DIED PRETTY

Title: Free Dirt
Label: Aztec (Australia)
Catalogue No: (avscd041)
Format: CD (double album)
Released: Dec 2008
Price: $ 30.00

Track Listing Disc 1 (Free Dirt):

1. Blue Sky Day (B Myers / R Peno)
2. Round and Round (B Myers / R Peno)
3. Wig Out (B Myers / R Peno)
4. Laughing Boy (B Myers / R Peno)
5. Through Another Door (B Myers)
6. Life To Go (Landsakes) (B Myers / R Peno)
7. Just Skin (B Myers)
8. The 2000 Year Old Murder (B Myers / R Peno)
9. Next To Nothing (B Myers / R Peno)
10. Stoneage Cinderella (B Myers / R Peno / M Atkinson)
11. Yesterday's Letters (B Myers)
12. From A Buick 6 (Bob Dylan)
13. Laughing Boy (B Myers / R Peno)
14. Round And Round (B Myers / R Peno)
15. Wig-Out (B Myers / R Peno)

    Tracks 10-11: From the Citadel single
    Tracks 12-15: Free Dirt demos

Track Listing Disc 2:

1. Out Of The Unknown (B Myers / R Peno)
2. World Without (B Myers / R Peno)
3. Mirror Blues (B Myers / R Peno)
4. Ambergris (B Myers / R Peno)
5. Plaining Days (B Myers / R Peno))
6. Desperate Hours (B Myers / R Peno)
7. Final Twist (B Myers / R Peno)
8. Stoneage Cinderella (B Myers / R Peno / M Atkinson)
9. Everybody Moves (B Myers / R Peno)
10. Towers Of Strength (B Myers / R Peno)
11. Just Skin (B Myers)
12. Wild Child (Lou Reed)
13. Final Solution (Pere Ubu)

    Tracks 1-7: Early Citadel single and Next To Nothing EP
    Tracks 8-11: WERS Boston Radio Live 1986
    Tracks 12-12: Live

Liner Notes

In a career spanning almost 20 years, Sydney band Died Pretty produced some of the most inspirational and emotional rock music heard in Australia. Having drawn on an eclectic and intriguing range of influences (Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Television, Suicide, Pere Ubu, vintage Bob Dylan, '60s pop and psychedelia, '70s progressive rock) the musicians were able to plunder rock's past in order to arrive at a sound that was always greater than the sum of its parts. Deep, dark, emotional, atmospheric, evocative and uplifting: a true harmony of colours and textures. The band members were never guided by trends in music, sticking to their own vision and ultimately sounding completely unique in the process.

The band's history was a long and fruitful one, but at the same time it was littered with the kinds of setbacks that would have destroyed any lesser outfit: continual line-up changes, dwindling record sales, major record companies wielding the axe and so forth. Having evolved from independent beginnings to straddle the corporate rock marketplace and back again, the band members certainly experienced all manner of highs and lows and mixed emotions across the journey. They've seen the best and worst the music world has to offer.

Throughout the formative years, Died Pretty was generally dismissed or ignored by Sydney audiences yet they survived to prosper and went on to inspire audiences across the world. Aside from creating enduring music, the band's saving grace was the consistency of the Brett Myers / Ronald S. Peno song writing team - which was at the very core of their sound - and an inordinate amount of self-belief in order to sustain their creative drive. It's for those reasons that Died Pretty's recorded legacy has stood the test of time.

Recently the band's label, Citadel Records, issued a remastered and expanded double CD edition of perhaps their most highly regarded album, Doughboy Hollow. Now the band's debut album from 1986, Free Dirt, gets the remastered and expanded reissue treatment on Aztec. Just looking at the track listing and the range of bonus material across these two discs is enough to make even the most ardent Died Pretty fanatic come over all warm and fuzzy.

BEGINNINGS

The roots of Died Pretty stretch back to 1977 and the Ron Peno-fronted Hellcats, a wild New York Dolls inspired covers band that shared the occasional bill with Radio Birdman at the legendary Oxford Funhouse. Ron was variously known as Riggy or Ronnie Pop at the time (in honour of his most obvious influence, a certain Iggy Pop). Guitarist Charlie Georgees was a rock solid player capable of tearing off scorching solos at will. Drummer Mark Kingsmill was, even then, one of the best drummers on the scene. Sadly, the band never got the opportunity to record and split up when Birdman went overseas in early 1978.

Peno disappeared for a time, ending up in Brisbane where he resurfaced in 1979 as frontman for The 31st. This was an early supergroup of sorts, involving guitarist Mick Medew, bassist Tony Robertson, drummer Chris Welsh and, later on, guitarist Brad Shepherd. Those names would be familiar to anyone with an interest in the history of Australian independent music. Shepherd later recalled that Peno used to dance wildly up the front to the sounds of his band the Fun Things, so the singer was certainly keeping a close eye on proceedings on the Brisbane alternative scene.

This potentially brilliant aggregation embraced a sound that was heavily influenced by hard rock and '60s acid punk, but split up before releasing any records. They did, however, put down a set of four demo tracks which have done the collector rounds for many years. By all accounts The 31st was loathed on the Brisbane scene because, in the post-punk haze of 1980, it was very unfashionable to be in a 'rock' band. Among the band's early classics were such Medew / Peno-penned songs as 'Igloo' and 'A Stand Alone' which Medew later made his own with The Screaming Tribesmen. Interestingly, in the very last days of The 31st (early 1981) when Peno and Medew were the only original members left, just before the band evolved into the Tribesmen, they played a couple of gigs under the name of The Died Pretty which the singer had come up with.

Also playing around the Brisbane traps at the same time was a young band called The End. Guitarist / singer Brett Myers was a Velvet Underground devotee who had formed The End during February 1979 specifically to fulfil his desire to play a heavily VU-influenced brand of music. Alongside Myers, the original End line-up comprised Andrew Massey (bass), Murray Davis (keyboards) and Colin Barwick (drums). Massey was soon replaced by Jonathan Lickliter.

Myers tastes were broad and as well as the Velvet Underground, The End covered songs by Wire, New York Dolls, The Stooges, Destroy All Monsters, Eno, The Feelies, Pere Ubu and The Ronettes. Myers also contributed a small but steadily increasing number of original songs that eventually included 'Birthday Boy', 'Just Skin', 'Lost', 'Through My Heart', 'White World' and 'My Confession'. Although gigs around Brisbane were few and far between, The End built up a cult following playing alongside the likes of The Go-Betweens, The Riptides, Razar, The 31st, The Apartments and Fun Things.

In September 1981, The End issued the single 'My Confession' b/w 'White World' (EMI Custom 13199) in a pressing of only 300 copies. The single was a moody evocation of the future Died Pretty sound with Myers' resonant guitar lines and Davis' spooky keyboard fills.

FUTURE

Around this time Myers realised that there was no future for The End in Brisbane, and following a couple of Sydney tours the band decided to relocate there permanently in January 1982. Within months of hitting Sydney, Barwick, Davis and Lickliter had left to be replaced by John Purcell (guitar; ex-Moving Parts), Cameron Hume (bass; ex-Hope Is A New Coat) and David Rowley (drums; ex-Jump Vision).

This line-up was less unique in a way, but at the same time the band's sound became tougher and Myers' song writing more focused. The End continued to work infrequently until May 1983 when, discouraged by a lack of success, they split up. In early 1984, Hot Records prepared a self-titled cassette of End material for release, but despite a handful of pre-release copies being sent out for promotion the cassette mysteriously never made it to general release. This fascinating and ultra-rare artefact comprised a mix of early studio demos, rehearsal tapes and live material, including versions of 'Just Skin', 'Through My Heart' and 'Lost', all of which later found their way into the Died Pretty repertoire. Just before the demise of The End, Myers contributed a version of 'Just Skin' to the EP Carnival of Souls (HOT 709), attributed to No Dance which also featured Wet Taxis' Louis Tillett and the Celibate Rifles' Damien Lovelock.

It was around April 1983 that Myers joined forces with keyboardist Frank Brunetti as an experimental, Suicide-styled duo accompanied by a drum machine. Brunetti was a music journalist with RAM (Rock Australia Magazine) and had played organ in bubblegum band Super K (alongside bass player Clyde Bramley and ex-31st / Fun Thing Brad Shepherd). Brunetti and Bramley co-wrote the B-side ('Go-Go') of the band's 'Recurring Nightmare' single for GREEN (LRS 693; later reissued as Citadel CIT 016). Brunetti's technical proficiency on keyboards was rudimentary at best, but was perfectly suited to the Died Pretty framework because he knew how to play within his limitations and was adept at contributing exactly what was necessary to enhance a song rather than play too many notes.

When The End broke up, Myers and Brunetti invited Peno to join the fledgling Died Pretty as singer. Rob Younger also sat in on drums for a time, with Mick Medew occasionally playing bass. The arrangement was tentative at best, and Younger eventually left in frustration (anyway, he'd received the call to support Iggy Pop on his July 1983 Australian tour and subsequently formed The New Christs).

When interviewed for Prehistoric Sounds magazine some years ago, Myers recalled: "I knew Frank, he'd written a couple of articles about The End; we just got friendly from that. Frank had a good sensibility for music. He knew what was crap and what was good and I needed someone like that. He just said we should form a band like Suicide and to get Ron in to sing. When Ron had been in The 31st he was a big fan of The End and he came up to me and said 'you're band's really good but you need a singer' and I was the singer and I said 'oh do I' and he said 'yes, and I'm it!'. 'Oh, okay'. But he did love the band. We moved down to Sydney and Ron had already moved back down as well. The End had different permutations and Ron and I use to hang out and he ended up getting on stage a couple of times to sing with us. He can't help himself sometimes."

"So we got Ron involved but he'd moved to Gosford by this stage, and that was hell because we used to have to get him down on weekends. We got him down enough to work on songs, but sometimes he wouldn't turn up, he'd disappear. At first we had the little drum machine but then we got Rob involved. We rehearsed for a couple of months and it was sounding good, we were going to get some gigs but Ron stopped turning up to rehearsals. Rob got fed up and just left; then he got The New Christs going anyway. I didn't think that our band was his main project or anything, but he was just kind enough to sit in. Then I told Ron 'the band is over, you fucked up', so he got all upset. So he actually moved down to Sydney and he said 'look, I'm here now, I'll turn up to rehearsal' so we decided to resurrect the band.""

Myers ploughed ahead and invited his old End mates Lickliter and Barwick to join. Their first half dozen gigs were under the name Final Solution until someone pointed out it was a rather inflammatory name, relating to certain events in WWII. Myers: "We just didn't think of the link, we were just named after that Pere Ubu song". Peno revived the name Died Pretty and because no one else came up with anything better the name just stuck. Early gigs were sparse, with just the occasional appearance at the Trade Union Club, Selinas, the Vulcan hotel or the Strawberry Hills. By the time the band came to record a single in January 1984 they had yet to make an impact around Sydney.

The Sydney independent circuit at the time was incredibly vibrant, a hotbed of activity which produced an amazing array of extremely talented and important bands. Died Pretty's contemporaries included the likes of Wet Taxis, The Screaming Tribesmen, The Moffs, Flaming Hands, Melting Skyscrapers, Hoodoo Gurus, Celibate Rifles, The New Christs, Sunnyboys, The Johnnys, The Crystal Set, The Lime Spiders, Salamander Jim, Beasts of Bourbon and many other celebrated indie bands.

'Out of the Unknown' b/w 'World Without' (CIT 007) came out on Citadel in April 1984. It was just one of those otherworldly singles that made an immediate impact on the listener and continues to haunt and beguile to this day - "Out of the unknown came a face". Producer Younger coaxed an impressive performance from the band and the single immediately established Died Pretty's distinctive sound and approach. Peno's vocals relied on the sounds he was making rather than the actual words he was singing. Myers sang the lyrics in tandem with Peno which also gave the sound an unusual edge. On top of that Myers' soaring slide guitar hung in the air with elegant ease, the rhythm section was jagged yet propulsive and Brunetti's brooding organ lines provided a much needed earthly connection.

It's fragile, spacious yet compelling sound; sort of like The Byrds crossed with a psychedelic Television by way of an existential manifesto. To add to the bewildering array of sounds, Peno recited a few lines from a poem by Gregory Corso as the song drew to a close. 'Out of the Unknown' was as far from Sydney's post-Birdman Detroit rock 'n' roll obsession as you could get, yet it sprang from an urban reality that was distinctly Sydneybased and totally unique to boot. As an aside, the wistful melody to 'World Without' bears a striking resemblance to the Mott The Hoople song 'Angel of Eighth Avenue'.

Myers says the single was recorded quickly: "I'd already done the No Dance single at Honeyfarm Studios, so when it came to recording the first Died Pretty single, we got Rob in to produce it and went to the same studio which was like miles away up the northern coast. We recorded for about three hours, finished about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we went for a walk and Rob stayed to mix it. We came back at about 6 o'clock and it was finished so we drove home again. And that was the single. (Ed note: Engineer Alan Thorne remixed the songs at Trafalgar Studios for official release.) Ron was feeling a bit under the weather that day, so the two of us sang together on 'Out of the Unknown'. That wasn't the plan, but I just said I'll sing as well and it seemed to work really well. It was a spur of the moment thing. And the slide all the way through it, I'd never done that before. I thought it just needed something else. It sounded really good so I just didn't stop."

Peno recalls his contribution to the debut single: "The lyrics to 'Out of the Unknown' still puzzle me to this day. I guess it was a state of mind I was in at the time. It was right for the time because there was a lot of head banger stuff like The Lime Spiders around. It was quite an unusual sound for the time. That was the first single I'd ever had out. I wanted to do just one single and get out. I always wanted to be the singer in a band and I used to think the crowning glory would be to have a 7-inch single and never be heard from again. But then everything happened in quick succession. We did that single and then all of a sudden the next one came out and it was 'alright!'. Then the EP came out and we never stopped."

CITADEL

One of the most important factors in the Died Pretty story is the connection to Citadel Records. Like all the best independent record labels across the world, Citadel was the domain of one individual, one visionary: John Needham. From its inception in 1982, Needham steered the label through a great deal of success and critical acclaim. The first 30 single releases on Citadel remain genuine classics, and a track record like that would be the envy of any record label, independent or otherwise.

Attention to detail was always a Citadel trademark; from very early on Needham called for a high standard of recording quality from the bands involved and Citadel's records were immediately identifiable by their excellent packaging, in particular the picture cover for each single. Needham has been quoted as saying that the reason he set up the label was "to listen to the kind of music I wanted to hear" and, of course, no label can attain success without a decent roster of bands. Needham had a deep connection with the bands he released, having been part of the Radio Birdman scene from the early days, so he was well entrenched in the Darlinghurst / inner-city clique.

As with a number of other Sydney record labels established during the late '70s / early '80s (Phantom, Waterfront, Hot, M-Squared etc), Citadel Records was almost entirely genre based. Citadel's releases were characterised by a '60s garage punk sound or a Detroit rock flavour. This isn't meant as a general dismissal of the records, or to intimate a lessening of their worth; after all Australian guitar rock 'n' roll of this nature never sounded so good. Alongside the packaging, you could always tell a Citadel release just by listening to it - surely the mark of quality control and solidarity within the label.

A lot of this came down to Citadel's use of Sydney's Trafalgar Studios as its recording base and the trio of Rob Younger, Alan Thorne and Chris Masuak as its production core. (The first two Died Pretty singles were an exception having been recorded at Honeyfarm Studios.) The very first single release on Citadel was by Needham's own band, The Minutemen. With its acid punk flavour, tough guitar oriented sound, voodoo imagery, excellent picture sleeve and the overall moody ambience, 'Voodoo Slaves' established the stylistic parameters for the label. Died Pretty just took the Citadel milieu on to the next level.

Interestingly, there had been plans to issue 'Out of the Unknown' on Hot Records and then when Needham showed interest Myers was initially hesitant about going with Citadel. "Well, I didn't want to be on Citadel at first. They had what we used to term 'Detroit bands' and Ron had a lot of that heritage and we wanted to make our band a little different. But it just worked out that way. Ron knew John and he was interested and it was basically expedient. In the end it was the right thing to do. We didn't get swamped in the running."

RUMBLING

Not long after 'Out of the Unknown' came out, Lickliter was replaced by bassist Mark Lock (ex-Phantom Agents, Uptown Movers). This line-up undertook its first tour of Melbourne during June 1984; Melbourne audiences really appreciated the band and they made regular return tours for years to come. The following month the band entered Honeyfarm Studios again with Younger to record a new single. Spread across two sides of a 7-inch record, the masterful 'Mirror Blues' (CIT 010), issued in October, was an epic slice of psychedelia.

Brunetti's rumbling, two-chord organ motif opens the song, the driving 2/4 beat kicks in and Myers's slicing guitar makes its mark. From there the song builds and weaves its way through 10 minutes of phenomenal soundscapes. Peno's impressionistic lyrics reference man's archetypal struggle with selfimage, declaring "Gotta smash them mirror blues". The mid-section breaks down to a tumbling 6/4 rhythm with Peno's lyrics focusing on the subconscious: "as you sleep and dream of a sad old scene". When that resolves, the band revives the opening section to take the song out on a high. It's deceptively simple in its structure, and despite the wall of sound generated by the instrumentation the song remains firmly rooted in those two opening chords. It was the embodiment of the Velvet Underground manifesto of simplicity, repetition and all-out noise at its purest.

Myers explains how he wrote 'Mirror Blues': "By the time we came to record 'Mirror Blues' I was listening to a lot of Gun Club, Television, James Chance and the Contortions, The Laughing Clowns. I wrote that song one time while I was waiting for everyone to turn up at rehearsal. I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs and I got bored so I plugged in Frank's keyboard and started doodling. I was also listening to a lot of Suicide and I thought, 'ah, I can write one of those songs'. And I just found this riff and I thought 'that sounds pretty cool'. So I got the chord change and it worked out and Frank came in and I said 'play this so I can work something out on guitar'. Ron turned up and we got it together."

Brunetti describes his contribution to the band's sound: "With my organ playing I'm not a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination. I did have piano lessons as a child, when I was about 8 or 9. Then after playing with Brad and Clyde in Super K, doing lots of covers, I wasn't intimidated by the keyboard, I thought it wasn't too hard. I liked The Modern Lovers, Suicide, I liked '96 Tears' by ? and the Mysterians and I thought 'gee, that's really not that hard, I can do that'. If you listen to the Died Pretty records when I was in the band, I really don't think they could have been improved if I had been a more proficient keyboard player. I think they're perfect as they are. If I had been more skilful that would have upset the balance of the band. I think my playing gave the music a texture really, it added atmosphere and some other level to the music. Most bands around at that time were guitar bands, so organ made our sound a bit different."

The second single finally gave the band the recognition it deserved in Australia. Also, by that stage, interest in the band had extended to Europe. Needham had negotiated a deal with Closer Records in France to license and issue singles by Died Pretty, The Tribesmen, The Lime Spiders, The New Christs etc. The London-based What Goes On label also issued 'Out of the Unknown', 'World Without' b/w 'Mirror Blues' as a 12-inch EP (WHAT GOES IT) in January 1985 which got Single of the Week in Sounds.

By the beginning of 1985, drummer Chris Welsh (ex-31st, Screaming Tribesmen) had replaced Barwick. This line-up remained stable for four years and produced an increasingly impressive body of work. Welsh's first recording assignment with the band was the Next To Nothing 12-inch EP (CITEP 901) which came out in July 1985. It was another outing of moody, epic grandeur.

The four songs encompassed the plaintive 'Ambergris', the airy and seductive 'Plaining Days', the reflective 'Final Twist' and the eight minute progressive masterpiece 'Desperate Hours' (which remained in the band's live set for many years). It was a flawless record with each member contributing just the right amount of nuance to the proceedings. Guest musician Joe Borkowski played cello on 'Plaining Days'.

Critical acclaim was immediate. It's worth quoting from the review of Next To Nothing that this writer contributed to Juke magazine (October 1985): "Desperate Hours' and 'Final Twist' may well be the best rock and roll songs released this year by an Australian band. And 'Ambergris' and 'Plaining Days', although softer, aren't that far behind. These tracks combine and transcend the best features of the band's two previous singles, the classic 'Out of the Unknown' and the epic 'Mirror Blues'. Not only do the songs breathe but also they literally pulse with life and energy. They're alternatively tense and melodic, brooding and urgent. For a near perfect record this year you can't go past Next To Nothing. It's that good."

Myers explains the band's sound: "We always had that mix of introspective, moody ballads and then extended freakout, intense songs. Sometimes the two were combined, something like 'Desperate Hours'. It's those two elements put into one. Again, for me that's a Velvets thing. They'd have beautiful songs like 'Sunday Morning' and 'I'll Be Your Mirror' and then they'd have 'Heroin' next to that. That is definitely a hangover from my obsession with the Velvets. 'Desperate Hours' has got that intense, long arrangement, that melancholy beautiful edge to it and lots of loud guitars which is really integral to the band. Then again, we do have a pop side, which everyone in the band is into; we just love pop music. 'Blue Sky Day' on the first album is just pop."

"When we did Next to Nothing I wanted that to be our first album. That was in 1985 but John said we had to do a couple more singles before we did our first album. On Next to Nothing I thought we were pretty ready to go."

Brunetti: "I think recording Next to Nothing at Trafalgar was important for the band, a proper studio with a really good and experienced engineer and having Rob there it really contributed to the sound, he was more of a facilitator and he had good ideas. Next to Nothing was a quantum leap from what we'd previously done. Although there's a charm to that more basic kind of stuff on the early singles I think they suffer a bit in comparison to the EP which has got a kind of grandeur to it, a kind of extra texture to it. That was a direct result of having gone to a better studio."

By the end of 1985 the band's live repertoire included originals such as 'Mirror Blues' (which often pushed the 15 minute mark), 'Out of the Unknown', 'Desperate Hours', 'Ambergris', 'Round and Round', 'Wig-Out' and another great song that remained unrecorded 'To Sleep and Dream', plus covers of Neil Young's 'When You Dance', Captain Beefheart's 'Grow Fins', Lou Reed's 'Wild Child' (sung by Myers), and Pere Ubu's 'Final Solution'.

We've included early live versions of 'Wild Child' and 'Final Solution' as bonus tracks. Myers says the choice of covers was really just to do with songs he liked: "They're just songs that I liked, from bands and singers that I admired. I didn't want to do an obvious Lou Reed song; that first album is pretty obscure in his canon and I liked it and wanted to do something less well known. Also I wanted the songs to blend in with what we were doing. I sang that song, Ron liked to have a rest every now and then and he'd toddle off stage. Actually, my thinking at the time was 'right, I've done lots of Velvet Underground covers, I'm in this new band now so I'll move on to Lou Reed solo'. So we also did 'Kill Your Sons' from Sally Can't Dance and 'Oh Jim' from Berlin. My thinking was: Velvet Underground was The End; Lou Reed solo was Died Pretty."

"Final Solution', well Pere Ubu was always a big influence especially their early singles and first album, that was a lot of what I really wanted to do. Have an arty band that had a lot of rock as well. That was the hard thing to do, but they did it really well initially. 'Final Solution' seemed to be the song of theirs to do. That was one of the very early songs we did, we used to do that when we had the drum machine before we had a drummer. In fact we were called Final Solution for at least the first half a dozen gigs."

Brunetti: "Brett and I bonded over a lot of bands, the Velvet Underground originally and we liked The Modern Lovers, Suicide and Pere Ubu. What I really liked about Pere Ubu, and it was also true of the Velvet Underground too, they were the perfect cross between a garage band and an art band and in Sydney at that time most bands tended to be one or the other. We wanted to combine both."

Next To Nothing came out in Britain on What Goes On. While Next To Nothing was sitting at #1 on the local independent chart, the band scored the Australian tour support slot to Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Citadel later gathered together the two singles and the EP for reissue on the album Pre-Deity (CITLP 510) in May 1988.

For the band's next recording, Needham finally gave the go ahead for a full length album. The band had been in existence for two and a half years already, and the stockpile of Myers / Peno-penned material had reached overload. They recorded a set of 12 demos, mostly new material where they sketched out the arrangements and tested each songs worth. The recording quality is, understandably, lo-fi and a few songs were abandoned but for this release we've included four of the best tracks: 'Wig- Out', Dylan's 'From a Buick 6', 'Laughing Boy' and 'Round and Round'.

The resultant Free Dirt album, produced by Younger at Trafalgar, was a magnificent release featuring a cornucopia of rich and diverse material yet there was a suggestion that the band failed to surpass the quality captured on Next To Nothing. All the same tracks like 'Life to Go (Landsakes)', 'Just Skin', 'The 2000 Year Old Murder', 'Next To Nothing', 'Blue Sky Day' and 'Through Another Door' were not easy to dismiss or ignore.

For the most part, the frame of reference for the album relied on the 'Mirror Blues' / 'Desperate Hours' heavy progressive approach ('Life to Go', 'Just Skin', 'Next to Nothing', 'Laughing Boy') at the expense of lighter fare. All the same, the chiming 'Blue Sky Day' was pure pop and 'The 2000 Year Old Murder' reworked the 'Final Twist' mood with gorgeous results. The country-tinged 'Through Another Door' was a beautifully reflective note on which to end the album.

SUPERB

Myers' guitar playing is superb across the album (in particular, check out his 'I Heard Her Call My Name' inspired freak-outs on 'Just Skin' and 'Next to Nothing'). He has been quoted as saying his favourite guitarists were Lou Reed, Neil Young, Tom Verlaine and Jimi Hendrix.

Guests this time around included Louis Tillett (piano on 'Life to Go'), The Triffids' Graham Lee (pedal steel on 'Through Another Door'), John Papanis (mandolin on 'Blue Sky Day'), Julian Watchhorn (violin on 'Wig-Out' and 'Blue Sky Day') and Tim Fagan (sax on 'Round and Round', 'Next to Nothing' and 'Through Another Door').

In his review of Free Dirt for Juke, writer Murray Engleheart had this to say: "Majestic is a term to be used sparingly and on Free Dirt it encapsulates the Died Pretty perfectly; seething orchestrations of sound and emotion that make simply labelling this a collection of songs a threadbare flimsy expression. What they are is symphonies of superb structure and intriguing arrangement."

Myers: "I still really like Free Dirt, I'm glad it's coming out again. It was our first album and it was really important for the band. Those early singles we were still just feeling our way. I think by the time we came to do Free Dirt we'd matured quite a bit. We had more confidence. We were always a bit haphazard live and I think there was a bit of a point to be proven that we were a good band. People in Sydney thought we were horrible basically. We got some bad reviews; we had a bad reputation at one stage. I think it was gratifying for me because I controlled the recording process. And the album was a bit more measured and it was less chaotic when we were in the studio. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. And it was great having Rob there. He didn't do a lot technically but he had a big impact on how we presented the songs. He didn't want to change the songs, he didn't work like that. He would make suggestions but he didn't want to chop up the songs."

Brunetti recalls hearing the album again recently: "I walked into Minotaur books and I hadn't heard the album for a long time and they had music playing in the background and I heard the song 'Wig-Out' and it just sounded really strange. To me it sounded like aliens from outer space had read a book about how rock music should sound and got instruments and tried to do it without actually having heard rock music. I think that's kind of great really."

Myers: "For 'Wig-Out' I came up with the music first, I just liked those droning chords. I think Chris came up with the drum parts. It just turned into this weird droning thing. Then Ron added his unusual lyrics and I didn't realise it at the time but he kept putting these kinds of Appalachian, backwoods, Americana type melodies and inflections over these darker songs. That's where that came from."

The next single, 'Stoneage Cinderella' b/w 'Yesterday's Letters' (CIT 020), preceded the album in June. These two tracks had been recorded at the album sessions but not included. 'Stoneage Cinderella' is a phenomenal pop song with a catchy melody, neat harmonies and Peno's Dylanesque vocal lines. It also harks back to Myers' Velvet Underground obsession with its urban mystique and spiralling guitar solo. The single was #1 on the independent chart.

What Goes On issued 'Blue Sky Day' b/w 'Next to Nothing' as a 12-inch EP in Britain. Free Dirt also came out on What Goes On (with a gatefold sleeve, 'Stoneage Cinderella' added and the tracks on Side Two flipped over to Side One) and on Closer in France (with 'Stoneage Cinderella' and 'Yesterday's Letters' added). The original CD release of Free Dirt on Citadel (CITCD 504) in 1992 also added those two tracks.

Needham later included 'Out of the Unknown', 'Stoneage Cinderella' and 'Final Twist' on the excellent Citadel double LP compilation Take Everything Leave Nothing (CITLP 511) in 1987.

Interest in Died Pretty throughout the UK and Europe was at a premium by this stage, so the band left in October 1986 for an extended tour. They kicked off with a couple of dates in New Zealand, then to the United States for shows on the east and west coasts (including New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Albany and Boston; they played with thelikes of The Flaming Lips and The Chesterfield Kings) which helped sow the seeds of interest in those parts.

While in Boston, the band entered College Radio station WERS and recorded a session for broadcast later. Recording in an empty radio studio during the day was hardly conducive to creating a great atmosphere, yet the band was so tight at this stage that the performances sound positively inspirational. Out of the four tracks selected for inclusion here, 'Everybody Moves' and 'Towers of Strength' were later issued as classic Died Pretty singles.

In certain territories (France and Italy, in particular) Died Pretty was treated as rock 'n' roll royalty, which was a far cry from the complacency the band experienced at the hands of hometown audiences. The band even appeared on a French TV pop show, miming to 'Stoneage Cinderella' on a small set engulfed by lots of swirling smoke and lights. It's a good example of Peno's hyperactive, jittery stage presence whereby he catches imaginary flies or climbs invisible ladders and generally performs in a world of his own making. Myers seems to be having fun, laughing and smiling while Brunetti stares solemnly at his keyboard, concentrating on which keys to play.

Myers: "That tour was a revelation. It was one of the most exciting things we ever did. Prior to that going to Melbourne was exciting, then the next thing we know we're playing in New York. We went to Max's and CBGB's. We played about eight or ten shows just around New York. The response was great. It was still underground then. We got really good crowds."

"When we played that radio session in Boston, we were staying in a hotel in New York, just off Times Square, called the Iroquois and the van would pull up and they'd push us all into it and we'd drive off and wherever we ended up they'd push us out again and we'd just play, get back into the van and head home again. So the van stopped outside this radio station in Boston and we played a set for this College Radio thing and that was just what it sounded like at the time. That was the usual show we were doing at the time. We did half a dozen songs, I just remember it being really easy and that was just another day."

"Then we went to London, we got good crowds but it wasn't quite as much fun. It was more harsh reality. Incredible as it seems now we were getting good press in England at the time, and the English press wasn't renowned for giving good press to new bands then. The real revelation came when we went to Europe. We appeared on that French TV show which was great. We'd played to a few people before but suddenly we're in this huge theatre in France in front of 600 people and it was like 'hmm, this is what it should be like'."

"When we went to Italy it was the most fanatical. We were buggered by that stage because we'd been touring for three months. We got to the first gig and they were setting up barriers down the front of the stage and we were laughing and thinking, 'who's on after us'. Then we came out to play and it was packed and it was 'Jesus Christ!'. Then I played the first chord of the first song which was 'Round and Round' and I was just checking my guitar but the crowd just burst into song and sang the whole song (laughs). We were just like 'fuck!'. It was a reaction unlike anything we'd experienced before."

Peno: "Apart from the obvious language barrier, they seemed to know our stuff and they probably adored me a little bit more than in Sydney town (laughs), you know. They were very warm audiences, especially in Italy. They were very loving and patient. They appreciated our music and we appreciated them. It was a wonderful thing."

Brunetti: "On our first overseas tour we stopped off in New Zealand first, and the first night in Auckland I don't know what happened, but I was walking in a park and I fell over and broke my ankle, just stood on my ankle with my other foot and broke it. So it was about 24 hours before I went to hospital and by that time my foot had swollen up like a basketball. I kept hoping that I just had a sprained ankle but the doctor said 'oh no, you've broken your ankle' and I went 'oh, great!'. So we had this whole tour in front of us and I could just see this whole tour going up in a spiral of smoke. Yeah, so that was that, I spent the first six weeks of the tour on crutches with a broken ankle. It was uncomfortable, especially when we got to New York because New York is the kind of place you need to walk around a lot and I wasn't able to do any of that."

"Then when we played that Boston radio session early in the day, I just recall that it was the most painful and then later on whatever alcohol and medication I was taking once that kicked in during the course of the day and then by night I'd feel great, no problems. When we did the Boston session, I just remember waking up in the morning with a hangover, it was cold, driving to this studio, a College Radio studio and there was no atmosphere, no audience, just a half a dozen people standing around. We just tried to do our best and it actually turned out pretty good. I just remember it being awkward and uncomfortable. I'm glad it sounds good."

"Then the rest of the tour was just incredible. None of us had travelled overseas before so to play gigs in New York, or Boston or Philadelphia, then Paris, London, Rome was great. A lot of people knew our songs which was really gratifying. Even if we had to play a gig to 20 people who didn't know our songs that was okay too."

In all, the band played close to 70 gigs on the overseas tour and by the time they returned to Australia all the members were in various stages of physical and mental fatigue. The band was quiet for eight months until the single 'Winterland' b/w 'Wig-Out (Acoustic)' (CIT 035) came out in October 1987. It was a primer for the band's second album Lost (Blue Mosque/Festival L 38924) which didn't appear until June 1988. There are many more Died Pretty tales to be told but we'll leave the story for now, so just enjoy this expanded reissue of a landmark album.

Ian McFarlane, 2008

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