Radio Birdman - Living Eyes / Radios Appear - double album both classic Birdman vinyl records.  prime era material - limited edition on BigTime Records.   in gatefold sleeve.  hard-to-find and collectible.  own this artifact!

Radio Birdman – Living Eyes/Radios Appear (Overseas Version)

Label: Big Time Records – BTD 501 Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Compilation

Released: 1985 Genre: Rock Style: Alternative Rock, Punk

Tracklist ?

  Living Eyes A1
More Fun 1:59
A2
TPBR Combo 2:07
A3
455 SD 2:36
A4
Do The Movin' Change 2:25
A5
I.94 2:58
A6
Iskender Time 1:46
A7
Burn My Eye 1:32
B1
Time To Fall 3:08
B2
Smith And Wesson Blues 2:53
B3
Crying Sun 2:51
B4
Breaks My Heart 2:58
B5
Alone In The Endzone 2:01
B6
Hanging On 3:29
  Radios Appear (Overseas Version) C1
What Gives? 2:22
C2
Non-Stop Girls 2:40
C3
Do The Pop 2:30
C4
Man With The Golden Helmet 5:37
C5
Descendent Into The Maelstrom Piano – Chris Masuak 4:22
C6
New Race 2:35
D1
Aloha Steve & Danno 3:57
D2
Anglo Girl Desire 3:04
D3
Murder City Nights 2:22
D4
You're Gonna Miss Me 2:25
D5
Hand Of Law 4:44
D6
Hit Them Again 4:32

• Bass – Warwick Gilbert
• Drums – Ron Keeley
• Guitar – Chris Masuak, Deniz Tek
• Harmony Vocals – Johnny Kannis (tracks: C1 to D6), Radio Birdman (tracks: C1 to D6)
• Organ, Piano – Pip Hoyle
• Producer – Charles Fisher (tracks: C1 to D6), Deniz Tek (tracks: A1 to B6), John Sayers (tracks: C1 to D6)
• Vocals – Rob Younger

"Radio Birdman was one of the first punk bands in Australia along with The Saints. Deniz Tek and Rob Younger formed the group in Sydney, Australia in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and is now considered to be one of the most crucial bands to Australia's musical growth, but their main legacy was their towering influence over Australian indie rock in the 1980s.

Deniz Tek and Rob Younger formed Radio Birdman in mid-1974 in Sydney, having recently left their bands 'TV Jones' and 'The Rats' respectively. The pair sought to begin a band that would have no commercial interest and break the norm at the time, so they recruited classical keyboard player Philip 'Pip' Hoyle, drummer Ron Keeley and bassist Carl Rorke . The band took their name from a misheard lyric from the Stooges' song "1970" (the actual lyric is "radio burnin'").

After being rejected many times from various venues, Radio Birdman found a pub in Taylor Square, Sydney and eventually took over its management, naming it The Oxford Funhouse. Under their management, the Funhouse became a home to any and all groups with musical tastes similar to the band. Not long after the opening of this venue, Carl Rorke left the band and was replaced by long time friend of Rob Younger, Warwick Gilbert (also a former 'Rats' member). Also to temporarily leave the band would be Philip Hoyle, and though his departure was short lived, this was how Radio Birdman came across guitarist Chris Masuak.

Soon, a culture of Radio Birdman was developing in the underground, people started to dress differently, followed the Birdman symbol and the Oxford Funhouse was their home. This was the beginnings of the Sydney punk scene.

Using the Funhouse as a base of operations, Radio Birdman recorded an EP, Burn My Eye. and their first album Radios Appear produced by John L Sayers and Charles Fisher at Trafalgar Studios in Annandale Trafalgar Studios financed the recordings. Radios Appear was critically acclaimed, getting 5 stars in the Australian Rolling Stone edition. The album owed much of its style to Detroit bands of the late 1960s, such as The MC5 and The Stooges. The title of the album comes from a Blue Oyster Cult song 'Dominance and Submission' from their 1974 "Secret Treaties" album, influences from which can also be seen in Birdman's creative output. Though Radios Appear was totally ignored by commercial radio, it was championed by Sydney station 2JJ (Double Jay). Sales of this album were initially limited because they were recording using a private label Trafalgar Records. Shortly after initial release, Trafalgar Records leased the recordings to WEA who took on the album and gave it a wider release. However, sales remained limited due to a lack of commercial support. Promotion could have been also somewhat inhibited as some fans felt the recordings lacked the ferocity and immediacy of the live shows and did not represent their experience of the band.

The band remained underground, but began to travel far from Sydney to perform their shows, it was at this time that keyboard player Pip Hoyle returned to the band. When Sire Records president Seymour Stein came to Australia to sign up fellow punk band The Saints, he saw Radio Birdman play and immediately invited them to join his label. Under this new label, Radio Birdman released a new version of Radios Appear featuring a mixture of re-mixed, re-recorded and some new material. Comparisons between the two versions of the album are disputed with some feeling that the second version is a more accurate reflection of the band's sound. Most fans however own both versions and simply treat them as two separate and different recordings.

With the commercial release of this new album, the underground punk scene, that Radio Birdman was a part of, began to attract some groups with negative agendas; namely biker gang, HellsAngels. With this new, more violent and rowdy crowd, the Funhouse was at the point of overflowing. The band was blamed for violent incidents occurring at the Funhouse, so in mid-1977, they left Sydney and took a break from music, instead pursuing educational goals.

All six members went on to other bands. Younger's New Christs was more oriented towards hard-edged, blues-based rock and roll. Tek and Keeley with keyboardist Pip Hoyle formed The Visitors, and guitarist Chris Masuak and bass guitarist Warwick Gilbert's The Hitmen continued the Radio Birdman sound. Tek, Younger and Gilbert played in a one-shot touring band called New Race, with Dennis Thompson of the MC5 and Ron Asheton of the Stooges. They made no studio recordings, but released one official "live" album, "The First and The Last", and there are two more "bootleg" live albums. A non-musical LP, "Soldiers of Rock 'n' Roll", was released in 1982. This strange album, described by the record company as "an audio documentary of Radio Birdman", was released after Deniz had quit music to be a jet pilot, and was assembled by the people at Trafalgar Records, like a soundtrack for a documentary movie which was never made.

Radio Birdman's music does not fit specifically with the punk rock genre, nor do the band like this label (as they saw it as degrading to their intelligence) —though their independence and originality has put them in this position. A fitting genre would be alternative punk, or as the band themselves called it, 'Sub-Pop', deeply ironic that 27 years later, the band would release a record on "Sub-Pop" Records. Fans of the band often classed the music as "proto-punk" or the Detroit sound, similar to bands such as MC5 and The Stooges."

take note fans of  MC5, Iggy & the Stooges, SRC, Amboy Dukes, Celibate Rifles, Cosmic Psychos, Scientists, Velvet Underground, Wire, psychedelic hard rock stoner etc.


CONDITION:  excellent - basically a new open copy.


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