A Short History of the Go-Betweens

Grant McLennan and Robert Forster were at university together in Brisbane, Australia. It was there that Forster taught McLennan to play the bass. They joined forced with Dennis Cantwell, a drummer, and went into a studio to record some of Forster's songs. The tracks were all about society's collective guilt and the like, pretty much what you'd expect from art students. Forster has always come over like a sensitive soul who's set adrift in an unkind and misunderstanding world, a little like one of his heroes, Holden from Salinger's book 'Catcher In The Rye.' The Go-Betweens had another songwriter though.

McLennan wrote songs which were a little more personal. Songs like 'Cattle And Cane,' from the band's second album 'Before Hollywood,' which was an autobiographical account of growing up in a rural part of Queensland, Australia. Another of his songs was 'Unkind And Unwise' which told of his fatherless childhood and his state of anxiety with the preconceived notions of expected masculinity in a male dominated society. Forster was not so poetic and more barbed with his lyrics. 'Part Company,' from the 'Spring Hill Fair' album released in 1984, was the tale of a lost love, 'That's her handwriting, that's the way she writes, from the first love letter to this bill of rights.'

When Postcard Records owner Alan Horne heard their melodic indie songs he signed them in 1980. Yet the Go-Betweens only recorded a single with the seminal Scottish label and they went back home to Australia. For almost every release, the band went to a different location. Be it London, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney or Eastbourne, they were nomadic and recorded with a new producer each time. But their releases were not stylistically different and the focus on 'the song and melody' never wavered. They had five acclaimed albums, released on three labels, but produced no hits. Maybe a little similar in approach to the Smiths, but without the identity, and of course without a guitarist like Johnny Marr. What the Go-Betweens did have was a seven foot singer and a girl drummer and a penchant for adding curious melodic twists to either the singing of the guitar. Something which didn't appeal to radio playlist execs at the time. Also, their songs were unfamiliar and stylistically unique in structure. Another no-no with radio people, apart from John Peel of course, who gave the band some decent airtime.

The first two albums had Forster and McLennan being joined by drummer Lindy Morrison. Their third album included new bassist Robert Vickers. This enabled the two songwriters to develop their melodies even further as the bass and drums played simple and sparse patterns behind them. From 1984 to 1988 the band recorded four albums and all are fine examples of eighties alternative indie pop, with an art twist. They used strings to bolster the sound on their last two albums. '16 Lovers Lane', from 1988, had ten songs of equal quality. It was their last album and featured the single 'Streets Of Your Town', which was almost their first charting single. The band split in 1989 and left behind them a fine, undiscovered back-catalog.