Just think – you’re a teenager in a goddamn rock ‘n’ roll band in Australia in the 1970’s. Girls are flocking to your shows, knocking on green room doors and generally hailing you and your bandmates as the be all and end all. Come 1977, the dream died out for the band who had, at that point, two Top 20 albums, widespread success and a tour lined up with Queen.
Careers continued to grow as did the members of TASTE personally, thriving both in Australia and overseas in various other projects. Coming back together in the 2000’s to record new music though proved that the successful dynamic was still there and this year, fans of TASTE are able to get their hands on a special release, The Best of TASTE – a collection of remastered material.
With a new album also recorded in Life on Earth, TASTE are raring to get back on the stage and will be doing so at the end of the month and in December for some special shows in Sydney and Melbourne. We caught up with the band to find out more about what prompted this new album, what the industry was like to kick around in back in the 70’s and more!
Thinking back to the making and original release of both Tickle Your Fancy and Knights of Love – how would you describe the mindset of the band back then? Surely the concept of being in a position of being able to release special remasters of your material decades down the line wouldn’t have been at the front your minds at the time…!
Musically, largely due to our drummer Virgil Donati, we had to lift our game, so lots of time changes, heavy riffs, big vocals. We all ended up going back to music teachers for updates but lyrically, Ken [Murdoch] was already writing songs that spoke for people our age. “I wouldn’t want to be in my old man’s shoes, stuff his football on a Saturday night, I’ve got a girl who’ll treat me right…” (“Degenerate Fool”). We had decided when we entered the studios for the Tickle your Fancy album to do it ourselves, so Ken produced with Graham Owens behind the desk. We had been burnt by house producers in the past. We were using seven Marshall stacks live and those producers insisted we use small Fender amps, so this time we were going to do it more on a live basis.
Last year, we decided to remaster the two albums to one CD to brighten up the top end and tighten the bottom. The mastering in the 70’s in Australia wasn’t that good and I don’t think we even had a say in the final product.
What were you proudest of, when it came to those two records in particular? Looking back on them now, with way more experience behind you, what sticks out the most about those albums as either the most challenging parts of making them, or your favourite parts?
The funny thing about those two albums was when we reformed in 2007, we had quite a challenge to relearn the songs. They were quite complex. We were very happy with the guitar sounds on those early albums. Both Brian May (Queen) and Greg McAinish (Skyhooks) were impressed. Skyhooks hinted at Ken to produce them, but Ken felt a little bit too young to be ordering Shirley around. I think songs like “Group E” and “Same Old Story” stood the test of time. They are still highlights of our live shows.
Can you talk us through the band cutting its teeth on the Melbourne scene back in the 70’s – what was the hardest thing about coming up in that rock n roll scene as a young group of musos? Do you remember when the ‘breakthrough’ was for TASTE as a live band?
We all left school early to become professional musicians. In those days, it wasn’t unrealistic to work six nights a week and we did. Being young and adventurous meant we never grew tired of the new challenges that management set us. Travelling to Sydney in the back of a three-tonne truck for two shows and then turning back to record back in Melbourne seemed normal.
Definitely playing that hard tightened us up (as it did all Australian bands – Ritchie Blackmore couldn’t get over how tight all of us sounded.) Because we were young and fairly aggressive in our approach to gigging, we started to pick up a following quite early. It was largely male orientated too. Only once we did Countdown did the young girls start to come. I remember playing Icelands in Ringwood and packing the place out for the first time. They put up wire netting to stop the fans getting too close.
Was there any one particular music venue that stood out for you as an important one for TASTE in terms of gaining experience on the live front?
When we first started out as Cloud Nine, we started backing solo artists, because we could read music. That’s how we became John Farnham‘s backing band. We left school to play six nights a week. We played at the George Hotel in St Kilda three nights a week and that was a real eye opener. We saw a lot of things that young boys shouldn’t see. There was a lot of sex and violence there. But the audience saw that we were giving everything we had and started to like us. Eventually we were playing to full houses. After that, every other venue seemed easy.
Obviously there is a heady, party hard haze that is associated with Australian rock and roll and people involved in the industry back in those days – how many hijinx did the band actually get around and did it ever affect the way the band worked?
It was a heady time to be under 18 in the 70’s and there certainly was a lot of fun to be had. We didn’t do drugs and only Ken drank, but there was lots of girls around. ‘Nuff said!
I read that the band had a tour lined up with Queen and that they had been fans of TASTE. What did hearing that news mean to you guys, especially considering it wasn’t like managers could just email music to other managers and link bands on opposite sides of the world up that way, back then.
We had the association with Queen through our management who looked after them when they played Sunbury Festival. They came back as the number one band in the world. We decided to go and see if we could get in touch with them on the spur of the moment (We were on tour in Wonthaggi) so we jumped into the truck, drove back to Melbourne and gave them a call. We ended up backstage after their show and went out to Maxims for dinner with them.
The next day, Ken took the first album for Brian May to listen to. He liked it a lot. It was suggested that we could perhaps join them on a US tour, but we didn’t have the money to support that. It’s said that they used to play “Boys Will Be Boys” as part of their warm up music. This led to Seymour Stein from Sire Records (USA) meeting with us and listening to both albums. He asked us to sign with him. There was a lot of publicity starting about the band in the US, but we had broken up before anything could really happen.
What sparked the idea to a) record a new album in Life on Earth and b) revisit TASTE’s career via The Best of TASTE Remasters?
Ken wrote a song called “The Doppelgänger Effect” after a short story he had written and thought it sounded like a TASTE song. He sent it to Joey [Amenta] and Michael [Tortoni] and they suggested we think about writing a new album. Strangely, that song didn’t end up on Life on Earth. We spent a year recording it and then outsourced the drum recordings and then sent it to Angus Davidson (Crowded house) to remix.
Can you describe the process of getting together to make Life of Earth – what was the creative dynamic like in studio this time round?
We decided to take our time with this album. Rock is Dead (2007) was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in two weeks, including mixing, so we spent a lot of time recording and then being very critical about all aspects of the album. Quite often, we would pull apart a song or start from scratch again. A lot of time was spent on vocals, especially harmonies and we recorded real strings with Michael taking the lead arranging role.
The band has two launch shows coming up in Sydney and Melbourne – are there nerves or just pure excited anticipation surrounding getting on stage again?
We are rehearsing like crazy at the moment for the live shows. The songs are quite complex so we are cursing ourselves for not writing simpler songs! Lyrics in particular. The addition of our new drummer, Damian Corniola, who’s a bit of a drum whiz kid has added a lot of dynamics to the music. We can’t wait to get onstage!
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The Best of TASTE Remasters is out now via GoSet Music! Catch the band at the following live shows:
November 28th | The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle | OZTIX | MOSHTIX
with Dellacoma Rio & The Dark Horses
December 2nd | Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne | OZTIX
with Robot Child
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