The Wild Cherries 

Personnel

Biography

Formed in Melbourne in 1967 out of the remnants of a jazz combo of the same name that gigged in the inner city, The Wild Cherries blitzed the city’s trendy disco circuit with a Cream and Hendrix-imbued hard R&B sound that had not been witnessed with such commanding power before. Gobsmacked audiences were bludgeoned with a menu of songs from those afore-mentioned artists, as well as fire-breathing versions of the band’s early original singles. The cutely-dubbed Krome Plated Yabbie, when translated to 45, belied its Move-ish incendiary power. Driven by Loyd’s feedback guitar pyrotechnics and the evil vocal inflections of Robinson, this emotive and dynamic tune sounded like nothing else on the airwaves during ’67, and closed in a welter of Townshend-inspired guitar feedback freakery.

Its phased, crazed feedback-wild mod follow-up in November 1967 was arguably even better. While not proving the chart success that critics had predicted (top chart placing at #38 in Melbourne), That’s Life did represent one of the finest examples of innovative rock writing and recording among some very bland and unadventurous local releases at the time.

After a couple more recorded excursions into a kind of surreal musical void; a niche carved out by their legendary peers The Missing Links, and only later inhabited by groups like Detroit’s legendary MC5 and The Stooges; a place where but a few dedicated followers deigned to travel; the band split in late ’68. The Wild Cherries’ peculiar brand of anarchically mad performance was resurrected as a blues-based three-piece by Lobby in 1971 however, for a short bout of touring and a one-off single, the guitar tour-de-force I Am The Sea (anthologised on Raven’s Golden Miles compilation in 1994). Lobby went on to a tenure with Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs (1969), the Brisbane-based Coloured Balls and his own solo performing (George Guitar) and producing career (The Sunnyboys). Danny dyed his raven locks blonde for his Virgil Brothers gig in the UK, but not before lending his frightening and wonderful falsetto to Company Caine’s Woman With Reason for that band’s 1971 debut album A Product of A Broken Reality. Keith Barber found his long-term home after The Wild Cherries, as drummer for power R&B trio The La De Das.

Recommended listening: Australian Rock Archives EP # 5. (see discography)….

Turn it up!!!

Discography

Extended Plays (EPs)

Krome Plated Yabbie [Festival FX 11422] 1967  Krome Plated Yabbie / That's Life / Try Me / Everything I Do Is Wrong  Australian Rock Archives #5  [Shared with THE THROB] limited edition of 1,000. 33 1/3rpm 7" EP. [Raven RV –05] 1979  That's Life / Krome Plated Yabbie / Gotta Stop Lying  All songs credited to Barry Lyde. Produced by David Flint.

References