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     Shane Greentree Member Username: Realinspectorshane Post Number: 79 Registered: 03-2007 |
Not sure if this article's already available online, so I typed it up... The Go-Betweens: Waiting for the train that never comes. [David Burchill] After ten years slogging it out in the music industry, any band could be excused for losing their inspiration or giving up in despair. Not so the Go-Betweens. Their most recent vinyl offering, 16 Lovers Lane, has been hailed by many to be among their best work ever. And slowly but surely the mainstream side of the industry appears to be accepting them into the fold and, more importantly, rewarding them with the airplay they have so justly deserved for so long. In talking to him, it becomes easy to forget Robert Forster is an industry veteran, such is his almost childlike enthusiasm for the band. 'I'm very happy with it. The record seems to be known and accepted. We're very happy our singles are being played on the radio. We like the idea of walking down the street and hearing our song blaring out of newsagents or chemist shops.' This album is the band's slickest to date, production-wise. 'Yes, that's because the studio we recorded in here in Sydney was the best we've ever had to work with. I think it's a happier record in a way and [producer] Mark Wallis is very good at getting clear, bright sounds. The songs were very good and the band played extremely well. Also what's to be realised about this album is that we did play every instrument on it. We didn't have tons of session musicians; there are no thick layers of touchy goassamer keyboards on it. It's very much just the band, recorded very well.' In a recent interview, it was revealed that Amanda Brown and particularly Lindy Morrison were more than a trifle miffed about being left out of the pre-production sessions, effctively reducing their input towards the overall arrangements. Robert is decidedly cagey and defensive when I ask how they have learned to live with it. 'Um...I think they're living with it okay,' he replies, though not convincingly. 'The pre-production to every album can't always be the same. That's just the way it was this time. We had a producer we hadn't used before and we were recording in Australia for the first time in six years. There were a lot of new things being done around this album. You can't keep doing the same things over and over.' Alright, we believe you. It was interesting to learn that many of Robert's contributions to the album were penned here in Brisbane. 'When we moved back to Australia, I went up to Brisbane for six weeks before Christmas and stayed at my parents' place, which is something that I haven't done since 1978. I moved into my old bedroom. It was good, especially after London. We'd just done a tour of America so to fly back and be at The Gap with my parents going offf to work and me just in my bedroom or sitting on the verandah with an acoustic guitar was quite a novelty. It was inspirational. I had no interruptions, I had a clear head, and I could just get to work.' Forster's love/hate relationship with his home town has previously presented itself in various quotes and been touched on in some of his songs over the years. How does he feel suddenly living back here after so long? Well I live out at The Gap, which is where I grew up. I didn't spend much time in town mainly because I don't know it well and I just don't like the look of it. I know of no other city in the world that has changed so drastically over the last few years. I remember Sydney in 1978 and Melbourne in 1980. When I go and visit them now, they look roughly the same. Brisbane seems to be completely and utterly remodelled. I can imagine someone at the age of sixty finding that completely demoralising. People who've lived in a city for more than fifty years of their life, they know all the certain haunts to go to and where everything is and then in ten years the Gold Coast real estate crowd and the mob in the Queensland Parliament decide to completely destroy the city. I miss turning a corner and seeing something familiar. I'm not anti-change or anti-progress, which is what's hurled at someone who tries to stand in front of a building about to be pulled down, but I'd hate to think what would happen if the people responsible for pulling down all the buildings in Brisbane were elected into power in Venice. Imagine, they'd floor the place in two years!' Love it or hate it, Brisbane is the place where four out of five members of the band came from, and the city is something of a recurring connection when you consider the most recent recruitment of John Willsteed on bass. 'That was a strange twist of fate. After we'd been overseas for so long, we came back to Sydney minus one bass player. And who should move in just down the street, but our old friend John! Its the stuff that movies are made of.' Despite the originally temporary nature of his position in the band, Willsteed has not only slotted into the job perfectly, but has also firmly established himself as the vital additional musician, particularly in the studio sessions. The Go-Betweens are more akin to a family than the typical rock group. They have always been an exceptionally close-knit and self-contained unit to the point of incest. 'We've very much done things our own way. It's unconventional and yet somehow it's all turned out well. When you make the decision to join the Go-Betweens, it means taking up your entire life. Robert Vickers was the one reflective and introverted member of the band, but now with John it's all gung-ho. John played most of the guitar on the album. He's a very creative person." One gets the impression that one area of Willsteed's creativity considered unnecessary for the band is songwriting. 'We're encouraging John to be creative in the arrangement of the songs and the artwork of the sleeves, but there are already two established writers in the band and I think a third one could cause havoc. But you never know; John's full of surprises.' A scribe from the NME once described the Go-Betweens as 'geniuses with the arse hanging out of their trousers', a reference of course to their dire financial position while living in London. Was it mainly financial purposes that prompted the band to base themselves in Australia again? 'Yes, it's much better over here. London was just manic poverty. You just don't seem to be able to escape that over there. So many people are living in very trying conditions. It's good to have left all of that behind us now.' With dollars in their pockets and a welcome new addition to the family, it surely won't be too much longer before the Go-Betweems become not just local legends but universally recognised as one of the eighties' more important and intelligent pop groups. Then again, having wrung out that tired but optimistic prediction, I may as well go all out and back Queensland to win the Sheffield Shield and Wayne Goss as Premier just to make the treble. January 1989. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2562 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks for that, Shane. I'd not seen it before. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 235 Registered: 05-2005 |
Nice ummmhhh - what's the source? "After we'd been overseas for so long, we came back to Sydney minus one bass player. And who should move in just down the street, but our old friend John!" Ah, good old John! (I didn't think they knew him THAT well)! "Despite the originally temporary nature of his position in the band, Willsteed has .. slotted into the job perfectly ..." Well for a little while .. maybe until the novelty wore off. "John played most of the guitar on the album." Ahhhhhh! Way too much information. Didn't really want to read that! Let's hope it's rubbish like the old friend down the road and fitting in perfectly bits though I'm thinking now that's it's probably true! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2125 Registered: 10-2004 |
It's been common knowledge (well, at least to those who'd read Nichols' biography) that Wilsteed was responsible for all or most of the lead, melodic guitar parts on 16LL. | ||
| Gee Member Username: Gee Post Number: 28 Registered: 11-2005 |
Surely anyone who saw them live would realise that neither Robert or Grant had 'the chops' (man) to play any of the leads on 16LL?! Their later live renditions of Streets of Your Town were always particularly underwhelming in the guitar solo section. All part of their charm on the whole though. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 2032 Registered: 09-2006 |
Agreed...I've only read the first version of Nichols' book and I knew most of that stuff. The general gist, if I recall, was that Wilsteed, like F & Mc, had first encountered each other in the late-70s Brisbane punk/new wave/whatever the hell music scene where just about everybody was in everybody else's band at some point or another. By all accounts (including his own) he has some ego/bad personality issues but he did have his uses. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2128 Registered: 10-2004 |
Yeah, knowing about all the drama Wilsteed apparently brought to the Go-Betweens doesn't make him particularly likable. But then, as much as it pains me that Robert Vickers left, Wilsteed's contribution to 16LL was undeniably important. Seems like he really fleshed out those songs, melodically. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2571 Registered: 03-2005 |
I think he was in Xero, Lindy's old group. Too lazy to look it up and see if their times in that group overlapped at all. I think he would have qualified as an "old friend" when he was found in Sydney. The only thing I remember about Wilsteed that would be an obvious issue is that he was an out-there alcoholic. Sometimes it's just ego & personality clash. Remember, Peter Milton Walsh was somebody they were glad to have out of the group as well. To my mind, the real problem was the loss of Robert Vickers. He must have been a very compatible personality for Robert (F) and Grant and losing him destabilized the band. In fact, that might be the thing that started Grant and Robert thinking about losing the entire band altogether. Wilsteed next joined the Plug Uglies, in time to work on their final very good single, "Pounding Grace." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qBa-YjPk Lo I loved the Plug Uglies anyway, but the Burns bass only makes it better! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2129 Registered: 10-2004 |
Yeah, Wilsteed was definitely in Xero, and I recall his being in that band for a while, so it's possible his time overlapped with Lindy's stint (but like Randy, I'm too lazy to actually look it up). It wasn't simply the alcoholism that made Wilsteed difficult, but as I recall, he was generally apathetic to the Go-Betweens and their music at that time, and was really only in it for the ride, milking all that came with being in a major label, international (albeit still minor league) band. So, I'd say that + the alcoholism was enough to make for a potentially difficult personality. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2090 Registered: 01-2005 |
Yes, Wilsteed and Lindy were in Xero at the same time (circa 1978-1980), although the Nichols book doesn't pin down the exact dates. Wilsteed also played in a country cover band with Amanda Brown and Michael O'Connell (ex-Apartments member and ex-Xero member) which was called Tender Mercies. Wilsteed proved difficult to work with, so and Michael and Amada split off and formed a duo, Blood Brothers. This was circa 1985-86, but again no exact dates from the Nichols book. Another connection goes back to 1979 when Robert was playing songs in rehersal that weren't in the Go-Betweens style with Xero as his backing band, which lead to the Forster-Morrison hook-up. According to Amanda, Wilsteed was very manipulative in getting into the band circa Christmas time, 1987. He was very charming and endeared himself to everyone in the band in Sydney when they needed someone to join. |