music

:: sister sludge

When I was 18 I moved to Adelaide to get away from the Sydney scene for a while. I met Wendy one night at the old Union Hotel. I noticed this glamourous girl in a blue kaftan and beehive black hair staring at me - I fell in love, I knew we were destined to be together! (Wendy is still one of my best friends to this day, though she is no longer in bands, she works as a glass blower and artist).

I had just taught myself to play guitar and I encouraged her to go and buy a bass and then I taught her a few little things and we started writing songs together. There were very few female musos on the pub/rock scene then, but we never felt intimidated, we were having too much fun! We roped my boyfriend, Jim, into playing lead guitar and Wendy's friends, Roger and Kingsley, on drums and guitar respectively. We all swapped instruments when we felt like it and Wendy and I shared vocals.

Wendy and I would drink whole bottles of Tia Maria and Baileys before we went on stage to get our nerves up ....so many nights I would have to run off to the side nearly throwing up after jumping around with all that rich alcohol in my stomach! (The dumb things you do when you're young - I should have been drinking something less creamy like vodka!)

In addition to our own songs like "Panadol Junkie", "Zombie Stomp", "Gravy Booby" and "Leroy", we did covers of Bauhaus's "Third Son" and the Doors' "Five to One" and a song by the Troggs called "Come Now".

We were trashy and called ourselves 'grunge' before that word became synonymous with flannel shirts, sweaty boys and long hair. Wendy and I would dress up in torn corsets and fishnets and ripped t-shirts and not wash our hair for months just letting layers and layers of hairspray and gel build our hair up into giant teased creations. We were inspired by bands around us like Salamander Jim (featuring a young Tex Perkins), Zulu Rattle, the Scientists and Grong Grong. We lasted for about six months together in Adelaide before Wendy and I wanted to take the band to Sydney. We did our last two shows at Lark and Tina's supporting the Johnnies and those gigs were mental!

Once we'd moved to Sydney Sister Sludge was sadly no more - Roger and Kingsley couldn't come up and Jim and I broke up. So Wendy joined a cool band called the Space Juniors (founder Mick Roth is now based in New York and I saw him and the new lineup of the Space Juniors perform at CBGB's a few years ago and they rocked - in a very bent way!). I formed the Mothers.

related info

sister sludge
the mothers
def fx

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