THE DOG-CHAIRS (1989-1991)
Alex and I had made the great escape to Brisbane in 1989, finally leaving behind the dreary drudgery of redneck Rockhampton with its conservative mentalities.
It was a different version of Brisbane to the city you can visit today, in my opinion a much better version. There was the last great wave of punk bands, distinct subcultures existing within the city – punks, skins, Goths, swampies, rockabillys. This was Brisbane and Australia before the onset of the internet, no social networking bullshit sites, no email, no webpages, CD format still hadn’t arrived, vinyl records reigned supreme. No mobile phones, no texting, no chatrooms. The different tribes and their purist attitudes were still safe from the ravaging and levelling effects of grunge, which wouldn’t hit until Nirvana broke through to Australian audiences in 1992, with the then customary 3-5 year culture lag still very much in evidence in Australia, due to the tyranny of distance.
It took a while to stabilise in Brisbane, it was a tough nut to crack. A very insular and guarded scene, that pre-grunge offered no financial rewards or career prospects, but we weren’t interested in those aspects of playing music anyway.
In fact after trying to start several unsatisfactory lineups, and even recording a bad demo tape with one of them, I was going nowhere fast. 4ZZZ were sympathetic, as they were aware of SMEGMA and this was to help get us some future gigs, but right now no-one was prepared to book the band, no matter who the lineup was. We were outsiders and the scene was insular and self-absorbed.
Alex had also gone through the audition mill for several Brisbane bands, without any luck either. Things started to click into place at an X gig when we realised what we had been doing in CQ with JUNKYARD and PRIMARY was too good a band chemistry to forget about, and decided to join musical forces again.
We were both keen to write and play originals and went back to the d.i.y. ethic of running our own shows and having complete artistic control over our music.
Our friends THE MADMEN had already played Brisbane as part of some pre-emptive tours, and now moved down permanently as well. Luckily for us Tony Blades offered to drum for us until we could recruit a suitable drummer.
I am still grateful to Tony as he had plenty on his own plate, and he helped Alex and I get the ball rolling in Brisbane, even though our first run show attracted very few punters and we took a financial loss.
What it did do was alert the few punters to what we were about, with word of mouth starting up about us, and also 4ZZZ being impressed enough to offer us some gigs they were running at The Alliance Hotel in Spring Hill (aka Backstage Club).
From the first gig with Tony in 1989, we soon recruited another friend of ours (also an ex-Townsvillite) called Marcello Milani on drums. March had quite a reputation within Brisbane punk and hardcore circles already having been drummer for ACT. With our hardcore image and punk rock sensibilities, we soon joined the last great gasp of Brisbane ‘80’s punk and hardcore bands.
We started playing a heap of shows and making a ton of friends from within that subculture.
As well as being friends with THE MADMEN, we also met Rollo, Cal Crilley, Gregor and Leo, expatriate Rocky girl Heather, Marky and A*I*M, and went along and supported every local punk band that then played in Brisbane, by going to their gigs, buying their demo tapes / records & t-shirts, and started interviewing bands in my zine A PISS IN THE OCEAN, then up to its 5th issue.
Regardless to say I was still busy listening to any good music I could find, and living with Tim Steward for a while definitely introduced me to Husker Du’s complete discography, and also the latter period Clash albums that up to that point I had been ignoring. Also living in a capital city you could check out all the local bands, and also easily see the touring international & interstate bands, all totally impossible when living in C.Q. unless you wanted to put yourself through the 16 hour return road trip, or the 20 hour return train trip.
Local punk bands from that era in Brisbane included: INSANE HOMBRES, BAD RONALD, CRUCIFIED TRUTH, A*I*M, THE MADMEN, RAMPANT SCABIES, THE WARTHOGS, ALIEN VIRUS, VOMIT, MINNESOTA TRIPLETS, SLAUGHTERHOUSE JOE, GRUNT, and BLOWHARD; and we ended up playing shows with most of them. Most of the punk venues were up at Spring Hill, at venues like The Alliance Hotel (Backstage), and St Pauls Tavern (Wastelands). Heather ran shows at Souths Leagues Club (Alternative Choice), and we also played The Roxy, and ran our own shows at Sherwood Aussie Rules Club, and The Cave Club in Annerley.
We also played for free beer at a cool party at Newmarket for some punks we knew – the other ‘proper rock’ band wouldn’t let us use their P.A. so we just set our instruments up in the dewy backyard in the middle of winter, punks gathered around and helped us sing all our songs! At one stage my bass amp slid down the slope into the neighbour’s yard but we continued undaunted. In fact it was one of my fave ever shows with the Dog-Chairs. Sadly it was a bucket party and apart from various spirits, by the end of the night it also included ethanol and mower fuel. Cautionary tale if you ever go to a party with a free for all alcohol bucket.
It was essentially a purist punk scene. Politics mattered, ideas mattered, d.i.y. mattered. The scene had a similar intent but every single band sounded different and everyone was united by the fact were all were one tribe. Pre-grunge Brisbane was not financially rewarding, and gigs were hard to come by, but it was an exciting scene that Brisbane may never see the likes of again.
We played consistently throughout 1990, playing as many shows as we could.
Some achievements included our demo tape “Lick ya Gibs!” (recorded live to 4 track at Souths Leagues Club) reaching #4 on the Kent Records Independent Charts, and together with THE MADMEN setting a house record of 220 people to see our double bill at The Alliance. I have gone back to that tiny bar and stage under the Hotel since and can’t believe we squeezed that many people into the place.
On occasion we were lucky enough to get Dick Dale up from the audience and treat people to super-charged versions of “Deviants in the pub” and “None of your business”, two of our SMEGMA originals that always went down great!
Marcello left after some of our most exciting live shows to pursue his own career path, which was later to lead to his successful band THE TOOTHFAERIES.
We found an able replacement in Mark Peacock (soon renamed Mark X), who learnt our songs incredibly fast, and who I enjoyed having in the band – both for his musicianship and also his friendship. We hardly skipped a beat and kept playing as many shows as we possibly could. I remember tons of great practices with great hospitality at Mark and Monica’s house in Chermside.
Our last Brisbane show we self-financed and ran at The Cave Club in Annerley.
It was successful in attracting a large crowd which gave us a nice door taking (even at $2 a head), but unfortunately this show was also raided by the Police, with Alex and then girlfriend Alicia both being arrested.
From this show we were approached by a manager (ex-PINEAPPLES FROM THE DAWN OF TIME, a seminal ‘80’s indie band), and were offered a management deal and a regular residency at the Newmarket Hotel.
Sadly Alex had some issues he was dealing with, and no longer wanted to play in this lineup of the band, Mark was disappointed, and I knew that when something was unfixable it was a waste of time and energy trying to fix it.
If the band had of stayed together with proper management, we most likely would have been signed in the corporate music industry’s slavish signing frenzy in 1992 following the success of NIRVANA’s “nevermind” album. Almost every Brisbane band from that period got signed by the corporate labels overnight.
But that is all conjecture, it seems fate had other plans for us all.
Our roadies at this time were Andrew “Beefa” and Dean Turner, and I appreciate the hard work and unflagging support they gave to the band during this period of busy gigging in 1990.
THE DOG-CHAIRS (1991) – “From Beer to Eternity” Queensland Tour
For over a year I had been living back in Rockhampton (see SOLO & KYLIES section), keeping busy and helping the new independent scene that was emerging back in my hometown.
I used to invest a lot of effort and personal belief into my early bands like SMEGMA and THE DOG-CHAIRS, and I honestly believed that THE DOG-CHAIRS were not finished. I was homesick for playing in that band, and missed being able to play live shows very much. I had been playing in bands now with Alex Papsmear since 1987, and missed his great musicianship and his friendship. He had been living in Bundaberg, and I guess we were both finding our feet after a couple of pretty intense years of poverty and alcohol and drug addictions respectively living it rough in Brisbane.
During a rainforest benefit gig in East Street Rockhampton on Australia Day 1991, Alex and I played an impromptu Dog-Chairs set, ably assisted by ex-Smegma drummer Robbie Ward. It was fun to play those songs again, especially for such a good cause.
Several months later, instead of playing another reformation gig I asked Alex if he would like to get the band back together for a Queensland tour! This was still all pre-internet, I spent months phoning every promoter in Brisbane and elsewhere in Queensland, and writing letters and contracts, and finally through a lot of wrangling and sheer will of force had cobbled together an impressive tour of the whole state of Queensland!
Now Queensland is the second biggest state in Australia and the loop included 1,000s of kilometres of driving, with Brisbane to Townsville return being a 30 hour road trip!
We also needed a drummer. My shortlist included Marcello (unavailable due to his own band commitments), Robbie Shitface (unavailable due to work commitments), Mark X, Nick Naughton, or Matt Gaffney.
Alex wasn’t keen on touring with Mark for his own reasons, but fancied Matt Gaffney’s sister, so we asked Matt to come on tour with us.
We had seen Matt drum for VOMIT, and he was part of that ‘80’s group of Brisbane punks that we would chat to and have a beer with at any local punk show in the day.
The band’s look in Brisbane (1989-1990) was pretty hardcore, with leather jackets, Doc Martens boots, mohawks or shaved heads. Pretty much how all the punk bands looked at that time. By 1991, I’d decided to grow my hair long, and start questioning punk and where hardcore had lead it. So I was being an individual and claiming punk to be whatever I wanted it to be, rather than blindly following a certain set of rules and dress code. Jim’s documentary “A Piss In The Ocean” features some live footage of THE DOG-CHAIRS from the 1991 tour. Shot by our friend Ruth Rebel on video, and from both the Townsville shows we played on that tour.
Essentially we sounded the same, but were starting to look different to how we did in Brisbane in 1989-1990.
Alex and I spent a week or so before the tour commenced rehearsing hard at Helen and Tony Slater’s beach-flat on the Capricorn Coast, their hospitality was very much appreciated.
Matt came up on the train and was thrown in the deep-end – playing the Rockhampton – Blue Stein shows without any rehearsal, and to his credit learning the songs incredibly quickly as the tour progressed.
Here’s the full tour schedule and the results:
The Dog-Chairs – “From Beer to Eternity” tour 1991
RSL Hall Gladstone (with Splutter Monkey) (Cancelled)
Blue Stein Rockhampton – 2 shows (matinee and evening) Nov 15th
4TTT live in studio Cancelled by DJ Nov 21st
Aust Music Day “rock in parks” Townsville (afternoon) Nov 23rd
Mudhut, River Park Tavern, Townsville (evening) Nov 23rd
Club Grunt, Johnnos Blues Bar, Cairns Nov 27th
Blue Stein Rockhampton Cancelled (Alex and Matt in Ayr lockup) Nov 30th
Byfield Anti-Sand Mining benefit gig Waterpark Creek (Alex and Matt in Ayr lockup) Played a solo set! Dec 1st
Grosvenor Hotel Rockhampton Dec 7th (Cancelled, band splits)
Rocky sk-8 Competition “all ages show” Dec 8th (Cancelled by promoter)
4ZZZ “live to air” Brisbane Dec 12th (Cancelled)
Treasury Hotel, Brisbane (with A*I*M) Dec 13th (Cancelled)
Unfortunately the band imploded on the last leg of the tour back in Rockhampton, which was a shame as we were playing some great shows to excellent reactions all over regional Queensland.
Sadly THE DOG-CHAIRS were finished it, so it was back to square one all over again.
LINEUP
Cameron Borg (aka Bollox)– bass, vocals
Brett Nash (aka Alex Papsmear) – guitar, vocals
Tony Blades (aka Fatty Blades) – drums (1989)
Marcello Milani – drums (1989-1990)
Mark Peacock (aka Mark X) – drums (1990)
Robbie Ward (aka Rob Shitface) – drums (one gig 1991)
Matt Gaffney (aka Matty Vomit) – drums (1991)
ORIGINALS
Song in E (Alex / Bollox)
The Angry Song (Alex)
Anarchy by Alex (Alex)
We don’t care (Alex)
World Won’t Listen (Bollox)
Deviants in the pub (Bollox)
Fuckin poll tax (Alex / Bollox)
That girl! (Bollox)
Backdoor man (Alex)
I don’t know why? (Bollox)
Love ya baby (Bollox)
The US navy (I hate ya base) (Bollox)
Wall of Noise (Alex / Bollox)
That boring place (Bollox)
Drinkin’ Coopers Ale (Alex – Bollox – Stix)
Old (Alex)
Stenchcore (Alex – Bollox)
Reggae Song (Alex – Marcello)
Mc murder (Alex)
Never play sober (Alex-Bollox)
Notes on a Winter’s day (Bollox)
COVERS
Mongoloid (Devo)
Minor threat (Minor Threat)
Going crazy (X)
In my eyes (Minor Threat)
What am I s’pose to do? (Hard-ons)
Suck n swallow (Hard-ons)
Surfin on my face (Hard-ons)
Dead Joe (Birthday Party)
Am I ever gonna see your face again? (The Angels)
Ha ha ha (Flipper)
Sex Bomb Baby (Flipper)
Too drunk too fuck (Dead Kennedys)
California Uber Alles (Dead Kennedys)
Cornfed dames (The Cramps)
I feel alright (Stooges)
Do they owe us a living? (CRASS)
A*L*F (Noise)
In a rut (The Ruts)
Satisfaction (Devo)
None of your business (Smegma)
Better let go (The Madmen)
Black leather (Sex Pistols)
Brainwashed (Flipper)
GIGS PLAYED
Sherwood Australian Rules Football Club, Brisbane (with T*O*S) Sept 1989
Backstage, The Alliance Tavern, Brisbane (with GRUNT, Goats in the Machine) Nov 1989
Backstage, The Alliance Tavern, Brisbane (with The Madmen) 20/01/1990
Backstage, The Alliance Tavern, Brisbane (with The Madmen) 1990
Wastelands, St Pauls Tavern, Brisbane (with A*I*M, Rampant Scabies) 30/03/1990
Wastelands, St Pauls Tavern, (with Blowhard, The Warthogs) Brisbane 1990
The Roxy, (with A*I*M, The Madmen) Brisbane 1990
The Cave Club, Annerley, Brisbane 1990
Byfield Rainforest Benefit, Rockhampton 1991
The Blue Stein, Rockhampton (matinee) 1991
The Blue Stein (evening) 1991
Rock in the Parks, Townsville 1991
The Mudhut, River Park Tavern, Townsville 1991
Club Grunt, Johnno’s Blues Bar, Cairns 1991
PHOTO CREDITS
Photos © Cameron Borg, Ruth Rebel, Angela Gill, Mark Peacock, Monica Cobeng,
Angela Philipoom, Helen Slater, Tim Steward, Leslea Biglia. Jim Douglas (APiTO film archives).
RECORDING SESSIONS
Live @ “Backstage” Alliance Tavern, Brisbane 20/01/1990
Live @ “Wasteland” St Pauls Tavern, Brisbane 30/03/1990
Live @ Souths Leagues Club, Brisbane 20/04/1990
Live @ Cave Bar, Annerley, Brisbane 25/05/1990
Live @ Blue Stein, Rockhampton (both shows) 15/11/1991
DISCOGRAPHY
THE DOG-CHAIRS – “Lick Ya Gibs! Live 1990 A.D.”
Cassette (APiTO 003)
Recorded live to 4 track @ Souths Leagues Club, Brisbane
Recorded by Glenn Macallister, Photos by Gail Hargreaves
The Songs: going crazy / back-door man / what am I s’pose to do? / ha ha ha / dead joe / stench-core / suck n swallow / that girl! / am I ever gonna see your face again? / old / drinkin’ cooper’s ale / corn-fed dames / do they owe us a living? / 1991 (Outtake – black leather) (Mark X – drums)
Extra songs on original cassette release: deviants in the pub (dick dale -vocals) / old/ the angry song / I feel alright / suck n swallow / I don’t know why? / world won’t listen (all recorded live at Cave Club, Annerley on 25/5/1990 except “deviants in the pub” rec. live @ Wasteland, Spring Hill on 30/03/1990. Mark X – drums)
that boring place! / in my eyes / do they owe us a living? / drinking cooper’s ale / anarchy by alex / A*L*F (all recorded live@ Backstage, Spring Hill on 20/1/1990, Marcello Milani – drums)
Charted: #4 Kent Records Independent Charts, Brisbane (1990)
COMPILATION TRACKS
What About The Innocent? (Pathetic Recordings) 1990
Featured: The world won’t listen
First Compilation (APiTO) 1991
Featured: Old
Stomach This (Blind Conformity) 1992
Featured: That girl!
More Hippie Shit! (APiTO) 1992
Featured: Stench-core, &, Am I ever gonna see your face again?
Bob Dylan Revisited (APiTO) 1992
Featured: Rainy day women #12 & 35
Capt. Carl sampler #3 (Junk Sculpture)
Featured: In a rut
VIDEOS & FILM
For more extensive details see the ON FILM section of this website
THE DOG-CHAIRS on film
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Compilation video including some Dog-Chairs footage
filmed live in Townsville 23/11/1991
BETA video footage from “Rock in the Parks” and Mudhut
Filmed by Ruth Rebel (1991)
© Rebel Productions 1991
QUEENSLAND PUNK ROCK compilation video
Featured live footage of Lethal Injections, Smegma and The Dog-ChairsOriginally shot on BETA videoFilmed by Ruth Rebel – © Rebel Productions 1987 & 1991
Out of print VHS edit – compilation (P) APiTO label 2000
A PISS IN THE OCEAN DVD
Documentary by Dr Jim Douglas on Central Queensland punk scene.
Includes live footage from above + previously unseen footage.
Sources as per above. © D.O.D. Productions 2010.
Still available thru: www.apitodocumentaryfilm.com.au