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April 1992 - Shane Gelagin enters the university band competition despite the fact there is no band at this stage. He quickly rounds up vocalist Carrie Hain and bassist Brad Cheers. They rehearse the 10 songs that Shane has written which take only 20 minutes to play from start to finish. Luckily they are drawn to perform in the 3rd heat which gives them time to find a drummer. While attending the first heat Shane meets Steve Meldrum. Steve is a bit of a big wig on campus as he is lead singer with LFPD, The Low Flying Porcellain Ducks. Steve happily agress to drum.
May 1992 - Much to our suprise the Simpletons win the heat, beating LFPD. Candles are placed on amps and wedges etc. This original set was: Buzz Aldrin (short acoustic), Birth Work Death, What's It All About, Pick Up Your Feet, One Little Girl, Suprise, He Thinks, That's Education (Don't Ask), A Man Is Lying, Na Na Na.
July 1992 - Runner up in final to "12 Town" who go on to win the state final to make the nationals in Perth. Two of its members later become half of the band Grinspoon.
August 1992 - The band begin to play in pubs & clubs in and around Lismore. Meet Troubadours.
Sept 1992 - New songs are introduced to the set - Pockets of Joy, Canvas of Green, Cliche.
October 1992 - Play gigs at the Business Ball, Nurses Ball & Spring Arts Festival which "Drunken Socialism" is specifically written for.
December 1992 - First ever Sydney gigs at Habourside Brasserie & lunch at Martin Place. "Beautiful John", Two Steps Back.
March 1993 - support the Killjoys at the Tatts. Brad & Steve are both huge fans of the exlephone (?) player. The backroom at Cathcart St becomes a creative meeting place. Tell Me Things, Book, Crave, Gillings, Popgun, Begger, 2480, Bow Tie. Warwick Lobb of the Mabels is a regular guest on Trumpter & Penn & Whistle. Mark McDonald joins the band as lead guitarist. Soon after Carrie leaves.
May 1993 - Mark leaves. The new look 3 piece Simpletons win their heat of the band comp beating hard core legends Fire Eye later to become Headlifter.
August 1993 - Simpletons win band comp final. Cartoon are runners up. The following week the Simpos win the state final beating Webstar. They then fly to Adelaide and take out the national final. Victorian band "The Family" are runners up. Set list for the night: Pockets of Joy, Canvas of Green, Buzz Aldrin, Book, Suprise, Crave, Bow-tie, Na Na Na, 2480, What's It All About. Stuart Hayes is manager.
Sept 93 - Go on tour supporting Things of Stone & Wood & The Tiddes.
Oct 93 - Begin playing Brisbane on a regular basis. New songs Tall Poppies, I Do, Friends, Salvation, Devil & the Virus, Living in a Dream. Support Badloves in Lismore. This incredible girl turns up at our gig.
Jan 1994 - Darren Hanlon joins the band. Record deut EP "Smother" at studio on campus. Amanda Jobson manager.
Feb 1994 - Begin first national tour. 35 gigs in 6 weeks from Townsville to Adelaide. Best gigs are in Townsville, Wagga, Bathurst, Sydney, Punters Club Melb and Exeter Adelaide.
March 1994 - Meet the Lucksmith and entourage in Melb who are ridiculously friendly & generous. They fill our stomachs with lots of food & beer. The Simpletons also stumble upon the arthouse in Melb. which becomes their 2nd home thanks to Pete & Morrees hospitality.
May 1994 - Support Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings at the Brisbane Ent Centre in front of 10,000 people. We countrify the songs as much as possilbe. Darren plays his country licks. We eat Waylon Jennings steak by mistake. Waylon is spewing.
July 1994 - Chris Crouch takes over as manager. Support local hero Rob Clarkson in Melb. Record 2nd EP "Nod" at Damian Gerrard studios in Ultimo. Rob Clarkson produces while consuming his salary.
August 1994 - Record live at the wireless for JJJ. Consequently a live version of Tall Poppies is placed on high rotation. Play gig with silverchair at Powerhouse museum opening, Daniel & Shane both wearing german army shirts. We borrow their leads but 5 and a half songs in their mum wants it back. We tell her to fuck off & let us finish the song.
Sep 1994 - Nod is released to excellent reviews, Cooking Claret & The Pipes receiving a lot of attention.
Nov 1994 - Crash Out single with B sides "Albert & Adolf" & "90 Seconds" is recorded with Ramesh Sathia engineering & Rob producing.
January 1995 - Play Byron Bay festival and one of our best gigs yet, with Chris Crouch on crowd control duties.
February 1995 - Record debut album Matter at Troy Horse studios South Newtown. Ramesh engineers, Rob produces & drinks & smokes.
March 1995 - tour up & down the country playing many gigs with the Whitlams & the infamous Stevie Plunder. Rory McClead guests with the Simpletons playing harmonica at the Three Weeds in Rozelle. Support Falling Joys in Canberra "Black Banaages" goes off. Meat "Dead Salesman" and begin a double bill tradition at the arthouse.
May 1995 - Matter is released to excellent reviews. "Nice" is picked up on JJJ & consequently flogged. Rob Clarkson comes on tour & stays awake for days on end as preparation for gigs.
August 1995 - Play a gig or two with Grinspoon in & around Lismore. Support Hunters for a few shows. Mark Seymour says "no moshing! We'll have none of that seppo bullshit here." So being the young upstarts we are we tell the crowd to mosh like crazy, which they do, but in an Australian way.
December 1995 - support Weddings, Parties Anything on their Xmas tour. A thrill to jump around to "Hobart Town" every night. Have many great nights out & in with the Weds. Support Custard at thet Roxy in Brisbane. Dave McCormack says he really likes"Cooking Claret". January 1996 - Support Billy bragg at the Enmore Theatre & get to hang out with the man. He's just so bloody nice. Lucksmiths & gang trek to Sydney specially for it which is also great.
February 1996 - Play Tasmania for the first time. Have a great gig at Round Midnight in Hobart to an audience who looked a lot like....well....pirates. Legendary return & ferry ride back to the mainland. Lighting fire crackers from the top deck "It's just so vast man".
March 1996 - Steve plays last gig with the band at the espy in St. Kilda. memorable, emotional gig with hardcore beer throwing love fights in the dressing room before we go on. We play a lot of songs that Steve wrote & co-wrote like His Story, smile, Albert & Adolf, Believe Me, Yin & Yang, tall Poppies. rob Clarkson makes a guesty & gives 110% playing guitar & singing on Round, Fillings & Pipes.
June 1996 - record 2nd album "Tandem" at Troy Horse studios in Redfern with David Trump doing a brilliant job engineering, resulting in a nice big sound. Easily the best CD to date. Doug Threllfell from Cartoon fills in on drums & does a top job. bullets is picked up by JJJ and flogged.
August 1996 - Ryan James joins the band. national tour sees 400 turn up at the Zoo in Brisbane, 380 at the Annandale in Sydney & 350 in Melbourne. Nearly 500 cram into the Planto at Coffs with the mosh causing the front of house speakers to be held by security. "Okay, okay....everyone just settle down. Aa, Cc, Gg, Bb, F,F,F,F ie Loot!
October 1996 - Play Port Fairy folk festival. Perform live on Recovery playing Bullets & Till The Sky. Play with Whitlams at the Metro. Everyone tells us we blew them away. They were starting to get favmous at this stage so we drank their beer.
November 1996 - Light a Candle released as single & picked up by JJJ. Record Live at the Wireless on JJJ & the fuckers play the transmission at the wrong speed, playing the tape too slow. January 1997 - Support They Might Be Giants on national tour. Play Gold Coast Big Day Out & go off just quietly. Smashed guitars etc. A lot of punters reckon we were the best on the day. yeah I reckon. The BDO is all about finding your glory in the late arvo sun on a small stage. Connecting with some tripper in the crowd. Playing your guts out. We played as heavy as we could.
March 1997 - Support Clouds on their farewell tour. Perform "Eight" on Ground Zero.
June 1997 - F & Till the Sky released as single. Play as house band on Recovery. Throw fruit at the Favres during their song. Brad & Darren leave the band.
January 1998 - The single "Eight" is recorded & released. |
