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.
Thompson Twins were a British pop band that formed in April 1977. Initially a new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity during the mid-1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States, and around the world. In 1993, they changed their name to Babble, to reflect their change in music from pop to dub-influenced chill-out. They continued as Babble to 1996, at which point the group permanently dissolved.
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.
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.
John Francis Kennedy is an English-born Australian musician and singer-songwriter–guitarist. He has been the leader of a number of groups including JFK & the Cuban Crisis (1980–84), and John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong (1984–88). In 1984 he described his music as "urban and western".
(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.
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.
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.
"Streets Of Your Town" is a song by Australian indie group The Go-Betweens that was released as the lead single from their 1988 album 16 Lovers Lane. Featuring polished production, a prominent backing vocal by Amanda Brown and a guitar solo by bassist John Willsteed, "Streets of Your Town" is one of the band's most recognised songs and is arguably the closest the group had to a mainstream hit. It was released in July 1988 in the UK on Beggars Banquet, where it reached #80 on the singles charts and in Australia in August 1988 on Mushroom, where it reached #68. In New Zealand, the song was issued in November 1988, and was a top 40 hit, peaking at #30–the band's highest-ever placing on any national chart.
"(I'm) Stranded" is the first song released by pioneering 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.
Keir Francis Nuttall is a Brisbane-based guitarist-singer-songwriter. He is a founding mainstay member of the rock trio, Transport, which formed in 2001. He married Australian singer-songwriter and actor, Kate Miller-Heidke, in 2007. Since 2004 he has performed and recorded in her backing band. Nuttall's songs have been recorded by Miller-Heidke, including her singles, "Space They Cannot Touch", "Words" and other tracks on her debut album, Little Eve. As Franky Walnut, Nuttall performs comic songs such as, "Where Have I Been All Your Life?" and "Three Word Review", both of which he recorded. His first solo album, The Franky Walnut Reflective Drink Coaster (2013), was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release in 2014.
Chris Bailey is the co-founder and singer of rock band The Saints. He was born in Nanyuki, Kenya to Irish parents. Bailey grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland until the age of seven, when his family emigrated to Australia. His family settled in Inala, in Brisbane, Queensland and he and his sister Margaret attended Inala State High School, Oxley State High School and Corinda State High School where Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay were also students. They formed the band, The Saints in 1973. Their first hit was in the UK with the classic punk anthem "(I'm) Stranded". The band slowly evolved toward a more sophisticated sound on their next few albums.
"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."
Today Wonder is the fourth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1990 and released on the Hot label. The album was re-released in 2002 with eight bonus tracks recorded for a Dutch radio station.
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.
Reflections of Ol' Golden Eye is a compilation album of cover versions by Australian rock guitarist Ed Kuepper, released in 1999. It contains 16 songs that had appeared on Kuepper albums from the 1990s, with almost half them drawn from two albums, The Wheelie Bin Affair (1997) and the limited release, mail order-only Exotic Mail Order Moods (1995). One song, a 10-minute version of Del Shannon's 1961 pop hit "Runaway", had first appeared on a live album by Kuepper's band The Aints.
Science Fiction is the debut solo studio album by English singer Tom Bailey, best known as the lead singer of pop band Thompson Twins. It was released on 13 July 2018. In addition to the standard release, a limited edition double CD hardback mediabook version of the album was released, featuring a bonus disc with seven alternative versions and remixes along with a companion book.
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