Australian cow-punk originals The Johnnys are digging into the vault for a new collection of outtakes, B-sides and rarities — but first they are returning to Victoria for three October shows in Geelong, Richmond and Balnarring.
Formed in Sydney in 1982 and famously fronted during the 1980s by the late Spencer P. Jones, The Johnnys built their reputation by slamming country music, punk velocity and pub-rock humour together at high speed.
More than four decades later, founding members Graham “Hoody” Hood and Billy Pommer Jr are still carrying that racket forward with guitarist Paul “Slim” Doherty.
Their forthcoming compilation, Rarehide: Out Takes, B-Sides and Rarities, will gather recordings that have either remained unheard or become difficult to find. Full album and release details are still to come, but the early track list already contains some fine Australian rock-and-roll archaeology.
Victorian shows at a glance
- Friday 2 October — Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong: tickets and event details
- Saturday 3 October — Corner Hotel, Richmond: tickets and event details
- Sunday 4 October — Social Club, Balnarring: free entry; venue and gig details
National dates are expected to follow.
Paul Kelly songs, early recordings and long-lost versions
The new collection includes The Johnnys’ previously unheard version of Paul Kelly’s “White Train”. Kelly originally offered the song to the band before recording it himself, first for his 1985 album Post and later for Gossip with the Coloured Girls.
Kelly also co-wrote “Bleeding Heart”, one of The Johnnys’ best-known singles, and Rarehide will include another version of that song.
Also being pulled from the vault is an early, previously unreleased version of “Injun Joe”, along with recordings of the hard-to-find “Rebel Yell” and “Pray to John Wayne”.
“Pray to John Wayne” will be released as the compilation’s first single on 2 October 2026, the same day the Victorian run begins in Geelong.
Follow The Johnnys on Bandcamp and Cheersquad Records & Tapes on YouTube for release updates.
A big Cheersquad night at the Corner
The Richmond show forms part of the Corner Hotel’s 30th-birthday celebrations and a major Cheersquad Records & Tapes gathering.
The Stems will headline the night, with The Johnnys joined by Heir to the Squandered Millions, Benny J Ward and Bagful of Beez. It will place The Johnnys and The Stems on the same bill for the first time since 1987.
For anyone with fond memories of Australian independent rock’s sweaty pub circuit, that is a reunion with a sizeable historical echo.
Book tickets for the Cheersquad Records Party at the Corner Hotel
The Johnnys: country music played at punk speed
The Johnnys began in Sydney in 1982 after bass player Graham Hood, formerly of The Allniters, met guitarist Roddy Radalj. Radalj had already helped launch two enormously influential Australian groups: The Scientists in Perth and the original Sydney line-up of Le Hoodoo Gurus.
Radalj, Hood and drummer Billy Pommer Jr formed the original trio around a beautifully unruly idea: country-influenced pub rock delivered at punk pace. Spencer P. Jones joined soon afterwards, adding the biting guitar sound and ragged charisma that would become central to the group.
When Radalj departed after the band’s first single, Jones stepped forward as co-frontman alongside Hood. Paul “Slim” Doherty joined on guitar in 1984 after working behind the bar at The Tote, the Melbourne rock-and-roll institution then owned by his family.
The Johnnys released early singles through Regular and Green Records before signing with Mushroom Records. Ross Wilson produced both of the band’s studio albums, Highlights of a Dangerous Life in 1986 and Grown Up Wrong in 1988.
Tracks including “I Think You’re Cute”, “My Buzzsaw Baby”, “Injun Joe”, “(There’s Gonna Be a) Showdown” and “Bleeding Heart” secured the band’s place in Australian pub-rock history. The cowboy gear may have caught people’s attention first, but the songs, speed and sense of humour gave the group its longevity.
A crossroads in Australian rock history
The Johnnys’ family tree runs through an extraordinary section of Australian music.
During The Gun Club’s troubled 1983 Australian visit, half of the American band’s touring line-up withdrew before the trip. Jones and Pommer were recruited from The Johnnys to help complete the tour alongside Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
Jones also became a founding member of the Beasts of Bourbon, remaining — with Tex Perkins — one of that volatile band’s central figures across its many incarnations. His long career also included work with Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, Chris Bailey, Maurice Frawley and numerous other Australian artists.
The Johnnys supported Neil Young during his 1985 Australian tour. Young was reportedly impressed enough by the band’s peculiar chemistry to tell them that whatever they had, they should “bottle it”.
After European touring at the end of the 1980s, The Johnnys became an intermittent proposition rather than disappearing completely. The present trio reunited for a 2016 benefit for Jones and, with his blessing, continued performing. Jones died in 2018, leaving an enormous imprint on Australian punk, garage and rock and roll.
The band had also hoped to record with Australian country-music great Chad Morgan, but those plans were not completed before Morgan’s death in 2025.
The trail continues
Rarehide is more than a sweep of the studio floor. It documents the loose connections, near misses and hidden recordings that surround a band whose influence has always been larger than its chart history.
The release date and complete track listing are yet to be announced. In the meantime, the October Victorian shows offer audiences a chance to hear The Johnnys where their particular collision of country and punk makes the most sense: loud, live and inside a pub.
Visit The Johnnys on Bandcamp or explore Cheersquad Records & Tapes for further announcements.
Information supplied by Cheersquad Records & Tapes and edited for publication.
