Alternative TV are an English band formed in London in 1977. Author Steve Taylor writes: "Alternative TV pioneered reggae rhythms in punk and then moved on to redefine the musical rules".
The Screaming Tribesmen were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1981 by mainstay Mick Medew on lead vocals and lead guitar. With various line-ups they released three studio albums, Bones and Flowers, Blood Lust (1990) and Formaldehyde (1993), before disbanding in 1998. They reformed in 2011 for performances until June 2012. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described how they, "fashioned a memorable brand of 1960s-inspired pop rock that combined equal parts existential lyric angst, melodic inventiveness and strident guitar riffs."
The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, 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.
Laughing Clowns, sometimes written as The Laughing Clowns, were 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.
Belinda "Lindy" Morrison is an Australian musician, activist and social worker originally from Brisbane, Queensland. After starting her career working for a new Queensland branch of the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1972, and starting to play drums at about the same time, she became the drummer for female-led punk band Zero in 1978 and then joined Robert Forster and Grant McLennan to became the third member of the Go-Betweens in 1980.
The Riptides were an Australian power pop group which was formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1977 as The Grudge. Their founding mainstay was Mark Callaghan on lead vocals, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and as principal songwriter. Former member Michael Hiron died in 2001.
Tactics are a post-punk group which formed in Canberra in 1977. The line-up changed periodically, with songwriter and vocalist, David Studdert, as the mainstay. They released four studio albums, My Houdini, Glebe, Blue and White Future Whale (1986) and The Great Gusto (1990). Which were critically acclaimed and they were respected for the quality of their live performances. However, they did not achieve wider commercial success and remained largely unacknowledged outside of the alternative independent music scene. Their reputation for running against the grain musically, lyrically, and stylistically was described by Bob Blunt as "frenetic, discordant, [and] full of unusual rhythms." Tactics disbanded late in 1989 and Studdert relocated to London. Since then, Tactics have played in Sydney 2006, 2008 and 2019). David Studdert has played periodically with ex-Tactics members in other projects.
Grant William McLennan was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. He co-founded the Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977 and issued four solo albums: Watershed (1991), Fireboy (1992), Horsebreaker Star (1994) and In Your Bright Ray (1997). He collaborated with other artists on side projects. In May 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association called his "Cattle and Cane" (1983) one of its top 30 Australian songs of all time.
Amanda Gabrielle Brown is an Australian composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. She was the violinist of Australian indie rock band The Go-Betweens (1986–1989): recorded on their studio albums, Tallulah (1987) and 16 Lovers Lane (1988). Brown has also worked as a session musician and, since 2000, as a screen music composer. She won the AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score in 2020 for Babyteeth (2019) and also Best Original Music Score in a Documentary for Brazen Hussies (2020). At the APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards of 2009 she won Best Music for a Documentary for Sidney Nolan: Mask and Memory (2008) and Best Music for a Television Series or Serial for The Secrets She Keeps at the 2020 ceremony.
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 highest-charting hit in both Australia and the United Kingdom. The follow-up single, "Was There Anything I Could Do?", was a number-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.
Catholic Discipline was an American punk rock band, formed in 1979 in San Francisco, California, by Slash Fanzine editor Claude Bessy. The initial line-up of the band featured Bessy on vocals, Phranc on guitar, Rick Brodey on bass guitar, Richard Meade on keyboards and Craig Lee on drums.
The Manikins were an Australian punk rock and new wave band from Perth, Western Australia. Founding mainstay Mark Betts (drums) was joined by various lead vocalists, Robert Porritt, Christine Bodey and Christine Anne Trent. They issued a self-titled album in 1988 before disbanding in the early 1990s.
The Hitmen are an Australian hard rock band formed in November 1977 by long-term members, Johnny Kannis on lead vocals and Chris Masuak on lead guitar as Johnny and the Hitmen. The group went through numerous line up changes in its first run from 1977 to 1984. They regrouped under a new name, Hitmen DTK, between 1989 and 1992. They have issued three studio albums, Hitmen, It Is What It Is and Moronic Inferno. The Hitmen reformed in 2007; Masuak left in 2015.
A Fifth of Funk is the fifth and final installment of the George Clinton Family Series collection by Parliament-Funkadelic collective members. The album was released in Japan in 1993 by P-Vine Records, and later in the same year by AEM Records in the United States and Sequel Records in the United Kingdom. The compilation's producer and P-Funk leader George Clinton gives his final thoughts about the tracks on the album, as well as his feelings on the entire Family Series project, for A Fifth of Funk's final track. The title is a play on words of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, as well as Walter Murphy's 1976 disco hit "A Fifth of Beethoven".
Paul Adrian Christie is an Australian rock bassist and vocalist. He was a member of various groups including Kevin Borich Express (1978–79), Mondo Rock (1980–82) and the Party Boys. As a member of Mondo Rock he performed on the tracks, "State of the Heart", "Cool World", "Summer of '81", "Chemistry", "No Time", "The Queen and Me" and "In Another Love".
The Aliens were an Australian new wave band which formed in April 1978. They were one of the first local bands of the late 1970s to adopt a "uniform" of "black clothes and skinny, white ties". Two of their singles, "Confrontation" and "Follow that Girl", appeared on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart top 50. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted their "sound embraced guitar-oriented pop rock with the emphasis on 1960s melodies".
John Willsteed is an Australian musician and sound designer. As a musician, he is best known as a member of the Brisbane band The Go-Betweens, in which he played bass guitar from 1987 to 1989, most notably on the album 16 Lovers Lane. As a sound designer he won Australian Film Institute awards for his work on The Beat Manifesto (1996), Vietnam Nurses and Rare Chicken Rescue (2008). He is an adjunct senior lecturer in Music at Queensland University of Technology.
Peter Milton Walsh is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for his band, The Apartments.
Michael William Armiger is an English-born Australian guitarist and teacher. He has been a member of various groups including Paul Kelly Band (1983–84), Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls (1985–86), John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong (1987–88), The Johnnys, The Go-Betweens (1989), and Sean Kelly and the Iron Dukes (1990).
