Plays With Marionettes emerged during Melbourne’s underground live music scene in the 1980s. Their unique sound was a collision of post-punk mayhem, big band stings and furiously shifting arrangements. Fronted by Hugo Race’s forceful vocals and hell fire lyrics, these intense qualities demanded immediate attention and divided audiences. Not old enough to buy a drink, founding members Hugo Race and Robin Casinader developed the Plays With Marionette’s sound from their earlier group Dum Dum Fit. Brian McMahon soon joined on sax. They found, and somehow avoided paying rent on a dilapidated-fire-hazard-artist’s-studio they used as their rehearsal room above Chapel Street in Prarhan.
The original line-up launched when drummer Frank Trobbiani and Dave Last, bass, hung around their studio long enough to jam out what would become the material for their first live shows. Living in St Kilda’s, strung out, pre-gentrified, triangle of streets, Plays With Marionettes found its place amongst the local music, arts and film scene and became a regular fixture at Melbourne’s alternative inner-city venues: The Crystal Ballroom, The Tiger Lounge, The Killayoni Club, The Jump Club and The Tote. They honed their performances in front of a daylight-deprived audience, to whom these black-hole venues were a nocturnal social (or anti-social) haunt. Later, Nick Seymour joined on bass and Ed Clayton-Jones added extra guitars.
Members
Hugo Race (vocals), Brian McMahon (sax), Robin Casinader (guitar), Frank Trobbiani (drums),
Dave Last (bass), Nick Seymour (bass), Ed Clayton-Jones (guitar)
References
http://www.last.fm/music/Plays+With+Marionettes
In 1980 I was 17 and brought in from the burbs to st Kilda by an older school mate. I had sensory overload in this new environment, but knew that this was where I needed to be. Can’t remember who headlined that night at crystal ballroom, but I do remember seeing and loving Plays with Marionette’s.
ReplyDelete