Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

But now, first up in the studio

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

we have Mental As Anything, terrific group.

Welcome to Countdown.

It was a different time.

The government paid you to go to art school.

They paid you to play music

on a grant system called The Dole.

It was the pub rock era.

A wild and dangerous era.

Before the internet,

people loved music and beer.

And before the internet,

there was artwork on a telegraph pole.

We could do that.

We were five guys who had no real plan...

No particular ambition.

But as long as we kept doing what we did...

it seemed like a bit of luck kept coming our way.

And Australia seemed to like that

we went about things a bit differently.

It all started the day Elvis died.

Maybe his spirit entered us.

We certainly didn't get his looks.

Although Martin kind of did.

♪ That's a shame 'Cause you got the lot ♪

♪ Hey, yeah you With the sad face ♪

♪ Come up to my place And live it up...♪

Extraordinarily, the Mentals are in a race

to become Britain's Christmas number one.

The Australian classic has shot

to number one in the UK charts 35 years after its release.

35 years since we actually

recorded that song.

We were all going, that can't be right?

♪ Let's cook ♪

♪ Let's cook ♪

Life is full of surprises.

This is a big one.

♪ Let's eat ♪

Often in life, weird, unexpected things happen.

♪ Let's growl ♪

When the Mentals started,

we were just doing what we did, really.

We put blind faith in just about everything.

Whether there were any cosmic forces

guiding things, who knows?

I'm not sure whether I believe in destiny,

but um, things happen.

I was actually working at KFC at the time.

That's how I saved the money

to buy gear for the band.

I was coming home from work...

and a chorus popped into my head.

You know, they say

songs are just floating around in the ether.

That one just somehow lobbed in my head.

A couple of drinks, and I put some words to it.

It's one of those songs that writes itself.

♪ Started out ♪

♪ Just drinkin' beer ♪

♪ I didn't know how or why Or what I was doin' there ♪

♪ Just a couple more Made me feel a little better ♪

♪ Believe me when I tell you ♪

♪ It was nothin' To do with the letter ♪

Turned out that it was infectious.

And it was mine.

In Australia, we all fell in love

with "The Nips Are Getting Bigger"

as a first opening statement.

It's got a beautiful atmosphere, that song.

It really stuck out in the landscape.

Mental As Anything

is not a bad name for a pop group

put together by five young art students

absolutely mad about music.

We got the name Mental As Anything

because we didn't have a name.

We needed a poster for a show, and we said to the guy

doing the poster, you think of something.

Walking down the street,

we see this poster, Mental As Anything.

We thought we were playing there,

and then the horrible truth dawned on us.

♪ Whoa-hoh-oh The nips are gettin' bigger ♪

It's the cross we've had to bear.

♪ Whoa-yeah The nips are gettin' bigger ♪

♪ Yeah-eah Hmm they're gettin' bigger ♪

East Sydney Tech was the art school to go to.

There was a healthy degree of anarchy.

I was a student at this art school.

With all the scruffy girls and boys.

I'd had my first relatively successful exhibition.

Everyone was becoming aware much more publicly

of the Reg style.

Beautiful landscapes with the fibre houses.

Making suburban images and making

beauty out of banality.

For non-indigenous people

in this part of the world,

the closest thing we probably have

to some kind of ancestral dreaming

is the suburban backyard

or the houses we grew up in as children.

So it just seemed normal to reflect that.

We had about a dozen pictures in it.

I sold a few, and Patrick White,

the author, bought a couple.

And so maybe I was feeling a little more confident

because of that, and I was interested in forming a band.

Martin was playing at an art school function.

I approached him

just with the idea of, do you want to have a bit of a jam.

Reg was my first bohemian.

Really edgy, really eccentric.

I come from North Shore Catholic Boys' School.

I was amazed that he wanted to work with me...

because I was so different to him.

I was a nerdy, arty kid.

In a culture of football and fighting...

I didn't really fit in.

Then he started playing all this

great slide guitar,

and I thought, wow, this is great.

We clicked.

I always thought he was a genius.

He was a painter first,

and he played really good guitar as well.

So...

Dave Twohill, also known as Bird,

was an art school mate we roped in.

♪ Who needs the hit parade? ♪

♪ An audience ready-made ♪

We played at a couple of art student parties,

and then in the start of '77, we got a residency

at the Unicorn Hotel in Paddington.

The publican said, "Well,

we don't have a bandstand or a stage".

We quickly became known as the band

that plays on the pool table.

We definitely were in the right place

at the right time.

That was the start of that punk new wave explosion.

As soon as that took off,

suddenly every pub in Sydney had a band

playing every night.

Punk music was great.

It really opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people.

Basically, I really like catchy tunes.

We're never a punk band,

but we all got spat on plenty of times.

They made it look like

they didn't really know what they were doing,

but they really did know what they were doing.

That's always a very appealing mix.

Mr Reg Mombassa on the guitar over there.

The publican said, We'll give you a T-bone steak

and two schooners of beer. You can do the door.

And we went, wow, we've made it.

And I think he thought he'd probably get

these art students with berets...

and instead he got 200 punks from Darlinghurst.

When I joined the band,

the set list was pretty eclectic.

Surf instrumentals and the Yeezy beats,

and T-Rex and the Monkees.

A few blues and old country tunes.

We learnt, well

from the covers that we were playing in this room.

We crafted our writing skills

by playing great songs, I guess.

Greedy used to come and play harmonica

and have a jam.

He'd go to gigs and want to get up on stage

and whatever, and they'd go, yeah, come on.

He wanted to be part of it.

I think he had a clear ambition to join that band.

He was not afraid to use his personality up front.

Yeah, when he first joined,

all he did was play endless harmonica solos,

really loud, about twice as loud as anyone else.

He sort of accidentally,

officially joined the band a little later on.

One night, taking the gear out,

Greedy was helping us,

and he dropped Martin's amp and broke it.

That's how he weaseled his way

into the band, to pay it off.

He had to join the band to earn some money.

Then he started singing and learnt the organ.

It's that first few years

before you actually hit the more

successful period that's the most fun.

We weren't really thinking long-term.

I wasn't anyway.

We weren't thinking about recording a record

or doing anything like that.

We were just having the time of our lives, really.

There were two guys

that used to turn up at the Unicorn.

They were very suave blokes.

I met Cameron Allen.

We decided we would write a movie,

and we realised that we had to find money,

and we thought, well, maybe to start a record company,

we can make money and make a movie.

Very nonsensical.

We'd been going every Monday night to see this band

at the Unicorn Hotel.

One Monday, we went down and we said, look,

we're starting a record company,

do you want to be our first signing?

And they all just looked at each other and went, okay.

That was literally the entire conversation.

♪ We were almost Creatures of leisure ♪

There are photos of the band

turning up at their first meeting with us.

♪ We try to make it Loud enough for you ♪

I was living in Milan at the time,

working on various projects.

Martin told the band, oh, my brother,

he's big in the music business,

he's been doing all these big international tours,

maybe he might be interested.

♪ "Get your act Together boys ♪

♪ Don't tune up Between every song" ♪

Martin met me at the airport.

Straight off the plane, that was the first I heard of it.

Anyway, he took me straight to this gig.

♪ Do as you're told If you want to earn a wage ♪

And I sat down, and I was so exhausted,

I went straight to sleep.

♪ Does it sound all right? ♪

I slept through the entire show,

I didn't hear a single note.

I see this guy getting carried out,

we thought, "Oh, shit, he's died".

I didn't even wake up until I woke up in my parents'

bedroom the next morning.

So that was the first time the band actually met me.

At the end, he signed on as the manager.

Martin and Peter both bought combis

so that we could lug our gear round.

I remember the first time we were driving up

to Brisbane to do some shows.

And "The Nips Are Getting Bigger"

came over the radio.

Shit, this is really happening.

Quite an amazing moment, to hear yourself on the radio.

Of course, we hadn't done Countdown or anything then.

♪ Countdown, countdown ♪

And then suddenly we were on Countdown.

This is a band down from Sydney

for their first time on Countdown...

and they're as Mental As Anything.

♪ Started out ♪

♪ Just drinkin' beer ♪

We wanted to be on the charts.

That was the idea.

There's so many people who come up to us and said,

Mentals are just a garage band,

you'll never get anywhere with them.

To me, if there's any art in the rock and roll business,

the art is having a hit single.

It just became such a hit.

Australians do enjoy drinking.

You can't really go wrong with a drinking song.

They were a group that were made for television.

Greedy, most of all, I think, embraced that.

And it allowed Martin to be cool and standoffish...

which was a good double act.

♪ No bones, nothin' I'd better go ♪

♪ And get somethin' harder ♪

But Greedy liked the limelight.

He used to do anything to get attention.

As soon as Martin would start singing his song,

Greedy would be in the background.

Look at me.

So that used to amuse us knowing.

There was a bit of an unspoken competition

between the two, I think.

Martin used to get nervous before shows.

And in a lot of ways, it suited him to have somebody

like Greedy as a foil, who was so energetic

and a lot more outgoing, naturally, than Martin was.

A whole lot of things fell into place for them.

Suddenly you go from playing on a pool table

to playing at the concert of the decade.

The time, High noon.

The place, Sydney Opera House.

The Concert of the Decade was this big show that 2SM put on.

They had every big band that had a hit in the '70s.

And they picked three bands as the bands of the future.

There was a big groundswell of support for the band.

It sort of just gathered its own momentum.

We had four songwriters

contributing their songs to each record.

Which is different to a lot of bands.

Soon after that, we got in the studio

and worked on that first album, which was

all original material.

♪ Egypt, I saw you ♪

♪ On the television ♪

♪ I saw your name ♪

♪ Written on a wall ♪

♪ I saw your picture ♪

♪ In a magazi-ine ♪

Martin and Reg were writing

the majority of the songs initially.

I was tentatively writing some and Greedy was too.

We were like the apprentice guys.

♪ Egypt, can I ask you ♪

♪ To lend me your blue sky ♪

Reg had a very idiosyncratic way

of putting the lyrics together.

More so than Martin in that they were more obtuse,

more surreal, more absurd.

♪ I don't know you very well ♪

♪ But I really like you ♪

So very early on,

we agreed that songwriting royalties

would be split amongst the band members.

So the person that wrote the song got 60%

and each of the other four members got 10%.

We all thought that was pretty fair.

Reg was a lot of the backbone of the band

and could settle disagreements or perceive disagreements...

without ever even raising his voice.

Always a gentleman, never Mr Rockstar.

♪ Like I held a map of you ♪

I've always been a little bit quiet and frightened

and resentful of the world,

particularly of big, angry, loud men.

♪ Egypt, I need your ♪

♪ Sophisticated silence ♪

The first time I'd ever become aware

of the adult world was really when I was 11

during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And that really freaked me out.

I realised that the adult world was absurd

and terrifying and I really wanted to avoid it

for the rest of my life.

Because there was four songwriters,

it meant that you didn't have one person

having to shoulder a whole album.

We had made uneven records but they were eclectic

and interesting and we all had our strong points

and every now and then any one of us

could write a good pop song.

♪ All you TV producers ♪

♪ Looking for a catchy theme ♪

♪ Here's one It's gonna make you cream ♪

I always used to stress with them

when doing interviews you've got to work out

what you want to say and then you say it.

If you come up with something entertaining

they'll have you back on.

In today's show I'm going to be cooking a simple dish

in this jug here. It's called motel cuisine.

- Looks good, Reg. - Right.

♪ Who needs the hit parade? ♪

♪ An audience ready-made ♪

♪ Watchin' your Favourite show ♪

♪ So everybody knows ♪

Creatively, we did pretty much as we pleased.

Regular Records had us on a very long leash.

Whether it was Reg or Pete

or Martin or Greedy they would all take turns

in recording their songs

and so you had a few bites of the cherry.

We're a fairly egalitarian democratic band

so that meant even if you didn't like something much

that was happening or one of the songs,

you'd be okay with that because you'd think,

well, I've got to go next time.

♪ Semi trailer, semi trailer ♪

♪ How come you go so fast? ♪

There was no strategic,

ambitious plot line that we were writing for ourselves.

It was really just writing itself.

♪ If I was to know you Through an exhaust pipe ♪

♪ Diesel funnel Ventilation duct ♪

Get Wet was a big hit,

it was a gold record.

And when Nips came out in the UK it got rave reviews.

Virgin Records picked up Get Wet.

Virgin were really hot at that time

and really delivering some huge breakthrough artists.

So, Greedy went over and did a promotional tour.

He put his hand up for the stuff

which was fine with us on a lot of levels

we just hated doing all that stuff anyway.

I'm getting a free trip out of it

so I can't complain.

Greedy could see that

"I could be the spokesman, in a way

'cause these guys aren't really interested in it".

Greedy was unrelentingly positive

and upbeat and cheerful

that would start to drive you actually bonkers after a while

especially if you're doing long days of travel

and late nights and you've got hangovers.

He's probably the most cheerful, positive person

- I've ever met I think. - Preternaturally cheerful.

Every record,

everything was going to be fantastic.

Forever.

♪ So tired ♪

♪ Driving all night ♪

♪ It's always cold And windy down here ♪

We were playing five to six nights a week.

Sometimes two shows a night.

♪ We need a layoff ♪

♪ We've sold out But haven't yet been paid ♪

It was full on.

Jeremy was thinking we had to come up with

a new record pretty quickly.

Capitalise on the first one. Keep the momentum going.

Virgin signed on with enormous expectations.

The agreement with Virgin is that

they've got to come up with one

Mental As Anything album a year,

for the next six years.

So we all stopped

for long enough to write a few songs.

Now maybe we went in too early...

but the recording process was flawed.

It takes quite a while to spot

what's different about this farm.

Australia's first and foremost music farm.

The basic principle of the music farm is that

you can't make good music

unless you're having a good time.

Another day, another dollar.

We recorded at the music farm

which was a new studio so there was a lot of

technical problems getting things happening.

We were waiting for gear to arrive

so we all got pretty out of it.

As soon as we got there this guy that I'd gone

to school with just arrived over a hilltop.

With this big bag of mushrooms.

And some local friends

gave us a huge bag of marijuana.

That probably didn't help.

Split Enz turned up and we had a cup of tea.

The details are blurry.

They were all a little dazed and didn't really know

what they were doing and there was a lot of distractions.

They tasted good just like normal mushrooms.

I don't know how many I ate but it was quite a lot.

All the wood grain was too much for me.

It was all moving and rippling and talking to me

so I had to go outside.

I was walking around outside for hours

so I was incredibly sunburnt by the end of the day.

The Mullumbimby madness and the mushrooms

might have resulted in some really good music

but I think they were finding it quite hard.

The environment had caught up with them.

Jeremy perhaps had expectations

about the commercial aspects of the music

we were making that we hadn't quite understood.

Or had forgotten.

They needed to record some songs

we could get on the radio and Virgin would do the rest.

But, I went up to the music farm

and I could tell it wasn't working.

I could tell it wasn't right.

I had huge misgivings but the machine was rolling

and everybody was going, "Oh no,

it's great, it's great, we're loving it, it's great".

I think the nature got to us a bit.

I think it's very unhealthy

to record in healthy surroundings.

You went and saw a real Greek photographer?

- Hm, yeah. - And he's hand-tint it.

My mother said I looked really handsome

in the photo on the album.

I still think it's one of our

most interesting records, in its own way.

It was not a well-formed album.

Virgin took one listen it and dropped the band.

Bad luck Virgin. Fuck them.

♪ You know where I can be found ♪

♪ I don't see why you don't ♪

♪ Come around ♪

♪ I have my own life And now I'm sure that ♪

♪ You have many things to do ♪

The album came out but didn't do much

"Come Around" eventually did became a hit.

And with Martin, it was probably

personally revealing with some of lyrics.

I know he was dealing with anxiety

without us at the time really being cognisant of that.

♪ Things are moving So quickly ♪

♪ I feel like I'm really losing touch ♪

♪ Seeing you Reminds me of days ♪

♪ When nothing Really mattered ♪

♪ Very much ♪

♪ So, why don't you Come around sometime? ♪

♪ Oh, you know... ♪

Martin's a really keen Elvis fan.

He could also do Roy Orbison.

He was an incredibly gifted singer.

♪ Leave all that Bitterness behind ♪

♪ I promise I'll try not to leer ♪

When I was really little,

I knew I could carry a tune...

but I never received any encouragement.

So I started teaching myself.

I use to take the radio into the bathroom when I had shower

and sing along with Monkees

Roy Orbison and everything else.

And I kind of knew that I could hang in there

with all the ones that I liked.

♪ And I wouldn't lose Any sleep ♪

♪ If you don't come on over... ♪

The band always knew how fantastic Martin's voice was.

♪ So, why don't you Come around sometime? ♪

♪ You know I'm usually... ♪

In terms of Espresso Bongo,

it's a perfect recipe for success.

And you do question, is this really worth spending

all this time, effort, energy,

if things really aren't that serious?

I can remember Jeremy was very concerned at the time,

I think. But he was the only one that was.

Jeremy was probably feeling after

Virgin dropped us that, you know, may as well give up now

and go back to being whatever he was before that.

Probably disappointed that we hadn't made

the kind of record that he thought

we should make for the market.

But look, that's the way it goes.

Win some, you lose some.

I don't think anyone in the band really cared that much

that it wasn't a major hit or anything.

Jim Blackfoot, our road crew manager,

said we were the most ambitionless

band he'd ever met.

It just completely baffled me from the first night.

It must have been incredibly hard to manage

this group of characters.

I couldn't believe what type of music they would create.

It wasn't a sexy, ego-driven vibe.

It was just a party.

Have as much fun as you possibly can.

Jeremy had a really strong belief in the band.

He was the glue that kept it all together.

It was a boom time for pub rock

and the opportunities were there.

I was a bit more ambitious commercially...

and I saw the American market as a great potential.

But Greedy was really the only one who even pretended

to pay much attention.

There probably was a question emerging.

How successful can you be in the music industry

if you don't really take it as seriously as you should?

Just being in the music industry

seemed sort of absurd.

Pop stardom is ridiculous, let's face it.

What about the future?

Yeah, you're compelled to think about

the future.

When you think about being big in Australia,

it's probably The Angels and Cold Chisel.

Do your ambitions lie in that area?

They're all bands who are very professional.

We've got to smarten up our act

if we're going to get like that.

We're too sloppy. We're not neat enough.

We may well end up just being a minor hit band

and disappear forever.

So we needed something. The question was,

who was going to record the next album?

Jeremy was arguing with Cameron over what's happening

and Cameron got a bit angry and said

"Why don't you go and get Bruce and Russell

to produce it then"?

And Jeremy went, "Who"?

And then went and found them.

Cameron was talking about Bruce Brown

and Russell Dunlop.

A pair of producers who'd just had this big hit

with a pop song, "Space Invaders",

under the moniker Player One.

It was a track that was all over the place.

- ♪ Space Invaders ♪ - ♪ Space Invaders ♪

- ♪ Space Invaders ♪ - ♪ Space Invaders ♪

Russell and Bruce came and saw the band live.

It was a shambolic and a bit of a drunken show,

but they could see that there were some really

strong songs there.

Bruce and Russell worked out

at the fabled Albert Studios.

Of course, that was the home of ACDC,

The Angels, and love was still in the air

from John Paul Young's time.

I'd never heard of these guys,

but the fact they worked at Albert's was like,

that's where George and Harry worked from The Easybeats.

We walked in

and Angus and Malcolm Young are sitting there

with George, the three fucking brothers.

Oh, my God!

♪ Words were Exchanged last night ♪

♪ You could call it a fight ♪

♪ It's such a shame I never thought we would ♪

♪ Wouldn't be so bad ♪

♪ If it weren't so good ♪

I think that's when I realised

that it was getting serious. When I heard the final mix

of "If You Leave Me Can I Come Too", I thought, man,

this is sounding really good. Like a proper pop record.

♪ It wasn't much I know ♪

♪ Just enough... ♪

The title was mentioned by a friend of ours.

- Chubby, it was. - Chubby, yeah.

He said, "Don't you reckon that'd be a great

title for a song"? I said, "Nah, it's stupid".

♪ If you leave me Can I come too? ♪

♪ We can always stay... ♪

So we waited a couple of years

until he'd forgotten about it.

Yeah, Ripped him off completely.

♪ Can I come too? And if you go... ♪

The song endeared Mental As Anything

to the Australian public, made them a household word.

♪ Can I come too? ♪

We somehow had amassed

a pretty good collection of songs.

Russell Dunlop and Bruce Brown, they were able to

harness the good, strong parts

of what made the band, the band, and didn't

try to change us too much

♪ Don't let it happen again ♪

♪ 'Cause that I couldn't take ♪

♪ Once was quite enough ♪

♪ It's easy to forgive... ♪

It wasn't a brutal competition

♪ Harder to forget ♪

But there was definitely competition

to write the best song.

♪ Too many times Too many times ♪

It was Greedy's turn to have a go.

♪ Too many times Too many times ♪

That song would become

one of my favourite songs that Greedy wrote.

♪ Too many times I've seen the sun come up ♪

♪ Through bloodshot eyes This week ♪

♪ No matter what I do Since we broke up ♪

♪ I find it hard to sleep ♪

Cats & Dogs, it's gone double platinum so far.

Features some songs like "Too Many Times"

which you wrote, which was your first,

in fact the first song you wrote that was in it.

Yeah, yeah, the only single I've had.

♪ I know that staying here And drinking beer ♪

♪ Is no good for my health ♪

♪ What is there left to do ♪

♪ But to drink And watch the view ♪

It could actually be

"The Nips Are Getting Bigger, Part 2"

couldn't it, just about I guess, "The Nips Are

- Getting Even Bigger". - Yeah, it's like

a sequel I suppose. Very similar sort of a theme,

another drinking song,

but it's me trying to be romantic.

How do you go about writing songs?

Because everybody has their own technique.

I find it's very good to write with a hangover

because you get that great combination of melancholy

and incredible sensitivity, you know,

the slightest noise hurts.

So if you're going to write a song

then it's got to sound pretty good otherwise you'll be ill.

A lot of people don't get past this thing

that it's a song about waking up with a hangover

because you've had a real blast...

and that's all the song's about.

But it's not, it's a deep song about

have I lost out again and is that why I've...

smashed myself up so badly.

♪ The doctor that I went to Couldn't do any good ♪

♪ He gave me pills For sleeping ♪

♪ I took more than I should Than I should ♪

I think the lyrical theme is best summed up

by a little poem of Greedy's that he often tells us

when he's feeling a bit down.

I'm just an empty shell living in my private hell.

And I think that's how he was feeling

when he wrote the song.

There's more to the comic facade

of Greedy than the first meets the eye.

He's a very serious person

underneath the comic facade.

Hey!

Greedy was very insecure

yet put him on stage and he just blossoms.

But off stage a quiet guy,

suffered from funny little tics and insecurities.

He liked to draw attention to himself

from a pretty early age.

Meat in the sandwich, between me and my sister.

If my sister was around today

she probably would have been diagnosed as on the spectrum.

There's this enormous attention on my sister.

So Andy needed to be a clown,

lightening life up a bit for mum and dad.

Like most people who are clownish, once they realise

people respond to it they keep doing it.

And he certainly did that.

Andy was a person with an enormous amount of insecurity...

but an enormous amount of self-assuredness

at the same time.

♪ Please, Insurance Man ♪

♪ I need a better plan ♪

♪ I want a brand new policy ♪

♪ Won't you please Please cover me? ♪

I think a lot of those early songs show that.

Particularly relationships to women.

The first time I heard "Insurance Man" I thought,

you know... this is classic.

That was Greedy's theme, jealousy and heartbreak

and being the guy who came off second best.

♪ They call it jealousy But it's love to me ♪

♪ If she should go away Dead in my grave I'd lay ♪

I've just got to cope with jealousy.

It's a useless, terrible vice.

It's destructive and time consuming.

But it's a good excuse to get drunk.

He's like the sad clown.

He writes these dark lyrics.

Yet there he is with his perpetual smile.

We all took a go at Greedy at the time.

We all had a go.

Greedy would offer himself up as the sacrificial lamb.

Bit more Windex, Reg.

We saw our role as pulling the rug

from underneath his feet at any opportunity.

I was the one that named Andrew "Greedy"

after he had the famous family bucket

of Kentucky Fried Chicken at an art school

barbecue that we'd played at.

We did count Greedy eating at least 15, 16 pieces.

♪ I didn't mean to be mean ♪

We were all agents of our own progress and...

- And lack of progress. - Lack of progress.

What we've got over here is too many New Zealanders.

Greedy would always assumed

to be the most responsible one...

because we were a bit irresponsible.

And we'd often say things that you may not want to hear

Are you happy with the result?

I'm exquisitely happy. I had a great time earlier.

I always do.

You're a wonderful person.

- Yeah. Yeah. - Happy.

Unlike certain people. Did you enjoy the result?

Mind your own business, Don.

It's everybody's favourite track off the album.

We just thought, let Peter have a song, really.

- Give him the go, yeah. - Give him the go.

We were really serious about the songwriting.

We were as serious as any songwriters are.

♪ Bjorn is just a Viking ♪

♪ He is very handy With a sword ♪

♪ He loves nothing better ♪

♪ Than to cut and slash Right through a horde ♪

♪ Mutilation ♪

♪ Jubilation ♪

♪ Friendly muscles ♪

♪ In a tussle ♪

This one is the album highlight, I think.

This is the one that I play over and over again.

"Berserk Warriors"?

Yeah, that's the next single, actually.

I had a hip disease when I was a kid,

so I spent a year and a half in a hospital.

I used to love reading

all that stuff that appeals to an 11-year-old.

Viking novels.

The imagery and mythology and the violence.

♪ In the fjords ♪

So I sort of incorporated

that into the story of ABBA.

It was light, cheesy, glossy pop.

The ABBA did it so well.

♪ Bjorn and Anna Earn their leisure ♪

♪ They have each other For their pleasure ♪

By the time I wrote "Berserk Warriors",

Bjorn and Anna were breaking up

and they'd written "The Winner Takes It All".

It was very sad and emotional.

That was kind of in my mind,

and I just tied up their relationship

with the Vikings, Norse mythology and violence.

Martin's voice was such a great vehicle

for those songs because the delivery is so straight.

♪ Bjorn is on his long ship ♪

♪ He and Anna Fought it out today ♪

♪ He says It is their Waterloo ♪

I got Martin to sing

a few of my songs over those years.

He made them sound great, that's for sure.

♪ All that blonde hair ♪

♪ For them to share ♪

♪ So much plunder ♪

♪ Cut asunder ♪

♪ Now when Bjorn and Anna See each other ♪

♪ It's on the battlefield Not as lovers ♪

The Mentals were always thought of

as a quirky band...

but Cats & Dogs showed that they were true originals.

People started to realise how special they were.

After Cats & Dogs, people sat up

and stopped treating us like buffoons,

which was a shame, really, because

I quite like being treated like a buffoon.

I designed the cover too, by the way.

Ta-da!

♪ If you leave me Can I come too? ♪

In the old days, Mental As Anything had trouble

receiving radio airplay, but that all changed

with "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too"?

This perfect piece of pop was in the charts for 21 weeks,

peaking at number four.

Things were going really well,

but there was another band doing well too

with a song called "Down Under",

and we're about to face off

against them in the prestigious

Countdown Awards for Single of the Year.

Best single, "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too",

Mental As Anything.

Accepting the award for best single

is Martin and Reg from The Mentals.

Shit, I wasn't expecting this at all,

I'm quite honest about that.

I think I'll put it on the front of my car.

Thanks very much, thank you.

In terms of the whole international scene,

we had a minor hit across Canada with that album.

It certainly didn't have any cut through in the US.

But Men At Work went through the stratosphere.

We were flying pretty high at that point,

and we were going to tour the US.

They rang us up and asked us

if we wanted to go to America.

And they're going, "We want an Australian band,

and we think you're the most Australian band there is".

Another very important Australian invention

is the Hills Hoist here.

I really like The Mentals,

I really like how they approached everything.

Don't push in Greedy.

People won't realise how difficult it is

to cut through, especially in the United States.

Well, the way I look at it, there's 220 million people

in America, and there's got to be at least 10 million idiots.

- So they'll like us. - So they'll like us.

People always think about our band

that somehow it was just easy or something.

But we wanted it, I wanted it.

And you can feel the momentum building.

It's not for the faint of heart.

And I just remember

that I wanted to have The Mentals on the tour.

We met them in Seattle.

And then within about two weeks,

they had the number one single

and number one album in America.

This is happening to these guys.

♪ Do you come From a land Down Under? ♪

♪ Where women glow And men plunder ♪

♪ Can't you hear Can't you hear the thunder ♪

♪ You better run You better take cover ♪

We toured, you know, with The Mentals,

and they just confounded and confused everybody.

♪ I worry about The motor car accidents ♪

♪ Cancer and the politics Of rooting... ♪

The Americans, they like it, but they don't understand it,

because you can't sort of go...

At all, you've got to go...

Hey, this is a joke.

Are you distressed,

depressed or distraught?

The Americans can't quite pick up on it.

It's too Australian.

We're going to be touring America with Men At Work,

playing just about everywhere,

and here's a song called "Working for the Man".

Speaking of "Working for the Man", have a listen.

♪ Today you're working For the man ♪

I found it comforting to have The Mentals.

They were kind of friends from outside our camp,

and so I could relax with them, and it was more

hanging out with some pals while you're on the road.

♪ Because I'm working For the man ♪

We were just trailing along and being

the support band, so it was pretty easy, you know.

We had a lot of fun, because there's not much

responsibility in that.

Sometimes we would borrow their tour bus,

'cause they were using their airplane

some of the time too.

They had a Men At Work airplane

with "Men At Work" written on it.

It was fun getting to play at a lot of people,

see the mechanics of a band

that was really hitting it big time.

They were travelling a lot humbler than we were,

but we would still be doing these shows

to 18,000, 20,000 people every night.

This really is the big time.

Perhaps people in Australia don't quite realise

how big Men At Work were at the time.

I'd just like to say thank you very much to Men At Work

for having us along on this little trip of theirs.

We've got one more night. They're good blokes,

good drinkers, good Australians.

Working in the rock and roll world,

you're in bars and licensed premises, and you're

killing time, all the time.

We were all drinking and having a bit of a party.

That can be a bit dangerous.

Drinking was probably an issue with all of us

during that period.

The writer was two bottles of scotch and a case of beer,

and that was generally gone by the end of the show.

Colin kind of saw Marty as the front man.

He had great camaraderie.

They seemed to enjoy hanging out in the support band's

dressing room more than their own dressing room.

♪ Oh, let's cook ♪

I loved hanging with Martin because he was my pal.

♪ Let's eat ♪

When I was developing a strong alcohol addiction,

my time with Martin was tied up with having a great time.

You know, having a great time, you know,

and that always involved alcohol.

I didn't find this out until years later,

but Martin had high anxiety about going on stage,

struggling with it and fighting through it, though,

completely fooling everybody else.

There was a lot of drinking and smoking of pot

that was our two popular sports in the band.

Martin and Greedy were more keen drinkers.

Peter and myself would smoke fairly constantly.

I'd figured out once I'd approximately had about

25,000 joints...

which is a few.

Mental As Anything

are as nutty as their name suggests.

In the tradition of Men At Work and Split Enz,

Mental As Anything specialises in loony tunes.

Back in those days, there was a lot of cocaine

around in America, so dangerous.

It was a really dangerous world to be in.

And we were all, you know, easily led.

It was like being kids in a lolly shop.

This is what you call trashing a motel.

We read this stuff about big bands

- trashing motels and that. - Yeah, hang on, watch this.

Oh!

America was, you know, it was fascinating, it was weird...

even if you only were seeing stadiums and road stops.

♪ They call it chemical travel Because it's... ♪

Being on the road, we were on the tour bus,

we shared motel rooms.

You never had a moment to yourself.

I remember losing my mind a couple of times

and spinning out and spending a day up

in a revolving restaurant in Atlanta...

drinking cocktail after cocktail,

just feeling like, is this it?

Is this what it's come to?

Reg would get very lonely, miss his family,

and would drink a little bit. He didn't drink often,

which is why he got a bit messy when he did.

Touring, when that kind of stuff's going on,

that does get very difficult.

I had a toddler to look after,

and I must have been fairly late in my pregnancy,

so that would have been a worry for him.

Martina was pregnant

with our second child, Claudia.

She had a thing called placenta previa,

which is an alarming development

that a woman can have when she's having a child.

Reg couldn't afford to use the hotel phone.

He'd be wandering around looking for a payphone

with a big pocket full of coins.

Occasionally he would get into a mood.

He'd be okay in the afternoon and then at night,

made the phone call, and then he was filthy.

It was really an extraordinary,

phenomenal experience that happens

to very, very few people.

I'm happy I came through it and didn't die.

It's probably lucky that we didn't become a big hit

in America because it probably would have destroyed us

in terms of, you know, taking too many drugs or something,

or just that amount of stardom and money.

It certainly derails a lot of people.

I remember virtually kissing the ground

when I got on the tarmac back in Sydney

and saying, "I made it".

They were never rock stars, really.

They were never prepared to go on the road

in America for years.

There was a real resistance to do that hard slog.

We would like to live in Australia, though,

to stay in Australia, because it's a wonderful country.

So what's the story?

Are you going to go away or are you going to stay around?

Go away?

What do we want to go away for?

We enjoy a fair amount of respect and glamour over here.

I'm personally pretty happy to just play here.

Yes, you'd rather be the big frogs

in the little pool, eh, Reg?

Yeah.

That's my favourite too, actually.

Well, they didn't love it.

Bands which are used to a more comfortable lifestyle

and a level of adulation in Australia,

a six-month tour sleeping on floors,

is not really that appealing.

A big part of the reason for that was family.

Go!

Reg had children before the rest of us.

We didn't really understand the pressure he was under

until we started to have children.

It was difficult at times,

but it wasn't too bad because eventually

the whole band had children.

So we tried to be a reasonably child-friendly band.

We were often just around amplifiers

and, like, the smell of beer.

I mean, no-one ever explained anything.

We were just like, oh, this is my life.

Childhood, it feels like we were always at barbecues

with Mental As Anything.

And then also lots of the video clips

feel like that's what they look like as well,

so there's a real overlap.

I was often confused about what was real

and what was in a music video.

How do you think the overseas market's

going to react to this clip?

I don't understand the overseas market at all.

The more we go overseas,

the less we understand about it.

But I think all we can do is try to educate people

into seeing, you know, well, what great art this is.

You know, Italy's got Florence,

France has got Gay Paree

and Australia has Scarborough Street, Sans Souci

♪ Come with me ♪

♪ Get out of the mess You're in ♪

Suburban Australia. Greedy in the brown suit.

Dogs barking, people washing their cars,

kids riding their bikes.

What a beautiful slice of Australiana.

♪ He's just no good for you ♪

♪ Why are you going back? ♪

♪ You deserve a whole lot Better than that ♪

They were the mirror of suburban Australia,

reflecting us back.

♪ A whole lot better Than that ♪

♪ Better than that ♪

The main thing is to get as much

classy looking stuff onto the screen

for as cheap as possible.

As much as you look forward to their new single,

you look forward to the video as well

because they were always surprising...

and cutting edge and funny.

♪ 'Cause he's in a hurry To say goodbye ♪

I'm particularly proud of the first simulated

defecation in Australian filmmaking with the sausages.

It looked really good and it was very impressive.

Everybody had come out of art school.

There was always that thread in the band,

kind of parallel to the music.

Everybody in that band was a painter,

which was kind of impressive.

I loved the fact that they were working the fringes

of what it was to be a pop band.

One-time rock band manager Paul Keating

was invited to open the exhibition.

Declare the exhibition open. Thank you.

Now that we're good mates, you might think about us

next year when you're drawing up

the Queen's Birthday honours list because...

...all the Mentals would like a nice big

shiny bronze knighthood for their mantelpieces, so,

keep us in mind.

Yeah, a hubcap will do. Anything shiny.

I think he art thing

kept us bonded in a different way.

I mean, we encouraged each other

through making art and being artists.

Sort of kept up our interest in painting

even while we've been touring around.

Just for therapy mainly.

Do you paint on the road or when you get off?

Oh, normally on canvas actually.

- On canvas? - Yeah.

We're managing to sell a few of them.

This is what you really like. Lots of red spots.

Does that mean wealthy overseas rock stars

might have bought the paintings?

No comment.

Now you're not only buying records by Australian groups,

I hear you bought some paintings as well.

Yeah, I went to an exhibition done by the guys

- from Mental As Anything. - Right.

And I bought about a dozen things,

some drawings and paintings they'd done,

I sorta like all they've done.

They had their own exhibition.

Yeah, in Sydney. Yeah, they're really nice.

Very funny stuff, experiences on the road, etc.

Reggie's up the back of the bus

not suffering from motion sickness

and he's drawing.

It was just constant, constant output.

I do remember that Dad would

go away on tour a lot when I was a kid.

I'm sure for my mum it was really annoying.

But it probably was really sad for him.

He dealt with it by drawing.

At the end of a tour, you would be handing back

in the tour bus and there would be

just reams of paper on the floor.

The Mentals were in Melbourne last week

for some great shows and the adorning

of one of our infamous trams with some wonderful rock art.

It's not often that you get to paint a tram.

I also got to have a go at driving it...

which was a great highlight because when I was a kid

I'd always wanted to be a train driver.

Doing a big budget album

with a big American producer was a financial gamble.

We were very lucky

to have Jeremy Fabinyi as our manager.

He's not your typical hard-ass,

bullying alpha male, semi-criminal band manager,

which a lot of them were.

♪ Yoga dog ♪

Our distributor in America

paid a substantial advance.

They suggested maybe we need a producer

that's going to deliver a bit more of an American sound

or it's going to work better for the market.

We were looking all over the world.

♪ I know a girl Who's soft and sweet ♪

And we ended up with Richard Gottehrer.

He produced a whole lot of fantastic stuff,

but he'd also written hits

like "My Boyfriend's Back" and "I Want Candy".

♪ I want Candy ♪

It was a big spend.

We've got to come up with the goods with this one.

In the '80s he'd been recording

and producing the Go-Go's and Blondie.

And he'd just been in England recording Joan Armatrading.

Richard is geared

to producing something commercial.

That's his focus.

I had to get a fancy new computer keyboard

to be able to get some of the sounds, I got on the record.

Richard spent a lot of time working on Greedy songs

and he was pretty spot on in knowing how to fish out

something that would become a hit.

♪ How can you see Looking through those tears? ♪

♪ Don't you know you're Worth your weight in gold? ♪

The developing technology

was very good for Greedy because it meant

he could write the parts in his bedroom.

This is a song Greedy wrote quite a while ago

and it's been through several forms and formats,

tempos and you name it.

He'd just be going, how do you want it to go?

We've done 15 different versions of it.

I did zero in on "Live It Up".

Part of it was having a feeling for Greedy

so I could find a way of getting a performance.

When he did the vocals for "Live It Up",

Greedy sort of came in and he's like,

"Oh, I did a really good vocal, it sounds really good."

And I'm going, that's good.

He's like, nah, it sounds really good.

♪ How can you see looking Through those tears? ♪

♪ Don't you know you're worth Your weight in gold? ♪

♪ I can't believe That you're alone in here ♪

♪ Let me warm your hands Against the cold ♪

♪ A close encounter With a hard hearted man... ♪

It's a beautiful song, it's very Greedy.

It's very uplifting in that sense of he's spotted someone...

who could be doing better and he's there to help.

♪ That's a shame... ♪

My man, my man.

♪ Hey, yeah you With the sad face ♪

♪ Come up to my place And live it up ♪

♪ You beside the dance floor ♪

♪ What do you cry for Let's live it up ♪

It was a song of positivity and hope

delivered by somebody with a smile on his face,

Greedy Smith.

♪ You stand alone ♪

♪ By the phone ♪

♪ In the corner ♪

♪ And cry, hey, baby ♪

It's a brilliant pop song from start to finish.

Very rare you get those kinds

of pop songs that are so wholesome.

"Live It Up" was on the radio constantly.

The only new top ten entry this week

is Mental As Anything "Live It Up" from 17 to five

on the Countdown National Chart.

Madonna edged out "Live It Up"

for the number one spot.

In a way it's kind of a badge of honour

to be a number two band. At least there's something

to aim for when you're number two.

♪ Let's live it up ♪

He would have loved for it to be number one.

Probably more on behalf of the Mentals.

In a lot of ways that really changed Andrew's status

in the band from then on.

I was just noticing that it's your singles

that have been released so far and they've been

doing really well. I'm wondering whether, you know

the others are perhaps taking a back seat for a while

- you take over a bit more. - No, actually.

No, I've just been lucky

the singles so far have been my songs.

- New album? - Yes, red one.

Fundamental. Yes, why is it so red?

Well, we haven't had a red record before.

This is the first red record we've ever put out.

♪ Try not to break me baby You're so strong ♪

"Fundamental" was a huge hit in Australia

as well as "Live It Up" it had "You're So Strong"

and "Date With Destiny".

♪ I got a date with a girl Called Destiny ♪

Three songs written by Greedy.

♪ Me lovin' her Was always meant to be ♪

I was convinced we had an American hit

but we needed the record company

to get behind it.

♪ Can't avoid fate or a girl ♪

And in America things can get

really weird really quickly.

Rock and roll through the '70s and '80s

there was like these pirates running the whole business.

There's an old fashioned corruption

which is almost possible to feel nostalgic

for now that there's a whole other new kind of corruption.

In those days it was just these guys driving around

in sports cars with a couple of girls on either arm

dispensing cocaine to radio stations, you know.

Those were the good old days.

They saw "Live It Up" had the potential

and they were willing to put a lot of money into promotion.

More than a six-figure amount,

was going to go out to the independent promotion people.

I'd spent three or four months,

I'd set up an office in New York.

And the morning that

that cheque was supposed to go out...

- FBI agents... - ...I turned on the telly

and saw the guys that were supposed to be promoting

- our records under arrest. - Levy,

the president of Roulette Records

is little known, outside the music business.

But, federal authorities say,

Levy is as powerful as any big record company president.

Using his ties with organised crime

to control record companies, record stores

and big name performers.

Grand juries in Los Angeles,

Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York

are investigating allegations of payola

the use of cash, cocaine, prostitutes

and some mob-controlled promoters to get

songs played on the radio.

The record died a death.

And once the record didn't take off in the US

the UK, Europe, the other big markets had no interest in it.

Bring us up to date with the States.

What's happening over there for you?

Oh, we're immensely successful and popular over there.

Those Americans are so silly though.

You look at the heads of the record companies

in the '80s and you think these people

are absolute fuckwits. So many of them.

That's not a bad profit for one year.

All that work, all that money

I thought we were done.

Who can save us now?

Mick Dundee from Australia. How are ya?

Crocodile Dundee was in the process of being made

and the music supervisor asked to licence

"Live It Up" into the soundtrack.

And as soon as that happened,

it went through the roof.

It's a chart entry at 39

for "Live It Up" from Mental As Anything.

The single "Live It Up"

is one of the fastest moving hits in the chart.

Thanks, Paul Hogan.

Up 20 to number 19, "Live It Up".

- Thanks, Paul Hogan. - Up 11 at eight,

"Live It Up", Mental As Anything.

- Thanks, Paul. - Jeremy didn't get

his US hit, but he got a UK one. Pretty close.

Number three, "Live It Up".

If you've seen the hit film Crocodile Dundee

with Paul Hogan you'll recognise this song,

you may even recognise the band.

Here's Mental As Anything from Australia

and "Live It Up" on Top Of The Pops.

♪ Hey, yeah you ♪

♪ With the sad face ♪

♪ Come up to my place... ♪

We were on this new ride.

♪ Come up to my place, baby ♪

Okay, quiet, everyone. Live interview.

This is Greedy's era.

Mind if I call you Greedy.

Well, everybody else does, except for Mum.

Is your real name Bruce?

I don't know any Australians called Bruce.

Do you think that British audiences aren't perhaps

sophisticated enough for your genre of music?

I think if you read a few of the light classics

and watch a lot of daytime television,

you can't go wrong and you can understand us.

- Mr Greedy Smith. - I found it was a bit like

being in the twilight zone.

And "Live It Up" had been the door-opener

to go and do that stuff around the world, which was great.

It was tricky, too, the audience

only knowing that one song was slightly difficult, actually.

If you were living in England,

you would only know Mentals Anything

as that one-hit wonder band.

What's it like coming over to England

and being relatively unknown?

Oh, it's great. It keeps you honest.

We just try and be quite friendly to people.

I mean, "Live It Up" was a huge hit in Europe.

Top five in many territories across Europe.

And it was really exciting. It was great fun.

We had a terrific time. We ended up going to Montreux.

Montreux, the Riviera of Switzerland.

1,500 fans waiting for the biggest gathering

of rock stars since Live Aid in 1985.

There's the Beastie Boys,

Duran Duran, and then Crowded House.

If you're on a festival stage,

everyone's trying to blow each other off.

Sort of goes without saying that you kind of don't think

anybody else is any good, really.

Grudging respect for a few bands,

and the Mentals included.

They were enjoying

a big burst of popularity with that song.

Paul Hester was running around Montreux

after Reg going, It's Reg Mombassa!

And screaming and carrying on.

And I do remember Reg rapping

- with Run-DMC. - Yeah, I probably did.

People like that we'd get on

really well with, you know. But bands like The Cult.

Seem to be treating us with sneering contempt.

They're serious musicians.

♪ Sex and fun ♪

♪ Surf and mull And sex and fun ♪

In Bari, Italy,

we won the coveted Telegatto Award

for being the best mimers.

♪ Try not to break me baby ♪

Telegatto. That means television cat.

- The winner is! - Mental As Anything

for "Live It Up"!

It's Mental As Anything, Fundamental.

Back in Australia, we won Best Single

and Best Album at the Countdown Awards.

The Best Songwriter Award went to Greedy Smith

of Mental As Anything for "Live It Up".

When the NBC Today show came to Australia,

we got to play out the front of the Sydney Opera House

to millions of Americans eating their breakfast.

♪ With the sad face ♪

In Australia, Fundamental

was the biggest selling album of 1985,

and "Live It Up" was the biggest selling single.

♪ Hey, yeah you...♪

In many ways, a band's hit single

is the worst thing they ever do.

They were totally happening.

The future was infinite.

Then they have a hit.

And then there's people saying, do that again.

♪ No accounting For the weather ♪

♪ Or when dogs Choose to bark ♪

Did you find that when you were

scaling the heights, that record companies

tried to steer you in a certain way?

Yep. They wanted the same thing

over and over again.

They wanted more "Live It Ups".

We'd bring in all these demos.

♪ I see that You've come home ♪

Doesn't sound like "Live It Up".

What's going on? We want another "Live It Up".

No, I don't like that.

I don't really know how you follow up a big hit

with one that sounds just like it.

It doesn't seem possible to me.

♪ Oh, don't tell me now It's too late ♪

♪ Late, too late ♪

♪ Don't tell me now ♪

Can you tell us who you've come to see?

INXS.

- Jimmy Barnes. Yes. - Is he your favourite?

- Divinyls? Triffids? - No, Mentals.

We love Reg.

- He's cute. - Yeah, he's cute.

Australian Made, the finest collection

of homegrown talent ever on the one stage.

You get to see seven other bands play too, for nothing.

We don't have to pay.

Australian Made.

It was a big deal. It was all the biggest bands

going all around Australia playing to

big enthusiastic crowds.

I guess that was probably

the height of the Mentals' popularity.

Hello!

♪ If you smiled The walls would fall down ♪

♪ On all the people In this pickup joint ♪

♪ But if you laughed You'd level this town ♪

♪ Hey, lonely girl That's just the point ♪

People talk about selling out in a negative way,

but what's the alternative really?

You've got to try and cross over.

- What a scary concert, kids. - Are you scared, kids?

Mum's going to be really angry at me.

They made that leap, big budget recordings

and overseas record labels,

and all the agony that entails, they had to do it.

I've got a very scary announcement tonight.

And I'm not going to make it

until everybody's really quiet.

But, I do know record companies

don't like there to be more than one focus for a band,

they want there to be one.

Greedy felt the pressure

enormously after "Live It Up"...

How did he cope with it? Well, he just had to...

ah, and he did.

♪ Don't care what anybody says About you no ♪

♪ I'm gonna stick to you Like supaglue ♪

Richard Gottehrer came back out.

It was all drum machine, it was all bass sequencing,

I didn't even play on the album after that,

Mouth to Mouth, so I hated it.

♪ Let's go to paradise ♪

♪ Let's go to paradise ♪

♪ Let's go to paradise ♪

♪ They can go to hell ♪

It was a very different experience

for the band. Richard, had a different

way of working, but he delivered the hits.

The '80s were like that,

it was all about perfect timing,

do it to a click track...

and bands being told, commercial radio programmers

will know if the beat flags.

♪ Let's go to paradise ♪

♪ Let's go to paradise ♪

Some of the best records ever made have got

mistakes all over them, so imperfect,

but they're beautiful because of it...

which is the beauty of rock and roll.

What? What happened? We're losing the humanity.

♪ Don't you wonder 'bout The time that you spend ♪

♪ Wasting your own when you could... ♪

What's the difference between

a drum machine and a drummer?

You've only got to punch the information

into a drum machine once.

I thought I was trapped

in some sort of netherworld.

Thinking, why have we got to make records like this?

Jeremy, he was a good guy...

and he said, well, things have changed, you know...

and that's the thing, we were having our biggest success

commercially with that change.

That's when I felt at the lowest ebb,

was when we were seen to be our most successful.

♪ They can go to hell ♪

Bands are weird things 'cause nothing stays the same.

You think it's going to when you're a young man.

It's us against the world and all that stuff.

It really is quite special.

Eventually, things fracture and people's star rises

and another person's falls and another influence comes

into it and subverts the togetherness.

But everyone's incredibly wrapped up in the emotion

of it and the ego of it.

Nobody can agree on anything and you never decide anything...

to the point where you don't know how to proceed.

I think it's like that for all bands.

♪ Out of his cage ♪

♪ They let that demon ♪

We got a little bit sucked into

the corporate rock world,

which didn't suit some of us very well.

♪ Now he's taken us back ♪

Sometimes you try too hard.

It was about 1987 where Rolling Stone magazine

had Greedy and Martin on the front cover.

And that's where I felt, oh, this is wrong now.

Reg and Peter had written all these songs

and they'd only want to listen to Greedy or Martin's

they're waiting for the next "Live It Up".

They're so predictable record company people.

Well, they were in the '80s.

♪ Big things in life ♪

♪ Well, I've been shining Like a broken light ♪

♪ Ever since I left you ♪

♪ You've been crying Almost every night ♪

♪ Nobody there to turn to ♪

♪ The big things in life Seem smaller ♪

We'd been recording and touring constantly from 1979.

♪ I should pick up The telephone and call you ♪

♪ Whisper in your ear ♪

Yeah, they got a lot of oars in the water there

and the boat was often going circles and going backwards.

♪ The big things in life Seem smaller ♪

♪ The small things disappear ♪

Man, we are so grateful

to Greedy for writing that song...

because it's been really good for all of us.

♪ Well, I've been shining Like a broken light ♪

And we could play all sorts of stuff, you know?

♪ Talking too much And trying too hard ♪

We sort of lost our mojo.

♪ Shining like A broken light ♪

♪ Big things in life ♪

♪ Talking too much And trying too hard ♪

♪ Big things in life ♪

Greedy never really came up with another "Live It Up",

though some of his other songs, they were great songs.

♪ How does a man Get the love of a woman? ♪

♪ Or a woman of a man? ♪

Funnily enough, at the end of the '80s,

Greedy fell off a horse.

The horse was getting out of control

or galloping away, so he sort of jumped off it, I think.

♪ The world seems difficult To me ♪

♪ It's such a shame to see ♪

I think the horse must have felt his anxiety terribly.

It was a really bad, painful break.

Lots of things were going on at that time.

We were setting up tours and promoting the records.

He had a bad reaction to the anesthetic.

Headlines in the paper, "Star Nears Death".

So we couldn't do that tour.

When we signed with CBS/Sony,

they flew us in seaplanes up to a luxury restaurant

there was champagne flowing

and when they got tired of the band,

we didn't get a phone call.

We got a telex.

Just saying, "You're dropped".

How is Greedy's arm by the way?

Oh, he's still got a sore arm.

Can he play keyboards?

What, before or after this?

Peter was actually quite pleased.

Not that he fell off the horse,

but he was pleased that he could have a break.

It was the first time the band had had a break in ten years.

It sort of broke that spell of being

constantly on that treadmill, you know.

And then they'd started doing their own

independent projects.

I started painting. Bird went to university.

Martin tried his hand at a bit of funky dance music.

Greedy had a baby boy, Harvey.

And my brother got stuck into

doing a whole lot more artwork for Mambo.

This one, yeah, Wankerman.

That's an educational thing for young boys

to not excessively wank.

♪ A quiet guy ♪

It was going to grow into something

really big for him.

The thing is, I have no interest

in fashion whatsoever.

♪ But he had a good time ♪

People my age

just all grew up wearing my dad's clothes.

♪ A quiet guy Never had too much to say ♪

Everything was Mambo.

♪ He didn't keep up His appearance ♪

This time, Reg, a bridge too far.

This is the shirt and it does say opinion.

Reg would just turn up with these folders

and they had the most ludicrous things in there.

They were so funny and so extremely vulgar.

♪ "Look at him He's guilty as sin ♪

♪ Nobody knows what he's on ♪

It got so big, young people didn't like it anymore.

Reg still works non-stop.

Without doubt, one of the best-known

Australian visual artists of the century, let's face it.

Peter wanted to repair

some of the damage that had happened to the Mentals.

He felt that they became too commercial.

He felt undermined as a musician.

And that broke his heart.

He wanted to go back to the roots.

Back in the '70s, I was at school.

I used to go and see lots of bands

play at the Avalon Community Centre.

Shocking acoustics, sounding like this big cavernous

this sort of crappy sound. But it didn't matter

when you're 14, 15, 16, it's like, it's intense.

It's very easy for me to drift away from being

a diligent high school student to being a rat bag

- sort of nascent musician. - Easy trap to fall into.

Oh, big trap.

There's an imprint that happens around that age

where music really is very important to you.

That stuff keeps on coming out and percolating up,

you know, decades later.

He wanted them to go back to playing music

because you love music.

So in the mid-'90s, I was working at Triple J.

Alternative and grunge and Big Day Out

had become the mainstream.

All the '80s bands that I'd grown up with on Countdown

were considered old hat, they were considered daggy.

For those of you at home that might not know,

Mental As Anything,

they've been around for a long time.

And that doesn't mean they're like the Rolling Stones.

They can still put out a good song

and they've had a lot of hits.

We didn't have any record company anymore.

There wasn't any pressure

to come up with a hit record.

I think that was the best thing about it.

It was like we were starting again.

This is natural. It was totally spontaneous.

I don't think they expected the success

that they got with that record.

♪ I don't drink ♪

♪ I don't smoke ♪

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

becomes the Triple J album of the week.

And "Mr Natural". We were thrashing.

♪ And no coke ♪

And it does really well.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

♪ That's me ♪

They still remain a strangely unusual bunch of individuals.

Mental As Anything.

♪ You should be ♪

Mental As Anything.

♪ That I'm right ♪

We'd sort of gone back to where we started from.

♪ I don't give ♪

We had a bit of bile in the gut again.

♪ Uptight ♪

We were back to being a garage band.

♪ I am ♪

That's what the band was

and that's why we were good too.

That was a big pleasure of the last two records

was being able to do that.

They were really good years.

Giving them the record for having more

Top 40 hits than any other Australian band ever.

Do you think about that?

I consider it sometimes.

- Do you consider it? - Yeah, I don't actually

- Dwell on it. - Reg thinks about it a lot.

How many singles of yours

have featured in the Australian Top 40 charts?

- Reg? - Twenty two.

Yes, Reg!

You've got to be one of the best

loved bands in Australia.

Best loved bands in Australia.

Okay, well you're one

of the most reasonably liked bands.

- Thank you. - We're mildly well tolerated.

People hate you much less

than other bands.

My brother was threatening to leave

quite a few times and he never did of course.

It was only when I left that I think he thought,

"Oh bugger, I'm out of here".

At the end of 1999 when I stepped out of the band,

it was weird but it was good.

It was obviously a bit of a shock to Greedy and Martin

and Bird that we decided to do that.

But Peter left first and I stayed

while the new replacements were broken in.

Well, that sounds like a horse, doesn't it?

It's like being the stable at the record company.

The stable, yeah.

Twenty two years, it just becomes like a family.

When one decides to drop out of the family,

it was a bit shocking to them.

For Martin, being with Reg and Pete,

they were the best years of his career, you know.

It was fun.

After we left,

they kept going for another 18 years or something.

The first 20 years with Pete and Reg

were pretty constructive, I think.

♪ My spirit got lost Now something is missing ♪

You just kept going and going and going.

- How many shows have you done? - Close to 4,000.

♪ Too bony for kissing ♪

It was sort of a duty.

I continued, kind of because I had to...

pay the bills and all that.

And also out of loyalty to Greedy.

I kind of loved him.

A wonderful person.

He was a consummate professional

and I was just the reluctant one.

He loved it.

People ask, "What else did Andy do?"

I said nothing, he was in the Mental As Anything.

♪ My spirit got lost Now something is missing ♪

So he had an unalloyed joy in performing.

♪ My spirit got lost ♪

♪ And I'm just about To get lost, too ♪

And in terms of the songs...

he couldn't leave them behind.

It became less fun.

♪ Started out... ♪

Greedy just wanted to keep on going and going.

Somehow I managed to keep working.

Even though I got four episodes of cancer,

I sort of kept together.

Until Cairns.

They were playing in Cairns and he collapsed

in the bathroom and I just said, that's it.

You're not doing it anymore.

Greedy doesn't expect you to keep on going

when you're like this.

We do about 120 shows a year

and we're doing it now without Martin.

He's been fighting cancer for six years.

He's got a bit of a quality of life at the moment.

I said, "Martin, what about coming out and playing"?

He said, "Greedy, every time I come out with you to play,

I get another cancer".

This is sort of like him. I know, you know,

I said, "Oh, piker".

He always wanted Martin to be part of the band.

For years he would say, Martin's not very well.

We're looking forward to when he can come back again.

It was just relief, sheer relief.

He sees his oncologist every six months and thankfully

he's all clear.

I'm sort of glad it's over really.

I was never desperate to be famous.

It's very intrusive and exhausting being famous.

- Well done, Martin. - Congratulations, Martin.

- Good on ya. - Thanks, guys.

- Good man. - Thanks, guys.

- You're a good man. - Thanks, guys.

♪ Too many times Too many times ♪

I did a tour with Greedy.

He just carried on a conversation

that he'd stopped 30 years ago.

What happened to that plane you guys had?

The first thing to go.

♪ Too many times I've seen the sun come up ♪

He was the loveliest of men.

He ended up with Fiona,

who he'd known when he was a teenager.

It was great.

He was happy.

Why are you looking like one of the flying nuns?

Sister Patril.

He was happy that Fiona

accepted his love for the band.

I saw Mental As Anything on a Wednesday night,

pissing down with rain.

Greedy was the only original band member there.

The venue was packed out.

It was an hour and a half of solid hits.

It was fantastic and everybody loved it.

If someone else thinks you're not playing in,

rooms as big as you once did, that's too bad for them

because you might still just like the playing.

It's the one and only, Greedy Smith.

- Hi, Jane. - I can't believe

the Mentals, this year, have been together for 42 years.

It just creeps up on you, I think.

He kept the flame burning.

He said, "I'm going to die doing this

because I love it so much".

♪ Hey, yeah, you ♪

Mentals As Anything was his whole life.

Mr Greedy Smith. See you next week, Australia.

Boy, what a day that was.

The phone rang and it was Fiona and she said,

"Andy's had a heart attack".

"He's in hospital".

"I think he's going to make it".

We jumped in the car. We got another call.

"He's gone! He's gone!"

We've lost a great Australian entertainer,

musician, composer today

in the founder of band Mental As Anything,

Andrew "Greedy" Smith.

He died of a heart attack at just 63, in his car in Sydney.

He was due to play a gig

with the band in Melbourne tomorrow.

I heard it on the radio...

that Greedy had died. It was just...

I don't believe it. I just don't believe it.

Reg, our deep commiserations

The way he was on stage was the way he was off stage.

There was nothing fake about him.

He was a really decent, kind man.

I hope everyone remembers Greedy

with the fondness and the affection that he deserves.

It's never been that easy to be a human.

Life has always been, you know, hard and difficult.

The one thing that kind of leavens or alleviates

that is humour and absurdity.

In some ways, I should say, we were actually serious

about being unserious, 'cause we were.

Would you say there's one particular message

that you want people to hear from your music?

Yes, be kind to each other, be kind to other people.

He was a New Zealander.

- And you like Australia? - Yeah, I'm getting to like it.

What's your favourite thing about it?

My favourite thing? Oh, the...

- Say it's me. - Greedy Smith.

I have no knowledge about Scottish football.

Never really had any knowledge about any football, really.

When I heard that we were number one,

on the streaming charts,

I just thought, that can't be real.

How would that be possible?

An Australian classic has shot to number one in the UK charts

35 years, after it was released.

"Live It Up", by Mental As Anything,

has been adopted by the Scottish football club,

the Glasgow Rangers, as their unofficial anthem.

We looked it up and there was a stadium

full of Rangers fans all singing,

"Hey, yeah you with the sad face."

♪ Hey, yeah you With the sad face ♪

♪ Come up to my place And live it up ♪

They were using "Live It Up" as a weapon.

Greedy missed that by a year.

One year almost to the day after Greedy had passed.

- That's so random. - Got his number one...

from soccer fans in the old country.

There we are, top of the charts.

That's fantastic.

Now this next season,

Celtic are winning again, the Rangers are losing,

Celtic are taking it back again.

♪ Hey, yeah you With the sad face ♪

♪ Come up to my place And live it up ♪

It's hard to get your head around, you know.

"Live It Up", that's the one that sort of everybody...

sings back to you if you say

"Your dad was in Mental As Anything".

They are the band that said,

"Look at the joy in living, look at the joy in life."

I love that about them.

Mental As Anything, it makes people really happy.

And that is inspiring.

The music, it's just like the fabric of my brain.

Have you seen that?

Sidney, come and have a look at it.

They're showing their children, this is where

Martin Plaza from The Mentals wrote his song.

They're projecting my animation up onto the building

and we're about to play a set with Dog Trumpet.

I can't believe it.

I can't believe my luck that I was in the band.

Yeah, I didn't think that I would do that, but

being a lucky mug

I was in a band called Mental As Anything.

They really contributed to the identity

of what it felt like to be Australian.

Being artists, they realised that you just keep going.

We've actually been going longer

than Peter and I were in The Mentals for.

We were in The Mentals for about 23 years

and then Dog Trumpet's been going for about 33 years.

I don't know how that can really work...

because we're only in our forties.

We just did what came naturally, pretty much.

I'm really happy with what we achieved.

♪ On the battlefield Not as lovers ♪

We did some great records

and recorded some great songs and did some great shows,

I think, and we made people happy.

I'm proud of that. I'm glad we did it.

♪ Those Vikings love To fight and play ♪

♪ Fighting berserk warriors Hey hey! ♪

Not as well dressed as the band, are you?

♪ Those Vikings love To fight and play ♪

I'd like to thank everyone in the world

living and dead throughout history.

Every blade of grass,

- every tree. - Peter,

from Mental As Anything has had a go at your lawn.

What do you think of the job they've done?

Terrible. I could've done a better job myself.

- Come on, it's not that bad. - It's not very fair.

Every rock, every cloud formation,

every domestic electrical appliance

and every piece of heavy machinery...

Come on, Raylene.

for providing inspiration to artists.

What do you think? That looks very unsightly.

Rejoice.

Anyway, we've had enough of this.

- I'm going to go. - Yeah. You're going?

That's enough, yep.

- What am I doing? - I'm done.

- You can go too. - All right, see you later.

♪ Words were exchanged Last night ♪

♪ You could call it a fight ♪

♪ It's such a shame I never thought we would ♪

♪ Wouldn't be so bad ♪

♪ If it weren't so good ♪

♪ I've had enough of that ♪

♪ Other loves In days gone by ♪

♪ It wasn't much I know ♪

♪ Just enough Enough to make me cry ♪

♪ If you leave me Can I come too? ♪

♪ We can always stay ♪

♪ But if you leave me Can I come too? ♪

♪ And if you go ♪

♪ Can I come too? ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Can I come too? ♪

Goodnight, listeners.

- Behave yourselves. - ♪ Can I come too? ♪

Keep clean and be good.

♪ We were almost Creatures of leisure ♪

♪ Now we're playing For your listening pleasure ♪

♪ We try to make it Loud enough for you ♪

♪ Threads and licks and Jokes and pretty lights too ♪

♪ I asked for a job ♪

♪ But they said There was something wrong ♪

♪ "Get your Act together boys ♪

♪ Don't tune up between every song" ♪

♪ Be on time Don't talk too much on stage ♪

♪ Do as you're told If you want to earn a wage ♪

♪ Does it sound alright? Does it sound alright? ♪

♪ Does it sound alright At the front? ♪

♪ Hear it at the back? Can you hear it at the back? ♪

♪ Has the P.A. Got enough grunt? ♪

♪ We can be professional ♪

♪ But business And pleasure don't mix ♪