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'A' Is For...
May. 23rd, 2018 01:26 pmJust touring my music collection... starting with:
Absent Friends
Born from the ashes of the late, lamented (at least by me) Models, this band was put together by Sean Kelly in 1990 to help promote his first solo single 'Thank You, Goodnight'. But when you get the bass player from INXS, the drummer from Machinations, the lead guitarist from the Danglin' Brothers & have Wendy Matthews as co-lead singer, you can't really call it a 'backing band' any more... So Sean found himself in a band again, with fellow ex-Model (& now ABC radio host) James Valentine on saxophones & the bass player's girlfriend on keyboards
A couple of teaser/tester singles were released, then this...
Unfortunately for Sean, this monster of a song made his girlfriend a bigger star than he was. Add to that INXS wanted Gary Beers back & anyway, he'd broken up with his girlfriend, who then quit & the band was fractured before it had really begun. Other ex-members of Machinations & Models were drafted in to fulfill touring & contractual obligations, but it wasn't even a year before Sean walked away & the Absent Friends wound up becoming the backing band for Wendy Matthews, who went on to have a very successful 1990s indeed...
Their only album is a mixture of gospel/soul covers, gentle funk-pop & a little left-field eccentricity - a legacy of Sean's times in the Melbourne underground music scene of the late 70s/early 80s
My notable encounter was at the album launch at the Woolloomooloo Hotel, where I wound up at a table with James Valentine & Mick Danglin' trading their musical war stories for my significantly lesser, but (hopefully) funny, ones. And drinking a LOT of wine... after all, the record company was paying
Absent Friends
Born from the ashes of the late, lamented (at least by me) Models, this band was put together by Sean Kelly in 1990 to help promote his first solo single 'Thank You, Goodnight'. But when you get the bass player from INXS, the drummer from Machinations, the lead guitarist from the Danglin' Brothers & have Wendy Matthews as co-lead singer, you can't really call it a 'backing band' any more... So Sean found himself in a band again, with fellow ex-Model (& now ABC radio host) James Valentine on saxophones & the bass player's girlfriend on keyboards
A couple of teaser/tester singles were released, then this...
Unfortunately for Sean, this monster of a song made his girlfriend a bigger star than he was. Add to that INXS wanted Gary Beers back & anyway, he'd broken up with his girlfriend, who then quit & the band was fractured before it had really begun. Other ex-members of Machinations & Models were drafted in to fulfill touring & contractual obligations, but it wasn't even a year before Sean walked away & the Absent Friends wound up becoming the backing band for Wendy Matthews, who went on to have a very successful 1990s indeed...
Their only album is a mixture of gospel/soul covers, gentle funk-pop & a little left-field eccentricity - a legacy of Sean's times in the Melbourne underground music scene of the late 70s/early 80s
My notable encounter was at the album launch at the Woolloomooloo Hotel, where I wound up at a table with James Valentine & Mick Danglin' trading their musical war stories for my significantly lesser, but (hopefully) funny, ones. And drinking a LOT of wine... after all, the record company was paying
