THE MOODS
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THE MOODS |
From
the tender age of just twelve years, Richmond schoolboy John Livi (born,
1951) had played guitar in bands. And
like most aspiring axemen of his generation, he spent countless hours
cross-legged beside the family’s radiogram, carefully picking out the
notes to Apache, F.B.I. and a host of other Shadows
classics — until one day, when sitting in the back seat of his father’s
Holden, he heard I Want To Hold
Your Hand by a new group called The Beatles.
This totally transformed the young guitar prodigy and a year or
so later — when John’s older brother Bernie introduced him to a bunch
of shaggy-haired musician friends also keen on getting in on the Beatles
kick — the future had arrived. |
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Rhythm guitarist Mick Hamilton (born 1946);
vocalist Kevin Fraser (born 1947); bassist Peter Noss (born 1948) and
drummer Carl Savona (born 1949) had been mucking around in a casual little
pop combo called The Moods for a short time — but with the recent acquisition
of a manager named Peter Raphael, the boys were ready to take it a little
more seriously. And despite his
considerable youth, John Livi became the Moods’ new lead guitarist. The
young group began to play live at many of the new “Mod” venues which had
sprung up in Melbourne during 1965. And
although the transition from garage band to semi-professional working
unit was easy enough for most of the guys to handle, it was not so simple
for the 14-year-old John Livi. The
length of his hair was already an issue at school; sure enough, his principal
gave him the old “get your hair cut or else…” spiel — so John Livi left
High School and took up a business course by day whilst playing with The
Moods at night. Although
the band only played covers during their live shows, John Livi was busy
penning a bunch of his own tunes. And
in late-1965, when Peter Raphael scored the band a surprise record deal
with the HMV label, four John Livi originals — Cos
Of You, Say Hello To Me, Rum Drunk and I
Love You So — were recorded for future release.
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February 1966 was a revolutionary time for
Melbourne. Firstly, the archaic
6pm closing time for bars was finally repealed; then on Valentine’s Day,
the old British monetary system of Pounds Shillings & Pence was usurped
in favour of decimalisation. But for Melbourne pop fans, the most important event that occurred
in February ‘66 was the launching of a brand-new music paper called Go-Set.
This was particularly pertinent to the Moods, because their manager
Peter Raphael just happened to be the head of Go-Set’s advertising department.
Raphael wasted no time in publicising his young charges. And through his clout with the newspaper, he
managed to secure the Moods a spot on the bill with touring UK superstars
The Rolling Stones and Searchers. In
the meantime, a suspiciously generous amount of advertising and column
space seemed to be devoted to the band each week.
As early as in issue #3, there was a gushing letter from ‘Sue Bryant
of Dixon’s Creek’ congratulating the Moods on getting on the Rolling Stones
tour before suggesting that Go-Set
should run a dossier on the group. Well
just one week later, Go-Set
ran a full two-page pictorial spread on the Moods.
Then only one week after that, the band’s debut single ‘Cos Of You was voted as “Australian Pick
Of The Week” (“I don’t try and kid myself that it was an objective review”-
John Livi) by the magazine’s pop review panel. Despite such an obvious managerial push, there
was some genuine talent at work within the Moods. Particularly in regards to their startlingly
gifted lead guitarist. ‘Cos Of You b/w Say Hello To Me was released on the 24th of February 1966 in order
to coincide with the aforementioned Rolling Stones tour. An R&B thumper reminiscent of early Kinks,
‘Cos Of You contains some spluttery
Chuck Berry lead guitar-work and a tremendous loping bass sound. The B-side Say Hello To Me is by contrast, a melodic country-flavoured song in
2/4 time, featuring a heavily-reverbed lead vocal, some insistent jangly
picking by Livi, masterful bass work by Peter Noss and a series of mighty
tremolo guitar-stabs courtesy of Mick Hamilton. John Livi’s lyrics are your typical bluesy teenage angst, but the
relaxed tempo and understated feel of the song makes it absolutely work. Say Hello To Me is my favourite Moods song. According
to John Livi, ‘Cos Of You did
make as high as #39 on one particular Melbourne chart but it failed to
make a major impression sales wise — even despite the efforts of influential
3UZ radio DJ, Stan Rofe. |
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“Who will
wear the Easybeats crown when they finally leave Australia? The Throb, The Moods, the Purple Hearts or
the Twilights. If I had anything
to do with it, I wouldn’t change my Moods.” Stan
Rofe, Go-Set, 29/6/1966
The Moods played live almost nightly in Melbourne.
As well as that, they toured Adelaide and even got to appear on
the ‘Go’, ‘Kommotion’ and ‘Saturday Date’ TV shows.
However bass player Peter Noss soon left the band, and he was replaced
by Ian Ferguson from local group Tony and the Shantells.
In June 1966, the two remaining tracks that the Moods had recorded
were released on a second and final HMV single.
The June 29 issue of Go-Set gave the A-side, Rum Drunk a B rating
(Good) — stating: “Add the coke and we’ll join you.” Rum Drunk contains a deceptively intricate main 12-string-guitar figure — prompting the anonymous author of the liner notes to the Pretty Ugly compilation CD to note that: “15-year-old guitarist John Livi was surely on a par with James Patrick Page.” Contemporaries of the Moods were also struck by Livi’s musical prowess, not least of whom being Australia’s premier guitar-hero, Lobby Loyde. |
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“They [The
Moods] have a very original style and a very good lead guitarist, especially
at 15. All they need is the right
song to be one of the big names in Australia.” Lobby Loyde of the Purple
Hearts in conversation with Lily Brett, Go-Set,
14/9/1966.
An angst-ridden masterpiece, rife with self-loathing
and teenage alcoholism, Rum Drunk,
with its choppy rhythms and strange muted production has made it a cult
garage classic over the years.
I’m a boy, boy and I’m blue, I’ve got no one, no one ‘cept you I was brought up, brought up in the slums But now I’ve come back with nothing but rum
Got no money to pay my rent Haven’t got not one whole cent My only hope is to get on the run And bring with me My little bottle of rum
Although people pass me by And when they say I’m no good, It’s no lie And though I might just lay down, Lay down gonna die My precious little bottle of rum never passes me by…
I’m a boy who’s down on my luck Haven’t got one whole buck My only hope is to get on the run And bring with me my little bottle of rum Rum Drunk (J.Livi), © Castle Music, 1966. |
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A compulsory inclusion within any retro-garage
punk band’s set-list, Rum Drunk
was covered by US band The Cheater Slicks for their 1991 Destination Lonely CD release. Despite
the failure of the two singles, the Moods still enjoyed their fair share
of publicity in the pages of Go-Set. In early September, the guys became clothes-horses;
modelling the new range of Myer department store’s “Carnaby Street” gear.
“Kevin looks terribly lead-singerish in his pale blue
denim three buttoned jacket with beaut button-down pockets. His pants have one grey leg and one brown and
black checked leg.” Go Set, 1966.
The band played a series of morning gigs
at Myer’s In-Gear clothes shop and later toured Tasmania for a series
of gigs/ fashion parade appearances down there.
But despite such enthusiastic acclaim even from so far away, founding
member Mick Hamilton decided to leave the group in November, 1966. Hamilton briefly popped up in Adelaide band
The Harts before moving on to join a highly successful soul/R&B outfit
called The Vibrants. In later
years, Mick Hamilton became a session man, travelling extensively throughout
the world (60 countries at last count!).
In the early 1970s he turned up in a manufactured British pop act
called Springfield Revival, and in August 2000 he finally released his
first solo LP, a country-folk-tinged record entitled Alone
At Last. Hamilton’s
replacement was a guitarist by the name of Paul Anderson. But the failure of the two singles had caused
the Moods to be dropped by HMV, so it was back to the old circuit of Melbourne
discothčques, playing nothing but covers. Manager
Peter Raphael meanwhile was enjoying a fair degree of success with his
other acquisition The Groop, and at the beginning of 1967 John Livi decided
to quit the Moods and go back to school — a move which basically ended
the band. Despite his prodigious talent as a guitarist,
Livi never went on to do anything substantial musically again. Bassist Ian Ferguson went on to join Adelaide
group Y?4; drummer Carl Savona joined a band called the Brigade, who released
a couple of singles on the Astor label over 1967-68, and Paul Anderson
joined a cabaret outfit called The City Stompers who also recorded for
Astor. The most passionate and knowledgeable Australian
60s historian of them all, the late Dean Mittelhauser, considered the
Moods — along with bands such as Running Jumping Standing Still and Steve
& the Board — to be representative of the “2nd Division” of Australian
60s Punk. Having said that, I
will let Mr Mittelhauser have the final word on the band.
The Moods are one of my favourite Australian bands of
the 60s, so please forgive me if my enthusiasm for their two magic 45s
shines through just a little too much.
On the credit side they were young, good looking, had a strong
songwriter who wrote melodic, moody songs, got great coverage in the music
rags and even supported the Stones on their ‘66 tour.
On the debit side: they didn’t make it... a real shame. Dean Mittelhauser, From The Vault, Vol 1. No. 1, 1987. |
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Recommended
Listening. Tracks by The Moods can be hard to come by,
but the bootleg Pretty Ugly
compilation CD features Rum Drunk
whilst its companion compilation Devil’s
Children #2 contains ‘Cos Of
You. |
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All Photographs from the collection of Mood's member Mick Hamilton reproduced with permission. |
