Ariel

Melbourne 1973-1977 

Personnel

Tim Gaze (gtr/vcls) 1973-74
Harvey James [gtr] 1974-76
John Lee [dr] 1974-77
Iain McLennan [dr] 1976-77
Nigel Macara [dr] 1974-4, 76-77
Glyn Mason [gtr, vcls] 1975-77
John Mills [kbds] 1973-74
Bill Putt [bs] 1973-77
Mike Rudd [gtr, harmonica, vcls] 1973-77
Tony Slavich [kybds, vcls] 1976-77

 

Biography

The original lineup of Ariel was a genuine 'supergroup', combining key members from two of Australia's leading progressive bands of the period: Rudd, Putt and Mills from Melbourne's legendary Spectrum; Gaze and Macara from Spectrum's esteemed Sydney peers Tamam Shud. Lead guitarist Tim Gaze, regarded as one of the hottest new players on the scene, had also been a member of Kahvas Jute, and he played on their only album, the highly-praised Wide Open. Like its predecessor, Ariel was primarily a vehicle for the talents and vision of singer, songwriter and guitarist Mike Rudd, and his longtime bass-player and musical partner, Bill Putt. Regrettably, like Spectrum, the band began strongly but lineup changes, record company problems and the changing nature of music in the mid-70s meant that they never achieved the level of success they deserved, and Ariel proved to be Mike Rudd's last really high-profile outfit, although he remains one of the most respected figures in the music scene.

Ariel formed in mid-1973, after the breakup of Spectrum. When Spectrum drummer Ray Arnott announced he was leaving to join Ross Wilson's new band Mighty Kong, Putt and Rudd decided to end the band rather than try to recruit a new member, feeling that it wouldn't be possible to recreate the special spirit of the group. Within a few months of Spectrums's farewell performance a new band (its name taken from the character in Shakespeare's "The Tempest") was up and running. Ironically, the two new members, Tim and Nigel, had originally come to Melbourne to work with Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford on their new project (which became Mighty Kong) and it was after they departed that Ray Arnott was invited to join, thus precipitating the split of Spectrum!

Strong record company interest in Ariel quickly led to a contract with EMI's progressive Harvest imprint. Their superb debut single Jamaican Farewell looked set to repeat the early success of Spectrum but it managed to reach only No.34, its success hampered by lack of airplay, especially in Sydney. They toured as support to Gary Glitter November 1973 and released their excellent first LP  Strange Fantastic Dream in December, with writing credits split fairly evenly between Gaze and Rudd. According to Noel McGrath, the album was also the first use of Moog synthesizer on an Australian rock record (?). It fared very well commercially and critically, reaching No 12 in the LP charts in February 1974.

Ariel's second LP was to have been a sci-fi concept album called The Jellabad Mutant, which Mike has described as a "rock opera". But before rehearsals could begin in earnest, the first lineup suddenly collapsed with Mills, Macara and Gaze all abruptly quitting in April '74.

Mike and Bill soldiered on, continuing work on the new material, and in May they approached drummer John Lee to rehearse with them. John, a fine drummer who had previously played in Sayla, Blackfeather and Gulliver Smith & The Dead End Kids, had just left up-and-coming country rock band The Dingoes, after recording their first album and their debut single Way Out West. The three began rehearsing together, and in June or July, as the material took shape, John suggested bringing in his former bandmate from Sayla, lead guitarist Harvey James. Harvey, who was already gaining a reputation as a player to watch, had recently left Mississippi and returned home after that band's disastrous trip to England. Rehearsals continued and before long it became evident that this arrangement had taked on a life of its own. More by accident than by design, this became the second lineup of Ariel. The new lineup cut a terrific single, Yeah Tonight which was released in August -- presumably to keep EMI at bay while they beavered away on the new album.

Thus far things seemed to have fallen into place rather nicely, but it all began to turn pear-shaped over the next couple of months. With writing more or less complete, Ariel demoed their new album at the Double Jay studios in Sydney -- but to their great dismay, EMI Australia rejected it outright. They were now faced with a serious problem. EMI England had offered them the chance to record their next LP in London, but the band suddenly found themselves with nothing to record, since Mike and Bill had spent the year working exclusively on the Jellabad Mutant project. To complicate matters even further, they soon realised that EMI England had made the offer on the basis of the first album and the Ariel Mk I lineup. According to Mike, the news that they were getting a quite different lineup went over like a lead balloon with 'the suits' in London.

Ariel left for London on 12 October 1974 for the recording and some gigging, hoping to capitalise on some favourable UK reviews of Jamaican Farewell. On arrival they began work at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios with producer Geoff Emerick, who had been George Martin's chief engineer on the recording of most of the later Beatles albums and singles. The tracks they recorded there became their next LP Rock'n'Roll Scars. Although Mike somehow found time to dash off three new songs, the rejection of the Mutant project forced him to fall back on earlier material from his days in Spectrum/Murtceps. These songs, hastily rearranged for the two-guitar lineup, formed the bulk of the album. They included I'll be Gone, Launching Place, We are Indelible, What the World Needs (Is A New Pair Of Socks) and a superb new version of Murtceps' Some Good Advice, which showed the skills of Harvey James to the full. The album also included a new version of Red Hot Momma, which had been cut by Ariel Mk I and released as the B-side of Jamaican Farewell. The cover photo features a subtitle, "Before The Mutant" -- evidently an ironic reference to this album's abortive predecessor. One of the three new tracks from the album, Keep on Dancing (With Me) was issued as a single in March '75, but it didn't make the charts.

Despite its troubled birth, Rock'n'Roll Scars is still much loved by Ariel fans. It remains an excellent record and a tribute to the skills of the four musicians -- even though Mike fairly considered it a retrograde step. He has often been asked about recording at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, but it must be remembered that he was under great pressure to come up with enough suitable material for a whole album in a very limited time. Consequently he had no chance to savour what should have been a special experience, and doesn't have especially fond memories of the recording.

Ariel 1975

A rare promotional shot of Ariel (Mark III), the five-piece lineup of 1975-76.

Left to right: Harvey James, Nigel Macara, Bill Putt, Mike Rudd, Glyn Mason

[Click on the image to view a larger version]

Photo courtesy of Mike Rudd

Ariel returned to Australia in January 1975 and the same month they added New Zealand-born Glyn Mason on guitar and vocals as fifth member. Glyn's previous credits included Chain, Copperwine and even a stint with Thunderclap Newman. His powerful voice was a great addition to the band, and the three guitar lineup packed a real punch, but unfortunately this terrific lineup was woefully under-recorded by EMI. Happily though, a high-quality live recording of this lineup has recently come to light, and it's a priceless historical document for several reasons. Made at the Station Hotel, Prahran on November 11 1975 -- the night of the dismissal of the Whitlam government -- the tape includes a live rendition of a suite of songs from The Jellabad Mutant, and it showcases what a polished and dynamic live outfit Ariel Mk III really was. Hopefully, Ariel fans will get a chance to hear this great gig in the future on CD.

It was during this period of Ariel's history that Mike Rudd played a crucial in the story of another up-and-coming New Zealand band, Dragon. Dragon had arrived in mid-1975 and had been slogging it out for several months in wine-bars and clubs in Sydney. Mike had seen them playing around the traps and was impressed enough that late in the year he took CBS house producer and A&R manager Peter Dawkins (and old friend from NZ) to see the group. Dawkins too was impressed -- he signed Dragon to CBS, and on the back of a strong new repertoire of pop-oriented material, much of it penned by new keyboard player Paul Hewson, Dragon quickly shot to to the top of the Australian charts and dominated the late-70s pop scene on both sides of the Tasman.

The five-piece version of Ariel cut just one excellent single I'll Take You High, released in Dec. 1975, and it reached No 36. They made another trip to the UK in April 1976 but while they were there John Lee left the band. He briefly joined English group Dirty Tricks and then finally returned to The Dingoes when they relocated to America. He was temporarily replaced by the erstwhile Nigel Macara.

Ariel continued gigging into 1976, but their progress was again disrupted in March by the departure of Harvey James, who was headhunted to replace guitarist Clive Shakespeare in Sherbet. Opting for keyboards instead of guitar this time, they replaced Harvey with Tony Slavich (ex-Richard Clapton Band) on keyboards and vocals. No doubt facilitated by Mike's friendshhip with Peter Dawkins (another Kiwi expat) Ariel changed labels to CBS and their third LP Goodnight Fiona, again produced by Dawkins, was released on 30/8/76. A single I Can Do Anything was lifted from LP (although, as was almost always the case with both Spectrum and Ariel, the single version was a different recording from the album version.

Lineup hassles continued when Macara left again in October '76 due to "general incompatibility", and he was replaced by another former Richard Clapton Band alumnus, Iain McLennan. The single Disco Dilemma was released in April '77, just before expiration of their CBS contract, after which they signed to Image Records.

By early 1977 the band felt they were stagnating. The breakup was announced in July 1977. Their final gig was a lavish affair with an "island fantasy" theme, held at Melbourne's Dallas Brooks Hall on 31 August 1977; it was recorded live and later released over two LPs: Aloha Ariel and Live - More From Before. A farewell single, It's Only Love, was released to coincide with the concert. The live LPs were later combined and reissued as the 2LP set Ariel Live In Concert.

Post-split, Mike Rudd worked in promotion, produced the debut album for Newcastle pop band Daniel, tracks for Newcastle band Jab and demos for Janie Conway (ex-Melbourne band Stiletto). Slavich and McLennan joined a theatre backing-band for a musical play.

Bill Putt went to study at the New York Conservatorium of Music, and after he returned, he and Mike formed several new groups: Mike Rudd's Instant Replay, Mike Rudd & The Heaters (both featuring Slavich and Putt), and the more electronically oriented W.H.Y., but he was never able to regain the momentum of his early 70s successes -- a lamentable fact which says much more about the parlous state of the Aussie music industry than it does about the talents of Mike & Bill.

McLennan went on to spells in Mondo Rock and Sports. Glyn Mason worked solo for some time, and in 1978 he formed Loose String Band followed by Stockley, See & Mason, with veteran players Chris Stockley (ex-Dingoes) and Sam See (ex-Sherbet, Flying Circus, Greg Quill's Southern Cross), and they recorded one fine album for Mushroom.

Mike and Bill have sustained their enduring partnership over the years, with reunions of Spectrum during the '80s, a duo album in 1996, and a recent Spectrum-Plays-The-Blues album, which took them back to their blues roots. Ariel reformed for occasional gigs with varying lineups, including one final reunion of the Mk II lineup with Harvey James and John Lee, which took place not long before Lee's untimely death in July 1998.

Rather like Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Mike & Bill have been the hub around which Spectrum, Ariel and subsequent groups have revolved, and over the years they've built on the idea they pioneered with Spectrum/Murtceps, with the various band identities essentially function as modules of a larger project. They rank among the most consisitently stimulating and satisfying performers Australasia has ever produced, and their recorded legacy with Ariel deserves far greater recognition.

Discography

Ariel's catalogue is grievously neglected by their (former) record companies. LPs are still obtainable second-hand, but only selected tracks are available on compilation CDs to my knowledge. Mike and Bill are currently working on CD releases of the first two albums )(plus bonus tracks) and they hope to release them both sometime in 2002. Regrettably, during the search for their old material, Mike and Bill discovered that master tapes of many Ariel singles have disappeared, and even more worryingly, they found that both the multi-tracks AND the master tape of the Rock'n'Roll Scars album have also been "lost" -- a deplorable state of affairs and a salutary lesson in the careless attitudes of record companies. Happily, they eventually discovered that Peter Dawkins had his own copy of the RNRS master tape (phew!). We look forward to these releases in the near future.

Singles

Jamaican Farewell/ Red Hot Momma 

13/10/73

EMI 10287

No 34 - 2 weeks 

Yeah Tonight/( I Am The) Laughing Man 

8/74

EMI 10612

 

Keep On Dancing/ I'll Be Gone 

3/75

Harvest HAR10706

 

I'll Take You High / I Can't Say What I Mean 

10/1/76

Harvest HAR10974

No 36 - 2 weeks 

I Can Do Anything / Cypherland Blues 

8/76

CBS BA222218

 

Disco Dilemma / How Do You Do It? 

4/77

CBS BA222287

 

It's Only Love / It's Time we Said Our Goodbyes 

8/77

Image IS 209

 

Albums

2/2/1974  Strange Fantastic Dream  [LP] EMI EMC 2508  No 16 - 8 weeks

Confessions of a Psychopathic Cowpoke [Gaze-Rudd] 
Garden of the Frenzied Cortinas [Rudd] 
Hard Way to go [Rudd] 
Harry V. Dirchy [Gaze] 
Jamaican Farewell [Gaze, Rudd] 
Miracle Man [Gaze] 
No Encores [Rudd] 
Wheezer Grunter Module Threadaboy [Ariel] 
Worm Turning Blues [Rudd]

 

1975  Rock'n'Roll Scars  [LP]  Harvest SHVL614

I Am The Laughing Man [Rudd]  
I'll be Going [Rudd]  
I'll be Gone [Rudd]  
Keep on Dancing (With Me) [Rudd]  
Launching Place [Rudd]  
Men in Grey Raincoats [Rudd]  
Real Meanie [Rudd]  
Red Hot Mamma [Rudd]  
Rock & Roll Scars [Rudd]  
Some Good Advice [Rudd]  
We are Indelible [Rudd]  
What the World Needs (Is A New Pair Of Socks) [Rudd]

 

8/1976  Goodnight Fiona  [LP]  CBS SBP234867

Caught in the Middle Again [Mason-Rudd] 
Cypherland Blues [Rudd] 
Goodnight Fiona [Rudd] 
Hot Sweet Love [Mason-Rudd] 
I Can Do Anything [Rudd] 
I'll Not Fade Away [Mason] 
Redwing [Mason] 
Rock 'n' Roll Lady [Mason]  
Rock critic [Mason-Rudd]  
Take Me for a Ride [Rudd]

 

1977  Aloha Ariel  [LP] Image ILP 775

All I Need is a Change [Slavich]  
Amazon [Mason] 
Disco Dilemma [Rudd] 
Hollywood [Rudd] 
I'll Be Gone [Rudd]  
Illitcit Love [Rudd] 
It's Gonna Get Worse [Rudd] 
It's Only Love [Mason] 
King's Cross Crusader [Slavich] 
Party's Just Begun [Slavich] 
Where Do You Go [McLennan] 
You Keep Me Moving [McLennan]

 

8/1978  Live! More from Before  [LP] Festival ILP795

Coral Queen [McLennan] 
Dark Side of Yeppoon Rudd] 
I'll Take You High [Rudd] 
It's Time we Said Our Goodbyes [Rudd] 
Jamaican Farewell [Rudd]  
Red Hot Mamma [Rudd] 
Rock & Roll Scars [Rudd] 
Some Good Advice [Rudd] 
We Are Indelible [Rudd]

 

1980  Live in Concert [2LP]  Image L45883/4

Double album combining tracks from both previous live albums

References