In the finicky annals of Australian music history, and with no disrespect to Helvelln, they barely warrant a mention. To briefly summarise, Helvelln was an inspired pop/rock three-piece formed in Melbourne in the late 80’s. In 1989 they won a battle of the bands run by the City of Malvern (Stonnington these days). The prize was a couple of days recording at Bakehouse in Fitzroy and they recorded ''Subway'' and ''Elvis''. In 1990 they were signed to the Mushroom label's subsidiary White Label Records where they released a single and their debut album in 1991. As debut albums go it was classic three-piece rock/pop — strong hooks, great melodies, just perfect, catchy radio tunes.
Members
Jeremy Gronow (guitar, vocals), Nick Green (drums) and Andrew Papdopoulos (bass)
SINGLES
''Cruelest Plague / Subway Girl / Hips'' 1992 White Label
Jeremy Gronow (guitar, vocals), Nick Green (drums) and Andrew Papdopoulos (bass)
''Cruelest Plague / Subway Girl / Hips'' 1992 White Label
'Helvelln' 1991 White Label
Still bring a great big smile to my face
ReplyDeleteAwesome and clever musicians. Great to revisit their sounds
ReplyDeleteAlso makes me smile. Wish I could find somewhere to hear more :)
ReplyDeleteHey just stumbled on this site cool idea and huge undertaking just some clarification on this one.
ReplyDeleteIn 1990 Helvelln was the first national winner of the National Campus Band Competition. A band comp run at Unis, TAFE’s and collages coast to coast.
One of the prizes was a chance to record with Mushroom Records. Michael Gudinski was one of the judges and the prize got parlayed into a contact with Mushroom. They released the single that did pretty well and ended up making early 20’s in the charts from memory.
The band was made up of two law students and a drummer from memory. They gave up study for the year on the back of the deal and toured to support the single and album under the Mushroom banner.
3 months into the tour they were already feeling the stress of being a rock group. Mushroom were keen for them to replicate their hit, but they couldn’t remember how they wrote that one. From memory all their songs had their own personalities. That was one of the reasons they went well in band comps but they struggled in pinning down to define a distinctive sound.
As far as I know the guys decided the law was an easier gig and the drummer no doubt moved on to the next band 😉.
Back in those days the Uni Band Comp was a big deal. Over 1000 bands nationwide and major sponsorship National Aids Education Campaign Unit and JJJ. A crowd of 2,000 strong attended the final Helvelln won. Other bands who went through the comp to varying degrees of success include Autohaze, Club Hoy, Front End Loader, The Mavis’s, Spiderbait, Jedediah, Eskimo Joe, The Vasco Era just to name a few…