Sounds of then: Ganggajang to become SA Hall of Famers
On the eve of the band’s induction into the SA Music Hall of Fame, Nathan Davies spoke with Ganggajang’s Graham Bidstrup about the making of an Aussie classic, and their Adelaide links.
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Ganggajang’s Sounds of Then (This is Australia) is a bona fide Oz rock classic, an evocative staple of cross-country mix tapes and playlists for more than three decades.
It summons up images of sleepless nights in brick veneer homes on hot subtropical nights, and it’s the band’s best-known song.
What’s less well-known, however, is that Ganggajang is a band with deep Adelaide roots, with four of the original six members hailing from the City of Churches.
It’s a fact that’s finally about to receive some official recognition when the group is inducted into the AMC South Australian Music Hall of Fame next month.
“It’s really nice for the band, and especially for the members who came from Adelaide,” Ganggajang founding member Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup says.
The kernel of the idea that would eventually become Ganggajang was planted when Bidstrup, soon after leaving his role as drummer in The Angels, took on the job of producing Mark Callaghan’s garage-rock surf band The Riptides.
“I realised Mark had a prodigious writing talent after that,” Bidstrup says.
“Then I got a gig as the musical director for (ABC music-based drama series) Sweet and Sour in 1982, so I called up Mark and said, ‘let’s get together and see if you can write some songs for this show I’m working for’.”
At the time Bidstrup was playing a lot of tennis with his wife Kay and fellow Adelaidean, former Angels bandmate and good friend Chris Bailey, so Callaghan was brought into the fold to create two doubles teams.
“The four of us would play tennis and then go home and write a song for the show,” Bidstrup says.
“Eventually Mark said, ‘so, are we starting a band or what?’.”
So form a band they did, recruiting two more South Aussies in Geoffrey Stapleton and Robbie James.
James came armed with some ideas for an arrangement of Callaghan’s Sounds of Then, which began life as a poem, and it was immediately obvious that they had a hit song on their hands.
“Robbie had just come back from England and he walked in and said, ‘I have an idea for that song This Is Australia and he goes (Bidstrup hums the opening keyboard riff) and we were like ‘wow!’. That was how it all came together.”
And while the song is as Australian as a Vegemite sandwich, at its core is the sense of dislocation and wonder felt by an immigrant boy trying to adjust to a new life on the other side of the world.
“It’s this story of this British kid being transplanted to Bundaberg, Queensland, and he and his family would sit on the patio of their brick veneer home and watch the lightning crack over cane fields,” Bidstrup says.
“It’s a very cool piece of Australian art, and I’m really proud that you can listen to that song and it hasn’t dated at all — it could have been made yesterday.”
The song, and many others from the band’s debut record, found its way into the soundtrack for the cult 80s surf movie Mad Wax, bringing in a new legion of fans and making Ganggajang stars in, of all place, Brazil. It was all thanks to an influential DJ with a love of Aussie tunes.
“He had a radio show on Radio Transamerica, which was a very big deal, and he would play ‘Aussie surf music’ to promote the surf contests he ran,” Bidstrup says.
“So he was playing Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, Spy v Spy and Ganggajang. Spy v Spy did a trip over there, came back and said, ‘this is incredible, you wouldn’t believe what’s going on over there, they love all of our music!
“So we booked a tour and we’re driving into Rio and we see this huge billboard with Ganggajang on it and we’re thinking, ‘Man, this guy is going to lose his shirt!’. Then we get to the gig and I see it’s a ten thousand seater!”
The DJ took the band out for dinner, and they spent most of it thinking they’d never be invited back to Brazil again.
But despite Ganggajang’s misgivings, they easily filled the 10,000-seat venue. Not only that but the crowd knew all of the lyrics.
November 15’s Hall of Fame induction performance will be a bittersweet affair, with Bailey passing from cancer in 2013.
He left behind his wife, Josie, and their young son Ollie, both of whom will be involved in the induction show.
A tribute concert at the Thebarton Theatre after Bailey’s death attracted a who’s who of Australian rock, including Jimmy Banes, Ian Moss and The Angels’ Brewster brothers, demonstrating how loved and respected he was as both a musician and a person.
“The guy was an incredibly talent bloke and a wonderful person, a special guy,” Bidstrup said.
“Ollie was only three when he died. Ollie often plays ukulele with us these days, so he’ll be there on the night to play.”
Ganggajang’s induction to the AMC SA Music Hall of Fame will take place on November 15 at the Prospect Town Hall. Book at Oztix