Jane Gazzo went to primary school with Scott Carne’s cousin Hannah, and she would pester her for the Kids In The Kitchen singer’s phone number. “She never gave it to me,” Gazzo laments.
Four decades later, Kids In The Kitchen are one of the many bands featured in Gazzo’s new book, I Hear Motion, a poptastic love letter to the Australian music of the ’80s.
“For me, Australian music was all about the synth-pop bands,” Gazzo says. “I didn’t care much for the giants of the scene: Cold Chisel, the Oils or The Angels. Their music just didn’t speak to me. It was all about the pop tunes and the fashionable haircuts, the creativity and cheekiness of the time.”
I Hear Motion is a classic coming-of-age tale – for Gazzo and Australian music. She is the co-founder of Sound As Ever, the wildly successful Facebook page that focuses on Australian indie music of the ’90s. But it was in the ’80s, when Australian music diversified from its pub rock roots, that Gazzo fell in love with the local sounds.
Gazzo says she was a misfit of a kid, but music gave meaning to her young years. She religiously watched Countdown on Sunday nights and raced to the newsagents every Tuesday to buy Smash Hits.
And at weekends, Gazzo and her friends would scour the white pages, ringing all the Canhams, Sterrys and Ceberanos, hoping to find one of their favourite stars. Their biggest success was speaking to Kate Ceberano’s mum. “She informed us Kate wasn’t home, but could she help us? ‘We just wanted to say hello,’ we nervously replied. ‘Well, I’ll pass the message on. Thank you, girls.’ Cue delighted screams!”
Amidst the screaming were some fine pop songs. The music mattered. I remember chatting with the late, great Paul Gray about when Molly Meldrum ripped up a copy of RAM on Countdown to protest a bad review of Wa Wa Nee’s debut album. “Boy, the kids took their pop music seriously back then,” Gray smiled.
“Pop songs spoke to us,” Gazzo writes. “Image was everything, and our popstars had personalities. When I look at the chart-toppers of today, they all seem to blend into one another in a cookie-cutter fashion … but every generation thinks that about modern music, right?”
I Hear Motion transports you back to the days of innocence, when you’d listen to your local radio station all day long, hoping they’d play your favourite song.
But as you’re thrust back to the era of fingerless gloves and leg warmers, you’ll also be struck by a serious thought: Have these artists got the respect they deserve?
As Kids In The Kitchen suggested, it’s time for a change in mood. ARIA should do more to recognise and celebrate Australian pop music from the ’80s.
Of the 82 inductees into the Hall of Fame, just a handful could be considered as ’80s pop acts – Men At Work, Icehouse, Mental As Anything, Models and Kylie. It’s like the ’80s didn’t exist.
“There was such a resistance and a superiority complex from many rock acts towards these guys who wore make-up and dressed a little differently,” radio star Lee Simon notes in the preface. “It would have been a much more powerful and prevalent music genre had there not been so much oppression from the industry and from other musos.”
Sure, some critics might have cringed, but the fans loved ’em, and all of the bands featured in I Hear Motion had massive live followings – even if they weren’t playing the typical brand of pub rock. And many of the artists had significant international success, with Models, Pseudo Echo, Real Life, and Wa Wa Nee all scoring Top 40 hits in the US. “I definitely think the Australian scene came of age in the ’80s as far as international eyes, or ears, were concerned,” Jenny Morris says.
The voice of Countdown, Gavin Wood, contributes the foreword, saying “you will get a whole new appreciation of the struggle it took to make it in the fickle ’80s music industry”.
“There are definite themes,” Gazzo says. “Band mates falling out with each other, the sacrifices and compromises made, ridiculous amounts of money spent on producers and video clips, and wrong decisions made by management.”
Grace Knight reveals a terrific tale of revenge in Adelaide. “I was terribly unhappy with our management for a time in the Eurogliders because I was so annoyed about the money and the lack of it, and the amount of work we were doing … I was so annoyed, and very, very angry, that I put a poo in his briefcase.”
Four days later, the manager was back in his office and complaining about the smell. “I don’t know,” he said, “this smell of poo has followed me since we left Adelaide.”
Boom Crash Opera reveal that their American assault stalled when their single Talk About It – produced by Jimmy Iovine – stiffed. A planned US tour was called off, with two days’ notice. “I got the call as I was packing my bags,” Peter Farnan reveals. “That pretty much broke all of our hearts.”
Like the 1984 Shakin’ compilation, I Hear Motion is all killer, no filler. The book is packed with nuggets.
Do-Re-Mi’s A&R manager, Bruce Butler, claims that Deborah Conway wrote Man Overboard about her break-up with boyfriend Paul Hester.
Real Life knocked back a European tour with Queen.
Scott Carne went on a date with Frank Zappa’s daughter, Moon Unit. “Frank opened the front door, took one look at me and told her she was to bring her younger sister on the date too.”
Sean Kelly remembers a UK review of Local and/or General. “It said I sounded like David Bowie being boned up the arse.”
Geisha landed a major deal with EMI after initially sending a blank demo tape. “They actually thought we had a great sense of humour, though it wasn’t planned,” laughs singer Chris Doheny. “Probably if we’d sent the music, they wouldn’t have been interested.”
Venetians singer Rik Swinn was the stepdad of actor Naomi Watts.
Machinations became the innocent victims of a crime investigation. CBS boss Tommy Mottola wanted to sign the band, but when they called him, he said he couldn’t talk because his phone was tapped.
“Sony was involved in a payola scandal,” explains singer Fred Loneragan. “We didn’t hear from him for about six weeks. The label he was going to sign us to folded and everything went dead. We were so close!”
Ollie Olsen reveals that Michael Hutchence called him in 1997 and suggested doing a second Max Q record. Sadly, the INXS singer died before they could get together to chat about the project.
Most of all, I Hear Motion shows that Australia produced some gems in the age of acid wash.
“Have you heard So Much For Love by Venetians recently?” Gazzo asks. “It still packs a punch.”
The hair was big, and the music was bold and colourful, filled with magical melodies. “As much as people criticise the ’80s for bad hair and bad clothing, I think a large percentage of the songs actually had melody,” points out Eurogliders’ Bernie Lynch. “They were songs that you could sing along with.”
“No one really gave credit to the creativity of the songwriting, the performance and the showbiz side of it,” Lee Simon believes. “But there was a big market out there and these songs of the era have certainly lasted the distance. You only need to read the YouTube comments on most of the music videos to know how fondly these bands are remembered.”
Guilty pleasures? There’s nothing to be guilty about because these are great pop songs. And it’s time these acts got a little respect. Eighties pop is unfairly derided. The Hall of Fame shouldn’t be sugar-free.
As Lee Simon observes, “I think this book will have a lot of people reassessing who they consider to have been seminal in the development and influence of Australian music, other than the usual suspects.”
Kudos to Jane Gazzo – and the team at Melbourne Books – for shining a light on the undersung pop heroes and heroines of the ’80s. I Hear Motion shows that despite having enjoyed her own high-profile entertainment career, Gazzo remains, at heart, a superfan.
And she now has Scott Carne’s phone number.
I Hear Motion is out now. The book is available to purchase via Melbourne Books.
