Neo-Magics releases Failstralia! EP

Neo-Magics played at an art school party on Saturday 2nd November 1985 at a share house in Dryandra Street, O’Connor (an inner-city suburb of Canberra). They played a whole bunch of Velvet Underground covers and possibly “Hang On Sloopy” or “Louie Louie” or maybe neither. Forty odd years later, I get the blessing from one of the other band members (Lindsay, the original Plunderers drummer) to keep the flame alive.

I was in a pub about twenty years ago. It was a Friday night and the bulk of the crowd - Aussies in their late teens/early 20s - were singing along to every word of Cold Chisel’s “Flame Trees”, which was playing over the bar PA.

I love that song. I bought the album when it came out, but have mainly heard it on the radio in the years after the band broke up. I’ve never known it well enough to sing along to and I was amazed how everyone around me was belting it out like it was a national anthem you could actually be proud of.