THE resurgence of vinyl is something that has taken former Go-Betweens’ Lindy Morrison and Blackeyed Susans’ Rob Snarski by surprise.
But the demand for the music created in their heyday is not missed on them.
In 2017 Lindy celebrated the ongoing love for The Go-Betweens masterpiece 16 Lovers Lane with a performance at QPAC in the band’s hometown of Brisbane.
It was one of a number of anniversary tours celebrating landmark albums for Australian bands through the ’80s and ’90s and the demand for those bands is a huge drawcard for music festivals.
“We’ve come off the back of 30 years of electronic music and dance music and rap and hip hop holding the fort,” Lindy says.
“Rock music has been in the background this whole time and there are whole generations who have never listened to rock music, they only listen to dance music and went to clubs. They’re not going to come back, they’re not going to find rock music. It’s more to do with people from the ’80s or ’90s who are listening to rock music now.
“I think (the resurgence) is because, for people between the age of 45 up to 65, their families are probably getting older, they can leave the kids at home now, they all loved music, they used to all love going out; they are all going out again and they’re all seeing their mates. And that’s what you see at our gigs, so many people you know, and so many people who know each other and they’re all coming in groups.”
For Lindy the longevity in her music inspired her to get back on the drum kit as part of a supergroup of musicians from the alternative scene.
She went to see Rob Snarski at a double bill also featuring one of her musical peers Peter Milton Walsh from Brisbane band The Apartments, who played with The Go-Betweens when they first formed.
“She was feeling a tad vulnerable and emotional,” after a liquid lunch with a friend, Rob explains. “And she saw my show and there was a puddle of tears and she came up to me with mascara running down her face looking like a tall, blonde panda, and said ‘Your songs are too slow and too sad. I don’t think I can come and see you perform ever again goodbye’.
“A month later, I get a message from Lindy through my email saying ‘You are playing in Canberra. I think I might come along’. I thought that’s a turn around. But, I just said ‘Why don’t you bring a snare, sit in on brushes and see if the songs change for you by playing them.
“So she did exactly that and it has grown from there.”
The result is the SnarskiCircusLindyBand, with “Evil” Graham Lee of The Triffids and The Blackeyed Susans, Shane O'Mara of Rebecca’s Empire and Dan Kelly.
The band recently released a mini-LP Someone Said That Someone Said and they are not looking back.
“It is an absolute delight for me and I’m absolutely thrilled to be involved in this project. And I feel like it’s my second coming,” Lindy said.
“I think this SnarskiCircusLindyBand is the most probable and possible and expected if one thought about a collaboration that could have happened, that I would have ended up playing with Rob Snarkski because as you know I only ever played with the very best songwriters.”
SnarskiCircusLindyBand members Shane O'Mara, Lindy Morrison, Rob Snarski and “Evil” Graham Lee.
With Rob’s entrance in the music scene associated with The Triffids, forming part-time, holiday-band The Bottomless Schooners of Old, featuring members of The Triffids, and later going on to share vocal duties with Triffids’ David McComb in The Blackeyed Susans, the musical partnership decades later with a Go-Between is an interesting turn.
The two bands were in many ways rivals in their heyday, both moving to London to find fame.
“I didn’t feel that rivalry but I believe that the songwriters might well have felt that rivalry,” Lindy says.
“I did hear a story once, from an unknown source,” Rob says, “… that The Go-Betweens were in a rehearsal studio and found out that Stephen Street, the producer of The Smiths, was going to be producing The Triffids last album, The Black Swan, and Robert Forster screamed.”
“That’s a great story,” Lindy says. “I believe that story.”
SnarskiCircusLindyBand can be seen on YouTube performing a touching version of Go-Betweens classic Dive For Your Memory, part of the set Lindy says they have dropped.
“We’ve dropped that because we’ve been doing it for so long now and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I was losing my emotion when I played it and I need to be emotional when I play that, so I needed to give it a break.”
The band play no Go-Betweens or Blackeyed Susans these days.
“We are sort of steering clear of those songs, because we are trying to create a path for ourselves,” Rob says.
“We’re focusing on this project, and we’re writing songs together. That is what we are spending our energy on and not looking backwards but looking forwards.”
Ipswich audiences were given an early insight into the band late last year when Rob and Lindy performed at Banshees Bar.
The two return to launch SnarskiCircusLindyBand’s debut Mini-LP Someone Said That Someone Said with two shows at It’s Still A Secret in Brisbane on June 16 and 17 as part of a national tour. The Brisbane shows feature Rob and Lindy with Brisbane friends from Halfway and It’s Magnetic backing them.
Lindy Morrison in The Go-Betweens.