praxeas
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« on: September 16, 2009, 09:48:51 PM » |
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(The West Australian)
Poetic vagabond hewn from local landscape
RAY PURVIS
Back in the mid 1970s, David McComb was one of a handful of young musical upstarts who reacted strongly against the burnt-out afterlife of 1960s culture. Sickened by Perth's reputation as the "cover band capital" of Australia and in pursuit of his own rock dreams, he played a big part in the dramatic shift in independent music, both here and overseas during the 80s and 90s.
In 1976, the tall, angular singer- songwriter - who came from a privileged family background in Peppermint Grove - formed the group Dalsy with school friend Alsy MacDonald. When his finest creation The Triffids finally emerged in May 1978, they didn't fit easily into the Perth punk rock scene dominated by Dave Warner, The Victims and The Scientists.
One of McComb's earliest songs, Out of Tune, told about the way the band was regarded by local audiences: "You'll never get a contract, you know you just can't sing /You can't call that crap music, you can't call it anything."
Over the next 11 years, while moving restlessly between Australia and England, The Triffids created their own niche and McComb developed a reputation as an authoritative and astute songwriter. Despite receiving strong critical acclaim, none of their beautiful and unique studio albums, mini albums and 45rpms troubled the upper reaches of the charts, or got widespread commercial airplay.
But they helped change opinions of Australian music in Europe. In fact The Triffids were proclaimed by English rock paper NME as one of the "most influential and important bands to come from Australia". Here in WA, McComb's eloquent songs - such as Wide Open Road and Bury Me Deep In Love - struck a rich vein in describing the local landscape, external and internal.
McComb's life is an enthralling story of an indomitable figure in local rock music. It's full of personal turmoil and overcoming enormous odds.
In the new book Vagabond Holes, instead of McComb's life being told in narrative form, the editors Chris Coughran and Niall Lucy have brought together a collection of photos, poems and stories told by friends, band members, relatives, academics, music industry insiders and fans.
Weighing in at 380 pages, the book is a disjointed and at times over-intellectualised study of a complex individual and a band that was aimless, eclectic and often couldn't make up their minds what they wanted to do.
The editors confess that the book is not intended as a last word on the man and the band. But it's a compelling read that throws light on many unknown aspects of David McComb - particularly in the warm reminiscences of people whose lives he touched.
I first met McComb in 1977 while he was still at Christ Church Grammar School and had just started Blok Music. He was intelligent and creative with a keen eye for popular culture. He used to cycle over to my house after school to talk about music and the way bands like The Ramones, Talking Heads and Television were changing the face of rock music. It was this sharp and murderously melodic rock music that was happening in New York - centred around music club CBGB's - that took his interest.
When The Triffids started in 1978, McComb gave me his early home-recorded cassette tapes (the now rare Dungeon Tapes).
In late 1980, Mike Gee (who was later the editor of The West Australian's Revue section) and I were co-hosts on the long-running new music program Shake Some Action on radio 6NR. In a closely run competition that we devised to focus interest on new bands playing original material, The Triffids beat off The Scientists as Band of the Year to win recording time at a local studio.
The resulting 45rpm was The Triffids' first recording Stand Up/Farmers Never Visit Nightclubs, which came out in 7-inch format with a picture sleeve. Because they weren't connected to a major record label and independent distributors were unheard of, the band sold the single at their gigs.
Best of all the recollections in Vagabond Holes are those of David McComb's brother Robert about growing up at their family home The Cliffe and their first trip to Sydney, driving across the desert in his Kombi van.
It's not widely known that from an early age McComb was an enthusiastic poet with intentions of one day publishing his works. While compiling Vagabond Holes the editors were granted access to a manuscript with a typewritten note attached: "If Found Please Publish - an anthology of the hopeful musings of a teenage boy, AD 1975."
His writings continued during his 20s and 30s and it's the poems from this later period that form the basis of the insightful collection Beautiful Waste.
The same astute observations that are evident in the lyrics of celebrated albums such as Born Sandy Devotional (1986) and Calenture (1987) are present in such open form, place-specific works as Ocean Beach Hotel and Lancelin. Some of the poems such as Bad Back Bad Heart are almost a foretelling of his real life tragedy.
In later years, poor health (he had a heart transplant in 1996) hampered McComb's activities and he died in 1999 just before his 37th birthday. His influence is still felt strongly with the remastering of the complete Triffids catalogue and the recent Australia-wide sold-out tribute concerts.
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