T-bones

Greatest Hits

Label: Rumble Skunk

Genre: 80s Wave / Rock / Pop / Punk

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LP €24.99

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This is where it all begins, "Greatest Hits", the T-Bones first album. Original T-Bones songwriting collaborators and life-long mates Andrew "Pip" Pupillo and Charlie Wilde grew up writing songs, not covering them. Sure, they tipped their hats to the greats, but they didn't bother copying them. Hailing from Outback Australia in 1985, the T-Bones defined an aural image of drought, shimmering horizons and cooked engine blocks, blending country and hard driving guitars. Over time, the T-Bones created their own unique anthems that would become cult classics in their adopted town of Melbourne, and which helped spawn a new breed of uniquely Melbourne roots based music that married rockabilly, country and blues, and embraced the themes of a real rural Australia that was once reviled as kitsch and decidedly uncool. In fact, the Boners would have to be arguably one of the country's most enduring bands, spreading what music scribe John Mangan once dubbed "The Sunraysia Sound" across countless sweat-drenched country bloodhouses and hip inner Melbourne pubs. Swimming in the same cultural backwaters as Aussie bands Sunnyboys, Radio Birdman, Saints, Cold Chisel, AC/DC and the Atlantics, the T-Bones have pretty much invented their own music genre. Recorded in 1989, "Greatest Hits", their first album with the original line up saw them distilling their embryonic sound, which 40 years and eight albums later still sounds fresh and is still a work in progress.

"Greatest Hits" was our first album, seems hard to believe it's been 35 years since we recorded it. We called it that because it wasn't. At the time we didn't think we'd ever do another album, so we thought, "why not, Greatest Hits". It was the result of a few boozy drug fuelled days and nights at various studios in and around Melbourne. We were playing a lot of shows at the time and were feeling in a pretty good place. Andrew, Helen and I had come down from Outback New South Wales to Melbourne in 1987 playing what these days would probably be termed Alt Country. Rob joined the band in '89 and he gave us a faster tougher edge. Our gigs at that time always seemed to attract a rowdy bunch of drunks and oddballs who liked to drink and liked to fight, shows often descended into total mayhem. This line up burned bright and burned fast, it was only around for a couple of years. Helen and Rob moved on to greener pastures and Andrew and I took the T-Bones off in another musical direction.