bailbonds
bailbonds
Throughout the history of music there has allways been a link to America or the United Kingdom.
This was also
the case with punk rock.Again anywhere else was largely ignored. With the proliferation of bootlegs such as
"Killed by Death", "Bloodstains", "Back to Front" amongst others we can hear the looked over musical
geniuses. Australia was one of those countries overlooked by overseas and by by it's own inhabitants. People think
of the Sex Pistols and The Damned as releasing some of the first "Punk" records, but The Saints out of
Queensland had their self financed debut 7" "(I'm) Stranded out on their own label "Fatal Records" 1 month prior to
the first UK Punk 7" The Damned's "New Rose". The role of bailbonds is too promote the great Australian
punk bands of the late '70's. This page is devoted to:
the victims
introduction
the scene
discography
members
recordings
links
INTRODUCTION
introduction
"The Victims" formed in 1977, being the 3rd Perth punk band behind "The Cheap Nasties"
(From which "The Scientists" and "Manikins" came from) and "Beheaded/The Geeks". James Baker(Drums) teamed up with Dave Flick
(nee Faulkner, later of the Hoodoo Gurus) (Guitar and Vocals) and Rudolph V (ex- The Geeks)
(Bass) to form the band. With the
unpredictable nature of most punk bands breaking up as soon as they formed, or making idiots or nuisances of
themselves by taking the punk credos of no talent = no worries and inflicting the public with it, The Victims clearly
stood out as the top punk band. The Victims played frantic punk based on US influences such as The New York
Dolls, The Heartbreakers, The Stooges and others. James Baker was clearly influenced by the New York scene
and enjoyed many a salubrious experience with bands like the Dictators when he went to the New York punk mecca "CBGB's".
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THE SCENE IS CREATED!
the scene
The band played around the Perth pub scene making places such as Hernando's Hideaway and The Governor
Broome Hotel as their stomping grounds. They had differnt lyrical topics compared to the typical punk bands,
being fans of TV programmes and such culture influenced songs like: "Television Addict" and "TV Freak" while
"Disco Junkies" attacked the narrow minded punks that followed what they were told and acting like punks
should. It contained the line "You've read the books, copied the looks"which
the punks themselves ignored. They gigged vigorously and recorded
enough material for a 7" single and a 5 track 7" EP which was released
posthumously. As the band went along,
they got disillusioned and the power of the music was getting nullified, also relations in the band were strained.
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THE DISCOGRAPHY
discography
In April 1978 the band released the seminal "Television Addict/(I'm)Flipped out over you" )(MX 46813) (1000
copies). The record came in a white paper bag with the titles rubber stamped, rumours have that the first 20 or so
had a photo or two inserted. Bootlegs exist of this record as it is great demand with copies going for several
hundreds of dollars. The bootleg is easy to spot as it is a glossy fluro-pink sleeve with just The Victims printed
on it (The song titles are removed), although the record labels are identical to the original release. The record
got a caning in the influential UK street paper the N.M.E. when it came out and this led to the band splitting up.
Apparently Flick copped a lot of shit for this. However, the night before their final show the recorded some tracks
that came out August/September as "The Victims EP" (Aka: "No thanks to the human turd") (SMX 46872) (500
copies). Some copies of the EP came in a hand painted bag with The Victims painted on it and the word EP on the
back. Others had the paper fold sleeve (Pictured). Again this has been bootlegged because of the high demand. A
copy of this particular release last year went for over $650 Australian on ebay. The tracks are:
"I Understand/Open Your eyes/High School Girls/TV Freak/Disco Junkies". The tracks from the Ep and 7" plus a
previously un-released track, "Perth is a Culture Shock" appeared as "All loud on the western front" Lp on the
Timberyard label 1989. This came with an insert bag containing photos and reviews and some of the copies were
pressed on Red Vinyl.
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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MEMBERS
members
The day after the band split up James Baker teamed up with ex -"Cheap Nasties" leader Kim Salmon and joined
his band which changed from being The Invaders to The Scientists. After several releases by the Scientists
including a 7", an EP and an LP he formed Le Hoodoo Gurus with Dave Faulkner (Having giving the Flick
surname the flick) before being a member of bands such as The Beasts of Bourbon and The Dubrovniks. He
currently resides in Perth. Rudolph V ended up in a band called the Love Assasins and apparently lives in
Queensland. Dave Faulkner carried the Hoodoo Gurus from 1981 til 1997, recently appearing in a short lived
group with Kim Salmon called Antenna. Between The Victims and The Hoodoo Gurus he was a member of Midget
and the Farrelys ( a punk- caberet group!) and the Manikins and he features on their "Love at second
sight/Nuisance/All I care about" 7" (SMX 55051) which came out in October 1980.
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WHERE TO GET RECORDINGS
recordings
And so ends the tale of The Victims. If you are lucky you may score some of their releases, either bootleg or original , or a bootleg lp like
"Killed by Death #4 (contains "TV Freak")", "Murder Punk#1", "Murder Punk#2"(These
comps include 7" and EP) and others.
A set list of sorts (not including tracks that they recorded): Chinese Rocks/Out of my Head/I'm Looking for you/New Society/Elvis
is Dead/Helter Skelter/I Feel Allright/Pretty Vacant/I Wanna be a monster/Dooyeah/What the Hell is new wave?/More gogo less pogo/
Outta my head/I'm a Young executive.
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links
Collector Scum
Lipstick Killers
DNA Fanzine
Conniption! Mail Order
Copyright rsp 2001
