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The Aliens |
1978 - 1981 |
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L-R : Greg Webster, Rob Grosser , Danny Johnson, Geoffrey Stapleton. |
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Danny Johnson and Geoffrey Stapleton moved from Adelaide to Melbourne, Australia on the 13th of February 1978. On the 14th of April 1978 they decided to put a band together to play the "power pop " songs they were writing. That band would become THE ALIENS. To see THE ALIENS perform CONFRONTATON on "Countdown" click here. |
There were various versions of THE ALIENS before and after, but the classic and definitive line up consisted of... DANNY JOHNSON - lead vocal and bass GREG WEBSTER - lead guitar and vocal GEOFFREY STAPLETON - guitar and vocal ROB GROSSER - drums
They played their first show with this line-up on .. Tuesday 23rd of January 1979 at Marijuana House- Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. and played their last show on ... Tuesday 20th May 1980 at The Canberra Theatre - Canberra, ACT, Australia. In that brief sixteen month period they played 356 shows around Australia. |
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Kez Hood was their manager and with Premier Artists as their agent, they began playing around Melbourne at places like Martinis, Hearts, Bananas, The Tiger Lounge, The Station,The Crystal Ballroom and Bombay Rock. Their first of many Sydney shows was at the Sydney Cove Tavern on Tuesday 27th of February 1979. They'd played in Adelaide at the Arkaba Hotel on Sunday 25th, and drove to Sydney via Melbourne in an old broken down Valliant. It was the first of many hell rides up and down the Hume Highway. In Sydney they played places like The Bondi Lifesaver, The Civic Hotel, Stage Door Tavern, Comb n' Cutter, Manly Flix, French's Wine Bar, Chequers and The Royal Antler.
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cover design: John Ladyman
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By May 1979 the "full house" signs were going up all over the inner city venues of Melbourne. They were also being courted by a number of major record companies but eventually signed to Mushroom Records on Wednesday 20th June 1979. They sold their publishing for a dollar! They recorded their first single, A-side CONFRONTATION, B-side BOYS IN BLACK, with Charles Fisher producing and Steve Bywaters engineering. It was recorded between Saturday August 11 and Monday August 13th 1979, at Trafalgar Studios,Sydney, Australia, during a national tour with the band The Sports.
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Rob Grosser, Geoffrey Stapleton, Danny Johnson, Greg Webster The band played hundreds of live shows around Australia in 1979, sometimes two or even three shows a day. |
The album,TRANSLATOR, was recorded at The Music Farm, northern N.S.W Australia, between Saturday 24th of November and Sunday 9th December. It was produced and engineered by the young Englishman, David Tickle. The band performed on TV shows like Countdown, Nightmoves, Sounds Unlimited, and Hey, Hey It's Saturday. In January 1980 the band toured nationally with (U.K.) Squeeze and in March toured with The Police. |
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cover design: John Ladyman |
Melbourne and Brisbane were the best markets for the band, while Sydney remained elusive. The second single, A-side FOLLOW THAT GIRL B-side THE HYDING OF DR JECKYL, was released on Monday 25th February 1980. Ironically, FOLLOW THAT GIRL was charting at number 4 in Canberra in May 1980 and they'd just played to a packed house at the Canberra Theatre when Greg had had enough.He left the band and drove back to Melbourne in a hire car. The up coming Gary Numan supports were cancelled, and so ended the golden age of THE ALIENS. |
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From 21st May until 4th September 1980, the band continiued as a three piece, working in a whole new repetoire and sound, which included more keyboards from Geoffrey Stapleton. On September 5th 1980, Randy Bulpin joined the band on lead guitar. He finished up on the 25th of October 1980 when the band made the decision to relocate to Sydney. Pierre Baroni joined the band on the day they left Melbourne for Sydney on October 28th. Pierre was recruited for his voice and songwriting ability, as well as his guitar arrangements. On 27th of November 1980, Rob Grosser left the band, three days after the band shaved off their eyebrows and died their hair white!
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TRANSLATOR cover design: John Ladyman
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cover design: Pierre Baroni L-R Greg Trennery, Geoffrey Stapleton, Malcolm Fogg, Pierre Baroni. |
He was replaced by Alex Bash on drums in December 1980, followed by months of rehearsal in a concrete bunker in Darlinghurst Sydney. On Friday 6th March 1981, Danny Johnson left the band.This left Geoffrey Stapleton as the only original member left. Greg Trennery joined the band on bass on 31st March 1981.The new line up did a tour of Melbourne from the 9th - 20th April and 29th April - 3 May 1981. Recording of a new single began on 23rd May at EMI Studios 301. It was A-side I DON'T CARE (with Geoffrey Stapleton on lead vocal) and B-side OVER MY HEAD ( Pierre Baroni on lead vocal) eventually to be released on their own label PLANET X RECORDS through EMI.It wouldn't be released until the 1st December 1981. On May 29th, Alex Bash left the band to be replaced by Malcolm Fogg on June 3rd. They toured Melbourne from 23rd October - 25th October and 3rd November 7th November 1981. Alex Bash re-replaced Malcolm Fogg for the last of THE ALIENS gigs ever. It was on the television show COUNTDOWN on 11th December 1981 performing I DON'T CARE. |
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Pre History: Before the classic THE ALIENS line up was established, there were a number of earlier configurations. Here is a brief pre history... Through a mutual friend, Greg Perano, Danny and Geoff first enlisted the services of keyboard player Graham Lewis in April 1978. The bass player Boris joined a couple of weeks later. After rehersing with Ash Wednesday's drum machine for a month, the four piece held auditions for a drummer in May 1978 and settled on Kevin Fennesy. In June, Kerry (Kez) Hood became involved in the band's management. Kevin was replaced by Rob Grosser late in 1978. After the third gig, Boris was involved in a car accident and Greg Webster filled in on bass and ended up staying. Graham Lewis left after a show at Martinis in Melbourne on Monday 22nd January. |
Early Aliens L-R Danny Johnson, Graham Lewis, Geoffrey Stapleton, Boris, Kevin Fennesy |
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