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     Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 10 Registered: 05-2005 |
Happy families By Guy Blackman In the 1980s the Go-Betweens recorded six sophisticated, romantic and debonair albums that took them from shy Brisbane obscurity to international cult status and exalted critical standing, despite never selling quite as many records as they would have liked. After leaving Brisbane for Melbourne and then London, the band's story seemed to come to a disheartening end in Sydney in 1989, when their most polished, radio-friendly album 16 Lovers Lane failed to make a decent chart splash. The Go-Betweens were one of the first bands to portray Australia in terms other than the sweat, beer and sexism of pub rock, and this was not an easy path to take in the 1980s. Poverty-stricken beginnings in filthy London squats, a middle period filled with record company pressure for a hit that just never came, and acrimonious relationship breakdowns in their final years meant that the Go-Betweens just did not have the energy to begin afresh in a new decade. Then in 2000 the Go-Betweens, or at least the two founding members Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, were suddenly reborn, delivering the surprisingly fresh and lively album The Friends of Rachel Worth. Without long-serving drummer Lindy Morrison but with a renewed verve and optimism, the Go-Betweens returned for what many fans assumed would be just a brief addendum to their main body of work. But time has proven the new-look Go-Betweens (now including bassist Adele Pickvance and drummer Glenn Thompson) to be a surprisingly enduring and harmonious proposition. AdvertisementAdvertisement "In the '80s we were still in our 20s," says Robert Forster, just back from a spell in Germany with his wife Karin and their two young children, Louis and Loretta. "And when you're in your 20s you think you're going to be a pop star. That glazed our eyes to an extent, so there was a certain competitiveness that I think is gone now, although not in any sort of bad, lazy way." In 2003 the Go-Betweens released their even more energetic-sounding album Bright Yellow, Bright Orange, and two years later have produced Oceans Apart, their ninth album in a career that now spans 27 years. It's a confident, relaxed record, refining and polishing their 21st century joie de vivre rather than broaching any new territory, and it seems the Go-Betweens are settling with pleasure into their new lease on life. Of course, there have still been some hiccups along the way. Much as in the '80s, when they jumped from one record label to the next without ever finding a permanent home, the three 21st century Go-Betweens albums have each been released on a different label both in Australia and worldwide. The first time around it was apparently sales, or the lack thereof, that influenced the band's label-hopping ways. "We got dropped from so many record labels," Grant McLennan says resignedly. "We didn't sell enough records for the bean counters. But we're not bitter about that because, after all, it is a business. People who have the money, they've got every right not to give you any more." But in this new decade, when the Go-Betweens no longer imagine themselves - or are expected - to be bona fide hit-making artists, surely a more stable relationship with one understanding record label should be possible? According to Forster, it's the industry that is unpredictable, rather than the band. "I find the Australian music industry is very jumpy and always has been," he says. "You go away for 18 months and you come back and everyone has changed jobs. People get the sack, labels go under and money falls through - it's madness!" The suggestion that, after nine albums for as many record companies, the problem might lie with Forster and McLennan rather than the music industry is met with an emphatic "absolutely not" from McLennan, who then qualifies his statement with "but I guess you'd have to ask the people we've worked with". For Oceans Apart, the Go-Betweens inked a deal locally with EMI, despite Forster saying in 2000 that the band were no longer interested in major labels, "because then you're dealing with people who don't like music. They stand in back at your shows and they're just tin-eared". Now the pair are effusive in their praise of their new label. "EMI have been absolutely fantastic so far," says McLennan. "They've shown a real love for the music." Forster agrees: "This is something that I hope is long-term 'cause I think we've finally found a home." And the two are even more positive about their band mates of the past five years. Forster and McLennan seem to view their rhythm section, bassist Pickvance and drummer Thompson, as if they were one cheerful unit with a single set of characteristics. "They're just fantastic, charismatic, lovely," says McLennan, while Forster calls them intelligent and creative. Pickvance, who was discovered by Forster in the mid-'90s playing stand-up bass in folky Brisbane outfit the Natives Of Bedlam, refers affectionately to Forster and McLennan as "the boys", and confirms that things are extremely chummy within the band these days. "Even when we're not recording or rehearsing, I still ring up Robert just for a chat," she says. "Grant I speak to all the time too. They're like my best friends as well now. It's very much a happy family." It's a quite a change from the often fractious atmosphere that permeated the band's first incarnation. Forster began a romantic relationship with idiosyncratic drummer Lindy Morrison in 1979 before asking her to join the Go-Betweens the following year. By the mid-'80s they were no longer a couple but continued to play (and live) together for the sake of the band. Sydney violinist Amanda Brown joined the band in 1986 and began a relationship with McLennan a few months later. This ended in 1989 when Forster and McLennan announced suddenly that the Go-Betweens were breaking up. "You can imagine when they were younger, it would have been quite intense," observes Pickvance. "They spent a lot of time together in the early days, they all lived together and times were a bit tough financially. I imagine that'd be quite stressful. I guess, at least in this band there are no relationships." But however harmonious the Go-Betweens may be these days, there is still a noticeable distinction between the original members and the new(ish) recruits. Whereas '80s Go-Betweens albums invariably depicted the full band looking moody on their front covers, the reunion albums display only Forster and McLennan (Bright Yellow, Bright Orange features an uncharacteristically Go-Between-free drawing). "The band's been together for five years, long enough to be a proper band," Pickvance says, trying valiantly to sound like she's not complaining. "We spend a lot of time together, and when you play with other musicians everyone has an input, no matter who the songwriter is. But we are on the inside covers." According to Forster, it's a matter of financial constraint that prevents Pickvance and Thompson from making it on to a Go-Betweens sleeve. "At the moment we pay them as well as we can when we tour," he says, "but I think to be on the front of an album, you've got to be getting money all the time, and at the moment the Go-Betweens aren't generating that amount of income." Forster married Karin Baumler in Germany in the early '90s and lived there with her on and off until returning to Brisbane in 2001, adding another factor to the Go-Between's equation. He admits his mature, settled lifestyle has had an impact on his friendship with the more dissolute McLennan. "When Grant and I are talking or just hanging out, it's very much like it was before but obviously there's a whole other dimension now where I have a different domestic life than he does," Forster says. "How he'd feel about it, I don't know." In fact, for McLennan it seems to be something of a sore point. When asked why he has never settled down in the same way Forster has, he replies curtly, "that's really none of your business", before adding, "I just haven't been in the right place at the right time". Both, however, compare their own relationship glowingly to one of the greatest partnerships in rock'n'roll. Denying that he is the straight guy to Forster's often arch and flamboyant on-stage persona (wearing make-up and the occasional dress, singing songs while lying on a psychiatrist's couch), McLennan prefers to see himself as more Keith to Robert's Mick, while Forster explains that he moved back to Brisbane for the same reason that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards should live in the same city. There's a sense that Forster and McLennan have hit their stride, recording albums and touring the world every couple of years, then returning to live comfortably in Brisbane. Their band may never again reach the artistic peaks of such '80s classics as Before Hollywood or Tallulah but neither must they again endure the drama or conflict of those years. "It's an all-round good way to live 'cause nobody really wants to beat up a Go-Between," says McLennan expansively. "People just wanna spend some time in our orbit, see if we really do exist, and if were as strange as they think we are." |