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Rudd, Wilson and Hannaford
then formed the more experimentally-oriented Sons of The
Vegetal Mother (1969-71), which was an occasional
event-based project rather than a full-time band. When
that band split, Rudd formed his own band, Spectrum.
This marked the beginning of his partnership with
bassist Bill Putt, formerly of Melbourne bands Gallery
and The Lost Souls; they formed a lasting friendship and
musical partnership, and have worked together ever
since. Organist Lee Neale came from pop band Nineteen
87, and drummer Mark Kennedy had already worked with
Putt in Gallery. Kennedy's considerable skill helped
carry the band through a difficult first year, during
which time the band honed their skills and found their
sound.
Initially, Spectrum drew on the work of contemporary
bands like Traffic, Soft Machine and Pink Floyd and they
played covers of music by these groups in the early
days, but they soon developed their own style. Alongside
Putt's solid bass playing and Neale's inventive keyboard
work, a key feature of Spectrum's sound was Rudd's
guitar playing -- he was one of the few rock guitar
players at that time who eschewed the near-universal use
of the guitar pick, preferring to play electric guitar
with a finger-picking style. Combined with contemporary
imrovements in amplification and recording, his playing
technique and his use of a vintage Fender Stratocaster
guitar allowed Rudd to develop a highly characteristic
sound.
Twelve months of performing allowed them to develop
their sound and write and refine a substantial set of
original material, which became the basis for their
first LP. They were regulars at the concerts events held
at the various "head" venues around Melbourne like the
T.F. Much Ballroom, Garrison and Sebastian's, and they
appeared with other leading progressive bands like
Tully, Tamam Shud and Sons Of The Vegetal Mother. |
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Rudd had conceived Spectrum
as a concert band, and they generally performed with an
elaborate concert set-up that included a large PA and a
full multi-media light show; at one stage the band also
supplemented their act with contributions from members
of the Melbourne performance troupe Tribe. They played
at all the major Australian rock festivals of the
period, including Wallacia, Myponga, Mulwalla, Rosebud
and Sunbury. However, their national success was limited
by a lack of radio airplay in other capitals, and the
fact that they rarely ventured outside Victoria,
visiting other cities only intermittently.
Just prior to being signed up by EMI, Spectrum cut a
demo single which they hawked around to record companies
as a 7" acetate. One side was an early, folky version of
one of the newer songs in their set, "I'll Be Gone"; the
flip was another original, "You Just Can't Win".
According to rock historian Ian McFarlane, these
acetates are now "impossibly rare" and only two or three
copies are known to have survived. |
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Once
signed to EMI, the band went into the studio to make
their first official recordings, under producer Howard
Gable, who had recently re-located from New Zealand and
had established himself as one Australia's leading
producers with his work for bands including The Masters
Apprentices.
Despite a loyal following and much praise from the music
press (notably Australia's pop 'bible' Go-Set) the band
were virtually broke by mid-1970, when a measure of
salvation came in the form of a contract with to the new
EMI progressive imprint Harvest. They were signed to a
recording contract and soon after they scored a surprise
#1 Australian hit with their first single, "I'll Be
Gone", which has become one of the most enduring
Australian rock songs of that era.
They released their debut LP Spectrum Part One in late
1970. Drummer Mark Kennedy left just after it was
recorded, and he was replaced by Ray Arnott. Kennedy
later worked with a number of important Australian acts
including Ayers Rock.
Spectrum's second album, released in early 1972, was an
ambitious 2LP set called Milesago, notable as the first
Australian rock double album, and is still regarded as a
landmark of Australian progressive music; it was also
the first Australian rock album to be recorded using the
newly-installed 16-track recorder at Amstrong's Studios
in Melbourne, the first studio in Australia to acquire
one of these machines.
Unfortunately for Spectrum, the nature of the Melbourne
music scene was undergoing a profound change at this
time. This was partly due to legislative changes to the
age of majority (which had been recently lowered in many
Australian states from 21 to 18) and to the licensing
laws governing entertainment in hotels in Victoria.
These legislative changes coincided with demographic
changes -- the young audiences who had patronized the
unlicensed dances and discos of the mid-to-late Sixties
were now ageing into their late teens and early
twenties, and could now be legally admitted into
licensed premises.
Seeing the popularity of rock music and realising the
financial potential, hoteliers wooed customers into the
pubs by putting on popular bands, often free of charge.
Consequently, while Spectrum worked to establish
themselves as a concert group, the focus was beginning
to shift away from the larger concert events and
unlicensed city discotheques frequented by 'head'
audiences -- whose main drug of choice was cannabis --
and towards the burgeoning pub circuit, where alcohol
was cheap, plentiful and, above all, legal. While the
smaller pub venues and their rowdy, combative atmosphere
suited more 'aggressive' bands like Billy Thorpe & the
Aztecs, the erosion of the concert scene posed a major
problem for Spectrum, whose complex music and upscale
presentation demanded a sizeable venue, a large
audience, and a reasonable degree of concentration from
them.
Consequently, as the pub circuit began to boom, the
bigger engagements that Spectrum needed to survive
became fewer and less regular. Spectrum adapted to the
changing situation in an unusual way -- they created an
alter ego for the group (Indelible Murtceps) which
performed at pubs, and local dances, playing a more
pop-oriented repertoire and using a smaller equipment
set-up than they used when performing as Spectrum.
Their next LP, Warts Up Your Nose (1972), was released
under the Indelible Murtceps banner ('murtceps' is
'spectrum' spelled backwards) and contained songs of a
more humourous and scatalogical nature. Lee Neale
suffered a breakdown and left the band soon after its
release, quitting the music scene permanently; he was
replaced by Canberra musician John Mills.
Spectrum's final studio LP was Testimonial (1973). Soon
after its release Spectrum announced their breakup, a
move prompted by the departure of drummer Ray Arnott;
Rudd and Putt reportedly felt that it would be
impossible to re-create the special feeling of the group
and wso decided to end the band. They played their
farewell performance at the Dallas Brooks Hall in
Melbourne on 15 April 1973, and the show was recorded
and subsequently released as the live LP Terminal Buzz
.
Following the demise of Spectrum, Rudd, Putt and Mills
joined forces with guitarist Tim Gaze and drummer Nigel
Macara, ex-members of leading Sydney 'underground' band
Tamam Shud, to form the group Ariel.
After Spectrum split in April 1973, Rudd and Putt formed
a new group, Ariel. Along with keyboard player John
Mills they joined forces with two leading Sydney
musicians, guitarist Tim Gaze and drummer Nigel Macara
from pioneering progressive band Tamam Shud. They
released one successful LP, A Strange Fantastic Dream,
in December 1973, but Gaze and Macara left the band soon
after it was recorded.
In early 1974 Rudd and Putt and began work on an
extended concept piece, The Jellabad Mutant, and began
rehearsing the music with drummer John Lee, ex-The
Dingoes. Lee then brought in a friend, lead guitarist
Harvey James, and this arrangement eventually coalesced
into the second lineup of Ariel. They recorded a
full-length demo tape of the planned LP, called The
Jellabad Mutant, and presented it to their record label
EMI, but to their surprise it was rejected.
However, by this time the band had gained some critical
praise in the United Kingdom, thanks in part to leading
disc jockey John Peel, and this led EMI's parent office
in London to invite the group to record their next album
at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios. However the
rejection of the Mutant album left the band with no new
material, and when they arrived in London they
discovered that EMI were expecting the lineup that had
recorded the first LP. Rudd hastily wrote a number of
new songs, but to complete the LP they were forced to
fall back on Rudd's back-catalogue, recording new
versions of several Spectrum/Murtceps songs. The
resulting album, Rock'n'Roll Scars, was mixed by famous
EMI recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked
with The Beatles
.
In January 1975 Ariel was expanded to a five-piece with
the addition of respected singer-songwriter-guitarist
Glyn Mason, who had previously been a member of the
pioneering Australian country-rock group Axiom. This
lineup recorded only one single and lasted until early
1976. lead guitarist Harvey James left to join
chart-topping Australian pop band [[Sherbet (Band)|Sherbet]
in March ( he was replaced by keyboardist Tony Slavich)
and drummer John Lee quit to join English band Dirty
Tricks during Ariel's second visit to the U.K. in April.
He was briefly replaced by Nigel Macara, who quit again
in October 1976 to be replaced by Iain McLennan.
Ariel continued to record and perform until July 1977,
when they announced their break-up; they performed their
farewell concert at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne
on 31 August 1977; the show was recorded a later
released on LP.
After Ariel, Mike Rudd moved into in promotion and
production for a time. He produced the debut album for
Newcastle bands Daniel and Jab and demos for Jane Conway
(ex-Melbourne band Stiletto).
Rudd and Putt later formed a succession of groups, in
the 1980s -- Mike Rudd's Instant Replay, Mike Rudd & The
Heaters (both also with Tony Slavich) and the more
electronically oriented W.H.Y. -- but none achieved the
same level of success as Spectrum or Ariel
.
Although Rudd was forced to withdraw from performing for
several years due to the illness and subsequent death of
his wife Helen, Mike and Bill have sustained an enduring
musical partnership, including reunions of Spectrum
during the '80s, and a duo album in 1996, Living On A
Volcano. A new 3-piece incarnation of Spectrum, with
drummer Peter Robertson, debuted in the late 1990s with
a CD Spectrum Plays The Blues, which took them back to
their musical roots. Ariel also reformed for occasional
gigs with varying lineups, including a final reunion of
the 'Mark II' lineup with Harvey James and John Lee,
which took place not long before Lee's untimely death in
July 1998.
Rudd, Putt and Robertson continue to perform and record
as Spectrum.
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