The second gig Hunters and Collectors played, after their triumphant debut at the Ballroom a week previously, was on a bill with Little Murders at the Jump Club on a Wednesday night. It was a benefit gig for RRR and was part of their Radiothon.
The Hunters were the middle band and we were on last. We were quite popular in those days. The place was packed when I got there, so I thought it was going to be a great night. On a Wednesday!
The Hunters played and I couldn’t believe how good they sounded. Just amazing. A real modern sound, which made me feel like I was playing stuff from the Stone Age. They had a gas cylinder on stage and these mighty rhythms banging away.
They finished their set to rapturous applause and left the stage. Unfortunately, this was also the time the majority of the audience left the building. So we were playing to a small crowd on a Wednesday night, when minutes before there had been a few hundred people. It felt rubbish.
After the gig, John Archer, the Hunters’ bass player, was packing away the PA and apologising for the audience leaving. We had worked with John many times, as we were always hiring his PA. He made some excuses for the crowd, but I knew when I saw them that it would be impossible to follow the Hunters.
A month later, we were supporting them at RMIT Storey Hall.
I didn’t think they captured that live sound on their early records, and I was still into guitar pop rather than Teutonic rhythms, so it was a surprise a year or so down the line when I heard this record.
This is the first of many versions they released. To me, it sounded like a Byrds song. Just a great melody. Great lyrics. I remember playing it to Mick Barclay, who loved it and ended up getting on stage a few months later with the Hunters and doing backing vocals on this song.
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