stephen vineberg

Sedition 2019 is a Celebration of Public Art and Protest in Sydney during the 1970s, running across various venues and spaces this August-September. To celebrate, Feel Presents have put together a live music component featuring some musical giants from Sydney’s fertile post-punk scene of the late 1970s.

Mark down Saturday, August 31 at Paddington RSL for a show by The Aints!, Flaming Hands, Shy Impostorsand The Professors. DJ Dr Rock with be providing the soundtrack between sets. Tickets go on-sale at 12 midday today here. 

Ed Kuepper needs little introduction; as a founding member of Brisbane world beating proto-punks The Saints - residents of Sydney for a short four months in Jan-April 1977 - and Sydney’s post-punk giants the Laughing Clowns (1979-1984) Kuepper is almost single handedly responsible for igniting two musical movements. 

The Aints! is a continuation of those both projects having lain dormant for some 35+ years but reignited with a passion in 2017 that has thus far seen the release of two full lengths albums, a mini-album and a series of scorching live shows.

Flaming Hands and Shy Impostors both sprung from the ashes of Sydney's exclusive Detroit scene headed by the pioneering Radio Birdman during their reign of 1974-1977.

What did your Sydney sound like in 1978? The Professors did their best to define it for their own tight coterie of followers after Radio Birdman left for Europe to seek world domination, by sounding like this. 

Graduates of the infamous Oxford Funhouse, they took their lead from its most notable tenants bysetting up their own venue at The Royal Oak pub in Chippendale, They adopted their name from Chris Bailey's nickname for their singer - and the Saints repaid them with some namedropping in "KNow Your Product." The rest is history aka some photos and a caption in a Clinton Walker book

These two songs are from a demo tape that was exhumed by singer Stephen Vineberg and spruced up by engineer Barry McGuirk just a year ago. It’s been packaged in a gatefold cover by the folks at Buttercup and issued in a range of colours. Just as you’d expect. 

_{Chris Bailey by Bruce Tindale.}

I first met Chris Bailey in early 1977 when I was given the assignment of interviewing The Saints, who had recently arrived from Brisbane, and were staying in a semi-derelict block of flats on Berry Street, North Sydney. The last time I saw Chris was a few years ago when he was playing an acoustic set in a small venue in Draguinan, in the south of France. In between there were hundreds of shows, thousands of drinks and millions of memories.

Others will write about his legacy as a pioneering musician and the lasting influence on subsequent generations. However, today I just wanted to remember two of the times spent together.

In 1977, The Saints had arrived in Sydney after EMI Australia had been instructed by Head Office in London to sign and record them on the strength of their self-released single, “I’m Stranded”. Next door to flats was the office of their recently acquired managers, Together Management, who had been brought in as part of the upsurge in interest from EMI.