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Whirlywirld | |
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| Origin | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Genres | Post-punk, Electronic |
| Years active | 1978–1980 |
| Labels | Missing Link |
| Past members | See members section below |
Whirlywirld were an Australian post-punk band led by Ollie Olsen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy. They played in Melbourne and Sydney and were supporters of the Melbourne little band scene.
In 1976, as a guitarist, Ollie Olsen formed The Reals, who on occasion shared the bill at suburban dance halls with The Boys Next Door. [1] The Reals would eventually evolve into The Negatives, but before that Olsen had become dissatisfied with the group, and left. Olsen went on to form The Young Charlatans. The Young Charlatans' four members would all go on to distinguish themselves in long music careers: they included Olsen, guitarist Rowland Howard (later of The Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party, as well as These Immortal Souls), drummer Jeffrey Wegener (Laughing Clowns) and bassist Janine Hall (later of The Saints). [1] The group was short lived and after a brief, stormy existence, the band broke up. By then Olsen had met John Murphy, the drummer for another early Melbourne punk band, NEWS.
The pair formed Whirlywirld in 1978 [1] with their stated priority, from the outset, to use synthesisers and other non-'rock' instruments, departing from a guitar-based format. Whirlywirld was completed by two keyboardists, credited with 'electronics', Andrew Duffield and Simon Smith (Olsen, by this point, had abandoned guitar in favour of 'electronics') together with guitarist Dean Richards. Whirlywirld only played live very infrequently but they did rehearse on a rigid schedule.
In June 1979, the band released a self-titled debut EP. Whirlywirld made their live debut at The Crystal Ballroom later that year, by which time Duffield left to join The Models and had been replaced by Philip Jackson.
Whirlywirld would go on to play only fourteen performances in their entire career. Gradually, the personnel within the band changed, in accordance with a change in direction, Richards, Jackson and Smith departed. Richards and Jackson went on to two popular local 'underground' bands in Melbourne, Equal Local and Hot Half Hour, In the 2000s Richards records and performs as Disturbed Earth. Arnie Hanna came in on guitar and Greg Sun on bass. During this period Murphy played an array of percussion devices, natural, electronic or otherwise and Olsen even played saxophone, clarinet, tape loops as well as keyboards. This incarnation of the band recorded at York St. Studios in December, 1979. Four of these tracks came out on a 12" EP, again titled Whirlywirld in February 1980.
After the band split, Olsen and Murphy went on to form firstly The Beast Apparel, and then Hugo Klang, [1] which performed a handful of gigs in England, and recorded a single, "Beat Up The Old Shack", released in Australia on Prince Melon Records. Olsen and Murphy then went on to form Orchestra of Skin and Bone, before their musical partnership ended with Olsen going to form NO in the late 1980s.
Hanna and Murphy later played with Olsen and Michael Hutchence in the band Max Q.
A version of one of Whirlywirld's songs, "Win/Lose", was re-recorded by Olsen in 1986 for inclusion in the film Dogs in Space . Hutchence sang the early Whirlywirld song, "Rooms for the Memory" on the soundtrack, and the song became a hit on the mainstream Australian charts in 1987. The remixed version of "Win/Lose" was also released as a single by Olsen.
Models are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria in August 1978. They went into hiatus in 1988, but re-formed in 2000, 2006 and 2008 to perform reunion concerts. The band began regularly performing again from 2010 onwards. "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", their only No. 1 hit, appeared on the Australian singles charts in July 1985. The related album, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, peaked at No. 3 on the Australian albums charts after its release in August. Out of Mind, Out of Sight appeared on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with the single, "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", peaking at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. An earlier song from the same album, "Barbados", had peaked at No. 2 on the Australian singles chart.
Jerry Harold Speiser is an Australian musician. He is best known as the drummer and a founding member of 1980s pop/new wave group Men at Work, which had Australian, US and UK hits with their singles "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under" and their albums Business as Usual and Cargo. He left the band in 1984 and was a member of other groups including FX, One World and Frost.
Ollie Olsen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. He has performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music since the mid-1970s. His post punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86) and No (1987–89). Olsen joined with Michael Hutchence to form a short-term band, Max Q, which issued an album in 1989. He co-founded the alternative electronic music record label Psy-Harmonics with Andrew Till in 1993. In 2014 he formed Taipan Tiger Girls.
The Little Band scene was an experimental post-punk scene which flourished in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from late 1978 until early 1981. Instigated by groups Primitive Calculators and Whirlywhirld, this scene was concentrated in the inner suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda, and involved large numbers of short-lived bands, more concerned with artistic expression than commercial success. Frequently changing names, swapping members and sharing equipment, the bands played in small inner-city venues, often pubs, and their music was recorded live and broadcast by radio announcer Alan Bamford on community station 3RRR. In the scene, the distinctions between performers and audience were blurred; many audience members were either in little bands or ended up forming such.
Max Q were an Australian band formed in 1989. Playing electronic music, the band was a collaboration between Michael Hutchence of INXS and Ollie Olsen.
John Russell Murphy was an Australian drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumental session musician who played in Australian and British post-punk, ambient and industrial music groups.
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No were an Australian band, active during the late 1980s. They blended electronic music with nihilistic punk rock, in a similar fashion to New York's Suicide. The band was formed by Ollie Olsen, Marie Hoy and Michael Sheridan, later including John Murphy and others. They released a self-titled 12" EP (1988) and two LPs; Glory for the Shit for Brains (1987), and Once We Were Scum, Now We Are God (1989).
Marie Hoy is an Australian musician and actress. As a vocalist and keyboardist, she was a member of Sacred Cowboys, Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86), No (1987–89) and a number of bands in Melbourne's little band scene. As an actor, she appeared in the 1986 film Dogs in Space, where she performed the Boys Next Door's track, "Shivers". She worked with performance artist, Stelarc, on a short science fiction film, Otherzone (1998).
Ash Wednesday is an Australian musician, who played in JAB, Models and Einstürzende Neubauten.
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