Text is What I Write

STRANDED
Clinton Walker's 'Stranded - The Secret History of Australian Independent Music' was the first book to specifically look back at the punk and post-punk scenes. It starts with Radio Birdman and The Saints and continues onwards to the early 90's where it peters out due to an increasing lack of interest on Clint's part.

 Voigt/465 get 2 mentions :

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The legacy of Radio Birdman loomed large over Sydney, but even bands like the Thought Criminals, Voigt/465 and Tactics represented an alternative to the alternative.
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OK, thanks so far Clint - that's all very fair and true...

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Partisanship meant that a gaggle of Sydney bands such as Voigt/465, the Thought Criminals, Tactics, SPK and the Ugly Mirrors were drawn together in contrast to the post-Birdman push.

Trouble was, this alternative to the established alternative wasn't up to much either. After the Funhouse closed down in 1977, an anglo punk scene assumed the ascendency at the old Grand Hotel, opposite Central station. After that closed down, a "no-one-else'll-touch-us-scene", as Peter Nelson put it in Roadrunner, developed in such venues as French's, Garibaldi's and Blondie's, 'providing a goldmine of history, events and public rehearsing but not a lot of music'. Simon Bonney left town to reform Crime and the City Solution in more conducive Melbourne.

By 1979, Voigt/465 had released not just a single but an album off their own bat. This was bold indeed. But as unique as Voigt's sound was, it hasn't withstood the test of time. And if Tactics eventually became a great band, in 1979 they were still trying to rise above the Television covers they'd cut their teeth on in hometown Canberra.

But if the music hasn't lasted, some of the people have. When Voigt/465 toured Melbourne, I met for the first time Ken West, a young art student who was helping them out. West would go on eventually to mount the Big Day Out. The Thought Criminals had a huge catalytic effect not least of all in throwing up Roger Grierson, who would play a profound role as an all-round alternative sort of svengali during the eighties. The Ugly Mirrors became Sekret Sekret became the Cruel Sea. SPK's Graeme Revell is today one of Australia's foremost film composers.
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And, once again, all of this is reasonably true. The people he mentions really were the only ones who continued on with music in some way or another and, in the form of Ken and Roger, managed to play a major part in determining how Australian independent music would mutate over the ensuing years. 

I'd argue that the Voigt's music has managed to stay relevant over time. The riposte for that is "I would say that, wouldn't I" but, to tell the truth, I disliked Voigt's material for many of the last 10 years and it's only in the past few that I've managed to see it's value again. 

But, more importantly, Clint is being slightly disingenuous: he was never really that interested in the more experimental veins of music. Song-writing was, and still is, his main passion. It seems to be the thing that draws him back to music again and again. 

And even though I believe that we were writing songs, they were hardly ever written in the standard manner. More often than not we would jam through riffs or chord progressions and then try to fit the pieces together somehow. This was a natural part of the do it yourself, just get up and play aesthetic, especially when mixed with our non-musician status.

Clint's attitude is shown in all it's glory by his one small mention of M Squared, to my mind, one of the most important labels and recording studios to appear at the turn of the 1980's :

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Two other labels rose out of the ashes of Doublethink, M Squared and Grierson's own Green (as in, "It's not easy being..."). M Squared followed on from the Systematic's Doublethink single 'Pulp Baby' as a fount for experimental / electronic music...
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Yes, it may have been experimental but the vast majority of the music created there and released by them was rock music pure and simple. It wasn't just synthesiser's squalling and squabbling. And most of the bands - except for some small bits on Pel Mel - aren't discussed even in passing. 

Although he states at the start of the book that it's a personal history, I'd hazard a guess and say that there will NEVER be another book written about this time period - at least in as much detail. So it's a shame that his personal attitudes and biases have let some great music slip into even more obscurity.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ian McFarlan's exhaustive "The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop" contains so much information that it's amazing how many of the bands mentioned in these web pages managed to get in. However, of the bands that I was in, Voigt are mentioned in a short paragraph under Pel Mel and Wild West are mentioned (with a lot of the other M Squared bands) under Scattered Order. You can access all of this at the Whammo web site.

 But here's the bit on Voigt/454 :

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New bass player Lindsay O'Meara (ex-Voigt/465, Crime and the City Solution) had taken over from Hill by the time the single came out. Voigt/465 had comprised O'Meara, Rae Macron Cru (vocals, keyboards), Rod Pobestek (guitar), Phillip Turnbull (keyboards, vocals) and Mark Boswell (drums). The band recorded one self financed single, 'Secret West'/'State' (November 1978) and an album Slights Unbroken (issued posthumously), before splitting.
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We always had problems with the name of our stuff - either the band name or the album title are wrong somewhere.

BLUNT
The latest book on this subject is called "BLUNT - A Biased History of Australian Rock". It's by Bob Blunt who used to have something to do with the Petersham Inn amongst other places. It's quite a good read overall - iconoclastic and a bit d.i.y. Most of the bands were all past my bed time (in terms of  going to a pub to see a band) with the post 1983 crowd getting a going over. Famous aren't mentioned at all although it really does deal with their time and place...oh well.

But Tactics DO get a chapter to themselves. 
And Voigt are mentioned in a 1998 interview with Dave Studdert...

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Blunt: What was the support network like in Sydney when you arrived?

Dave: If it wasn't for Roger Grierson and the Thought Criminals we would not have survived. Roger was the heart and soul of all that and whatever happened. Most of it came from his drive and enthusiasm. He started labels and made all the calls. He really hassled. He really put his neck on the line. Gradually we were playing a few nights a week. We got this article in Roadrunner, then Roger started putting on these 3 band blls at the Metropole. It was us, the Thought Criminals, and this sub-German industrial noise band called Voigt 425. Voigt were like this very 1960s avant-garde band that hit bits of metal and called it art.
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So, cataloguing this small spiel we get the following :

- I think this is version 50 of the 'Voigt' name . At last we're in the index this time.

- "sub-German industrial noise"? Oh well, there were a couple of noisy tracks and poor old Dave would have much preferred a nice cup of tea with Dylan was playing in the background.

- "like this very 1960s avant-garde band" : that sounds pretty right, in some ways

- "that hit bits of metal and called it art"? I know that we were a bit pretentious but I'm certain I (for one) never called it art! Art-Rock: now that's another matter.

- Roger as 'heart and soul' - probably quite true but only for the chosen few.

The article continues and doesn't mention Tactics first single - 'Standing by the Window' - at all which, to me, is the best thing they ever did. Their first album 'My Houdini' was OK but their next - 'Glebe' - was downright awful. He explains that they only had a day in which to mix it but this can't explain how badly performed it is. I mean, it's even worse than 'Slights Unspoken'!

OTHERS

The first and best book on this whole subject was Clinton Walker's 1982 release "Inner City Sound". This compiled a slew of photos and text (from magazines, fanzines, etc) into a definitive statement of the depth and breadth of the music of the time. Apparently a photocopied bootleg of this long deleted tome was available in recent times : have a look at an email item in Rocknerd for more info.

Ron Rude's web site has a page that replicates a 1980 article by Stuart Coupe that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine which mentions the Voigt/465 album (never knew about it at the time).