No Night Sweats N o  N i g h t  S w e a t s No Night Sweats
Sydney's Post-Punk Bands
I Like Music
Slapp Happy are Terrific
A List of CDs
Text is What I Write
Crime Fiction is Silly
[ Voigt/465 - An Early History ]
This is an edited version of Rod's journal which detailed all the early days of Voigt/465.





27/06/76 Famous first rendition of 'Double Poet'

25/07/76 Third and Fourth performances of 'Triple Poet'; First performance of 'Voigt'

28/08/76 First Public Performance

Early 77 The moving of Lindsay to 227 Commonwealth St Surry Hills meant a change in environment for the whole band. Rehearsals, playing with drummers. Many different people were met during the period including Ian McIntosh, an English synethist, and various non musicians from Bondi.

10/04/77 A name had not become definite at this stage, provisionally The Radiator Placebo

23/04/77 Rod obtains a Stratocaster.

01/05/77 Very low-fi demo tape made, consisting of "Liftalk", "The Marker" and "The Three Four Song"

05/06/77 Audition(?) with drummer. Great House. Depression follows at Henry's (king of junk food)

12/06/77 A few new songs figured out : "D-135", "Fightback", "Cartage and Storage", "The Old Endicot Building", "Testimony", "The 1984 BrainPolice" (by P Nelson arranged R Dicker), "Coming Down" (USA), "The True Wheel" (Eno)

15/06/77 Lindsay buys a Jazz Bass. New title and symbol unveiled "465 Radiators".

19/06/77 Surprise request by Bruce Stalder to drum at practice : turns out well ,says he'll come back.

10/07/77 Various people invited to a 465 Radiators practice - sort of a performance. "F6" was done for the 2nd time (1st time with whole band)

09/08/77 Gig arranged by Rod at Bigge Park Liverpool - free concert

12/08/77 Rae joins band

21/08/77 The first ever Voigt gig - Bigge Park Liverpool.

Set list : "Wax and Ash", "Why are we Sleeping", "Connection", "Liftalk", "Sombre Reptiles", "Interstellar Overdrive", "If I could do it again Id do it all over you", "The Old Endikott Building".

The PA was shithouse - the sound on stage was completely copulated : feedback, bass crap and shit running through and spoiling everything. Bruce broke his hihat and lost his drums on the cement floor. "Interstellar Overdrive" was action packed, "Connection" got very manic, "If I could do it again Id do it all over you" was great, "The Old Endikott Building" was very strong. Linz got really into it, talking about Andy Warhols cats. Phil was sitting, and solid "In this song we destroy 4/4 time". Linz wore makeup - white face powder. Rod smudged eyes - "Interstellar Overdrive" was dedicated to Syd. Linz "Electricity comes from other planets". Rod "Pieces of metal on your flesh" (some of the words). Rod had his radiator and his chair. Rae was great. During 'Wax and Ash' she did not move all song.

Highlights : The end of "The Old Endikot Building" - a gigantic buildup of voice and emotion; Conversation on stage and random phrase after "Interstellar
Overdrive"; The end of "If I could do it again Id do it all over you".

Comments : Peter Nelson 'The most visual band I've ever seen.'; Jenny 'It was really good'; Frank 'Lindsay looked great, he was the most visual, moving around a lot.'

Get a PA, or at least a mixer. Get the sound better, dont play in the sun (synth tuning), or on smooth concrete floors (drums). Continue not to compromise. Rod - need new amp. Linz - ditto. Have it so Rod can hear Phil. Do it Again!

01/11/77 Second concert for the band at Alexander Mackie College Ground Floor. Was great - played a lot better. Got $50 lost $5 total

Set List : "Wax & Ash", "If I could...", "Sombre Reptiles", "Connection", "Masts for You", "Liftalk", "So long as one knows", "I wanna be your dog" ,"1984 Brain Police", "Interstellar Overdrive"

01/03/78 Another gig at Macquarie Uni. Hardly any people. No PA - had to use amps.

Set List : "Liftalk" (new version); "Coming Down", "Why are We Sleeping" ,"So long as one knows", "Wax & Ash", "Connection", "I wanna be your dog", "Old Endikot"

Playing was not all that good : Old Endikot was awful, Coming Down to Slow. Set was abridged.

Also, concert at French's in offing though he said we were laidback, and had never heard anything like it before, was very interested in visuals (to be done with Peter).

07/04/78 (we think) Played at Streatfield Press (run down factory in heart of Sydney's CDB) to a small audience. Premier of slide show. Private audience also recorded, captured with some stills. "F1" 'hard to swallow so much feedback'; "State" and "Following Page" debuted.

28/04/78 Balmain Town Hall with Mental as Anything ('50s rockabilly dance band) and Kamikazi kids: Fucked around a lot - we weren't on the What's on, either radio or Daily Mirror; we thought we mightn't be on; No soundcheck; Unorganized

Set List : "If I could", "I Wanna", "1984", "Coming Down", "So long as one knows", "Connection", "And the following Page", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Why are we Sleeping", "Liftalk", "State"

Really bad acoustics - unbelievable amount of echo, made vocals in 1st song very hard. Too much treble. Dance band was expected. Was for Secondary Students against Uranium. Couldn't hear drums. Played poor most of the time although "Interstellar Overdrive" was very good.

29/04/78 Blondies : Started off badly. When we got there, Press & Sheiks were on - not us. Anyway, eventually only Press and so we set up in front of their equipment. Used their PA. Slide show used

Set List : "And the following Page", "1984 Brain Police", "Why are we Sleeping", "So long as one knows", "Connection", "F1", "Interstellar Overdrive", "State", "Liftalk", "Its a Rainy Day (Faust)", "I wanna Be your dog", "Old Endikott"

First set was great. Drums were loud! Esp 1984. Did F1 best we've ever played in concert. Good sound (Bit bassy)

18/06/78 Recording booked for 1st July at Axent Studio Kogarah songs to be done : "State", "So long as one knows", "And the following page", "Secret West". Thinking of releasing EP.

01/07/78 Recording at Axent : "State" and "Secret West" to be released as single hopefully. Mixdown not done yet (4th)

23/07/78 Finished recording & mixdown

13/08/78 Did gig at French's : extremely strong reaction to us - very polarised. Much abuse was hailed at us, and one mug (at Phil). Accused of being hippies, pooftas. Not playing there again. Rob Younger liked us - "you killed it". 1st set was very good. Bruce also refused to play on F1, Lola Streched and Pulled (a newie). Rae played great metal percussion

New songs included "Is New Is" (Rod/Linz); "War" (H. Cow); "Bright" (Phil); "Great Pretender" (Eno); "Secret West"; "Lady Godivas Op." (VU); "Lola Stretched and Pulled" (Phil); "Red Lock".

14/09/78 Haven't played again. New drummer - Mark Boswell - from 26th August. Lindsay going to England end of next month

08/10/78 Played first gig with Mark at Garibaldi's - sort of a punk club. Other bands were Sadists, Banana Republic, Johny Dole & Crooked Hearts, Urban Guerillas(Us), Friction & Thought Criminals. Only had 2 days notice - was benefit for TC singer - got gig from their guitarist.

Did very short set : "Rainy Day", "Following Page", "Wanna be your dog", "Secret West", "State", "Is New Is"

Rainy Day great. Did go down very well. Not much heckling -  Met some people that liked us : Red Lock was asked for.

Mark has moved to factory in Liverpool St - will practice there from now on. Pyrmont is next week. Also a party week before Lindsay leaves.

17/10/78 Have done Pyrmont. Statistically was a failure - only about 10-15 people turned up, lost $64.00. Had trouble with PA, meant didn't start proper till 4.00pm. Red lock first, was pretty good. Everyone was sick besides Rae and sort of Rod. Eventually we got stopped (did 'encore'(?) of I wanna be your dog). Went to a lot effort - physical etc - as our first own concert was a bit abysmal. Most songs just were listened to - we didn't go down like straw houses in the face of the wolf. Party soon(?) then Lindsay leaves, got new material to do.

17/12/78  Single released. Been played at least 5 times on 2JJ. Being pushed a bit at Phantom - slogan on place marker-"Dynamic Local Weirdoes". Seems to auger well for the future - "Sydney garage band" etc. Lindsay comes back next week. Not had much success it seems with getting recording contract - Virgin lost our tapes last we heard. Have 6 new songs; 3 more or less finished.

31/01/79  Lindsay came back - started practicing 3 times a week - after about 3 weeks of this routine started going around to pubs asking for gigs - mostly knocked back - they even thought single was too unsuitable. Successful at first at the "Beresford Hotel", Bourke St - Woman manager gave us a complimentary chance to play on 20th Jan - get there & discover we've been double booked  but played at 224 Liverpool St instead - it was great - lot of energy - not much reaction from audience though. Gig set for White Horse Hotel Crown St for 23rd.
 

This site has been visited  times