I-94 BAR TOP TENS

Ron Asheton passes judgement on Lorks' bass-playing abilities during the 1991 Dark Carnival Australian tour.

James Williamson rejoins Iggy and The Stooges.
Now all we need is an Australian tour that doesn’t involve a sports field full of Bogans (ie BDO)

Iggy and the Stooges box set You Want My Action.
If nothing else a great historical document of what on paper could have been the Stooges greatest line up.

Rose Tattoo Pain vinyl edition.
The CD version of this album sounds weird (very compressed and not much guts) however this 2 LP vinyl pressing comes a long way in rectifying this. Possibly their most consistent album since the 1978 debut.

Stooges book. Authorized and Illustrated Story – Robert Matheu.
Mind-blowing photos and excellent interviews.

Mick Hadley and the Others. Notes at Newtown in Sydney.
Live gig of the year! Hadley of Brisbane ’60s freakbeat maniacs The Purple Hearts joins forces with members of The Booby Traps and The Crusaders for a killer set of Purple Hearts hits. Thanks for the hangover courtesy of  The Barman.

Mick Cocks benefit – One of the Boys. Enmore Theatre.
A final jam for Brother Mick who has since sadly left us. Tatts, You Am I (who the yobs in the audience hated) Annalise Morrow (The Numbers) Kevin Borich played mighty sets. Rock in Peace Mick.

All Tomorrows Parties in Sydney.
Despite the ridiculous “No Escape Until Sir Nick has finished his bloody Set” policy, this was a mighty fine show! I rediscovered the Laughing Clowns and the incredible drumming of Jeff Wegener, The Saints I loved every second of despite Christopher Bailey’s tomfoolery and it was great to see Rowland S Howard for a final time. Nick who??

Hitmen. Tora Tora DTK / Moronic Inferno & Niagara St Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The Hitmen reissue rollocoster continues courtesy of Dave Laing and his backers at $hock. The Hitmen vs. Niagara set sounds better here than it did on the night.

Masters Apprentices 1st album reissue on Aztec.
Possibly the greatest Australian recordings on the ’60s finally get the respectful re-issue they deserve. Every dodgy character from Sydney to German has done a weak sounding bootleg of this for the past decade but finally the diamond ears at Aztec Music are the ones to do it with justice and class it deserves.

Remains 2 LP Mono reissue.
This great 60s album sounds incredible in its (as with ’60s albums) original Mono mix.

Many sad loses this year. Talena Chew, Noel Bennett, Ron Asheton, Mick Cocks.

Right honourable mentions:

Tyranna 7 inch ep reissue

X & Decline of the Reptiles at the Empire Hotel

Buzzcocks at the Forum (despite the muddy sound)

The Users – Secondary Modern CD

News that Magazine have re-formed and may come to Australia

Mick Medew and The Rumours All Your Love CD.

AK79 vinyl reissue

New Christs – Gloria,

Rediscovering Laughing Clowns

Fawlty Towers DVD remaster

Ozzy era Black Sabbath remasters on vinyl + CD

Oz Beat Frenzy CD

Rocky Mountain Low LP (compilation of Canadian punk / new wave)

Mick Medew and Rumours & Decline of the Reptiles at Vanguard Newtown,

Stevie Wright spoken word at the Factory

Jason Alexander Comedy Spectacular

Spinal Tap Goes to 11 remaster DVD.

Steven “Danno” Lorkin is an occasional I-94 Bar reviewer & photographer from Sydney, Australia. Cool Charmers guitarist. Mug punter. 

Top 10 2008 (not in any order so stop pouting)Top 10 2008 (not in any order so stop pouting)

1) Asteroid B612; Not Meant for This World 2008 2CD reissue. This in my mind was real high point for the Asteroids, the song writing, the musical chemistry, Grant’s psychotic emotional vocals and of course the live shows were dynamite. The bonus demo tracks on this are as raucous as you’d expect.

2) From The Jam. The Forum Sydney. Hey, it was two chaps who use to be in The Jam backed up with some great players. They played Jam songs and played them bloody marvellously. 

3) Stiff Little Fingers – The Forum Sydney. Christ who’d of thought Sydney would finally get SLF after all these years. I’ve dug the first 2 albums since they first got released. Every old school punk in Sydney must have been there.

4) Do the Pop Redux. Laingers (that’s David Laing to you) has done a great job in once again making available all these great Oz 70s + 80s gems. Keep em coming Dave!

5) Cool Charmers. Live + rehearsals + after rehearsal pub band meetings. Barman, are we still allowed to use these end of year Top 10 tens to promote our own bands? Good …cause I had a blast playing with this Sauvé bunch. Come to our next concerto Y’all.

6) Pete Wells Bodgie Dada CD. Pete’s final studio recordings before he left this world in 2006. Backed up by Rob Grosser and Lucy De Soto this CD really goes beyond what people have come to expect from Pete, at times weirding out ala Beefheart.

7) X at the Sando. Of course X are always great, even when they sucked they are masterful. Using borrowed amps and drum kit they weren’t their usual brutal self’s but still a great rock n roll show.

Hitmen reissues/gigs. Did the Shock reissues come out this year?? Anyway they were a fine tribute and salute to one of the rockin’ worlds most hated bands (everyone has a Hitmen story it seems)…and the gigs were great fun. Bizzos & Annandale were a blast. I hope this line up sticks together.

9) Visitors CD reissue + live at the Empire Hotel. Finally this great recording is available again (and with some brilliant photos in the booklet I might add) the Empire show saw Dr Deniz playing with a bizarre cooking injury which held him back a tad but they still blew the venue apart . 

10) Roxy London WC2 Box Set. Six-CD set with all of the existing recordings from this infamous 70s UK Punk venue , These versions of The  Adverts tracks are better then their studio recordings and hearing entire sets from the early Buzzcocks and X Ray Spex is a punk rock history lesson.

Honorary mentions – Tony McCann 7” EP on Zenith Records; Purple Hearts LP; 13th Floor Elevators Mono debut LP reissue; New Christs at the Annandale and the Bizzos; Sonic Youth Scientists double header at the Enmore; Tactics at the Annandale; Tactics reissues; The Residents Duck Stab 30th Anniversary reissue (shite how many of my top 10s are “ reissues” ?);  Masters Apprentices Apprenticeship in the Garage 1966 CD, Hoody’s Birthday at the Excelsior; Angels reissues of the first 2 albums and SBS Doco on telly; Launch of Pete Wells album at the Bridge with Angry Anderson, Dave Tice and a cast of thousands; Judith Lucy at Glee Books; My DJ set at Take it or Leave It; Sham 69 at the Gaelic; AC/DC Black Ice