It’s another day at the office for the Cosmic Psychos as the band and their crew load into the recently-reopened Lansdowne Hotel, mere minutes from the CBD of Sydney. The punk legends are gearing up for a bumper weekend, during which they’ll play two shows at the venue, both of which have sold out well in advance – as have most of the shows on this run, as it happens.
The tour is in support of the band’s new standalone single, ‘Better In The Shed’, but the truth is the Psychos could arrive on any city’s doorstep, year in year out, and have a rabid audience awaiting them. Such is the bond they’ve built up with crowds over the course of 30-plus years, all of that love and appreciation motioned along by Ross Knight, AKA Knighty, who is the bass player, lead vocalist and sole remaining original member.
“I mean, if you didn’t enjoy it, then why would you wanna do it?” he reasons, knocking back a beer after soundcheck while his bandmates and the rest of the crew mill about the bandroom. “I mean, some people might like hitting themselves over the head with a stick. After a year, though, they’ll go, ‘This hurts! I don’t wanna do it anymore!’ The constant for me is being able to go out and have fun doing it. We’re lucky enough that we all still get along and we still really love doing it together. We don’t live in each other’s pockets, we don’t overthink it… We don’t even rehearse.”
The constant for me is being able to go out and have fun doing it.
As if to prove this, John McKeering – the band’s guitarist, best known as Mad Macca – wanders over to the table to ask Knight a question about the setlist. “Those songs we did at soundcheck – keep ’em?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Knight replies. “Although keep a couple of songs as back-ups – just in case it all goes to shit!”
Obviously, there’s no pretension or delusions of grandeur when it comes to the Cosmic Psychos – they still sound as guttural and rough as they did back when the band originally formed in 1982. Even so, these days there is unquestionably a veteran status that hangs about the band, and they’ve had years of experiences to impart on those new acts coming up through the ranks now.
Indeed, this is where VB Hard Yards comes into play, an initiative in which independent rock bands have submitted their songs for the chance to play with the Psychos themselves later this month. After an overwhelming amount of entries, three bands have been selected as finalists – Rackett, Shearin’ and Mini Skirt – and they will make up the bill for the Lansdowne gig.
As well as each scoring a mentoring session with the Psychos, a winner will be announced on the night for the grand prize: a recording session for a single to go on a split seven-inch with the Cosmic Psychos, and $3000 cash. When approached about the initiative, Knight and the rest of the Psychos team were immediately on board – to them, it seemed like a real no-brainer. “Bloody oath,” says Knight.
“It seemed like a great thing to do. I don’t wanna sound too old and decrepit, but we’ve been around for a long time. It’s always been difficult to break out and to make a name for yourself as a band, but it’s even more so now – there’s a lot less venues, for instance. Rock’n’roll sort of fucked itself about 20 years ago when independent rock became profitable and money-making rock all of a sudden. People just got disillusioned with the whole thing. Any initiative to help any band starting out is a good thing, I reckon. Any leg-up is a good leg-up.”
One of the main reasons Knight and his bandmates were so responsive to the initiative was because they took the time to imagine what something like VB Hard Yards could have done for the Psychos themselves back in the early days. Knight recalls a very different climate when the band was first making their way around Melbourne in the ’80s – the venues were there, but the camaraderie was not. “It was pretty competitive,” Knight recalls. “Melbourne was an ultra-cool scene, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of support there from your fellow bands. You were either cool or you were stupid – and, needless to say, we fell under the stupid category.
Even if it’s just a little bit of encouragement, every little bit helps.
“We were lucky, though. We had friends like The Celibate Rifles – a great Sydney band. We got to play a lot together – we’d go up to Sydney, they’d come down to Melbourne – and we were very supportive of one another. They were going over and doing tours through Europe, and in those days you’d play cassettes at the mixing desk between bands. They used to play a bit of the Psychos while they were over there, sharing our music with other people. That was a great show of support for us – it really was a massive help in getting over to Europe. Even if it’s just a little bit of encouragement, every little bit helps.”
Our conversation is interrupted briefly by Amyl and the Sniffers, the Melbourne garage punk band who are on tour as the national support with the Psychos. They give a loud, thrashy soundcheck of their song ‘I’m Not A Loser’, which blares messily through the PA as Knight watches from afar. It’s their brief musical interlude that contextualises the next line of questioning, regarding how Cosmic Psychos are viewed by a younger generation.
After all, many of the audience members who attend the band’s shows now were not even born when the Psychos first started, having been exposed to them by things like the 2013 documentary Blokes You Can Trust, or their 2015 co-headlining tour with Dune Rats. Knight is grateful that a band from humble, rural beginnings can still draw such a crowd after so many years – and that a whole new group of Psychos fans have made their way up the front.
“We get along so well with those blokes in Dune Rats,” he says. “I regard them as some of me best mates now. I love looking at a young band like that, enjoying every second of what they’re doing. They never look like they’re at work – they’re just having fun. The same reason they’re doing it at their age is the same reason I’m doing it now, at a thousand years old.” Knight laughs: “Alright, maybe not a thousand. I am fifty-fucking-six, though. When I get up on stage, though, it doesn’t matter. I’m 18 again.
“With a band like Amyl and the Sniffers, I see a lot of what me and the boys were doing 35 years ago. It’s great to see that kind of attitude still alive and well. I mean, it still works. It works a lot better for them than it does for a bunch of old cronies like us.
“I can only hope they’re still doing what they’re doing now in 30 years, and then they’ll be the ones to teach the next batch of bands to come through how to do it.” Knight smiles, as he turns to the stage and ‘I’m Not A Loser’ blares out again. A nice day to go to the pub indeed.
Cosmic Psychos, Rackett and Shearin’ play the Landsdowne on Wednesday November 22. You can win tickets to that ultra exclusive event via a competition in this week’s issue of the BRAG.
