TOP OF THE TOWN

MICK MEDEW MAY BE RENOWNED IN THE ANNALS OF AUSTRALIAN ROCK FOR HIS TIME FRONTING LEGENDARY OUTFIT THE SCREAMING TRIBESMEN, BUT HE TELLS STEVE BELL THAT IT’S HIS NEW OUTFIT THE RUMOURS THAT’S CURRENTLY PUTTING A SMILE ON HIS DIAL.

Brisbane has been responsible for some incredible music over the last few decades, none better than the incendiary 80s rock’n’roll juggernaut The Screaming Tribesmen. Formed by Mick Medew from the ashes of seminal rock outfits The 31st and Fun Things (members of whom would go on to play in bands such as Hoodoo Gurus, Died Pretty and The Hitmen), the Tribesmen became stalwarts of the Australian independent scene, having immediate and lasting success with early single ‘Igloo’ and the venerated Date With A Vampyre EP. Their 1987 debut album Bones + Flowers scored them attention in the States where they subsequently toured, and reverence from Europe saw them travel there a couple of times as well.
While it’s been well over a decade since the final incarnation (there were a few) of The Screaming Tribesmen disbanded, the influence of their gritty-yet-melodic garage stylings has never wavered. Two separate career retrospectives were released earlier this decade, and their sound has lived on in generations of subsequent guitar bands.
Now after a hiatus Medew is back with his new outfit The Rumours, and despite their raucous debut album All My Love being his first full-length release in some 15 years, the familiar voice and powerful songwriting contained therein make this far more than a trip down memory lane – it’s like he’s never been away.
“I’ve sort of been playing all along in different things, but this is the first album for a long time,” Mick agrees with a laugh. “The band was our producer Jeff Lovejoy’s idea – he’s to blame. I moved back to Brisbane at Christmas 2002, and just spent most of 2003 getting used to living here again. We had a bit of a party at our bass player Paul [Hawker]’s place – who I’ve known for years – and Jeff said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to grab Ash [Geary – guitar] and Paul and Woody [Chris Dixon – drums] – I want to record you! You’ve got to do this band!’. We took it pretty casually at first but we always knew it was going to work. We’ve been together now for about five years – we’ve been together long enough to have two albums out by now!”
While Medew’s distinctive traits are instantly recognisable on All Your Love The Rumours have a sound all of their own, the duelling guitars and powerful rhythm section giving the record a fearsome bite.
“I kind of feel really blessed in that way,” Medew reflects. “I should have realised myself when we were asked to do it, but I didn’t realise until we actually got in the room and played – of course Ash, Chris, Paul and I have all listened to the same music, there’s a lot of influences shared there. And of course I’ve played with Ash and Chris before in a latter version of Screaming Tribesmen. That was before our second tour of Europe, in about ’92 I was playing with them. It’s a pity that line-up didn’t stick together – that was the line-up that really should have done that trip to Europe. But we were all pretty young at the time and Chris and Ash were still living up here, and none of us had any money.
“So there was that association, plus Paul used to come along and see a lot of the Mk II Screaming Tribesmen: the line –up with [Radio Birdman legend] Chris Masuak, Bob Wackley and Warwick Fraser. We just hit it off brilliantly – I didn’t think it was going to sound so good. It’s a pity I didn’t do this years ago, but I’m just totally happy with it. I feel really relaxed in the band, everyone can take care of themselves – I feel like I’m playing with real rock’n’rollers now, so it’s good.”
While The Rumours cite a slew of overseas acts such as MC5, Roky Erickson, Blue Oyster Cult and The Dictators as primary influences, there’s an obvious (and unsurprising) Australian rock bent to their sound.
“For sure, yeah,” Mick agrees. “You can hear a bit of The Hitmen’s influence in our music, which is also The Dictators’ influence as well. We’re always going to be associated with bands like The Celibate Rifles and Lime Spiders – a lot of those Sydney bands. It’s a strange beast the Sydney guitar scene, particularly where there’s that big following in the southern suburbs – a rock’n’roll band doesn’t have to have a Top 40 hit to go down well in the southern Shire. It’s quite a beast of a scene.
“But I love a lot of Australian music, that’s for sure. You can hear The Visitors in our stuff – I was nearly going to say Radio Birdman, but I’m a huge fan of The Visitors. Obviously I love bands like the Divinyls as well – I got to perform with Chrissie Amphlett in front of I don’t know how many people [Ed: reports from the day estimate the crowd at 250,000] on Good Friday in 1989 at the Turn Back The Tide concert to fight water pollution in Sydney. Tribesmen played a few songs at that and Chrissie did a song with us – that was a huge highlight for me because I love the Divinyls. There’s just so many great Australian bands, too many to remember.”
And while many of these classic Oz rock bands have chosen to reform in recent times to pay homage to their glory days, for the moment Medew is content looking forward with his new outfit rather than looking over his shoulder.
“Yeah, it’s kind of nice at the moment to be remembered, but I’m not rushing out to do a Screaming Tribesmen tour at the moment,” he admits of his former outfit’s considerable legacy. “I think that kind of helps with the band’s standing – if you leave it go for a while then it’s less tainted. I think with the Tribesmen we almost went on a bit too long at the end anyway. We had a very good first tour of Europe in ’91, but by the second tour in ’93 Nirvana and grunge had kind of wiped out a lot of bands like us. The writing was on the wall then, but we kicked on until about ’96, just for fun more than anything.
“But it’s funny how things have turned around again, and now our type of music is back in fashion in a big way. The Rumours are getting some airplay in places like Austria and getting coverage in all the European fanzines – they really like the album – so we could try and venture over there again. We never got to play in Scandinavia and they love their rock’n’roll, so that could be good fun.
“I’m always getting offers to get the Tribesmen back together. I probably might do at some time in the future, because I get asked about it a lot. I wouldn’t go and do it at the moment because I’m loving where I’m at with The Rumours and I’m really excited about the new album. There’s been a couple of false starts with Tribesmen and we’ll probably do it sometime, but we’ll just wait and see what happens down the track. I’m so happy with All Your Love right now, so there wouldn’t really be any point at the moment.”
WHO: Mick Medew And The Rumours
WHAT: All Your Love (I-94 Bar Records)
WHERE AND WHEN: Rosie’s Friday Jun 26