins, Hoodoo Gurus); Justin Frew on guitar and Stuart McCarthy on guitar (both from Southend).[19] In November that year Antenna issued their debut album, Installation, and single, "Come on Spring". According to McFarlane, the single had an "electronic undertow balanced by an irresistible melody"; while the album was an "eclectic, diverse and challenging mix of electronica, breezy pop, throbbing bass, washes of guitar and keyboards, and dance floor grooves".[19] Antenna performed on the Big Day Out tour early in 1999 and then disbanded.[19]
Salmon's next band, Kim Salmon and the Business, formed in mid-1999 with Stu Thomas on bass guitar, Greg Bainbridge on drums, Leon de Bruin on trumpet, and Michael Redman on saxophone and flute – all were latter day members of the Surrealists.[8][11] Other subsequent members were Ben Grant on sax, Damian Maughan on trumpet, Tarek Smallman on drums and sampler, Paul Williamson on trumpet, Rob Jackson on sax, and Phil Collings on drums.[8][11] The group's first album, Record,[20] was released on 25 October 1999. McFarlane felt it is "one of Salmon’s strongest to date, full of diverse and soulful pop".[11] It was Feature Album of the Week on Triple J.
The lead single, "Saving Me from Me", appeared ahead of the album on 20 September 1999. Other tracks on the single are "Caesar's Lament", and a cover of Dudley Moore's "Love Me",[21] from the feature film, Bedazzled (1967). Late in 1999 the Business toured Australia promoting the album and debut single.[11] A second single, "Disconnected", released on 13 March 2000 included two remixes by Mr Chill, Gary B and Justin Frew. The group toured to promote that single.[11]
Darling Downs and SALMON
Some of Kim Salmon's later work has reflected a quieter style. In 2002 he released an acoustic solo album, E(a)rnest, where he used a Yamaha G55 and spent 18 months recording it in his own studio.[5] He then commenced a country music group, Darling Downs, with former Died Pretty singer, Ron Peno.[22] Their debut album, How Can I Forget This Heart of Mine?, was released in 2005. It appeared in the US market in May 2006 and Dan Raper of PopMatters noted "these are subtle, slow-hitting songs. They’re not insignificant, but they are certainly quirky" although the album "could reward you, but not right away, and it's riddled with tics and mannerisms that are almost purposefully thrown in to turn you away".[23]
In June 2004 Salmon was inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Association's newly established Hall of Fame.[24][25] Salmon had been enrolled onto the WAM Rock 'n' Roll of Renown in 1994.[24][25] Darling Downs' second album, From one to Another, appeared on 15 October 2007, which Michael Berick of Allmusic found was "mining a spare, simple acoustic Americana sound that basically consists of Peno's rural twang and Salmon's picking on a banjo or guitar".[26]
In September 2004 Kim Salmon formed an instrumental group consisting of two drummers and six guitarists, SALMON. The band included Clare Moore and Michael Stranges on drums; and Dave Graney, Ash Naylor, Penny Ikinger, Matt Walker and Anton Ruddick on guitar.[27] Kim Salmon played guitar and a sampler. Stu Thomas later replaced Naylor for live shows and a for TV performance on ABCTV's "Spicks and Specks" show. The band released an album, Rock Formations, in May 2007 on both CD and as a limited double LP – only 500 copies were pressed. The first half of the album is made up of tracks recorded at rehearsal and the second half recorded live at the Metro in Sydney.[27] I-94 Bar's reviewer T J Honeysuckle was impressed by "a crack team of Melbourne based musicians kicking it out, letting it out of their systems, with an air of abandonment and glee permeating each and every track".[27] Fellow reviewer at the website Patrick Emery felt it was "a grab bag of neo-70s riffs, screeching vocals (albeit computer generated) and iconic rock theatrics".[27]
In August 2011 Kim Salmon wrote an article, "Spare a Dollar for the Maker, Music Doesn't Play Itself", for The Age, to raise awareness of the financial problems of local musicians with live venues closing and being underpaid.[28] In July 2013 Dan Cass of The Guardian described Salmon providing guitar tuition, "[h]e shows me licks, and explains the basics of musical theory".[29]
In September 2013 Salmon recalled "a whole lot of what I do is tied up in my past. The Scientists, The Beasts of Bourbon, The Surrealists. This is great, but I still like to make new stuff. I've kept my sanity over the years by doing new stuff and waiting for it to become old enough to be revived".[30] He described how The Surrealists reformed in 2006, for a one-off concert at Azkena Festival, Spain.[30] The Scientists also reunited in 2006 and recorded their performance at Shepherd's Bush, which was issued as a live album, Sedition in the following year.[31]
In 2010 The Surrealists line up of Salmon, Stu Thomas and Phil Collings on drums, released a studio album, Grand Unifying Theory.[32] Ned Raggett of Allmusic found "it's more focused on the sharply brawling side of his work than some of the quieter recent efforts, this is still an album that showcases tense moments and arrangements throughout".[32]
In 2012 he teamed with Spencer P Jones (both ex-Beasts of Bourbon) which resulted in The Runaways (February 2013).[30] Darling Downs' third album, In the Days When the World Was Wide, appeared in July 2013.[22][33] Aaron Curran for Mess+Noise noted that it "harkens back to the lost opportunities of youth, but in a fond and measured way filled with peaceful resignation rather than caustic regret".[33] It was followed by a reformation of Beasts of Bourbon which recorded a live album, 30 Years on Borrowed Time (August 2013).[30]
Personal life
Kim Salmon co-wrote "Tiger Tiger" (1982), "Blood Red River" (1983) and "Murderess In A Purple Dress" with his then-girlfriend, Linda Fearon.[34][35][36] Salmon and Fearon later married. By 1991 the couple had two sons, Alex and Jack (born 1 November 1990, Sydney).[37] Salmon wrote "Desensitised" on The Surrealists album, Sin Factory (May 1993), about his younger son, Jack.[38] Salmon, Fearon and Brett Woodward formed Bloody Stupid Productions which provided a music video for "Lightning Scary".[37] The couple were separated by 1994.[36] Fearon had provided the cover photography for Hey Believer (July 1994) by Kim Salmon with STM.
By August 2005 Salmon was married again and had two more children, another son and a daughter.[5][39]
A biography of his life was released in 2019, called Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand: Kim Salmon and the Formula For Grunge.[40]
The Necks are an Australian avant-garde jazz trio formed in 1987 by founding mainstays Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. They play improvisational pieces of up to an hour in length that explore the development and demise of repeating musical figures. Their double LP studio album Unfold was named by Rolling Stone as "one of the top 20 avant albums of 2017."
The Scientists are a post-punk band from Perth, Western Australia, led by Kim Salmon, initially known as the Exterminators and then the Invaders. The band had two primary incarnations: the Perth-based punk band of the late 1970s and the Sydney/London-based swamp rock band of the 1980s.
Kim Salmon and the Surrealists are an Australian indie rock band formed by Kim Salmon in 1987 when he was living in Perth between the final two tours by The Scientists. When the Scientists stopped, Salmon continued the Surrealists as his main band while playing in Beasts of Bourbon.
Peter Robert Jones was an English-born Australian musician. He replaced Paul Hester on drums for Crowded House in mid-1994. After the band split up in June 1996, he played in Deadstar with Caroline Kennedy and Nick Seymour, but did not return to Crowded House when they re-formed in 2006 about a year after Hester's death. Jones worked as a secondary teacher in Melbourne and on 18 May 2012, he died from brain cancer, aged 49.
Deadstar were an Australian alternative rock band formed in August 1995 by Peter Jones on drums and percussion; Caroline Kennedy on lead vocals and guitar; and Barry Palmer on guitar and bass guitar. They released three studio albums, deadstar, Milk and Somewhere Over the Radio. Two singles reached the top 100 on the ARIA Singles Chart, "Run Baby Run" and "Deeper Water", both in 1999. The group were nominated for three ARIA Music Awards. The group disbanded in 2001.
Beasts of Bourbon were an Australian blues rock band formed in August 1983, with James Baker on drums, Spencer P. Jones on guitar, Tex Perkins on vocals, Kim Salmon on guitar and Boris Sujdovic on bass guitar. Except for mainstays Jones and Perkins, the line-up changed over time as the group splintered and reformed several times. Their debut album, The Axeman's Jazz was released in July 1984. Their debut single, "Psycho", was a cover version of the Leon Payne original. The group disbanded by mid-1985 and each member pursued other musical projects.
Stevie Plunder, born as Anthony Hayes, was an Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of the groups, The Plunderers (1984–1995) and The Whitlams (1992–1996).
For the American band with a similar name, see Blackeyed Susan.
The Dubrovniks were an Australian rock band which formed in August 1986 as The Adorable Ones. Early in 1987 they changed their name to The Dubrovniks in acknowledgement to the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia, which was the birthplace of two founding members, Roddy Radalj, and Boris Sujdovic. Both Radalj and fellow founder James Baker had previously founded Hoodoo Gurus in 1981. All three had earlier associations in the Perth punk scene of the late 1970s. The group issued four albums, before disbanding in 1995.
James Lawrence Baker is an Australian musician, best known as the drummer of various rock and punk rock groups, including the Victims, the Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon, and the Dubrovniks. In 2006 Baker was inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Hall of Fame. The following year, Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Jim Ronald White is an Australian drummer, songwriter, and producer. In 1992 he formed Dirty Three, an instrumental rock band, with fellow mainstays Warren Ellis on violin; and Mick Turner on guitar. In Dirty Three, White sometimes shares songwriting duties with Ellis and Turner.
Mach Schau is the eighth studio album by the Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus. It was recorded eight years after their previous studio album, Blue Cave, and released by EMI/Capitol Records on 15 March 2004. It was co-produced by the group with Kim Salmon. The album peaked at number 67 on the ARIA Charts.
Richard John Ploog is an Australian drummer, songwriter, producer and singer who was a member of rock band The Church between 1981 and 1990. Ploog also drummed for Beasts of Bourbon in 1983, Damien Lovelock in 1988 and with fellow The Church member Peter Koppes in 1991 for an album and tour. He is the father of Irie Ploog.
Charles Lothian Lloyd "Charlie" Owen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and producer. He has been a member of The New Christs (1987–90), Louis Tillett and His Cast of Aspersions (1990), Tex, Don and Charlie, Tendrils (1994–99) and Beasts of Bourbon. His solo album, Vertigo and Other Phobias, was released in 1994 on Red Eye/Polydor.
Spencer Patrick Jones was a New Zealand guitar player and singer-songwriter from Te Awamutu. From 1976 he worked in Australia and was a member of various groups including The Johnnys, Beasts of Bourbon, Paul Kelly and The Coloured Girls, Chris Bailey and The General Dog, Maurice Frawley and The Working Class Ringos, and Sacred Cowboys. He also issued ten albums as a solo artist. In May 2012 Australian Guitar magazine rated Jones as one of Australia's Top 40 best guitarists.
"Darling It Hurts" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls released in September 1986 as the second single from their first double album, Gossip. The song, written by Kelly with lead guitarist Steve Connolly, reached No. 25 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in October. It was issued in 1987 on A&M Records in the United States, where it reached No. 19 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart. Due to possible racist connotations the band changed its name, for international releases, to Paul Kelly and the Messengers. According to Allmusic's Mike Gagne, "Kelly's pain can be felt as he describes an ex-girlfriend of his who has turned to prostitution."
The Monitors were an Australian pop band of the early 1980s. They were primarily a studio group which involved a collaboration between Terry McCarthy on vocals and keyboards, and Mark Moffatt on guitar, bass guitar and keyboards. They used various guest vocalists. Their debut single, "Singin' in the '80s", was released in 1980 and reached No. 16 on the Kent Music Report singles chart.
Buster Brown was an Australian rock band, which featured vocalist Angry Anderson and drummer Phil Rudd, that was formed in Melbourne in 1973. Their sound was hard rock mixed with blues rock influences. Their first album, Something to Say was produced by Lobby Loyde and released in 1974. Rudd left to join an early version of AC/DC while Anderson continued with new line-ups and eventually disbanded the group in November 1975. Anderson joined Rose Tattoo which later included former Buster Brown bandmates, Geordie Leach on bass guitar and Dallas "Digger" Royall on drums.
Harem Scarem were an Australian blues rock group which formed in 1982. They issued two studio albums, Pilgrim's Progress on Au Go Go Records (1986) and Lo & Behold on Citadel Records (1988) before disbanding in 1989. The early line-up was fronted by Christopher Marshall on lead vocals and included his brother, Charlie Marshall first on bass guitar, then rhythm guitar and, when fronting the group from 1987, was also on lead vocals. By September 1985 they had been joined by Peter Jones on drums and percussion; Barry Palmer on lead guitar; Glen Sheldon first on rhythm guitar and then on bass guitar; and Chris Wilson on harmonica and saxophone. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt that "Few alternative bands of the day could ever hope to match that line-up for muscular bravado and sheer instrumental firepower". On 18 May 2012 Peter Jones died of brain cancer, aged 45.
Bloodloss was an Australian post-punk, grunge band formed in 1982. The original line-up was Martin Bland on drums, Renestair E.J. on guitar and saxophone, Jim Selene on bass guitar, and Sharron Weatherill on lead vocals and guitar. They issued five albums: Human Skin Suit, The Truth Is Marching In (1990), In-a-Gadda-Da-Change (1993), Live My Way and Misty (1996).
Spencer, Chris; Nowara, Zbig; McHenry, Paul (2002) [1987]. The Who's Who of Australian Rock. with notes by Ed Nimmervoll. Noble Park, Vic: Five Mile Press. ISBN1-86503-891-1.
1 2 Goldberg, Aaron (October 1999). "Kim Salmon Interview". Perfect Sound Forever. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
The Scientists (1978–81, 1981–87, 1995):Holmgren, Magnus; Gerard, David; Penkie, Henkie; Miles, Richard. "The Scientists". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
Beasts of Bourbon (1983–85, 1988–93, 1996–97, 2003-):Holmgren, Magnus; Penkie, Henkie. "Beasts of Bourbon". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
The Blackeyed Susans (1990):Holmgren, Magnus; Skjefte, Morten. "The Blackeyed Susans". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
Antenna (1998):Holmgren, Magnus. "Antenna". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
↑ "Saving Me from Me" (cove notes). Kim Salmon and the Business. Half a Cow Records. 1999. HAC 85.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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