Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Act

I saw Act play a few times and always had some fun, so time for a post :)

Cal Crilly
Anthony Schaeffer
Stephen Stanley
John Davies
Marcello Milani
Jump Freeley
Mike B.
Anthony Holzberger
Leo Fatseas

Cal Crilly - "We'll Act started out when Schaeff rang me after he saw this picture for a band ad where I said I wanted to start a band with "death, blackness and humour" a Bauhaus quote....
We met on Nov 1st 1984 at the Hungry Jack's Circle in the Queen St Mall, that was the end of the Mall back then.
Schaeff was with a skinhead girl I think called Nicole who was getting filmed by a group of Kelvin Grove art students for a project, that messed up video must be out there somewhere.
We went to the Riverside wharves and got drunk on Brandovino, first and last time for me, that's the last I remember....
I woke up in the watchhouse with my face flat to the floor, when I got to Roma St. Railway Station and looked in a mirror my hair was up in spikes on one side from the puke.
Schaeff had ended up in a fight and was taken to hospital.
We lost contact for a month or more.
Leo Fatseas was with us that night and when I later went to see Johnny Rotten and Public Image Ltd. play I bumped into him and that's how Act started..."
what better way to describe a band than to lift one of the members own comments :)

read lots more about Act and other Cal Crilly related bands on his Star Sludge blog found here
You can stream 6 songs or download them from this site - http://www.mp3.com.au/act courtesy of Cal
ad from an old punk zine called 'Consumer Junk' - address no longer valid im guessing .



One of the songs not on that site is the "Spot the Flying Cat" ditty. Download here.
From memory this is a song about a cat that belonged to Brett and Scott Younger from 'post no bills' . 4 zZz announcer Troy Gibson aka Troy Frehley aka Jump Freely was in a phase of prolonged deep meditation on all things metaphysical ( especially things concerning the yin and yang of life) and one day at the 'post no bills' house saw the cat flying about and thought - good idea for a song. The track was recorded by fellow ZZZ announcer Dave Lennon (studying at milton SAE) with (from memory) ACT ppl backing up.. maybe Marcello on drums and Cal on geeetar.. dunno about Steven on bass but maybe-- certainly Greg Fryer was at the session as his unmistakable " MAAATTTE!!" finishes the song so its probably him playing bass.. Ildiko Putnoki from 'post no bills' did some keyboards as well .. anyhooo minor details.. The heavy 'meditation' of the time coincided well with their preoccupation with Barrett era floyd and this song shows its roots- a shambolic "Lucifer Sam" type ditty. It existed in cart form around ZZZ for some time and even got into the 1988 hot 100 at 72..- listed as an Act song..
most in the band would mutate into Alien Virus.
Shaeff would often talk of doing more music, but nothing transpired as far as I know.
Steven Stanley would head off to the deep north and get into IT
Marcello would get the Toothfaeries happening..
Greg would later disappear to Adelaide with another ZZZ announcer to study music proper and get the "lee harvey and the oswalds" project up.

Update thanks to Mr Anon who posted these links
in the comments

ACT: How to Confuse the Media (Cassette)

Side A: Here
Side B: Here

9 comments:

Cal Crilly said...

thanks for that, nice to see someone scribble up things on Act...Spot the Flying Cat was recorded by me and Troy, I did the keyboard and bass I think and it was a drum machine.
Schaeff died in 99.
Ildiko still does nice tunes.
Greg Fryer was in The Circuit series and does acting.
Haven't seen Troy in some time (: Cal

Anonymous said...

ACT: How to Confuse the Media (Cassette)

Side A: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NG0IM2F9

Side B: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BUL8UW2Q

bob nebe said...

Thanks for the Post Mr Anon, mighty fine work

chuck said...

def. not a drum machine... maybe colin pyle if not march... agreed prolly cal on bass but i'm sure ildiko on keys as Troy was dang happy she gave a contribution.. in fact i distinctly remember him prancing around for months thinking he had made the big time getting a song recorded.. I havent seen him since market day 97.. shame about Schaeff- havent seen Ev' or his son for decades either...

BIG THANKS goes out to anon for ripping the cassette- havent seen my copy in decades

A BIGGER THANKS goes out to all the ACT associates for showing a young man to "do as thou wilt"- not necessarily in a FU anarchist way but in a " dont ever let the fuckerz drag you down and impress their crap on your lifestyle" kinda way... golden life lessons forever appreciated !
VIVA LE ACT!

Anonymous said...

If I can find the damn cassette I'll scan the cover.

chuck said...

hmmm seems above 'spot' link is from a "live to air" of some sorts- I'd ripped that copy from an old greg fryer cassette with nothing more than "spot" in big letters on tape label -rest of the tape had old punk songs not brisbane related. The tape was well played via every crap tape deck he ever owned im guessing... The original version of the song that was recorded at milton SAE with D Lennon engineering can be heard on the "Eternally Ours" 4zzz special part 4 posted on sss here : http://stripedsunlight.blogspot.com/2008/12/part-4-1984-to-1985-some-great-bands-in.html

sharebee seems to have died again sadly so link is out- maybe Bob will reupp the 500 posts on sharebee if u ask him nice... I'll try and extract just the spot song and post here another day

Anonymous said...

Now that you mention it I do recall recording Spot at SAE, if Ildico was playing keyboards (as Gary suggests on the recording) it must have been during one of my Post No Bills recording sessions (might have been "the one in a").

I downloaded that link Chuck, thanks heaps. Now I finally have a copy of a couple of songs I recorded 25 years ago.

I remember when Troy wrote that song. Brett, Spot and I were in the lounge room watching TV when Troy comes out my room with a piece of paper and says "I wrote this song, what do you think", and proceeds to sing Spot the Flying Cat. We pissed ourselves. It was a great novelty song and a great tribute to Spot (RIP).

Cheers
David Lennon

chuck said...

bugger!
I was thinking that if anyone would have a clean lossless copy of "spot" it would have been you...
PNB cassette posted here years ago
http://stripedsunlight.blogspot.com/2008/12/post-no-bills-self-titled-cassette_15.html

I didnt know you worked on "one in A" back makes sense thinking about it.

poor spot :( r.i.p.

ildi said...

Like Cal said, nice to see things scribbled about the past..............must say it did spin me out a bit to see and hear our cassette! (post no bills) took right back to you know when! ah the 80's..................