LCMR Records

DONAT TAHIRAJ
Owner of Phase 4 Records and Cassettes store and the LCMR Records label
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 

There’s no need to explain what a slightly weird year 2020 was. Sadly and for my back pocket’s sake, Phase 4 Records had to close for most of Autumn which meant I wasn’t as often held captive by some stinky guy banging on about the greatness of some rockist act they read about in "The Wire" at the top of their voice scaring our innocent customers away while I desperately needed to go to the toilet.

Our record label LCMR managed to squeeze out only three 7” EPs for the year – one by a hopelessly obscure Toowoomba punk group, Brian, and two by Xiro, the Brisbane band of the early post-punk era who should’ve gone on to have a great international career but decided not to for the sake of art; or something.

It was a great pleasure putting them all together for those who were all too familiar and the ones who were brave enough to try some music that was completely unknown to them.

1. Big Bongin’ Baby
Gutterball Pete is perhaps the only person currently alive who can vomit during the middle of a guitar solo and not fluff a single note. He’s a character – an amalgam of Nikki Sudden, Ronnie Wood and Peter Perrett in style and grace. The affectionately –named Bongers have played around town for over 25 years and like the Saints, failed the Academy of Music’s Battle of the Bands.

2. The Double – "Dawn of the Double" LP (In the Red ITR-295)
Drummer Jim White and guitarist Emmett Kelly playing Bo Diddley for three quarters of an hour in E over two sides of an LP. This is probably too avant for the fans of rock ‘n’ roll and too in the pocket for the rockist set. I don’t think rockists know what that term even means but I’ll leave it in here anyway.

3. Kitchen’s Floor – "Battle of Brisbane" (bruit direct disques ‎ Br-d 19)
Whether they’re blissfully unaware or overtly conscious of the fact they’re carrying this anger and sense of punk that goes back to Brisbane’s day one is probably pointless and not worth fretting about right now.

Australian punk was never the widespread movement as it was in England, or parts of Europe, where for a time, it was mainstream. Unlike Australia. The Sex Pistols(unofficially) went to number-one with "God Save the Queen". The Clash , The Buzzcocks, The Jam and Stranglers consistently charted,alongside Elton John and Cliff Richard.

Kids in the UK sat glued to radio and listened to John Peel as a holy ritual. In the UK there was a certain set of circumstances that led to the rise of “Punk Rock” from the kids who saw Iggy, the Ramones, Patti Smith and Thunders live. Factor in brilliant (if accidental) marketers like Malcolm McLaren and their ilk. Mix in the fact that, in the grip of a serious economic recession, England was a depressing place. It all gave rise to a powerful and widespread movement.

Brisbane music stalwart Rod McLeod died last week after a short and aggressive bout of lung and liver cancer which went to his brain. LCMR Records head, Queensland underground music archivist and friend Donat Tahiraj has penned this remembrance. 

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I first met Rod McLeod sometime in the 1990s when record fairs in Brisbane happened only quarterly. It was a time when vinyl records weren’t exactly in the front of many music listener’s minds.

The occasion was in the sheds of the Mt Gravatt showgrounds. My fellow record-collecting friend Mick Bakerand I had noticed a man wearing a seemingly homemade t-shirt with a white iron-on transfer among a sea of people.

Upon closer inspection, he was holding a small handful of 7” singles which, prior to the explosion of eBay, were only obtainable by chance or through want lists. Facing towards our line of sight was one by the Bodysnatchers – a Brisbane punk band that played one show in 1979 and happened to release a record that same year. Its cover with the band’s name done in spray paint in white on a black background was in fact inspired by the “Neu! ’75” shirt that Rod had thrown on that Saturday morning.