The Eastern Dark is one of the best respected Australian rock bands of the Eighties. With a mix of Sixties-via-Ramones pop smarts, hard rock crunch and punkish energy, their slim output has produced a world-wide cult awareness. If they're not quite as well known as other Sydney groups of the period like the Hard-Ons or Beasts Of Bourbon, it's because a tragic, on-tour road accident claimed the life of singer/songwriter/guitarist James Darroch.
In early 1984 Darroch's bass playing role with the Celibate Rifles wasn't working out. It was obvious to all that the time had come for James to lead his own band. Switching from bass to guitar, Darroch enlisted drummer Geoff Milne, who he'd jammed with at a party, and Bill Gibson, best known at the time as sometime MC and backing vocalist for the Lime Spiders. After a couple of rehearsals the three piece was christened The Eastern Dark, after the locale where the baddies come from in long running comic The Phantom. They played their first show that May.
The group achieved early notoriety for their habit of opening their sets with a Ramones song; in fact playing each Ramones song once only in chronological/album listing order. A growing audience followed them as much for their on stage goofiness and strong harmonies as their no nonsense rock. By early '85 the group was ready to record a single. Released in July and produced by Radio Birdman's Rob Younger, Julie Is A Junkie/Johnny And Dee Dee was hailed as a power pop classic in underground press the world over. An inspired homage to the Ramones, it even got the group some mail from da Brudders.
With Rob Younger again at the helm, the band put to tape the EP Long Live The New Flesh, with which their scope was widened without losing any power or immediacy. On March 4th, 1986, with an as-yet-unheard cassette of the freshly mixed record with them, the band routinely set off for the 900 km drive to Melbourne for a run of shows when tragedy struck. The EP was released later that year to a mixture of wonder at its contents and renewed grief for such potential cut short.
After lengthy convalescences, both Geoff Milne and Bill Gibson resumed their performing and recording careers. Milne can be heard on releases by the Plunderers and Red Planet Rocketts, while Gibson recorded for releases by Smelly Tongues, Hellmenn, New Christs, Hey! Charger, the Pyramidiacs, Bernie Hayes and the Lemonheads.
In 1990, they hand picked the best available live recordings of previously unreleased Dark tunes for the Girls On The Beach (With Cars) double album. The Half A Cow compilation Where Are All The Single Girls, released in 2000, makes the original single and EP available on CD for the first time while adding all the original tunes and studio outtakes from Girls On The Beach (With Cars).
Hey, thanks for the add. Truly one of my favourite bands of all time ! Let's see , I've covered at least three Eastern Dark tunes in three different bands.
Thanks a lot for the add !!... Nothing but classics from the very first single to the live archives you put out on the demo gate site ... Welcome aboard !!...
hello gentlemen - how nice to run into you on this here myspace thing. We still play your old records in moments of drunken abandon! big lurve from the Toys.
Eastern Dark, about time you put a page up. One of the greatest bands I saw in the '80's. Thanks for hooking up with the Powder Monkeys. A big HELLO to Geoff, I haven't seen ya in ages. Hope you're doing well. cheers, John Nolan
A big THANKS for the add! We..ve been fans for more than 20 years! PS. We recorded and released "Julie is a junkie" on one of our EP..s back in 1995! And the version was released also in Germany and France the following years on different releases (all official, no diy or bootlegs!). Hope you get 10 million profile views!
awesome stuff here too! ..thanks for the comment too by the way! I would have loved to make it down under along with a few extra copies of the disc at the same time! Cheers!
