Back in 1978 I was in my local record store and was intrigued by a single by an Australian band I had never heard of, Skyhooks. The single was “Women In Uniform” and I soon returned to the store to buy the album it came from, ‘Guilty Until Proven Insane’. It was a few years later that some band called Iron Maiden covered that song (due to record company pressure), and that is how most people outside Australia think of Skyhooks, if they have ever come across the name at all. I have many of their albums and am also fortunate enough to own a copy of their excellent 1994 biography written by Jeff Jenkins, ‘Ego Is Not A Dirty Word’, and I do not think anyone looking back on this album now can fully understand the impact it had when it was first released in 1975.
This remastered edition has no extra tracks, just the original 10 with the original cover, just slightly cleaned up. This was their debut album remember, and while it was a slow grower it ended up being at #1 on the national charts for sixteen weeks, while the single “Horror Movie”/”Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)” topped the charts for two weeks, making them the first Australian band for more than eight years to have simultaneous #1’s. Back then, it was the top selling Australian album of all time with more than double the sales of the previous incumbent, Dady Cool’s “Daddy Who? Daddy Cool”. All of this with six of the ten songs banned from the radio so not bad.
This is glam rock mixed with boogie rock and pop, all with a different view of Australian life care of their main songwriter, bassist Greg Macainsh who provided nine of the ten numbers. I must admit, it does sound somewhat dated now, but there is something about their jagged jangly pop rock which obviously influenced the likes of Midnight Oil and later Split Enz, whilst in singer Shirley Strachan they had a frontman who was cutting, acerbic, and totally right for the lyrics. Sadly he died in a helicopter accident in 2001, but the website is still being updated regularly and is well worth a visit. Some 50 years after this album was originally released, it debuted at #11 on the ARIA vinyl chart (Top 100) and #6 on the ARIA Oz Artists chart – not bad at all. If you are not Australian then you cannot understand the impact of this album or this band, but for the rest of us this is a wonderful slice of Australiana depicting just what life was like back in the Seventies, and I much more than just a trip down memory lane. They never did compromise, and one of my favourite songs of all time is still “Why Dontcha All Get Fucked” from ‘Guilty’, and it is great to come back to this where it all began. Superb.
Rating: 9/10
Links:
https://www.skyhooks-music.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WarnerMusicAU