MELBOURNE GARAGE ROCK LEGENDS THE GAS BABIES
– FEATURING MEMBERS OF BORED!, X, WHITE ELEPHANTS, TRAUMABOYS AND MORE –
RETURN WITH NEW MUSIC AND LIVE SHOWS
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’80s Melbourne garage-punk pioneers the Gas Babies are back and set to kick out the jams at the Coburg RSL on the afternoon of Saturday August 22. The show follows the release of their first new single in 40 years, the hard-rocking ‘No Love Today’ and the release of their new single ‘Ain’t That A Lot Of Love’, a 1966 soul classic by Homer Banks which the band learned from the version Taj Mahal cut for his 1968 album ‘The Natch’l Blues’.
Ain’t That A Lot Of Love | The Gas Babies
No Love Today | The Gas Babies
The first Melbourne band to play Nuggets-inspired, amped-up ’60s-style garage rock back in the day, the Gas Babies originally came together as a sort of merging of the mod and punk scenes in 1984, and featured ex-members of Little Murders, long-lost late ’70s punks the Virgins and early ’80s Birdmaniacs the White Elephants. Their cover of the Flamin’ Groovies‘ ‘Headin’ for the Texas Border’ was the first release on Grown Up Wrong!/Dog Meat Records, and their cover of another Groovies tune, ‘Slow Death ‘, appeared on the seminal Aug-go-go comp ‘A Slab of Vic’. After their original split, singer/bass player Russell Baricevic and lead guitarist Mike Chrystal reunited in Au-go-go recording artists Macho Clowns, while Mike also formed the short-lived Slaughterhouse with soon-to-be Bored! mainguy Dave Thomas, and Russell, after a stint crewing for the Huxton Creepers and X, joined Pray TV while also working with Dave Thomas in the most enduring line-up of Bored!.
These days the Gas Babies also feature Mike’s son from Trauma Boys and Manic Pistoleros, Jimmy Chrystal on rhythm guitar and Virgins/A.E.I.O.U./Macho Clowns/X drummer Simon Smith, who is also known for his work with Steve Lucas and X in more recent decades. The band has stripped away a lot of the ’60s influences in favour of a raw and purer hard rock sound and plays a new set of originals and covers along with a few of the old faves. They’re sounding more powerful than ever.
Special guest on the afternoon is Barry Sauvage Acoustic Odyssey, a solo project of sorts from the Gas Babies frontman, taking in originals as well as some tunes by the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Scott Walker, Butch Hancock and Dave Alvin, and stripped-back versions of some classic Bored! songs.
THE GAS BABIES
W/ SUPPORT
BARRY SAUVAGE ACOUSTIC ODYSSEY
SATURDAY AUGUST 22
COBURG RSL 323 SYDNEY ROAD COBURG
SET TIMES:
THE GAS BABIES; 4:00PM TILL 5:00PM
BSAO: 3:00 PM till 3:45 PM
Free entry
Bandcamp: https://thegasbabies.bandcamp.com
FB Link: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=profile_and_tagging
The Gas Babies’ first single “Headin’ for The Texas Border”, released 1986
on Grown Up Wrong! Records
