The Saints are an Australian punk rock band originating in Brisbane in 1973. The band was founded by Chris Bailey, Ivor Hay (drummer), and Ed Kuepper (guitarist-songwriter). Contemporaneously with American punk rock band the Ramones, the Saints were employing the fast tempos, raucous vocals and "buzz saw" guitar that characterised early punk rock. With their debut single, "(I'm) Stranded", in September 1976, they became the first "punk" band outside the US to release a record, ahead of better-known acts including the Sex Pistols and the Clash. They are one of the first and most influential groups of the genre.
Edmund "Ed" Kuepper is a German-born Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded the punk band The Saints (1973–78), the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns (1979–85) 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.
Laughing Clowns, sometimes written as The Laughing Clowns, is 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.
"This Perfect Day" is a single by punk band The Saints . It was produced by Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper and recorded and mixed at Roundhouse and Wessex Studios, London, in late 1977.
The Apartments are an Australian indie band formed in 1978 in Brisbane, Queensland. The band split up in 1979 but reformed in 1984 and continued until 1997, with a new version of the band forming in 2007. Based in Sydney, New South Wales, the band has continued to perform and record, with the ninth album and most recent release, In and Out of the Light released in September 2020. Peter Milton Walsh is the band's only constant member.
(I'm) Stranded is the debut album by Australian punk rock group The Saints which was released by EMI on 21 February 1977. Their debut single, "(I'm) Stranded", was issued ahead of the album in September 1976, which Sounds magazine's reviewer, Jonh Ingham, declared was the "Single of this and every week". "Erotic Neurotic" was the second single, which was released in May 1977 and the group relocated to the United Kingdom. In June, bass guitarist Algy Ward replaced Bradshaw and the group issued a single, "This Perfect Day" in July, which peaked in the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Sam Hall" is an old English folk song about a bitterly unrepentant criminal condemned to death. Prior to the mid-19th century it was called "Jack Hall", after an infamous English thief, who was hanged in 1707 at Tyburn. Jack Hall's parents sold him as a climbing boy for one guinea, which is why most versions of the song identify Sam or Jack Hall as a chimney sweep.
"Sundown" is a song by Canadian folk artist Gordon Lightfoot, from the titular album, released as a single in March 1974.
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".
"The Pusher" is a rock song written by Hoyt Axton, made popular by the 1969 movie Easy Rider which used Steppenwolf's version to accompany the opening scenes showing drug trafficking.
"Summer Wine" is a song written by Lee Hazlewood. It was originally sung by Suzi Jane Hokom and Lee Hazlewood in 1966, but it was made famous by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood in 1967. The Nancy & Lee version was originally released on Sinatra's Nancy in London album in late 1966 and later as the B-side of her "Sugar Town" single in December 1966. The song itself became a hit, reaching #49 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in April 1967. It also reached #14 in Australia. In early 1968, "Summer Wine" was included on Sinatra and Hazlewood's album of duets, Nancy & Lee LP. It was the first of Sinatra and Hazlewood's string hit duets.
"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."
13th Star is an album by Fish. Released as a limited edition via mail-order in September 2007 and to retail in February 2008, it is his ninth solo studio album since he left Marillion in 1988 and the first since Field of Crows (2004). Released on Fish's own imprint Chocolate Frog Records, retail distribution is handled by Snapper Music.
White Houses is a song performed by Eric Burdon & the Animals in 1968. It was the opening track from their psychedelic rock album Every One Of Us. "White Houses" peaked #67 on the US pop singles chart and #46 on the Canadian RPM charts. The B-side on the United States release was "Anything", from the Winds of Change album of the previous year, and which had been previously released as a single from that album. On releases in Canada, Germany, Spain and Brazil, the B-side was "River Deep, Mountain High", later included on their album Love Is. "River Deep, Mountain High" was also viewed as the A-side of the release, and was released as a separate single in 1969.
I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom is the tenth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1995 and released on the Hot label initially as a mail order only release.
Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog is an album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 2007 and released on the Hot label. Described as a loose concept album based around Jean Lee, the last female hanged in Australia, the album was released in a single CD and as a double CD limited edition with outtakes and demo recordings. It was Kuepper's first album in seven years.
Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist Ed Kuepper co-founded and recorded with the punk band The Saints, the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns and the grunge-like The Aints. He has also recorded 17 commercially-released solo albums with a variety of backing bands as well as another 14 limited-release albums of live and broadcast performances.
The Return of the Mail-Order Bridegroom is a covers album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper released in 2014. Recorded in three days and featuring Kuepper alone with no overdubbing, it contains reworked acoustic versions of songs by his former bands The Saints and Laughing Clowns, as well as new versions of his solo material and songs popularised by artists including Jimi Hendrix and The Walker Brothers. Apart from "No Regrets," all of the songs were selected from those he had played during a 2013 "Solo and By Request" Australian tour.
This is the Magic Mile is a three-CD compilation album by Australian rock guitarist Ed Kuepper, released in 2005. The album is a 49-track retrospective of his output from 1991 to 2000. While Smile ... Pacific (2000) and Character Assassination (1994) are heavily represented—with 15 tracks drawn from the two albums—the collection also includes a 1994 single, several cuts from limited-release mail-order albums and two tracks from his side project The Aints.
