My Seventies Music

Tag: Student Orientation

  • The Scavengers – “Mysterex” And “True Love”

    New Zealand punk band The Scavengers

    The Scavengers were one of the first New Zealand punk bands in the late Seventies (along with The Suburban Reptiles), most well known locally for their songs “Mysterex” and “True Love”.

    The band was actually formed pre-punk in the mid Seventies by graphic design students at the Auckland Technical Institute and renamed The Scavengers in 1977 when the punk movement started.

    They contributed the two tracks mentioned to a compilation album called “AK79”.
    At first the only video of “True Love” played by The Scavengers I could find was from an “AK79 Show” in 2008 where the sound quality was so bad I didn’t want to inflict it on you. Meanwhile I just found another, shorter one that is bearable (just!) and gives an idea of the original energy.

    In 1979 The Scavengers moved to Melbourne, Australia and again renamed themselves The Marching Girls in 1980.

    I was thinking The Scavengers were the punk trio I engaged for a free rock festival at the Massey University Student Orientation in Palmerston North in March 1980, but unless they came back to New Zealand before renaming themselves, I guess it wasn’t them. Have to do some digging to find the answer to that one.

    Anyway, here is “Mysterex” from 1978:

    In this clip band member at the time Brendan Perry (who now does VERY different things) describes the background to “Mysterex”:

    As mentioned, here is “True Love” at “AK79 Revisited” in 2008 (the other video of the same performance says The Scavengers…):

    Actually, I will give you the option of watching the other video if you like, which includes two girls jumping on the stage and has better video quality (but don’t say I didn’t warn you about the sound!):

    And here is The Scavengers song “True Love” played by the band’s reincarnation Marching Girls some years later, when it was used in the soundtrack of a film called “Dogs In Space”:

    Tamed down a bit by this time… think I prefer the Scavengers version.

    Paul

  • Gary Numan – “Cars”

    Gary Numan single "Cars" (1979)

    At the very end of the Seventies, late 1979, I remember Englishman Gary Numan singing “Cars”, from his album “The Pleasure Principle”.

    In fact, whenever I hear it or think of Gary Numan or “Cars”, it reminds me of being in not a car but a Transit van, at 4 o’clock in the morning.

    We had just finished clearing up after a dance during the student orientation I was running at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

    Together with the people helping, we had stopped off at a service station, the only place still open, to get something to eat, and I vividly remember “Cars” playing on the radio as we got out of the van.

    That was actually at the start of 1980, so obviously the song still got airplay in New Zealand for a while (it was apparently released in August 1979).

    Here’s Gary Numan in the promotional video of “Cars”:

    I don’t really remember anything else by Gary Numan, but this one has stuck in my mind.

    Paul

  • Mi-Sex – “Graffitti Crimes”, “Computer Games” and “But You Don’t Care”

    Album cover of "Graffitti Crimes" by New Zealand band Mi-Sex (1979)

    Mi-Sex was a top New Zealand band that went to Australia in the late Seventies and had a lot of success there, culminating in their first album “Graffitti Crimes”, featuring the title track as well as songs like the Australian No. 1 single “Computer Games” and their recent other single from 1979, “But You Don’t Care”.

    I remember their predecessor band Father Thyme playing at dances in the “Old Woolroom” at Massey University in about 1977 or 1978.

    I distinctly remember they played “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd – or maybe it was “Welcome To The Machine” from the same album (not so distinct after all…), and I also remember chatting to the bass player, Don Martin, in the breaks.

    Mi-Sex, however, played quite a different style, quite New Wave, and when I was planning the 1980 Massey University Student Orientation (two weeks in February-March when term started in New Zealand after the summer vacation), I tried to hire them for a festival we were running – for NZ$10,000, a lot more than Father Thyme had commanded.

    Unfortunately they were already booked for that time, so it didn’t happen, and I had to be content with buying their album, which I think I bought in Germany, having gone there a couple of weeks after Orientation ended to write my M.A. thesis.

    As I said, the album, released in July 1979, was called “Graffitti Crimes”, here’s the title track:

    One of my favourites is the 1979 single “But You Don’t Care”:

    And finally the hit “Computer Games”, which wasn’t on all versions of the album:

    Mi-Sex disbanded in 1984, and unfortunately lead singer Steve Gilpin died after a car accident on his way home from a gig in 1991.

    But their music and the memory live on.

    Paul

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