DOUG ••

So there we were in Sydney. Despite some initial misgivings about the move to Australia it seemed so promising. A nice house, albeit a bit small, in trendy Paddington, next door to the Windsor Castle pub. There was a record company, an agent, a decent PA and all we had to do was turn up and play. There would be plenty of gigs, per diems for band and crew and the album to look forward to.

We hardly ever saw the record company and the agent appeared to be promoting us a a favour for the record company's owner, the 'legendary' Michael Browning. The gigs were early week, inner city wino hangouts, lunchtime university student bars or suburban leagues clubs, supporting 'great' Ozzie bands like Mental As Anything. It turned out to be a real grind, especially the supports, playing to a handful of disinterested, sometimes hostile Oz rock fans.

The per diems never eventuated and if it wasn't for Carol, Georgina and Barbara feeding us we'd probably have been back home within weeks. A brief, enjoyable visit to Melbourne just reinforced that Sydney was a mistake.

But we still had the album to look forward to...