David Virgin History and Stories: Part 2

I was told Johnny Dole lived in Forbes St, Darlinghurst. I wasn't given
a house number but I headed
over there regardless to see if I could find him. Just as I crosssed
Burton St, I saw a lone figure all
dressed in black, barefoot, pastey english skin, with greasy rocker
hair. I went straight up to him
and asked...." are you Johnny Dole? ". He said yes, he was on his way
to the shop to get his milk.
I walked with him and asked if I could play a gig at the Grand Hotel.
He said yes and in fact I could
have every Thursday night asa well as book my own supports. After
playing a few gigs at The Grand
Hotel as ' The Broken Toys ', my brother John could no longer continue
to play the drums in the
band under pressure from my parents. The same kind of problem was
happening with young Lyndon.

Peter Mullaney from ' Johnny Dole and the Scabs ' offered to play lead
guitar as the ' Scabs '
weren't gigging at that time and his friens Paul Cosgrove would take
over the drums. Soon after I
moved into Forbes St with Johnny Dole, Peter Mullaney and Paul
Cosgrove. We were now a more
grown up ' Broken Toys '. It was a great house and Dan Rumour moved in
with us shortly after.
Dan's band ' Black Runner ' had just split up as his brother , Jim, was
sick with cancer. Jim was
meant to die but he didn't. He went on to become Jim Bedhog of ' The
Bedhogs ' and ' The Kelpies',
two great hard punk bands. Dan kept himself busy playing lead guitar
with ' The Urban Gurillas '
when Bob Short went to London. Dan also filled in on guitar with the
all-girl band, ' Friction '. (Helen
Carter from ' Friction ' was later in ' Do-Re-Mi ' ). Forbes St was an
amazing place at that time.
' The Urban Gurilas ' and 'The Thought Criminals ' lived across the
road, and it seemed every other
punk band was near by. ' Mental as Anything ' lived on Forbes St. There
was even street tennis
on weekends. Everybody shared the same musical equipment and everyone
was very generous
in helping with posters and gigs. Dan Rumour called it Happytown. (
When ' Sekret Sekret ' later
released " Charity ", it was released on Happytown Sounds ).Dan used to
say, " these were the
good old days ".

We knew we were living in extraordinary times. We used
to say these times will
be remembered as a very important time for Australian music. Yes, we
were full of ourselves yet
it seemed every other day another amazing gig or event would happen.
I got on well with the late Johnny Dole. We were both immigrants and
both from Campsie. He had
a great record collection. He loved playing us his Beatles and Eddie
Cochran records, he was a
true rock n roller. A lot of peolpe were afraid of him. He was greatly
misunderstood. In those days
whenever a punk died, whoever was playing a gig would play " Search and
Destroy ". ' Sekret
Sekret ' had the honour of playing " Search and Destroy " at Frenches
Wine bar for the great
Johnny Dole.

THE BROKEN TOYS - Paid in Full

It's 1968, I must be about 6 or 7 years old. A band called ' Skid Row '
is playing in the lounge room of my family's house in Dublin. It's my
oldest sister's birthday party and she's kinda dating the singer / bass
player. It's Phil Lynott, later of ' Thin Lizzy '. At one point in the
evening
he lifts me above his head and announces, "this one will be a rock n
roller".
I'm 16 years old in The Grand Hotel, the place is packed, everyone is
pissing sweat and replacing it with beer, vodka, and whiskey and coke.
There is no good air in the place. I'm playing bass guitar with my band
' The Broken Toys '. The sound is hard, unforgiving. Somewhere in the
sound are songs,the songs contain words, chord changes, drums.
There is no stage, no lights, the crowd stands
breast to breast with the band, touching the band, we fight for our
space. We hit out to defend our space, our right to have room to
play, to keep our gear working, to protect our instruments. The crowd
moves foward pushed from behind, Pete Mullany pushes them back
holding his guitar at arms length. Andrew Campbell, our singer kicks
them back, the mic stand is under threat. I hit several people, some
in the face with the head of my bass. There are no fights, no
aggression.

This is normal, this is what has become normal. No one
is spitting, god help anyone who would spit at us. There is a song
list, there are songs in the noise, in the mayhem. Paul Cosgrove, my
drummer, is exhausted, fag in his mouth, His blue eyes are red with
sweat and smoke. He falls behind the rhythm of the song, I shout,
"fuck you Cos, speed up", he shouts back,"fuck you David",we
laugh, he's fucked, we'd better do a slower song next. We can't hear
the
chord changes in the confusion, we've lost the song, I work with
Pete to get it back. Most of people in the room are taller than me,
I can't see past the first row. I feel tiny,but compleatly safe,I'm a
bit
pissed. I've got no shirt on, It's too hot, I love this place, I love my
band,
"I'm a rock n roller", and "I'm paid in full".

WHAT MAKES A PUNK A PUNK?

I'm borrowing from Charles Aznavor's "What Makes a Man a Man ?". As a
kid I loved Aznavor, I still do.
He's like a french Morrissey. Most people would know his song, "Dance
in the Old Fashioned Way".
There was much debate in the pubs and clubs of Sydney in the late '70's
on this very subject. Does
clothes maketh punk, does political allegiance come in to play? What is
anarchy? Who deserves the
title of punk, who doesn't? Is it music? Is it lifestyle? Can you have
a beard? I only ever saw one guy
in the Grand Hotel with a beard.

He was the bass player for Tommy and
the Dipsticks. It caused such a
stir. Of course everyone was disgusted, "is our struggle for nothing?"
we all exclaimed. He turned out to
be a really nice guy, and after a time everyone just got on with their
own fun, or no fun if you were a
political punk.
I had my own trouble with this hot topic. Representing my band ' The
Broken Toys ', I was interviewed by
Susan Moore of the Daily Mirror. She wanted to know about me so I told
her about me. Most of the
interview was about how much I hated school saying things like ...." it
tries to destroy your imagination".
She also asked me what kind of music do we play, and me being a young
shit stirer said ...." I play pop
music". You have to understand the only people who used the word pop in
the late 70's were old people
as music had been refered to as rock music since the late 60's. The
paper hit the streets with my photo
and the headings ...." Toys Better Than School " and " He Looks Punk
But Says He's Pop ".

Anyone who really knew me ( and I admit there weren't many ), knew I was
having a laugh, and in truth, ' The
Broken Toys ' did try for a 60's type sound but in fact sounded more
Pistols / Buzzcocks. At our next gig
at the Grand, following the newspaper article, all hell broke loose.
Everybody accused me of being pop,
" David Virgin the pop star ". It was amazing, people really hated me.
Some saw me as a traitor to the
"punk cause". It was weird, I never even knew there was a punk cause.
Most of the criticism came from
punk fans who didn't play music, and the harshest words came from the
political punks, the ones who
thought punk was going to change the world and make everything all
right. Now, David Virgin, a 16 year
old musician is going to ruin all of that with one article in the
Mirror. I don't think so. My belief is that
most of these "true punks" were just envious of my talents as most of
them eventually went on to
shoehorn themselves into bands where they could express their own
ideas, and some of those bands
were quite good.

I did of course, with my article in the Mirror, attract a lot of cool
kids out of their cosy homes and down
to the Grand Hotel to enjoy something new and different than what they
might see on Countdown, and
for many it would begin a life long love affair with punk music. I know
this because people said to me
"I saw you in the paper and I came to have a look".
I believe punk is an ethic, an ethic that I personally suffered for,
for practicing it in music, as many punks
have suffered , whether they be fans, musicians, artists or support and
business people. The late 70's
punks took risks looking and dressing as they did and some of us,
including me were even "shot by both
sides". It was a dangerous time for me, in fact one night, a pogrem of
20 or more of these "concerned"
punks broke my door in and invaded my flat in Kings Cross. I was
wearing only my pyjama bottoms when
I greeted them, holding a knife in one hand and spinning a nunchaku in
the other. With my spikey
bleeched blonde hair and mascara, I must have looked a terrible sight
as I heard one cry "he's got a
knife!" and another exclaimed "he can use those things!", refering to
my nunchaku. They all nearly
killed themselves in a bottle neck for the door as they ran away. They
never bothered me again.

To me, it was sad, I thought I'd left my violent gang days behind, in the
numbered avenues of Campsie, and could
pursue my art and music in the safety of the inner city. That night I
was glad to have my old weapons at
hand and I think once again of Charles Aznavor and his song, "What
Makes a Man a Man?", and ponder
still, "What makes a punk a punk?".

S.P.K.' AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRIAL.

' The Broken Toys ' attracted an awful lot of positive attention from
many diverse and interesting sections
of Sydney society. Of course, the Kings Cross showgirls who would come
to the Grand and take
me away to their georgously decadant world, a very different side of
Sydney that I didn't know existed.
It didn't take me long to become unshockable, just like them. It's not
for everybody, as for me,
more than willing student in the wicked arts.
The "toys" had come to the attention of a couple of psychiatric nurses
who were also interested in my unique talents. They were Graham Revel
and Nihil, the creators of the
industrial noise band ' S.P.K. '. Nihil was a bit of a fan and he was
interested to know about my experiences
as a press operator and metal worker, that was the type of work i had
done before playing music.

Nihil tracked me down and asked me very ernestly and seriously to join
' S.P.K.', play bass and
help them make their records sound like a real factory.He also admitted
they couldn't write music.
Nihil was like a Joseph Conrad character, I'm thinking, Secret Agent.
He always had a carry bag filled with
vitally important documents. One had the strange feeling that at any
moment we would all be blown to pieces.
I agreed to do the records, write music and play the bass live with '
S.P.K.'. ' Broken Toys' were winding
down at that stage anyway because Peter Mullaney, and Paul Cosgrove,of
Broken Toys were going to London. Dan Rumour, my self and later Des Devlin,where
starting work on our next
band, ' The Ugly Mirrors '. Dan Rumour was suggested for the role of
guitarist in 'S.P.K., he was perfect
of course. It was agreed and ' S.P.K.' started rehersing at Mansion
House, Elizabeth St, Sydney. My
main interest at the time was ' The Ugly Mirrors ' , even so Dan and
myself did a fine job on the
' S.P.K. ' records and live shows. Their records and later incarnations
of 'S.P.K. ' went on to recieve
legendary status in the world of industrial music. Sadly, Nihil the
singer died after the second single was released.

Graham Revel, ' S.P.K.'s ' synth player and singer, continued with ' S.P.K. ' and
eventually became quite a successful creator of soundtracks for motion
pictures. Mark Boswell ( from
' Voight 465 ' ) played drums for ' S.P.K.' when required. ( Most of
S.P.K's rhythm came from a home-
made drum machine, and synth pulses.) The early records were great,
nothing quite like it in the world
at that time. Later ' S.P.K. ' was more dance music, an early form of
techno. In my travels around Europe
I have met many ' S.P.K. ' fans. They all seem very surprised to learn
' S.P.K. ' was an Australian band.
Most people thought that they were German or French. The first two
records were recorded in Accent
Studios, Rockdale. It was hard work to achieve the results, the records
are breath-taking.

' THE UGLY MIRRORS ' AND THE GHOST OF THE ' TOYS '.

At 17 years old. I'm riding a blue 1962 Lambretta 175, motor scooter.
There seems to be a great band playing in every pub in Sydney. Three of
those bands
are playing songs I've written.I'm so excited about ' The Ugly Mirrors
'. In the ' Toys ' writing nearlly
all of the songs, words and music. being the boss, but not the singer,
(I played the bass.)Now in ' The
Ugly Mirrors ', I would be the singer, write all the words to sing and
Dan,Des and myself would
share the job of writing the music. free of the bass guitar and of
having to be the boss, I
could finally become the fat Irish poet I always wanted to be, just
like Jim Morrison.

Dan and Des were very strong musically and full of great ideas. Des had appeared
at a party in Forbes st. We got
on right away. After we spent most of the night chatting, then asking
him if he would play bass for the
band that Dan and myself were starting. He agreed, and then there were
three.
We set out to create a band that we would be happy to play in. We had a
few good 'Broken Toys'
songs to start us off. Dan and myself started writing frantically. The
first song was "Puppets". "Puppets"
represented our direction, it was soft, creepy and beautiful. It was
the type of song we wanted to
play. We wanted to test the power of melody as energy as opposed to
volume. Des wrote beautiful
music. One of his first songs we did was "Tears". The song was like a
portal to a very rare and beautiful place.

We were going for a kind of childrens nightmare music
box sound, a kind of tough
Sid Barret or the twisted side of 60's punk psycadelia. Restraint was
the key. We had just come
out of the high energy punk era. Dan had come through the "Detroit"
heavy metal scene. 'Broken
Toys' were already heading toward what ' Sekret Sekret ' would become.
' The Ugly Mirrors ' was the changing of the guard. A beautiful half
dream. We promised to be a
sound for sore ears. The lyrics were to be a grim but playful reminder
of man's inner torment,
beautiful and dangerous. This is how we discussed the little pieces of
music we would work with.
We temporarily put our world weariness on hold and deliberately
reclaimed just enough innocence
to penetrate even the hardest of hardened souls that we exposed
ourselves to. Our first opportunities to try out our grand theories came when we were
invited to play at a party
on the North Shore. Peter Mc Gregor, later of ' Wild West ', drummed
for us. We set up in the lounge
room and started playing. We played very quitely and with great
intensity. The quiter we played, the
quiter the audience became. Before long there was a wonderful vibration
in the room.

Our sound was doing just what we thought it would do. We knew right then we had a
great group. We had hypnotised
a room full of chattering rich kids to silence and calm contemplation.
We weren't really sure of the
ultimate purpose of this gift we possessed, none the less we soon
became willing servants to the
same gentle spell as we ourselves were reflected in the Ugly Mirror.

NAMES AT THE GRAND

' Jim Bedhog ', Danny Rumour's brother, got his name from accusing
my brother John for hogging his bed when he was out late . There was
a shortage of sleeping spaces in Darlinghurst. "Crashing" around was
the thing. ' Greg Dog ' wore a dog collar. he invented the hold your
beer,
shake one leg, nod your head dance. ' Cathy Corpse ' looked like a
corpse. People were sometimes named after their bands,' Andie
Guerilla ', ' Ross Guerilla ', ' John Reject' and ' Peter Particle '.
In "The
Sadists" I was called ' David Anthony Christ '. I had a doll as part of
my act called ' Virgin ', we would dress identically. One gig the doll
went missing, I took the doll's name. ' Les Wreckage ' was a nasty
punk, he was often seen with ' Neckless Nick '. An English girl named
' Vicky Vomit ' was in to S & M, she thought that I was her "sub", ouch.

I hid a lot until she went back to London. ' Bus Tackler ' a stocky
girl, got that name after Danny Rumour saw her get hit by a bus at
Broadway, "she just kept walking!". ' Roger Thought Criminal ' , '
Bruce
Thought Criminal ', some names were hard to say. ' Peter Acidhead '
knew heaps of guitar chords, also did shifts in a bed with brother
John.
Peter had really long hair and did amazing hippy dances at gigs and
at home. ' John Boy ' my little brother was the youngest boy in my
family. He was the drummer in "The Sadists" and early "Broken Toys".

' SEKRET SEKRET ' - ARE YOU HAVING THAT CURRY?

Thursday night at the Civic Hotel was ' Sekret's ' first residency. We
had a regular drummer in Colin
( Jinx ) Ellis. Peter Mullaney, the ' Toy's ' guitarist, returned from
London, with a slight accent and
an impressive knowledge of English soccer, he would share the guitar
work with Danny.

The fact that he pushed the band's combined age to about
300 was more than made up
for as he was the only truely handsome one amongst us, as well as this
he had a classic sounding old Fender
guitar, and of course his song-writing was superb. My favourites were,
"Matador", "Woodbrown", and the
hauntingly beautiful, "Go".
We dropped the name ' The Ugly Mirrors ' to coincide with the changes.

The Thursdays at The Civic were happy indeed. We would usually get ' The Singles ' to
play the support spot.
Andrew Campbell, the singer and rhythm guitarist for ' The Singles '
had been 'The Broken Toys '
singer. He had local tough guy, Rod Burnell, on bass, the highly
talented Geoff Smith on lead
guitar and a powerful drummer who we called Egg Roll, he did about 50
rolls a song. The publican
found a clever way around the liquor licensing laws of the day. It
worked out that if, at a certain hour,
they stopped all the music and made everyone in the pub eat something,
they could then stay open
longer and therefore sell more beer. So, we all had to stop at the
appointed hour and eat a plate of
curry. It was like a strange game. You might be talking to someone
about something very important
and amazing when you're handed a plate of curry by an old lady and you had to really eat it.

The band couldn't continue playing till it was all gone. It was great
watching someone who had come
there for the first time. There would be really cool and sophisticated
stiffs standing uncomfortably
holding a paper plate of aussie - style current curry complete with
gluggy rice, then I'd see Dan Rumour
after gobbling his up, address them in his rugged bush humour and in a
very familiar fashion, "are you
having that curry"?. There was a very warm and positive atmosphere and it became a very
popular night out in Sydney.
Peter's guitar playing brought even more melody and brightness to the
overall sound. Bright too
were the paisley shirts we all started wearing. We were beginning to
sound neo-psycadelic and
it seemed right to look the part. Strange at first, not so strange when
the fans, male and female,
started looking very smart in their own and very beautiful paisley
gear. Paisley became the new
black, and our little band unwittingly did it's bit for fashion. Our
real business was sound and business was good.

We had no problem reconciling within our band all
the forms of punk, good rock n roll, 60's grunge, and whatever we created ourselves. Out of our
love and dedication to
whatever we called "good music", we created a band and a bunch of songs
that would stand up
to the only test that matters in our business, the test of time.

SS 2 - SWORD AND SANDALWOOD

Sekret Sekret 2 released "Girl With A White Stick / "Chimes", "Just To
Love You / Waterbirds" through Waterfront Records. Also "Give It Up /
Possession", between the two singles, again on Waterfront. I put it out
under my own name, David Virgin. It was a record I really wanted to
make and had very strong ideas on instrumentation. SS played the song
live later. Of course we had the "I like your old stuff better than
your new stuff" people, but they would soon be shouted down by a whole new
audience that the records and the new sound attracted. The band hadn't
been split up for long, maybe a year or less. I personally needed a
rest and was better for it. By the end of SS 1 most of us were fucked. I
was getting vitamin B shots from Doctor Danny in Surry Hills. My nerves
were completely gone. Dr Danny had hair down to his arse and looked
like Joe Delasandra. In his waiting room you would typically see the
cream of Sydney's rock n roll scene, most for vitamin shots. He even
convinced Angry Anderson to get a dog, to force him to walk for his
health.

We would make fun of Angry as his dog was tiny. He would just
roll his eyes and say, "The doctor told me to get a dog so I just got
this fuckin thing". My problem wasn't going to be fixed with a dog. Dr Danny
sent me to an accupuncturist in Paddington. The accupuncturist said I
should meditate, so not doing things by half measures, I moved into an
Ashram in Newtown. Des and Danny moved in too and we had a great
rest, learnt how to meditate, chant and eat properly for the first time
in years ( or maybe ever ). We met many good people, a lot of actors,
even Gary Mc Donald of all people, I thought it was great. Also, in my
time off, I taught music to Prisioners at Parramatta Jail once a week, did
some body sufring with Danny and friends, a lot of this I never had
time to do. In the peace and quiet of the Ashram I wrote many songs. By the
time I was ready to gig again, I had 30 or so new songs, ( some
would be later David Virgin songs ). Danny and myself struck up the
band again and started rehersing with Ken Gormley on bass and James
Elliot on drums. Des wasn't ready to play yet and in any case was more
interested in the guitar rather than the bass. When Des rejoined on
guitar we started to gig again. All reasonable people received us very
well right from the start.

There were some old fans who, for no sensible
reason, believed not only should we never have "abandoned" them in
the first place, but that we should sound exactly the same as we did
before, look the same, and treat them the same. After all how dare we
do things they don't understand? ( It reminded me of when The Broken
Toys had split, some guy said to me, "you'll never get a band as good
as Toys" ). Now I'm older I kind of know what he means. At the time I
was 16, it really gave me the shits, that he could say that to me when
I was just starting out. So the new orange juice drinking David Virgin
wasn't a big hit with some of the old guard. Did I care?, "No". Did I
ever ask anyone permission to do as I did, "No". It didn't take too
long before we became very popular and played some of the best gigs I can
remember, and yes, that weird and wonderful thing that we always had
was still there for us and the audience. With Des on guitar now, the
sound was very different. Des started composing what I believe were
some of our best live songs, "Lace", "Just to Love You", "White Stick".
Danny composed "Craft", "I Hear", and the song, "All Your Names",
which would later be reworded by Perkins to become The Cruel Sea
song "I Feel". Ken was a solid bass player and worked well with
James, and it was good to see two old friends, as they have been
for years, in the same band. Ken composed "She Doesn't", James
Elliot composed "I Live Here". I was still the word writer and was
composing a bit of music as well, "Born Of Love", "Barefeet", "Give
It Up", "Waterbirds" and more.

SS 2 had a great spirit, worked hard and played all the venues, but
still prefered the inner city gigs. it was an inner city band. The
Trade Union Club and Paddington Green were my favourites. I also loved
the intimacy of the Southern Cross ( now Strawberry Hills ), Ken's
first gig I believe. We had a good run and good fun, we enjoyed our
music and the crowd. Waterfront were a good Indepentent company,
at least their heart was in the right place. I was 22 years old at the
end of SS, an age many musicians would be starting their first "real"
band. Danny quit, for his own reasons, which I had no choice but to
respect even though I wasn't happy about it. From there, the band
disintergrated. I think the last gig was a benefit for a pre-school that we had
promised. What the difinitive history of this time will be, I don't
know.

This is how I see it. Of course volumes could be written, and
possibly will be. Until all concerned parties have their say, questions
will always remain.

DAVID VIRGIN