Last October, Aussie punk veterans The Meanies rolled into town on their 25th anniversary tour.
As that milestone indicates, the four Melburnians are no spring chickens, so fans questioned whether they could conjure the manic onstage energy that made them so notorious in the early ’90s. Hopes dimmed somewhat when it was revealed that crazed frontman Link McLennan had broken his foot on the Adelaide stop of the tour. Nevertheless, even a motionless McLennan didn’t stop The Meanies from putting on one hell of a show.
The Meanies head back to Sydney next weekend, and bass player Wally Kempton is confident they have another cracking gig in store. “We’ve had a pretty charmed life, so no matter who’s going to turn up, we’re going to have a great time,” he says. “Whether it’s ten people or 10,000 people, Link’s still going to put on a good show.”
The Meanies have led a stop-start existence. Formed in 1988, over the next six years they released four LPs and a tonne of singles. Then, following the success of 1994’s 10% Weird, the band went on hiatus as the members focused on a variety of other projects. In the years since, they’ve intermittently regrouped for tours and one-off gigs, but refrained from releasing another album. Throughout, Sydney has remained a favoured gig location.
“Our very, very first show in Sydney was with Hard-Ons and Exploding White Mice at The Phoenician Club,” Kempton recalls. “The Hard-Ons manager, Tim Pittman, was influential in making that happen. Chris Dunn from Waterfront Records played him a Meanies seven-inch when he went into Waterfront one day and they just lost their shit over it, so Tim started giving us shows up there. We played with Nursery Crimes and You Am I on the same weekend once – a very young You Am I. I don’t think even their EP Snake Tide was out.
“Two of our more memorable shows were October ’95, when we played the Metro. We did an all-ages show during school holidays on a Thursday afternoon and then we did a Friday night show and it was just packed. I think Frenzal Rhomb were supporting us. It was just party time. We’d got to a stage where we couldn’t do any wrong. And then we decided to stop playing, of course,” he laughs.
While The Meanies have visited us regularly enough, two trips to Sydney in less than six months is an almighty rarity. Following next week’s show, they’ll again retreat from the live arena. However, believe it or not, there’s actually a new album on the way.
“It’s always Link’s baby, but we’re all babysitters,” Kempton says. “He just decided on the track order last week and at the moment it’s sounding really good. So once we’ve agreed on that, it’ll get sent off to get mastered and then it’ll get pressed. The album art’s being worked on as we speak. The plan is to have that sitting there waiting for us after we hibernate for the winter, then put the fucker out and probably tour again around September/October.
“We got inspired by our old buddies the Cosmic Psychos, because they just keep on keeping on. They keep making records because they can and because they want to, and just bring them out, no pressure. I said to Link, ‘Why don’t we do that? We’re still playing, why just be a heritage act when you could actually be somewhat current again and release new material?’ If we’re going to keep doing it for the fun, we might as well keep creating the fun.”
The Meanies will be playing at Newtown Social Club on Friday March 27 and will be supported by Chinese Burns Unit and Hostile Objects.
