Australia's pioneers of punk

"This is punk rock as it should be. They were a band that were doing it for the right reasons." We look back at the subversive, groundbreaking legacy of The Saints. Australia's first punk band. 

Chris Bailey with the Saints, circa 1978 (Gus Stewart/Getty Images)

"They beat the Sex Pistols to it." 

Vale Chris Bailey, the founding singer and songwriter behind Australian punk pioneers The Saints, who passed away on April 9, 2022. He was 65. 

“Chris lived a life of poetry and music and stranded on a Saturday night,” a statement on The Saints’ social media read. 

Bailey was born in Kenya to Irish parents and later emigrated from Belfast to Brisbane as a child. He formed Kid Galahad and The Eternals in 1973 with guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Kay.  A year later, the band renamed themselves The Saints and released their seminal debut album (I’m) Stranded in 1977.

In a one-two punch, they followed it up with their 1978 masterpiece Eternally Yours. These two records set the scene for punk in Australia. 

The Saints were sonic risk-takers. A mean mishmash of influence, who took cues from the 1950s rock’n’roll of Little Richard and Elvis, the raucous 1960s proto-punk of The Stooges and MC5, and the off-kilter arrangements of R&B.

The Saints were so influential that late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence credited their debut single as the catalyst for the Sex Pistols’ sound.

“The reasons The Sex Pistols got signed so quickly was because they got this little single from Australia with (I’m) Stranded on it, and (Malcolm) McClaren did his number on it,”  Hutchence said in a promotional video for the re-release of the track.

The sentiment was echoed by The Jesus And Mary Chain frontman Jim Reid, “This record came out in 1976, they beat the Pistols to it.” 

"This is punk rock as it should be. They were a band that were doing it for the right reasons.”

Bailey was the only long-standing member of The Saints rotating lineup, releasing 14 studio albums  during his indefatigable 50-year tenure the last being 2012’s King Of The Sun. 

He was an outsider in the truest sense who refused to play by the industry’s rule book. “There’s a lot to say for being a rat bag on the outskirts of show business because show business has always sucked and always will. I’m kind of happy being in the prairie on the outside, goddamnit,” Bailey said in a 2013 interview.

We reflect on the hugely influential legacy of The Saints, a trailblazing act that changed the course of Australian music with their snot-nosed, snarly and fiercely intelligent punk.

‘Know Your Product’, 1978

Cheap advertising, you’re lying/

Never gonna get me what I want/

I said, smooth talking, brain washing/

Ain’t never gonna get me what I need

One of the most crucial songs in the Australian punk canon. The disorientating Eternally Yours opener welded together a boisterous brass section with filthy, growling punk.

‘(I’m) Stranded’, 1976

Nearly 50 years since its release, The Saints’ debut single remains a sturdy composition. 

(I’m) Stranded was the first independent Australian single ever. The band recorded the track, with B-side No Time, and pressed 500 copies. An inconceivable move in the record company-dominated era, and one that would inspire so many bands to follow suit. 

“The single had a massive impact on me back in the late ’70s. It seemed to give a generation a licence to be what we wanted to be,” Nick Cave said. “It gave us a soundtrack to our lives.”

‘This Perfect Day’, 1977

This Perfect Day embodies The Saints' transgressive spirit.

The band were living in the UK and signed to EMI at the time. With their second album, they were bogged down with the expectation of being punk pioneers - which they flipped off by exploring their love of R&B, much to the chagrin of music critics and label heads. 

This Perfect Day was the band’s highest-charting UK single, peaking at 34.  It’s a song that has remained richly entrenched in the DNA of Australian punk. In 2020, current punk supremes Amyl And The Sniffers and Tropical F*ck Storm paid tribute to the band with their own take on the classic.

'Just Like Fire Would', 1983

A testament to the band’s ever-evolving depth and duality. Ten years after bursting through the barracks with their gnarled punk, The Saints returned with Just Like Fire Would, a sweet, longing acoustic track that predicted the sound of Crowded House two years before they existed.

Bruce Springsteen covered the track during the opening show of the Australian leg of his 2013 Wrecking Ball Tour. He would go on to release a studio version of the song on his 2014 album, High Hopes. Who dares argue with a stamp of approval from The Boss?