Dermot Browne
A potted History Of Famous
Famous
formed in Sydney in 1984.
Members
previous bands included
systematics
ya ya
choral
pel mel
limp
via venito
swami
binton/fruitshop
First
gig was supporting Maestros and Dipsos at the long gone, and rarely lamented,
Yugal Soccer Club near Central Station. Who could forget that whacked-out
Polynesian sunset wallpaper!
Last gig
was a rather tragic birthday party for a drug-fucked scenester at the Labor
Club in Surry Hills.
In between,
Famous played to ever an dwindling numbers of mildly bemused punters at
all the required inner city dens, dives and dumps including the Trade,
the Hopetown, the Palace Hotel, the Strawberry Hills, the Graphic Arts
Club, the Evening Star, several clubs in Kings X that probably didn't even
have names. Famous even travelled as far afield as Mortdale and Newcastle,
to more mild bemusement.
As well
doing their own gigs, Famous shared the stage with many interseting bands
including,
Maestros
and Dipsos
Severed
Heads
Scattered
Order
John
Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong
The Tall
Shirts
Plug
Uglies
Lonely
Sheep
Craven
Fops
The musical
influences at play in Famous were quite varied, and often contradictory,
and along with whatever was in vogue that week, included;
jangly
UK pop (Orange Juice, Smiths, Buzzcocks)
disco
(Shanon, Chic)
classic
alt.rock (Velvets, Beefheart)
electronic
/ odd funk (New Order, Certain Ratio)
country
/ rockabilly (Patsy Cline / Sun Records stuff)
Brazilian
/ grown up music (Astrid Gilberto / Nino Rota / John Cage)
At first,
Famous played only originals, but as the years wore on they began to interpret/murder
a wide range well known songs including:
Frankie
Teardrop (Suicide)
What
Presence? (Orange Juice)
Red Cadilac
& Black Mustache (Carl Perkins?)
Slow
Moon's Rose (Slap Happy)
My World
is Empty (the Supremes)
My Head
is My Only House Unless it Rains (Capt. Beefheart)
Venus
(Shocking Blue)
Touch
Me (The Doors)
Jeanne
(The Smiths)
His Latest
Flame (Elvis)
Famous
described in the local music press (Ram / On the Street etc) around
1985 as;
"guitar
pop oddness"
"smartarse
dilettantism"
"a gawkilly
relaxed mood of weirdness and accessibility"
"three
parts Smiths, one part bent humour"
"M Squared
cronies and hangers-on"
"clever
appealing and gifted"
"pop
gone strange"
"lazy
air of informality about them ....balancing the humour with songs of powerful
pop beauty"
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