Almanac Music: Decades of Excellence and Joy

 

 

 

Given the magnificent Regent Theatre in Ballarat is now closed, both The Hardest Line and Stop Making Sense films had to be purchased on DVD, and boy was it worth it.

 

The Hardest Line is a standard music documentary of Midnight Oil but with tons of previously unreleased footage which provide deeper insights into the critical phases of their forty year career.

 

If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing them live I’m sure the power of their performance is something you will never forget. Thankfully the film showed plenty of early 80’s footage as they were coming into the 10 to 1 album and still playing in those intimate pub venues.

 

My memories of such a show in 1981 can be read here

 

There is a brilliant book by the late Andrew McMillan called Strict Rules which documents the Blackfella/Whitefella tour of remote Aboriginal communities in 1986 with The Warumpi Band.

 

The Hardest Line has some fantastic footage to back up what he wrote about, that being ‘The Oils’ well out of their comfort zone.

 

Despite the difficulties and at times utter exasperation, the band returned to the city inspired by the experience and recorded Diesel and Dust, rated number one in The Best 101 Australian Albums book.

 

I was particularly taken by the footage of the 70s and Australia’s cultural position in that era. I still remember the WA Premier Sir Charles Court and the Qld Premier Sir Jo Bjelke Peterson in the late 70s discussing the building of a road directly from Perth to Brisbane, presumably through the middle of Uluru.

 

Why? Because WA and Qld had mining and the other states didn’t matter. The late 70s for me and many of my fellow youth in WA were lost and angry. Midnight Oil and other great post punk Australian bands like Radio Birdman and The Saints were just the tonic.

 

For The Oils to have made it to 2022 with the energy they require to perform is truly extraordinary.

 

Much of the focus does go to Peter Garrett but it’s impossible to ignore just how good the band has been. Jim Moginie, Martin Rotsie, Rob Hirst and the late Bones Hillman have been incredible.

 

I don’t think there’s ever been a band with such a strong social conscious prepared to stick their neck out and they have always been in search of continuous improvement, with no compromises.

 

This is a real treat for fans of Australian music and one to show the kids and grandkids what great pub rock was all about.

 

Here’s the trailer:

 

 

I never got to see Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense upon its release in 1984. I had the soundtrack but missed the film until now with a new HD restoration.

 

Directed by the late Jonathan Demme (he of Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and many others), this live concert was filmed over four nights in LA and then edited down into a couple of hours.

 

Talking Heads were at the end of a 1983 tour of the US promoting their Speaking in Tongues album, their fifth.

 

The band raised the $1.2m to produce the film themselves but were still nervous as the concert film genre was relatively unheard of other than Martin Scorsese’s brilliant The Last Waltz.

 

They had nothing to be concerned with. This 4K restoration is incredible and as a concert it puts you right up on stage amongst the band.

 

Talking Heads were nine years into their career and were as tight as a drum. They had some support from Bernie Worell on keyboards, Alex Weir on guitars, Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt on backing vocals. The result is sheer joy.

 

To the uninitiated Talking Heads music is a bit like James Brown funk sung by a skinny white New Yorker. David Byrne is an oddity and he thrives on the physical, driven by the amazing rhythms of the band.

 

Another superb David Byrne creation from the last few years has been his stage show American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee and now also on DVD. Here’s a review from the cinema showing.

 

The extra disc on the blue-ray version of Stop Making Sense provides a few extra track and a lovely interview with the band forty years on from the concerts. Here is the trailer:

 

 

Both these DVDs will get in your head very quickly, spark some fine memories of a simpler time and give you ear worms for a couple of days. You may be tempted to dance, perhaps a bit of white man overbite even? Both highly recommended. Play loud.

 

 

 

More from Ian Wilson can be read Here.

 

 

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