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Music

Deathwish Were the Ultimate 70s Aussie Rock Party Band

Listen to two tracks from an upcoming retrospective “Deathwish: In Foster’s Care 1976-1977”

Deathwish began in 1976 in ‘the Grotto’, a large barn situated on Bruce "Fred" Friday’s family farm in Moorooduc, outside Melbourne. The Grotto hosted regular weekend jams that turned into late night parties featuring the Coloured Balls and AC DC blasting on the stereo and Victoria Bitter flowing.

Ian Cunningham was a teacher at Mornington High in 1975, and had taught most of the kids who hung out and jammed at the Grotto. After being invited to the farm one Friday night he somehow ended up as the Deathwish manager/adviser and occasional vocalist.

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Cunningham organised the band’s first gig at Hasting High School in August 1976. The set consisted of originals and covers of Oz rock classics but after more gigs and lineup changes Deathwish took on a tougher punk sound. They adopted a more ‘biker’ look with cut off denims and flannel shirts and started playing a mixture of originals laced with some Iggy, MC5, Blue Oyster Cult, Ramones, Radio Birdman, Sex Pistols and some sixties garage classics.

After more lineup changes the band morphed into the Chosen Few who over time developed a cult following of their own.

Though Deathwish never made a studio recording, two cassette tapes of rehearsals are about to be released on Buttercup records. In Foster’s Care: 1976-1977 collects original material including "TALOIGA" which was later covered by Eddy Current Suppression Ring as well as covers such as the Stooges “Search and Destroy” and MC5’s “Ramblin Rose” that we are premiering below.

We caught up with Ian Cunningham to find out more about the band and the time.

Noisey: What was your first gig in August 1976 at Hastings High like?
Ian Cunningham: The gig was awesome. The guys played well and received rapturous acclaim from the kids at HHS. There are some fairly crappy pictures of the guys being cuddled by girls etc. You know typical rock star stuff.

I’ve seen the set list from that show and you were playing Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, Steppenwolf and Sam & Dave. Good taste!
If we were going to do a cover version we tried to choose songs that pumped, We thought we were a heavy rock band so we played heavy rock covers. As time went on, we became influenced by the power of punk, especially proto punk outfits like the Stooges and the MC5, and of course, our own Lobby Loyde and the Coloured Balls.

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No doubt seeing Radio Birdman perform had an impact on the band.
Radio Birdman's impact was HUGE. They played cover versions from basically the same sources (MC5, Stooges, Blue Oyster Cult, Dictators, etc) as we did, only they were a LOT better at it. Inspiring stuff.

Is it true that you did a cover of the Saints “Demolition Girl “at twice the speed? Ha!
Yeah, Demolition Girls was a bit quick, as was our version of Lobby Loyde's "Won't You Make Up You Mind" – a minute and twenty seconds of sheer rock thrash! Fuckin' lovely.

At what point did you start playing more punk? Did you change your name to the Chosen Few because of this different direction?
Deathwish imploded in August 1978 when Harry Young and Jon Hannaford left. Cal also left, and Fred and I carried on with another drummer. But then Cal (with a broken arm) came to a rehearsal and that was that: he rejoined, we aresholed the new drummer and played as a three-piece Deathwish for a couple months. We linked up with Barry Earl from Suicide Records and he wanted us to change our name (err, duh - Deathwish on the Suicide label? Some sort of synchronicity there?) so we adopted the Chosen Few, which we ripped off from an old MC5 poster. The name change coincided with a "new" lineup (joined by Iain Weaver on vocals) and a dedication to a punk style of rock and roll.

How did the Eddy Current Suppression Ring/Chosen Few spilt with both bands playing Deathwish’s 'There's a Lot Of It Going Around' come about?
ECSR were playing a cover of TALOIGA in their set, we hooked up and the dude who runs Distort magazine thought a split 45 would be cool. So did we.

“Deathwish: In Foster’s Care 1976-1977” is available April 8 through Buttercup Records.