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Mental As Anything

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Mental As Anything

Mental As Anything is an Australian New Wave/rock music band who, since the late 70s have released numerous albums & singles and have produced many innovative music videos. Although they have worked in a much broader musical idiom, Mental As Anything are in many respects comparable to British band Madness, in that their music is typically delivered with a quirky, ironic sense of humour and a strong visual identity. Founding members Martin Plaza and Reg Mombassa met at art school and formed the band in 1976; all of the early members became accomplished painters, with Mombassa's work in particular becoming very well known through his designs for the Mambo clothing company.

The Mentals' music is characterised by poppy, accessible and well-crafted melodies and lyrics, and almost all their work showcases their ironic, satirical and self-deprecating sense of humour. They are arguably one of the most typically 'Australian' of rock groups, with their music and their satirical, good-time image deeply rooted in the milieu of Australian suburbia, despite the fact that two key members (the O'Doherty brothers) were in fact immigrants from New Zealand. The group's art school background and visual design skills also made them pioneers of the music video form in Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and their videos rank as some of the funniest and most imaginative produced in Australia at that time.

The "classic" lineup of the group, which boasted four songwriters and lasted more than twenty years, was:

Formation and early years: 1976-1979

File:Mentals-Worstead1976.jpg
"Mentals be thy name"
The poster designed by Paul Worstead that billed the group as Mental As Anything for the first time (1976)

The group formed in Sydney in 1976 when Martin Murphy met fellow student Chris O'Doherty at what was then known as East Sydney Technical College, the city's leading art school, where Martin Sharp, Frank Litler, Bruce Latimer and others had studied. The duo were soon jamming in O'Doherty's Darlinghurst flat, Murphy bringing in his college friend Steve Coburn while another student, David Twohill, was recruited on drums. They were first billed as "Mental as Anything" on May 14, 1976, after some early party appearances without a name. Prior to the gig at a Chippendale Settlement Dance, they provided the promoter, Paul Worstead, with a list of possible names. He chose "Mental As Anything" - which was how fellow artist Ken Bolton described them after one of their early party performances - and designed an accompanying poster featuring an image of a truck hauling a giant cabbage on the back.

During the latter part of 1976, yet another fellow student, Andrew Smith started making guest appearances with the band on harmonica whilst still playing with another band, but by years end he had joined fulltime and acquired a keyboard. Coburn left the fledgling band in 1977 and Reg Mombassa's younger brother Peter O'Doherty joined on bass completing the "classic" lineup; the first performance was at Sydney's Cell Block Theatre on August 17, 1977, the day news broke in Australia of the death of Elvis Presley. On this night they played numerous Elvis covers and two original songs, on top of the Blues, Rockabilly, Country and 60s covers that had been their staple. The band quickly built up a strong live following in Sydney with their legendary residencies at the Unicorn Hotel in inner-city Paddington on Mondays and the Civic Hotel in the CBD on Thursdays. At the former venue, legend has it, that the crowds soon grew so large that band were forced to set up a stage on top of the hotel pool table to free up more floor space.

The band were spotted by filmakers Cameron Allen and Martin Fabinyi, who founded their own independent record label, Regular Records, to record and release the group's music; Fabinyi's brother Jeremy Fabinyi became the Mentals' manager. Their first release was the now highly collectible three-track EP Mental As Anything Play At Your Party (December 1978). It featured all original tracks, and is the only release on which Plaza and Mombassa were credited by their real names.

Sydney independent rock station Double Jay, gave much airplay to the stongest track from the EP, "The Nips Are Getting Bigger", a classic drinking song which showed a stylistic debt to British New Wave. Soon after the EPs release, leading Australian record label Festival Records took over distribution of Regular and they released a remix of "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" as a single (July 1979). This was followed by the band's debut album, Get Wet, with Allen producing. With support from nationwide TV pop show Countdown "Nips" became the group's first national hit, and also made #1 on the UK alternative charts when released there by Virgin Records.

By the time of the LP release all but one of the band members had adopted a pseudonym -- Chris O'Doherty had become "Reg Mombassa"; Murphy became "Martin Plaza" (his name copied from the title of the pedestrian plaza in central Sydney, also known as Martin Place); Smith's voracious appetite soon saw him dubbed "Greedy" and Twohill became "Wayne Delisle". (Twohill would eventually be billed under his real name, beginning in 1995.) Shortly before the names had been settled upon, Peter O'Doherty had also had a pseudonym, "Ouzo Pork" (at that stage his brother was known as "Brett Orlando"), but wisely settled on keeping his real name for professional purposes, and was never billed on a Mentals record under any name but his own. The band completed their first national tour in late 1979, supporting British rockers Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe on their Australian jaunt.

The salad days: 1980-1984

Their next two singles -- Plaza's "Possible Theme For a Future TV Drama Series" (November 1979) and Mombassa's "Egypt" (January 1980) were not particularly successful; nor was their second LP Espresso Bongo (named after the Cliff Richard movie). Their fourth single, "Come Around" returned the group to the charts and was followed by a major hit with their next non-album single in November 1980, an upbeat version of the 1964 hit "Just Like Romeo And Juliet" by The Reflections, which became a nationwide pop hit.

They scored another national hit with Plaza's cleverly titled "If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?" (May 1981). Smith penned the follow-up, "Too Many Times", which was arguably a rewrite of "Nips" but still became a significant hit. It was accompanied by a classic music video shot on a building block in a Sydney seaside suburb and also brought the Mentals some international exposure, becoming a top 20 hit in Canada.

The next single, "Berserk Warriors" (December 1981), was a satirical tribute to ABBA, although the concurrent release of the pop hit "Swords Of A Thousand Men" by British novelty act Tenpole Tudor prevented the Mentals from realising their plan to make a Viking-themed music video to promote it, although they did eventually make the clip as planned and included it on their subsequent longform music video compilation.

All of the 1981 singles were also included on their Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop produced Cats And Dogs LP which became their biggest success to date, reaching #3 nationally. In June 1982, during his tour of Australia, Elvis Costello heard them and was sufficiently impressed to produce their next single "I Didn't Mean To Be Mean" (August 1982), written by Plaza. It was preceded by a radio-only single, Mombassa's "Let's Cook" (April 1982).

A compilation album was released in the United States and Men at Work, then at the peak of their popularity, reportedly insisted that Australian bands including Mental As Anything be given support slots on their US tours.

Peter O'Doherty wrote the band's next single, the sentimental "Close Again" (November 1982), which was lifted from their fourth LP Creatures Of Leisure, as were the next two singles, the Smith-Mombassa collaboration "Spirit Got Lost" (March 1983), which was accompanied by an imaginative animated videoclip, and Pete O'Doherty's "Brain Brain" (September 1983). Their final 7" release for the year was the non-album single version of Roy Orbison's "Working For The Man" (November 1983), produced by Mark Moffatt and Ricky Fataar.

When Creatures of Leisure was released internationally, the track order was altered to drop three Australia-only album tracks and replace them with both sides of the "Working For The Man" single.

It was another year before their next 7" release, Mombassa and Plaza's blackly humorous Xmas single "Apocalpyso", which was one of the first Australian recordings to be remixed for release as a 12" 'disco' version. The innovative stop-motion video produced to promote the single later won best video at the 1985 Countdown Awards.

Living It Up: 1985-1989

From this point on Greedy Smith began to gain dominance in the band in terms of songwriting success. He penned both of the group's next two singles, both lifted from their Fundamental album produced by Richard Gottherer. "You're So Strong" (March 1985) was followed by their first Australian #1 hit "Live It Up" (May 1985). This song also reached #3 in the UK 1987, and was a hit in Europe, after being included in the soundtrack of the hugely successful Australian film Crocodile Dundee.

Neither of the band's next two singles -- Smith's "Date With Destiny" (September 1985) and Plaza's "Big Wheel" (November 1985), were major chart successes, and the band's commercial fortunes gradually waned from this point, although they retained a strong following throughout Australia and beyond and indeed toured Europe and the UK extensively in 1987 on the back of the success of "Live It Up" and to promote their album of that year Mouth To Mouth, again produced by Gottehrer. A 1988 cover of the Chuck Berry chestnut "Rock & Roll Music" (recorded for the Yahoo Serious movie Young Einstein) went top 10 in Australia and was successful in some European markets.

High hopes were held for 1989 however their album of that year, Cyclone Raymond was generally considered to be an artistic disappointment and commercial failure. The first single lifted off the album "The World Seems Difficult" was a top twenty hit, but polished up for the overseas market, sounded unlike anything the band had previously released. Further singles did not hit the mark and promotion of the album was hindered when shortly after the album's release Greedy Smith injured his arm in a horse riding accident, and due to complications, ended up in hospital for an extensive stay forcing touring to either be cancelled or postponed. Momentum was lost and by early 1990 the members agreed amongst themselves to take a sabbatical to work on side projects.

Return from sabbatical: 1993-1999

Whilst the various solo recording projects had taken precedence during their break from the limelight, the Mentals themselves had never stopped playing short tours and one off gigs and by 1993 had some low key product in the shops in the form of a song called "Ride", produced by Tim Farriss, on the soundtrack to the Yahoo Serious film Reckless Kelly and the release at the tail end of the year of a compilation of obscure album tracks and b-sides Chemical Travel.

By the middle of 1994 the band hit the studio to cut an album's worth of self-produced material but were having difficulty getting a release deal. The short-term solution was to press up an EP of songs themselves and give it away on their summer 1994/95 tour. Triple J received a copy of the Bicycle EP on Christmas Day 1994 and put the lead track "Mr Natural" on immediate heavy rotation. Other stations followed and the demand led to the track being given a commercial release and reaching the Top 30 of the Australian Music Charts, the groups 21st top 40 entry. The resulting album, 1995's Liar, Liar Pants on Fire also reached the Top 30, with the Reg Mombassa cover art taking out an award at the 1996 Aria Awards.

Another milestone followed on August 16, 1997 when Mental As Anything celebrated 20 years together with the same line-up with a free birthday show at the Hopetoun Hotel in Sydney. Late 1997 saw the band put together their third group art exhibition. Mentals III was opened by Gough Whitlam at the Manly Art Gallery (Paul Keating had opened their second group exhibition in 1990). Their 21st anniversary in 1998 was marked with the release of the last album by this lineup, Garàge. 1999 saw the release of a "Best Of" which was accredited by ARIA as gold in 2001.

Changing faces: 2000-present

In April 2000 Mental As Anything announced the first official change to their line-up since 1977. Peter O'Doherty and Reg Mombassa left to pursue their own musical projects, including their band Dog Trumpet, and their art careers. They were replaced by David 'Duck' Barraclough (ex-The Exponents) and Murray Cook (ex-Leah Purcell, Mixed Relations).

Cook (no relation to Murray Cook of The Wiggles) left the band after the Beetroot Stains album and was replaced by New Zealand born Mike Caen, who had worked with Jenny Morris, Margaret Urlich, Rick Price, Daryl Braithwaite and Tina Arena. He had also been a member of Split Enz for two weeks in their very early days, and was also briefly a member of Sydney 80s band Dropbears. The Road Case album by this line-up appeared late in 2002.

The final line-up change occurred in 2004 when Twohill departed and was replaced by Robbie Souter, a veteran of the Dynamic Hepnotics, the Slim Dusty band and numerous other country and roots music combos. This line-up recorded the acoustic Plucked CD.

In 2007 the band toured Papua New Guinea for the first time to play three gigs in the capital Port Moresby as part of "Australia Week".

Group members

Current members

Past members

Discography

Studio albums & Compilations

Singles

Selected singles only, specifically those that charted in the Top 40 of either the Kent Music Report or ARIA charts (release year and highest chart position follow song title)

  • "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" 1979
  • "Come Around" 1980
  • "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet" 1980
  • "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?" 1981
  • "Too Many Times" 1981
  • "Berserk Warriors" 1981
  • "I Didn't Mean To Be Mean" 1982
  • "Close Again" 1982
  • "Spirit Got Lost" 1983
  • "Brain Brain" 1983 [NB. Did not chart Top 40 in Australia but was performed on Solid Gold in the USA]
  • "Working For The Man" 1983
  • "Apocalypso" 1984
  • "You're So Strong" 1985
  • "Live It Up" 1985, #2
  • "Date With Destiny" 1985
  • "Let's Go To Paradise" 1986
  • "He's Just No Good For You" 1987
  • "Don't Tell Me Now" 1987
  • "Love Me Tender" 1987
  • "Rock & Roll Music" 1988, #5
  • "The World Seems Difficult" 1989, #19
  • "Mr Natural" 1995, #27

Long Form Videos

  • Monumental 1985
  • Monumental II 1999

Awards & Honours

Countdown Awards

  • 1981 - Best Single "If You Leave Me Can I Come Too"
  • 1984 - Best Video "Apocalypso"
  • 1985 - Best Album Fundamental; Best Single "Live It Up"; Best Songwriter Greedy Smith; Best Group Performance in a Video "Live It Up"

APRA Awards

  • 1985 - Most Performed Australian Work "Live It Up"

ARIA Awards

  • 1995 - Best Cover Art Liar Liar Pants On Fire

Polls & Other Awards

A number of songs from the band featured in the Triple M Essential 2006 Countdown. They were as follows:

  • Spirit Got Lost (1787/2006)
  • Just Like Romeo And Juliet (1577/2006)
  • If You Leave Me Can I Come Too? (1402/2006)
  • Come Around (1331/2006)
  • You're So Strong (1067/2006)
  • The Nips Are Getting Bigger (951/2006)
  • Mr Natural (903/2006)
  • Too Many Times (321/2006)
  • Live It Up (270/2006)
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