1927 - ...ish

In the early '90s I was rummaging through the discount discs at A&B Sound and I stumbled upon a couple of CDs by a band called 1927. I had never heard of them, but something about them looked cool. Pre-internet there was no easy way to find out about bands and stuff, so music had to stand on its own merit.

Getting the two albums at once was fun, like the old Monty Python gag it was an instant record collection. Thankfully both ...ish and the Neapolitan self-titled album were really good. It would be ...ish that I played more often, not that I remember it being the better album, it's just the one I pull out when I think of the band.

This was Australian synth heavy pop with big guitars and great vocals. Yes, back in the '80s Australia had a sound, go figure. 1927 sounded a bit like Icehouse. It wasn't so much Icehouse as it was that vocalist Eric Weideman sounded a lot like Iva Davies, who was by default - Icehouse. Icehouse at the time was hot. ...ish came out a year after Man of Colours, an album that went seven times platinum in Australia, moving just shy of 500,000 copies. There was an appetite for music like this.

When I found this in '92 the echoes of the '80s were still bouncing off the walls and this slick AOR was very much my jam. 1927 arrived unheralded over here and while I didn't play the albums a lot, they made an impression - especially the debut.

Musical tastes were changing as the '80s drew to a close, and as with all things the only constant is change (follow me for more half baked aphorisms): "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Who doesn't love Ecclesiastes?

When I mention Iva Davies, or call out Icehouse it is not as a slight, or meant to demean 1927. Which is odd, considering how many bands I've thrown under the bus, and then backed the bus up and then driven over them again because I think they're pointlessly derivative. Don't ask me why 1927 gets a pass. They do. Perhaps it's because they evoke the best bits I liked about Icehouse and were their own band.

It's not like I'm oblivious to how "safe" this was at the time. It was a veritable collage of musical cliches and paint by numbers generic rock. Haters gonna hate, and as much as I can identify the weaknesses here, I also have to be transparent and let you know this pushed a lot of my happy buttons. I don't eschew commercial rock just because it's commercial.

Which by the way is about the dumbest and most indefensible musical genre description ever. Commercial in terms of what? Sales, the musical flavour of the day, what was on Top 40 radio ... I suppose it was all three. There was commercial, and then there was commercial. Commercial rock was my sweet spot. Foreigner, Journey, Styx, April Wine, Def Leppard and even Bon Jovi. At some point they all sat in the epicentre of what was commercial when they were hot ... and when they weren't did it make them less commercial? Yes, it did ... but the music didn't change. See the difference? I know this is as logical as an ouroboros being able to swallow and come back for another bite, but it sort of makes sense if you squint and look at it sideways.

When I found a copy of ...ish on vinyl I didn't hesitate and snapped it up. Right from the opening "To Love Me" (which felt a lot like a kissing cousin to Icehouse's "Great Southern Land") I was transfixed and transported back in time. As I only have one record, and as this is the record I have this is the one I'm writing about. I'm sure it would be a different story if I'd have found a copy of their third release on vinyl, but I didn't.

At the time I had no idea who these guys were, or how big a deal this was when it came out. All I knew was that it was a pretty cool album, and I really liked a lot of the songs. It wasn't until I found the record that I started reading up on the band. Five singles were released from ...ish, with two cracking the top 10 and two more reaching the top 20. The final single, "To Love Me," stalled at No. 70, which to me was perplexing as this is one of the best songs on the record in my opinion. I wonder if this was nothing more than fatigue and a case of going one too many times to the well. Coincidentally, all five songs came from the first side.

1927 was anchored by James Barton on drums and Bill Frost on bass guitar. Bill's brother Garry Frost played guitar and keyboards. Front and centre was Eric Weideman on lead vocals and guitar. These guys were really good. Garry in particular seemed to be the sonic architect as he either wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album.

This was a nicely polished collection of rock songs. There was just enough crunch to appeal to the rock crowd, and it was melodic and pretty. With ...ish, the stars aligned, and the album caught people's attention. This was the flavour of the day, and people ate this up. Suddenly 1927 found themselves in the right place at the right time with the right sound, and ...ish would move over 350,000 copies and be certified 5 times platinum. It would be their best-selling album by far, and one of the best-selling debut albums in Australian history.

When they released their follow-up The Other Side in 1990 it would go platinum but comparatively it was a pretty steep decline. It's not like Icehouse themselves fared any better when they released Code Blue that same year. It was about 400,000 copies lighter than Man of Colours. It was still a platinum album, and most bands would kill to have an album only be platinum.

To answer the next question, no, the second side wasn't all filler. "Give the Kid a Break" is a standout track on an album chock full of standout songs. Fading out the song felt like a cop out. Oh well, if this is my biggest complaint I have nothing to complain about.

Incidentally, those Icehouse comparisons turned out to be mostly present on the lead off track "To Love Me" and as the album played I found myself just thinking about 1927, and not trying to associate them with anyone else.

Kind of a nifty trick.

If I'd never found the record I'd have never learned all this cool stuff about 1927.

This is a hell of a record. This was more than good ...ish, it was excellent ...ish.