_{The Mick Medew and Ursula 4 livein Brisbane. Lucas Ciechanowski photo.}

The Barman has put out Brisbane duo Mick Medew and Ursula's new record “In the Zone” on I-94 Bar Records. A bit of background (in case you're still sleeping off an Australia Day hangover...

Mick formed The Screaming Tribesmen back in 1981, and while there have been a number of members (including Ron Peno, Murray Shepherd and Mark Kingsmill), it's arguable that they're perhaps best remembered for their lives shows, classic 1983 single "Igloo", and 1987 album "'Bones and Flowers".  Chris "Klondike" Masuak was a member from 1984-1989.

So, yeah, is this old-man rock? Curiously, the Tribesmen, and Mick's current releases with I-94 Bar, seem to find favour with younger folk these days as well. Curious, I decided to ask Mick a few questions.

Robert Brokenmouth: What were your favourite moments during recording? How have people responded to the CD and your recent live shows?

Mick Medew: "In The Zone" is the second album from Ursula and me (following up 2022's "Love Is Calling"). Some of the songs were a few years old, dating from my days playing in Mick Medew and The Rumours and Mick Medew and The Mesmerisers" namely, "Surfing On The Waves", "In The Zone" and "In My Room". Neither band stuck around for quite long enough to get into the studio and record them, so I started playing them with Ursula and the keyboards helped the songs take on a new life.

_{Ursula takes flight while Mick riffs. Murray Bennett photo.}

When we started recording the album, Ursula and I didn't have a band, but halfway through we were lucky enough to find a great drummer who suited us - Stuart McLaughlin. Ursula and I had a night out at a club in Fortitude Valley called Stranded. We were there to see our friend Sabrina Lawrie play an awesome set and Stuart was playing with the support act, Sarah Stockholm.

Sarah is an indie-synth rock queen up here in Brisbane. Stuart reminded me of both Charlie Watts and John Bonham. Meeting him has affected our lives in a very positive way. After a break, and with the Mesmerisers splitting at the end of 2022, (Bassist) Lois Andrews then joined us. Lois and I have been playing together for more than 10 years, so I guess we must be doing something right! So then we have it! The Mick Medew and Ursula 4 were a band!

Brain Mann was again at the helm as engineer and again proved invaluable. In this period, Ursula and I started writing songs together. Four songs to be exact, and Ursula sings three. It's been a very enjoyable thing having a songwriting partner again. As I write this, on January 3 2025, our first single off the album, "Punk Grandma", was voted number three in 4ZZZ's Hot 100 for 2024.

I think this album has been well received by community radio and I think "Punk Grandma" has hit a chord with people, especially those in our age group. We often play matinee shows now: Saturday and Sunday afternoons has replaced a lot of the late night shows around the city and Fortitude Valley, although there are still plenty of them.

Now that we are all connected through social media, we often get people telling us how our music has affected them in a positive way, from things like forging a life path through to healing. To know you have made a difference in a person's life is the greatest reward as a musician.

RB: Could you tell me a little about your life and muisical partner Ursula (nee Collie) who was in a Brisbane band called Ironing Music in the '90s. How did you come to meet and how did things kick off musically?

MM: When I first met Ursula, I wasn't looking for a life partner, but it didn't take me very long to feel for her. The combination of good looks, a great sense of humour and a positive, fun attitude to life was hard to resist. The thought of playing together never crossed our minds at all at the beginning, but by 2020 we had started playing together and enlisted the help of our frined, Brian Mann, and played our first show the night before the first covid lockdown in Queensland. During Covid, Ursula and I played quite a lot and put together a large repertoire of songs and performed via live stream from our home for the best part of a year.

_{Wedding bells chime for Mr and Mrs Medew.}

RB: How did you grow up? What music was around? (Music for me was a freedom, particularly from the stultifying boredom of everyday, same-old same-old living death...) So ... what music first absolutely moved you, to the point where music wasn't just one more thing in the background... but a life-giving force and perhaps a possible pathway?

MM: I grew up in Spring Hill, in inner-city Brisbane. There were seven of us living in the house. My grandparents on Mum's side, Mum and Dad, my uncle, my sister and me. My uncle played Johnny Cash a lot and I have always loved him. Mum played the pianola for fun. With Radio 4IP, Wings' "Junior's Farm" and Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot" absolutely floored me in my early teens.

I attended the Central Practicing School in St Paul's Terrace in my primary school years and had a most horrific time there. By the time I got to high school at St James' College, things were looking up. They had a decent music program. I saved up money from my paper run and purchased my first guitar, a nylon string classical, at school for $18.

RB: Could you tell me a little about the trajectory of your first band, The 31st? I know an EP was released in 2017 (on LCMR), but what was the story behind it?

MM: The 31st formed at the end of 1979. It was put together by schoolfriend Tony Robertson, who had met Ron Peno in Sydney. The band was also meant to include Brisbane luminary Bruce Anthon (The Survivors) on drums and another friend, Peter Mengede, who would go on to play in Helmet. Both of them pulled out, however, and Chris Welsh, another schoolfriend (who later went off to drum for the Died Pretty), and myself were recruited.

_{The 31st on stage in Brisbane.}

It was an exciting time. I was still finding my feet on the guitar, but by the time we got to record our 4-track EP, the work I had been putting in was starting to pay off. Any band that has a good drummer can sound good and Chris had started on the drums at an early age and was already an outstanding drummer at the age of 17. Ron of course had a very big influence on all our lives. He knew where he was going and what he wanted to do and he had the most wonderful sense of humour as well.

RB: I know people think they know all about Queensland "back then"... but I'm sure they don't. Are there misconceptions about the place, or your history, which frustrate you?

MM: Inner-city Brisbane was a colourful and edgy place to grow up in the '60s and '70s. By the time I was in my late teens-early 20s the thing to do was to leave Brisbane'- and that's what a lot of people did, with The Saints leading that expedition. I guess in the late '70-early '80s, Sydney would have seemed like New York to people living up here. I moved back to Brisbane in 2002 after living in Sydney since 1983.

RB: Being in a band can be a lot harder than it looks to the average punter. And you're still at it, despite the huge amount of hard work involved, but also risk... Could you tell me a little about what keeps you going back?

MM: What keeps me going in music is the fact that I am hooked on playing guiter.I find to write songs,I ahve to play a lot,which I love to do because you really have to grab it by the scruff of the neck to get anything out of it.

_{With the "Top Of The Town" Screaming Tribesmen, Chris Masuak, Warwick Fraser, Mick Medew and Bob Wackley.} 

RB: What guitars were you originally using, what were you recording with, and what do you use now - and, of course, why?

MM: I still have my Les Paul Custom that featured on The Screaming Tribesmen's 'Igloo' and my Fender Telecaster Custom that you can hear on 'Top of The Town' and 'Bones and Flowers'. In 2008, I purchased a 1993 Dark Burst Gibson Les Paul standard.

When I moved back to Brisbane at the end of 2002, I never dreamed I would ever play in Sydney again. In the end it was a habit I could not break because at the end of 2004 Mick Medew and the Rumours was born. We were asked to play in Sydney with The Visitors in 2008. I bought the Les Paul standard because I didn't like the idea of travelling with the Custom on a plane. I have a few more guitars, but the Standard is my favourite to play.

RB: What pedals were you originally using, what were you recording with, and what do you use now - and, of course, why?

MM: I have a couple of Boss SDI overdrive pedals. They go forever! I also have an AD9 Ibanez analogue delay pedal, a couple of Electro Harmonex T20 Loop pedals. One of my favourite pieces of studio equipment is my Lexicon MX 2000 Dual Reverb Effects Proccessor, which is great for guitar or vocals. I used to own a Roland Space Echo RE320 with a revolving tape inside, which i wish I had kept. I used to use a chorus pedal but when you are a lead singer (which is most of the time) I just can't be bothered about clicking on multiple pedals. I have to keep it simple.

_{On-stage with the reformed Tribesmen at the Azkena Festival in Spain in 2012.} 

RB: Our expectations shift over the years - care to share yours with us?

MM: When The Screaming Tribesmen started touring in earnest in 1984, it didn't really stop for me until about 1993. We had a lot of time in the recording studio as well, but we were mostly on the road. I didn't really get to see many bands that we played with due to our schedule. We would turn up about an hour before we were due to start.

These days things have changed, there's no real pressure (which doesn't mean I don't get nervous) and no strict touring schedule and so I now find I am seeing all the bands I play with and I usually enjoy them too. Playing now is more intimate, more social, less stressful. Some of my favourite local outfits in Brisbane are The Glycereens, Lovejoy Surf, Sabrina Lawrie and The Cosmic Shore, KTO (Kathleen Turner Overdrive), Adele Pickvance, The Stress of Leisure, The Double Happiness ... just to name a few.

RB: Quick: 10 top LPs as you think of them!

MM:

1. "Some Girls" - The Rolling Stones
2. "Transformer" - Lou Reed
3. "Funhouse" - The Stooges
4. "Electric Warrior" - TRex
5. "Clear Spot" - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
6. "Living Eyes" - Radio Birdman
7. "Back In The USA" - The MC5
8. "Are You Experienced?" - Jimi Hendrix Experience
9. "Slow Dazzle" - John Cale
10. "Electric Ladyland" - Jimi Hendrix Experience

RB: Ten top singles!

MM:

1. "Union City Blue'"- Blondie
2. "Love Removal Machine"- The Cult
3. "Rebel Rebel" - David Bowie
4. "Big Beat'"- Numbers
5. "Cars'"- Gary Numan
6. "At The Barrier" / "'Seeing Double" - Shy Imposters
7. "Going Down To Liverpool" - The Bangles
8. "Radio Clash" - The Clash
9. "The Wild One" - Suzi Quatro
10."'High Voltage" - AC/DC

RB: Best band you ever saw, bar none?

MM: The best concert I have ever seen would be The Rolling Stones at the Sydney Cricket Ground on their "Voodoo Lounge Tour" in 1994. I had waited my whole life to see them and I was seven rows from the front. A friend of ours had bought tickets for me and a couple of other friends. Mick Jagger was sensational! I thought his voice sounded like the records. He did his falsetto voice perfectly! I remember when Mick introduced the band, he left Charlie Watts last and after he was introduced, the whole audience clapped for about 20 minutes non-stop.

RB: What made you want to be in a band?

MM: Hearing Jimi Hendrix was something that changed my life! I bought a compilation of his called 'Smash Hits' and then sought out 'Electric Ladyland' and everything else he recorded. He had a flamboyance and an understated, relaxed vibe all going on at the same time. Everything he seemed to do was truly magical. He is number one as far as I'm concerned and was the biggest influence on me as far as joining a band goes. I also wanted to get out and make new friends and meet more girls.

RB: What music are you into at the moment?

MM: I'm listening to a very eclectic mix of music at the moment including Khruangbin, Molly Tuttle, Juna Serita, The Glycereens, Dave Graney and Clare Moore, and The Saints.

The Mick Medew and Ursula 4 plays The Stag and Hunter in Newcastle, NSW, on February 14, Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney on February 15 and with Painters and Dockers at The Triffid in Brisbane on May 24. "In The Zone" is out now on I-94 Bar Records.