Dave Warner’s From The Suburbs
About
Hailing from Perth in Western Australia, Dave Warner formed Australia’s first punk band PUS back in the early 1970s. By the time The Sex Pistols had formed, Warner had already moved on to a new phase of music and social commentary which he dubbed Suburban Rock. His band Dave Warner’s From The Suburbs was a major Australian pub band playing with the likes of Men At Work, Midnight Oil, INXS, Dragon and Skyhooks. His albums were highly original and successful, tapping into the psyche of the ordinary Aussie boy and girl.
From www.DaveWarner.com.au
History
Dave formed The Suburbs in January 1977. The group developed a huge underground following, which led to Dave signing with Australia’s Mushroom Records in 1978. His first album, Mugs Game, went gold within a month of release. Dave’s second album, Free Kicks, was released in 1979.
After the original Suburbs disbanded, Dave followed up with Correct Weight (1979), This is My Planet (1981 – reissued as This is Your Planet in 1996), Meanwhile in the Suburbs (EP – 1989), Dark Side of the Scrum (1989), Suburban Sprawl (1990), Surplus and Dearth (1995) and Loose Men, Tight Shorts (1996).
After the release of This is My Planet, Dave Warner retired from writing and performing music full-time, turning instead to writing plays, novels and screenplays.
From www.DaveWarner.com.au
Members
- Dave Warner – Vocals, Keyboards
- Johnny Leopard – Guitar
- John Dennison – Keyboards
- Haydn Pickersgill – Bass
- Stuart Davies-Slate – Drums
- Nicole Binet – Vocals
- Eddie Bogelman – Keyboards
- Martin Cilla
- John Crooks – Keyboards
- Tony Durant – Guitar
- Lloyd Gyl
- Dutch Hans – Drums
- Howie Johnstone – Drums
- Greg Macainsh – Bass
- Paul Noonan – Bass
- Russell Parkhouse – Keyboards
- Marcus Phelan – Guitar
- John Ryan – Guitar
- Howard Shawcross – Vocals
- Frank Silvenzia
Recordings
- Mugs Game – 1978
- Free Kicks – 1979
lent workmate my 3 victoria tapes many years ago and have never seen them since. feels like he stole my youth, will they ever by available again?
Check out Daves site at http://www.davewarner.com.au/music.html
There seems to be albums and songs still available for sale.
Yeah my 1st husband lost my 3 “Live At The Vic” tapes many years ago. I mourned the loss of those tapes a lot longer than I mourned the loss of my 1st husband. I was one of the 2 infamous “schoolgirls” from The Vic, mid 1977. Anyone who was there, contact me, katie1959@bigpond.com, especially Rex, AJ. Caught up with some of you just before Leopard ded, but lost your details. Love to hear from you.
follow up to my email previously sent
Yes, who could ever forget such classics as “Hot Crutch”, or The worst day of my life.
I remember seeing the band at a pub in Floreat somewhere and it was the best pub gig I ever saw.
Dave also had a great guitarist in the pus days named Al Howard not mentioned here????
I was at Bombay Rock for the recording of the Free Kicks album. It was a hot and steamy summer’s next night in Melbourne and the band was equally hot. Still have the vinyl LP. What a blast!!
I was a pub-rock regular from Adelaide who’d seen ACDC, Cold Chisel, Angels, and any other great Aussie band you care to name, all numerous times, up close in great pub venues and also in much bigger gigs. But when I went to Perth a few times, in the late seventies, what I saw from Warner was truly and utterly amazing (at huge packed beer barns like the Shenton and the Herdsman). Despite great live memories of all those other bands I mention, never, ever did I see anything half as wild as the scenes with Warner. It was an absolutely amazing phenomenon, and half a dozen times a year I reflect that it was an absolute tragedy that there seems to be absolutely no footage of any of those gigs, of which there must have been dozens.
Having seen what I’d seen, I made certain to see Warner when he visited Adelaide and Melbourne. The music was just as good (sometimes it was even better — he was extremely creative at varying it in wonderful musical ways), and there was some good crowd reaction. But with just short visits, and no Countdown exposure, there was not time for the wild following to take hold. So the Eastern States never saw what Perth saw, and for me it is the greatest tragedy and “near-miss” of Australian music. His recordings tell only, say, a fifth of the story — you had to see the amazing Perth gigs, with the much wilder, raucous live versions of the songs, to truly enter that band of fanatics who worship the memory to this day.
I have a mate with a huge music collection, extremely varied musical tastes, and enormous live music-going experience. A few years ago (he’s late 60’s and now lives in the country) he said that there were only two acts for which he’d still bother making the trek to see live : the Stones and Dave Warner/From the Suburbs. If I could see Warner/Suburbs at even half their glory days atmosphere, that would be by far the top one for me.
Well matey all i can say is i wish i was with you,to witness what you did, cause the album MUGS GAME is fantastic,and i will go out on a limb here and say this ,i also have a copy of SKYHOOKS,GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INSANE,what a vinyl that is i know now what they mean from the vault cause my copy ,mint copy is going back there,cheers
Remember the good old days of the Raffles, Booragoon, Floreat, Leopold, Vic, Shents and others seeing all the great live bands. Dave was a Bicton boy so he was a local to me growing up in Attadale/Melville. Pity I’m Gunna miss his WA tour. Hope he records it for posterity especially the Royal George in East Freo.