The Black Diamonds, 1967

Hailing from the coal mining town of Lithgow in the Blue Mountains district of New South Wales (approximately 145 kms west of Sydney) The Black Diamonds were one of the most enduring Australian Rock & Roll bands of their era.  When you include their later incarnation as Tymepiece, the group managed to have a foot in three decades — the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.  But criminally, during their tenure as the Black Diamonds they only got to release two singles — a little over ten minutes running time for nearly a decade of slog.  (And this was a band who could boast of being able to play for 48 hours straight without repeating a song!)  Still, what the Black Diamonds’ discography lacks in weight it more than makes up for in class.  From the lush, dynamic power-pop of Not This Time and See The Way to the dreamy Outside Looking In — every track that the Black Diamonds released was a gem.  Though for punk fans of course, it is their first B-side — the seething fuzz masterpiece I Want, Need, Love You — for which the Black Diamonds will always be remembered.  And why not?  I Want, Need, Love You is pretty much as good as it gets.

     Like all bands of their era, the Black Diamonds constantly adjusted their style in order to accommodate an ever-changing musical climate.  And they must have done a good job of it, because over the next few years, Johnny Kett’s Black Diamonds earned a regular stream of live work; not just in Lithgow, but in the adjacent regional towns of Orange, Bathurst, Katoomba and Penrith.  However as time went on, Johnny Kett‘s position as the group’s leader became increasingly tentative. Lead guitarist and occasional vocalist Alan Oloman gradually seized the reins both musically and managerially, and by 1965 Johnny Kett had quit (he was newly married and ready to start keeping normal hours anyway).  Kett was replaced by a brilliant local drummer named Colin McAuley.

      In the wake of Beatlemania, popular emphasis began to shift away from instrumentals, so the Black Diamonds enlisted a local blues-aficionado named Glenn Christopher Bland to step in as frontman.With the dynamic Glenn Bland in the group, Alan Oloman was now able to concentrate more on his lead guitar-work, which was becoming increasingly distinctive and inventive.The Black Diamonds were now the number one group in the Blue Mountains area, sharing the bill with all major touring acts of the era — most notably the Easybeats who dubbed the Black Diamonds the “best support band ever!”  By 1966, the Black Diamonds were ready to take the next step.  A recording deal.

“We  did some tapes at the Orange radio station (2GZ).  A friend of ours, Bob Jolly, helped us and then he sent them off to Festival and a couple of other companies.”

Alan Oloman in conversation with Dean Mittelhauser, Livin’ End #5, 1986.

The first Black Diamonds demo tape consisted of covers, including It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.  But it was an Alan S. Oloman original entitled See The Way which caught the ear of Festival kingpin Pat Aulton.

      The band’s surf instrumental background is clearly evident in See The Way — particularly in the tremolo-heavy intro and the descending signature riff [G-F#-D-B-A].  Oloman’s liberal use of fluttery tape-delay is also very surf, though at the same time stylishly futuristic (his playing in the middle-8 section predates some of The Edge’s work with U2!) — this was achieved by the guitarist feeding his Gibson Firebird through a Klempt Echolette delay unit with the input line running nicely into the red — but it’s Colin McAuley’s thundering Keith Moon-style drumming that really drives the song.  As good as See The Way is however, it is positively ripped to pieces by its B-side. 

“It was just a riff that we used to close off our sets, before taking a break.  Anyway, Pat Aulton heard me fiddling around in the studio, you know mucking around with that riff.  He liked it and suggested that we do a song based around it.”

Alan Oloman, Livin’ End #5, 1986.

The riff that Alan Oloman was talking about became the speaker-cone-shredding I Want, Need, Love You.  Beginning with a simple guitar part [B-D-E-F#-E — then low ‘E’ with tremolo] followed by bass and then drums I Want, Need, Love You immediately asserts its presence with all the subtlety of a chainsaw ripping through an antique mahogany dressing table.  The menace of the guitar’s main line is equalled by Colin McAuley’s watertight syncopated drumming and Glenn Bland’s highly-charged vocals. The dazzling middle-section with its jungle rhythm, walking bass and raga-like fuzz guitar is extremely advanced for late-1966 — before the final echoey meltdown finishes the song off just perfectly. 

      The single bypassed the public when it was released in November ‘66 though — due no doubt to the band’s geographic isolation. Go-Set magazine’s “Pop-Disc-Review” gave See The Way a score of ‘C’ (mediocre) and pronounced: “Leaves us in the dark.” But the record did sell well locally, making at least #15 on the 2BS radio chart in Bathurst.

      In December 1966, the Black Diamonds appeared on the quirky ABC-TV variety show ‘Be Our Guest’ performing both See The Way and I Want, Need, Love You on a beach of all places. “They had this big monitor mike standing next to us and the waves were crashing over our instruments” remembers Alan Oloman. The group also appeared on the popular ‘Saturday Date’ program and performed some live engagements in Sydney. 

      Occasionally things got a bit hairy, as vocalist Glenn Bland recounted years later — however the band’s rural background did come in handy.

“On one occasion we did a show at a civic centre in St Marys, a western suburb of Sydney, where a gang of hoods turned up.  They didn’t like us or our long hair and fancy clothes, so they hung around outside until the show finished and the security had gone home, and yelled from outside the hall for us to come out so they could give us a beating.  Neil (rhythm guitar) got fed up with this, and walked through the middle of the mob to his car and opened the trunk, whereupon he produced a .303 rifle which had been left there from a hunting expedition he had made a few days earlier.  The hoods quickly scattered.”

Glenn Bland, Hot Generation CD liner notes, 2003.

A second Black Diamonds single was released in March 1967.  Producer Pat Aulton had chosen a cover of the J. J Cale song — Outside Lookin’ In — as an A-side; whilst the Alan Oloman, Glenn Bland and Alan Keogh original Not This Time graced the flip. 

      Outside Lookin’ In is a mellow, hypnotic little number with acoustic guitars and subtle harmonies prevailing throughout.  In fact, one could easily mistake it for being the Masters Apprentices — Glenn Bland’s vocal phrasing sounds uncannily like Jim Keays, and the song’s lilting feel recalls some of the Masters’ psychedelic-pop moments such as Living In A Child’s Dream and Theme For A Social Climber. However, Outside Lookin’ In was released before the Masters did any of that stuff, so any similarities could only be coincidental.  Alan Oloman wasn’t particularly taken with the choice of Outside Lookin’ In as a single anyway — he considered the recording somewhat wishy-washy. And perhaps he was right, because on the other side the fiery, Who-like Not This Time saw the band in absolutely red-hot form. Dominated by Alan Oloman’s masterful 12-string guitar work, Banzai Keogh’s rock solid bass and a luxuriant wash of multi-layered harmonies all round, Not This Time is one of the finest examples of Australian 60s power-pop. And with it, Alan Oloman confirmed himself as a pop guitarist almost without peer. 

      As with See The Way, the Black Diamonds’ second single barely sold beyond their immediate live periphery. A particularly damning review in Go-Set slammed Outside Lookin’ In — perhaps Pat Aulton should have considered Not This Time as the A-side after all. According to Alan Oloman a highly-distorted version of the Who’s Boris The Spider was recorded, but after the non-showing of the group’s first two 45s, Festival were in no particular hurry to rush out a third record.

      Toward the end of 1967, the Black Diamonds decided to make the big move to Sydney. Newly-wed rhythm guitarist Neil Oloman was uncertain however. He opted to stay behind in Lithgow and his place in the group was filled, not by another guitar player, but by a keyboardist, Brian “Felix” Wilkinson. 

     The Sydney shift proved to be a fruitful one for the Black Diamonds. The band’s fine musicianship and extensive live repertoire earned them residencies at the prestigious “Caesar’s Place” and “Hawaiian Eye” discotheques, although pressure from the record company’s A&R department prompted a name change.

“That was mainly Pat Aulton’s idea.  He thought that the Black Diamonds sounded corny and old hat.  We were just country lads and he was a big man to us, ‘cos he he’d produced so many big hits.  So we listened to him.  I wouldn’t do it now...in retrospect, I think it was the wrong decision.”

Alan Oloman, Livin’ End #5, 1986.

On January 1st, 1968 the Black Diamonds became Tymepiece. Festival renewed the record contract and another phase in the group’s history began.  In August, the band appeared on two simultaneous singles. As Tymepiece, they issued Bird in the Tree and Pat Aulton also set them up to record a version of The Tokens’ old standard The Lion Sleeps Tonight as a studio band called Love Machine. The Lion Sleeps Tonight was a national top-20 (#18) hit — and its B-side, the eccentric The Lonely Hearts Club Christmas Club Party has become something of a cult-track, thanks to its inclusion on the Ugly Things #4 LP.

       In 1971, Tymepiece went on to record an acclaimed album entitled Sweet Release which contained tracks that range from prog-blues and psychedelia, to R&B and country. Tymepiece broke up later that same year.

Recommended Listening:

I Want, Need, Love You can be heard on the Ugly Things (Raven) compilation CD whilst See The Way and Not This Time can be found on the Hot Generation (Big Beat) compilation CD.

Picture Credits:
Photograph taken from Livin' End. Reproduced with permission.