MILESAGO
- Solo Artist & Group Database
The Missing Links
Sydney 1964-66 |
Personnel
Early
1964 - March 65 |
Transitional
members - mid'-65 |
July
1965 - April 66 |
Peter Anson (gtr,
vcls)
Dave Boyne (gtr)
Bob Brady (vcls, perc)
Danny Cox (dr)
Ronnie Peel (bs, harmonica) |
David Longmore (gtr)
Frank Kennington (vcls)
Col Risby |
Doug Ford (gtr)
Chris Gray (kbds)
Baden Hutchins (dr)
Andy James (dr,vcls)
Jones, John (vcls,gtr)
Ian Thomas (bs) |
"The Missing Links were a band
without pretence or compromise. In 1965 when they were billed as 'Australia's
wildest group' it wasn't just the usual 'industry' hyperbole or rhetoric
- it was a statement of fact. And it's a fact that still holds true today.
...In early 1964 nothing unbelievably
wild, frenzied or manic had happened in the Australian music scene. It
was just about to."
- Peter Markmann |
Biography
"Legendary" is a much abused adjective in popular music, but there can
few Aussie bands more deserving of the epithet than Sydney's The Missing
Links. Although their fame never spread far beyond Sydney until long
after their demise, and their career lasted barely more than two years,
they've achieved a mythical status in the history of Australian rock. They
were trailblazers for a new era, boldly going where no Aussie band - and
few bands anywhere - had gone before. Rock historian Glenn A Baker sums
them up beautifully:
"Sydney's Missing
Links were the first to play guitars like The Rolling Stones used; they
were the first guys to sport very long unruly hair; they were the first
group to implement destruction into a stage act; they were the first with
a lot of things, bless their pioneering souls."
The Missing Links' are widely acknowledged as the first Aussie band to
deliberately use feedback as part of their music, and they were almost
certainly the first local band to use reverse tape effects on record. They
were one of the first Australian bands to tap into the tough new blues/R&B
style being pioneered by the Stones, The Pretty Things and The Yardbirds,
and they were doing their own extraordinary original material, plus highly
idiosyncratic covers of people as diverse as Bo Diddley, James Brown and
Bob Dylan, when other bands were floundering around on outdated surf instrumentals,
or were content to knock out carbon-copy Beatles impersonations. The Links
are indeed the missing links between rock & roll, blues, R&B, soul,
punk, psychedelia and just about any other style you can think of.
But "band" (singular) is something of a misnomer. Like several other
major Aussie bands of the '60s (The Wild Cherries, The Masters Apprentices,
The Groop) there were in fact two distinct lineups of The Missing
Links. The first lasted from early 1964 until March 1965 and after a flurry
of lineup changes and a brief dissolution, the second lineup settled into
place around July 1965, lasting until April 1966.
The Links Mk I was founded by guitarist Peter Anson. Peter had
been playing in an unnamed trio with drummer Danny Cox (ex-Zodiacs)
and an unknown guitarist during 1963. In early 1964 the guitarist quit,
so Anson's flatmates John and Norm Stannard urged Peter to form his own
band. It was also about this time that Peter and Danny discovered the music
of The Rolling Stones, who were to exert a crucial influence on the band.
They advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald, and immediately recruited
bassist Ronnie Peel and lead guitarist Dave Boyne, both from
Port Macquarie and ex-members of surf band The Mystics.
The new group was able to rehearse at John and Norm's flat in the Sydney
suburb of Ryde - thanks to the fact that their parents were away in England
on an extended business trip!. John Stannard contributed to arrangements
and lyrics, and Norm took on the role of de facto manager/promoter.
It was during these weeks that they picked up second vocalist Bob Brady,
a workmate of Dave Boyne's who tagged along to the Ryde rehearsals. Another
ex-Mystics member, John Jones, was a regular hanger-on; he often
acted as roadie for the group over the next year, and later became part
of the second lineup.
Once they were ready to perform, the process of finding a venue was
facilitated by the convenient fact that Peter Anson's older brother Cliff
was road manager for Billy Thorpe &
The Aztecs, fast becoming the most popular 'beat' group in Australia.
Cliff's connections gave the Links an entree to the Harrigan Agency who
managed top 'beat' groups The Aztecs, The Torquays and Ray
Brown & The Whispers, and they were soon gigging regularly at John
Harrigan's famous venues Surf City, Stomp City, The Beachhouse
and The Pacific, as well as shows organised for them by Norm Stannard.
Members of the band sometimes also stood in for absent Aztecs and Whispers
at these gigs, and the bands sometimes played on the same bills, but more
often it was the Links blazing through the night alone with their hardcore
R&B.
The band stood out from other 'beat' groups like The Aztecs and The
Whispers, both musically and visually. They played guitars like the Rolling
Stones used - a Gretsch, a Harmony, a Fender bass - rather than the still
de rigeur Fender Stratocasters. Their musical influences, helpfully
topped up by supplies of the latest records from the UK, (sent home by
the Stannards' parents), kept them ahead of the game, and the Stannards
'care packages' also included prized Carnaby St clothes - no neat matching
suits for these guys! Then of course there was the hair ...
The Missing Links had longer hair than anyone - in fact, Peter
Anson's near-shoulder-length mane was reputed to have been the longest
of any male in Sydney at the time. It's difficult in these more easy-going
days to realise just how radical and confrontational it was to be a man
with long hair in Australia in 1964. Long hair was the unmistakable, unavoidable
badge of difference and rebellion - and there was nothing tacit about it.
Simply having long hair in those days exposed the Links to constant scorn,
ridicule, abuse and, on many occasions, to physical violence, both threatened
and actual.
In September 1964 they secured a Saturday afternoon residency at the
exclusive Twenties Club in Edgecliff; decorated like a 1920's speakeasy,
it was a favoured haunt of Sydney's underworld. They also took on a gruelling
three-week residency, five nights a week, at the Allawah Hotel, where the
'patrons' regularly threw coins and other objects at the band and the group
had to be escorted out of the pub each night for their own safety. They
retreated to the relative calm of Beatle Village in Taylor Square,
which became their headquarters, and it was here that they first crossed
paths with another Stones-influenced band, The Showmen, who were
to play an important role in the band's future.
On Thursday October 1, 1964 The Missing Links hit the industrial city
of Newcastle, NSW to do a promotional performance for the electrical goods
retailer H.G. Palmer's (in those days, such stores were one of the main
outlets for records, especially outside the capital cities). Delightfully
billed in the advert as "...the latest musical sensation from Sydney
... the new Rock and Roll Group with the 'Rolling Stones Sound' ",
the band set up on the footpath outside the H.G. Palmer's showroom at 297
Hunter St at 12:30 pm and proceeded to disrupt downtown Newcastle until
the police arrived and ordered them off the street. After the appearance
they did an interview on local station 2HD, followed by a gig that evening
at the Tyrell Hall.
Back in Sydney, the Links' reputation was growing fast, so the guys
hopefully recorded some demos (under very primitive conditions), but no
offers were made, and sadly these first recordings do not seem to have
survived. But their break came not long after, when they were invited to
play a couple of lunchtime concerts for Sydney radio station 2UW
at their George Street radio studio. At one of these shows, Albert Productions'
Ted Albert and staff producer Tony Geary offered them a deal with Parlophone.
(Albert and Geary were soon to strike gold with another local band whom
they signed early in 1965 - The Easybeats). RCA had also approached them,
but the Parlophone deal was the more tempting, no doubt sweetened by the
recent huge success of their old Surf City pals, Billy Thorpe & The
Aztecs.
During October the Links cut several demos at the 2UW Radio Theatre.
The five complete surviving tracks are now anthologised on the Half A Cow
CD. There are three ripsnorting originals: the wild original version of
All I Want, (which was re-recorded by the Links Mk II ), Come
My Way and Go Back. The two great covers are Shakin' All
Over, and a terrific version of Kansas City, with a truly paint-peeling
duo vocal by Anson and Brady. The performances and sound quality are of
course a little rugged (most being evidently first takes) but these demos
are a priceless insight into the raucous brilliance of the original group.
Apparently these tracks were cut at the same time that The Easybeats were
doing demos for Alberts, and it's known that George Young was a serious
fan, catching the group anytime he could. Listening to tracks like Untrue
and All I Want, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that The Easybeats
owe the Links a considerable debt. (I challenge anyone to compare the verses
of Untrue and the chorus of the Easy's I'll Make You Happy
and not hear a strong resemblance!)
In November the Links were involved in a remarkable Sydney cultural
event. The famous Royal George Hotel in Sussex St was home-base for a loose
coterie of artists, poets, philosophers, writers, musicians and sundry
bohemian types known as "The Push" (a name adopted from the vicious
street gang who ruled The Rocks area of Sydney in the early 1900s.). Via
connections in The Push, the Links got to know people associated with the
now-legendary satirical magazine OZ. At the time OZ was embroiled
in a controversial legal case, which stemmed from a number of humorous
articles published in OZ, and from the famous cover of OZ#6. The cover
photo (literally, a piss-take!) depicted editor Richard Neville and two
friends pretending to urinate into a recessed wall fountain created by
sculptor Tom Bass, which was set into the base of the P&O Building
near Chifley Square, in the heart of Sydney's central business district.
The OZ editors editors, Richard Neville, Richard Walsh and Martin Sharp,
had been charged, tried and found guilty of publishing an obscene magazine.
Their sentence - six months in prison - caused an outcry in Sydney. Out
on bail pending an appeal, their supporters decided to raise money for
the defence fund with a benefit concert, which was organised and held at
the Sydney University Theatre on 15 November 1964. The Links' rebellious
image suited the OZ crowd to a tee, so they were invited to play.
A few days before the concert, both Richard Neville and the Links appeared
on the ABC's People; Neville was interviewed by host Bob Sanders,
and the Links did two live numbers - their forthcoming single Untrue,
and Route 66. This was to be the only TV appearance by the original
lineup, but it earned the ABC a stream of telephone complaints, and resulted
in the Links being specifically banned from TV pop show Sing Sing Sing
by host Johnny O'Keefe. One newspaper review of the program called the
Links "a particularly obnoxious gaggle of guitar thumpers" !
The benefit itself was a truimph, featuring the Links, plus special
guests. The cast of satirical TV revue The Mavis Bramston Show brought
the house down with a campy send-up of children's staple Puff The Magic
Dragon, cheekily retitled "Poof The Tragic Queen". Another highlight
was actor Leonard Teale. The golden-voiced Teale, a successful stage, radio
and TV performer (he played Superman in a '40s Australian radio serial)
was currently starring in the pioneering Aussie police drama Homicide.
Teale was also well-known for his fine readings of Australian poetry classics
like The Man From Snowy River. On the night, Teale delighted the
audience with an hilarious 'surfie' version of Clancy of the Overflow
( ..."and I saw the vision splendid, of her bikini top extended...").
Reflecting on the event, Richard Neville was fulsome in his praise for
the Links:
"They were wild,
rebellious, accessible. That's how we felt on the inside, that's how they
looked on the outside. Plus, their rock attitude was much more extreme
than the mainstreamers. Johnny O'Keefe with his short hair and tight pants
wasn't The Wild One anymore - If he ever was. The Missing Links made all
Oz 'legends' look so straight. After them, even the Beatles seemed dull;
the Links' genre was much more the Stones and the Animals. If Sydney was
larger then, and they'd written more of their own material, who knows?
If Malcolm McLaren had seen them, they would have died young, rich and
famous."
(Markmann, 1999)
Around this time, the Links also made a brief appearance in a 20 minute
surfing parody called Surfing Roundabout, made by David Stiven and
Richard Neville. It's the only known footage of the band to survive, although
sadly the Links' sound is not heard, being overdubbed with generic surf
music and commentary.
At the end of 1964, the Links moved into a share house in Parramatta
in Sydney's west, which soon became Party HQ for the band, their friends
and local youngsters. Over Xmas/New Year they played gigs at Katoomba and
The Entrance, booked by TV personality and sometime promoter Chuck Faulkner.
On New Years Eve in Katoomba they were virtually run out of town by police
and some angry fathers for their dalliance with some of the local lasses,
so they hastily headed north to the coastal resort town of The Entrance,
near Gosford, where they played to a holiday crowd of 500 at the Memorial
Youth Centre.
Norm Stannard had by this time been replaced by Dave Bond as manager/agent;
he booked some New Year gigs for the band at Ashfield, Bankstown and Parramatta,
and also established a fan club for the group. According to Peter Markmann,
some of the Links' wildest gigs were at Parramatta Town Hall and the nearby
Sound Lounge. (The Driving You Insane CD booklet features
a photo of the Links in action at The Sound Lounge).
A decisive turn in the Links' fortune came that month, and it should
have been their big break - they were chosen as the Sydney support group
for the first Australian tour by The Rolling Stones. It would have
been a dream come true for the group, but sadly it wasn't to be. The tour
(a double bill with the Stones and Roy Orbison) was to be held at
the Sydney Showground on January 22 and 23. Unfortunately, while the Links
wererehearsing in the Manufacturers' Pavilion the night before the first
show (21 January), the promoter, Harry M. Miller, turned up. According
to Dave Boyne, Miller took one look at th band, exclaimed "There's no
way these long-haired animals are going to play tomorrow!" and sacked
them on the spot. Apparently The Easybeats had also audtioned and were
knocked back - so one can't help concluding that Miller was keen to ensure
that the Stones were in no danger of being upstaged.
Their debut Parlophone single, We 2 Should Live / Untrue was
released in March 1965. Although the band were reportedly unhappy with
the sound quality, it enjoyed considerable "street popularity" in Sydney
and it actually got to number 2 in New Zealand (where the group had never
been). In retrospect, it stands out as one of the prime cuts of the period,
and while the sound is undoubtedly pretty rugged, there's a rawness and
vitality in the performances (especially the wild vocals) which carries
it off. We 2 Should Live is a jumping acoustic blues, and Untrue
is a prowling punk According to Glenn A Baker, a complete album was apparently
recorded but never released and all traces, including the tapes, have vanished.
(Peter Markmann doesn't mention this, and it's possible that the tracks
Baker refers to might be the 2UW demos, which are featured on the new CD).
Unfortunately, it was at this point that the original lineup began to
fall apart. Guitarist Dave Boyne was was the first to leave - he was about
to marry, so he decided to return to Port Macquarie and go into his father's
business. His last gig with the original Links was at the end of March
1965 at the Hornsby Pacific. The show started well, but towards the end
a heckler started picking on singer Bob Brady. Eventually tiring of the
harrassment, Brady whacked the trouble-maker in the head with his mike
stand, triggering an all-in brawl which was only broken up by the arrival
of police. Boyne had his car packed and ready to go, and headed north immediately
after the gig. He was replaced by one of the band's close associates, ex-Mystics
guitarist John Jones.
Drummer Danny Cox was next to go, and he was replaced by a wild young
New Zealander called Andy James. Andy (who was born Neville Anderson)
had met the band a few months earlier at a gig at the Manly Hotel, where
he asked to sit in on a couple of songs and "proceeded to blow everyone
away with his wild technique". Andy had played in a couple of Kiwi R&B
bands before arriving in Australia and was (theoretically) on his way to
the UK, but his planned stopover in Australia became permament when he
joined the Links.
The Links appeared as special guests at the 2SM Sound Spectacular on
22 April 1965. The show was a precursor to the soon-to-be-founded Hoadley's
Battle of the Sounds; the first prize included 100 pounds in cash, a support
spot on the upcoming Dave Clark Five tour, a record contract and
a possible deal with Brian Epstein's NEMS organisation. With such a enticing
prize up for grabs, almost 60 local bands competed, and the show, held
at the old Sydney Stadium, was attended by 9000 fans. The Links performed
during the judging, and the eventual winners were the Links' old Beatle
Village comrades, The Showmen.
The Links' lineup over these months changed repeatedly, and according
to Peter Markmann, it's possible that the band actually ceased to exist
for a few weeks in mid-1965. First they lost Peter Anson, who left to form
his own band, The Syndicate; Ronnie Peel was next, around the beginning
of June - he joined Brisbane band The Pleazers, who had shared
the bill with the Links at some dances at Liverpool Town Hall in late May.
Finally Bob Brady left not long after Ronnie. Dave Longmore was
brought in to replace Anson and although he was only a member for a short
time, he's generally credited with introducing the use of feedback as a
major element of the Links' sound. He quit after only a few weeks and joined
the Torquays; later he moved into country music before his premature
death in the mid-80s. Other probable members during this phase are vocalist
Frank Kennington (The Denvermen) and guiatrist Col Risby
(ex-Ray Hoff's Offbeats).
Longmore's place was quickly - and ably - filled by a hot young guitarist
called Doug Ford, who was an old friend of Dave Boyne's from Port
Macquarie. He audtioned for Jones and James at Nicholson' music store in
Sydney, and was hired on the spot. Chris Gray, a longtime Links
associate, and one of their part-time roadie/drivers, also played keyboards
and harmonica, and he became the next member. (According to Glenn Baker,
it was Chris who asked permission to create the new Missing Links, to capitalise
on the act's live popularity, but this is not mentioned in Peter Markmann's
more recent account.)
Whoever was responsible, within a couple of weeks they had assembled
an even wilder outfit than the original. The final members of the new lineup,
who joined in late June/early July 1965, were bassist Ian Thomas and
drummer Baden Hutchins from The Showmen. Within weeks, the new Links
were signed to the Philips label, and in August they piled into the Philips
studio in Clarence St and began recording tracks for an album. Conditions
were cramped and primitve, and they recorded after-hours, without a producer,
using the building's lift well as the echo chamber. Although the songs
were apparently cut with little rehearsal, and some were virtually made
up on the spot, the sessions produced some of the seminal artefacts of
60s Australian rock.
At the end of the month, the first single by the new lineup was released.
You're Driving Me Insane - a wild, piledriving original by
Baden Hutchins - was totally unique in Aussie rock in 1965, and still grabs
you by the ears today. This song is HEAVY in every sense of the word. The
fierce proto-punk vocal by Andy is outstanding, and when his shouted exhortation
"Your radio's too low - turn it up!" cues into Doug Ford's blazing
guitar solo, you know you're hearing one of the great rock moments.
It's firmly rooted in blues and R&B, yet it predicts whole slabs
of Sixties rock which were yet to come: the buzzing guitar feedback and
echo-laden Farfisa organ anticipates Pink Floyd by a good two years; Doug
Ford's slashing guitar work is pure heavy metal, and there's a strong psychedelic
feel to the whole affair. The b-side Something Else is a fun, high-energy
cover of the famous Eddie Cochrane classic. One can only speculate on the
effect for the band if this incredible single had been given the exposure
it truly deserved (only about 500 copies were pressed, and it sold to hard
core fans only) - but was Australia really ready for it?
The new Links built up a small but rabid following with their over-the-top
shows at venues like Suzy Wongs, The Gas Lash, and what was
by then Missing Links HQ, Beatle Village, where, according to Glenn
Baker "...mic stands were thrust through the stage floor so often that
nobody bothered to patch the hole." The Links Mk II continued the proud
tradition of turning everything up full-bore - Hutchins recalls a
gig at The Bowl disco, where the intense feedback shattered a mirror ceiling,
showering glass over startled patrons! Andy James (consistently described
as being "wild" and "out of control") took it to the limit at all times
- common stage exploits included climbing the walls, swinging from the
rafters, and even putting his head through the skin of Hutchins' snare
drum! They devised their own bizarre stage costumes made from dyed hessian
sacks, and frequently appeared in fancy dress outfits, dressed as gorillas,
pirates, gangsters or mummies.
In September Philips released a second single, Wild About You/Nervous
Breakdown. Wild About You was an Andy James original, and it
is, as Peter Markmann succinctly puts it, an "unadulterated slice of 60s
punk mayhem ... almost too crazed for words." Iggy Pop may be the Godfather
of Punk, but you can make a pretty fair case just from these two singles
that Andy and the Links helped to invent punk while Iggy was still in school.
(Wild About You was re-discovered in the mid-70s by Brisbane guitarist
Ed Kuepper; it was a regular part of the The Saints' live
repertoire from '74-'77, and they covered it on their debut LP I'm
Stranded). The B-side, Nervous Breakdown, features an hilarious
mock-Elvis vocal by Ian Thomas, and resembles the sort of rock-&-roll
spoofs that Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer performed a few years later.
It also anticipates the '50s revival' movement by about five years!
On 25 September, the Links appeared on Sydney's newest commercial TV
station, Channel Ten. To the certain bemusement of most viewers, they performed
You're Driving Me Insane on the program Ten On The Town,
hosted by former DJ Mike Walsh.
The third single, released in October, was perhaps the most outrageous
of all. H'Tuom Tuhs (which also appeared on the Links LP) is in
fact the band's 5'40" version of Bo Diddley's Mama Keep Your Big Mouth
Shut - except that the entire track is played backwards! The idea originated
during the Clarence St sessions, when the boys heard the tape of Big
Mouth being rewound by the engineer and liked the sound of it! It is
surely one of the earliest uses of reverse tape in rock history, beating
the Fabs' Tomorrow Never Knows onto vinyl by a good twelve months.
Spread across the two sides of the 7", it naturally enough sank like a
lead balloon (can you imagine Aussie commercial radio in 1965 playing this
one?!) and is now one of the rarest of all Australian 45s, with only a
handful of copies known to exist.
In the latter part of 1965 there were trips to country towns including
Bathurst, Lithgow and Orange, and several trips to Wollongong, where they
played at the famous Zondrae's disco and Wollongong Town Hall. In November,
they made their only interstate trip, to Melbourne, where they stunned
several thousand punters lured by the pre-publicity. (Doug Ford recalls
that at their first Melbourne gig the crowd actually retreated to the back
of the hall as the curtains opened!)
In mid-December the classic The Missing Links LP was released.
Although the band were unhappy (again!) with the mix, it remains one of
the primal Australian albums of the 60s. It comprises a selection of the
group's blitzkrieg originals, including the single a-sides, and a re-recorded
version of the Links Mk I's All I Want. Vocals were mostly by Andy,
but all the other members except Hutchins sang on at least one track. The
other tracks, which also showed some of the diversity of their influences,
were terrific covers of songs like Bob Dylan's On The Road Again,
and Shel Talmy's Bald Headed Woman (compare this track to the Easybeats'
Come And See Her, released early the next year). And of course there
were both the forwards and backwards versions of Bo Diddley's Mama Keep
Your Big Mouth Shut.
On December 18 the Links performed on the roof of the newly-opened Roselands,
Sydney's first shopping mall, and that night they made another memorable
appearance on Ten On The Town, performing Wild About You, but
by this time, internal tensions were coming to a head and shortly after
the Ten appearance Chris Gray left the band.
In February, '66 they played at Canberra's Albert Hall, supported by
local band The Chosen Few, but within another month or so the Links
splintered due to the increasing personality conflicts. The problems were
most noticeable for Thomas and Hutchins, who were becoming increasingly
irritated by the "slackness" of the others. Late arrivals at gigs and lack
of rehearsal were a constant problem, and this grew more and more tiresome
for Ian and Baden, who were used to a more professional regime from their
days in The Showmen. The result was that in short order they both left
the Links and returned to their old band.
As The Links' split was announced in April, Philips released their swansong,
The Links Unchained EP, which ranks alongside H'Tuom Tuhs
as one of the rarest of the rare. It contained four previously unreleased
tracks, all covers. The highlight is a manic rendition of Don't Give
Me No Friction, a track by LA garage outfit The Green Beans,
which the Links cut after they found a promo copy of the Beans' track at
the Philips offices. Turn this up to 11 and experience the all-out sonic
attack at the end of the song - it's as close as you'll ever get to hearing
what the Links really sounded like live. The other three tracks were: a
fine, hard-rocking cover of James Brown's I'll Go Crazy, Sam The
Sham's Wooly Bully and One More Time (check out the nuggetty
solo from Doug Ford on this one). Baden Hutchins had quit
the band halfway through the recording of the EP and he played on only
two tracks, Friction and Wooly Bully; the other two were
cut with a session drummer called (believe it or not) Johnny Rimshot.
Over the years, the Missing Links' legend has grown steadily, carried
on by the lucky few like Ed Kuepper who found copies of the original records
and covered their songs, and assisted in no small measure by national treasure
Glenn A. Baker and the folks at Raven, who have done so much to champion
Australian music of the 60s and 70s. They reissued both the Unchained
EP and the Missing Links LP in the 1980s.
Happily, all our claims about the Links' greatness can be put to the
test by a new generation of listeners. Thanks to Nic Dalton's Half A
Cow label, the Missing Links' entire recorded output is now
available on one CD (which is just as well, since their original records
were pressed in quantities of only a few hundred). One hearing of Driving
You Insane should be enough to convince even the most cynical listener
of just how wild and radical The Missing Links really were.
After The Missing Links:
-
Peter Anson formed his own band, The Syndicate (1964-65),
which evolved into the Wild Oats and then The Id (1966-68), (who for a
time backed Jeff St John), and he was an early member of The Foreday Riders
(1968-69). He still plays occasionally around Sydney.
-
Bob Brady joined Python Lee Jackson (1966)
-
Dave Boyne dropped out of performing, but moved into
production some years later; in the 80s he produced recordings for King
Snake Roost and The Deadly Hume
-
Danny Cox joined The Lost Souls (Mark II)
-
Doug Ford formed Running Jumping Standing Still with
Andy James, and then joined the classic '68-'72 lineup of The
Masters Apprentices, where he and singer Jim Keays co-wrote some of
the classic songs of the era.
-
Andy James relocated to Melbourne and formed Running
Jumping Standing Still (1966-67) with Doug Ford, followed by Andy James
Asylum (1967-68), Southern Comfort (1970), Mother Superior (1971) and Arkastra
(1972-3). His experience in the cast of the musical Hair led him
into acting in the 70s. Andy reverted to his original surname and as Andy
Anderson he is well-known to Australian TV audiences - he has had featured
roles in many Australian TV productions including The Sullivans, The
Bob Morrison Show, Fire and the ABC's superlative police drama Phoenix.
-
John G. Jones teamed up with Richard Wright (ex-The
Groop) in the Richard Wright Group, which continued the Links experiments
with outlandish stage outfits; RWG later evolved into Wright of Waye. Jones
now lives and works as a screen writer in Hollywood, with credits inlcuding
Amityville 3D
-
Ronnie Peel became one of the mainstays of the Aussie
rock scene - after The Pleazers (65-66), he joined Ray Brown's new Whispers
and the Ray Brown Three ('66-67), Impulse (67), The Rhythm Aces (67-68),
worked with singers Bernadette O'Neill and Leo De Castro in The Browns
(69-70), spent time in the UK as a member of Thunderclap Newman (70-71),
reunited with Ray Brown in One Ton Gypsy (71-72), joined the classic
final lineup of The La De Das (1972-74)
and is a longtime member of John Paul Young's All Stars (1975- ).
-
Ian Thomas left The Showmen in 1967 and teamed up
with keyboard wiz Chris Neale in Powerhouse; he released a single under
the name Thomas Hood in 1968.
Duncan Kimball
Discography
Singles
3/65 We 2 Should Live / Untrue [Parlophone
A 8145]
8/65 You're Driving Me Insane / Something Else
[Philips BF 213]
9/65 Wild About You / Nervous Breakdown [Philips
BF 224]
10/65 H'tuom Tuhs Part 1 / H'tuom Tuhs Part 2 [Philips
BF 231] |
EPs
4/66 Links Unchained [Philips PE 31] 1966;
re-released as Raven RVEP 14, 1984
I'll Go Crazy / Don't Give Me No Friction / One More
Time / Woolly Bully
The Wild Cherries [Raven RV 04; 33 1/3 rpm 7î;
limited edition of 1000] 1979
All I Want / We 2 Should Live / Don't Give Me No Friction
/ Wild About You / Some Kinda Fun / Speak No Evil |
Albums
12/65 The Missing Links (LP) [Philips
PDS 199], 1966; [Raven RVLP 19] |
All I Want (Norm Stannard)
Bald-Headed Woman (Shel Talmy)
H'tuom Tuhs (Missing Links)
Hobo Man (Doug Ford)
Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Elias McDaniels)
Nervous Breakdown (M Roccuzzo)
Not To Bother Me (Thomas)
On The Road Again (Bob Dylan)
Some Kinda Fun (J Lee - C Montez)
Speak No Evil (Andy James)
Wild About You (Andy James)
You're Driving Me Insane (Baden Hutchens) |
Driving You Insane - The Complete Recordings
(CD) [Half A Cow HAC76] 1999 |
The Missing Links
Wild About You (Anderson)
Hobo Man (Ford)
Bald-Headed Woman (Shel Talmy)
Not To Bother Me (Thomas)
Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Elias McDaniels)
Some Kinda Fun (J Lee - C Montez)
You're Drivin' Me Insane (Hutchens)
Nervous Breakdown (M. Roccuzzo)
Speak No Evil (Anderson)
On The Road Again (Bob Dylan)
All I Want (Stannard-Anson)
H'Tuom Tuhs (E. MCDaniels)
Somethin' Else (Sheely-Cochran)
I'll Go Crazy (James Brown)
Don't Give Me No Friction (Capps-Dean)
One More Time (Morrison)
Wooly Bully (Samudio)
We 2 Should Live (Anson)
Untrue (Stannard-Anson)
All I Want [1st lineup version] (Stannard-Anson)
Shakin' All Over (Heath)
Kansas City (Lieber-Stoller)
Come My Way (Boyne)
Go Back (Anson-Boyne)
The Showmen
So Far Away (Hutchins Ellison)
Don't Deceive (Hutchins-Thomas)
Naughty Girl (Hutchins Ellison)
Running Jumping Standing Still
Diddy Wah Diddy (E. McDaniels)
A magnificent and utterly essential compilaton combining
all the extant Links tracks by both lineups, inlcuding the "lost" Alberts
demos from 1964-65, plus 3 tracks from The Showmen written and/or sung
by Links drummer Baden Hutchins, and a rare recording of Running Jumping
Standing Still made for The Go!! Show in 1966. The pack recreates all the
original artwork of the LP and EP, and includes an exhaustive and lavishly
illustrated history of the Links by Peter Markmann. |
|
References
-
Glenn A. Baker: liner notes to The Missing Links [Raven RVLP
19]
-
Ian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop, 1999
-
Peter Markmann: The Missing Links - The Definitive Article from
Driving You Insane [Half A Cow HAC76] 1999
Special thanks to Peter Markmann
for his fantasic Missing Links history (which I have plundered ruthlessly!
)