Apr
Thanks so much to Darren Rowe for the interview! I had written about Moonscope months ago after discovering one of their songs on Youtube. I thought the song “Coming Back” was wonderful, and I wanted to learn more details about the band. I knew himself and Phillipa went to be on Burning Winter, who I had already written about, but didn’t know a thing about Moonscope. Happily Darren got in touch and was keen in answering my questions!
++ Hi Darren! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?
Hi, very happy to talk about my old band Moonscope and thrilled you have taken an interest all these years later. I am well, considering I’ve just hit my mid-fifties but things are good. I had a long break from music after the mid-2000’s, hardly picked up a guitar for nearly 20 years, but started playing again around 2022 and have been recording in my home studio set-up in Melbourne since my old band Doradus reformed last year. The first new song in 25 years, called “Live To See The Day”, is just about to be released.
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?
I was a child of the 1970’s and I remember my mother would have the radio on a lot. The big AOR hits of the time were my childhood soundtrack, but I definitely absorbed it and was captivated by music. Mum loved music and had a moderate record collection which included the likes of Elton John, Rod Stewart and Elvis Presley. When I was around the age of 11 I requested my first ever record and that was “Destroyer” by Kiss and, like a lot of my peers at school, I was into Kiss, who at the time were the shit! Around this time my parents took me to guitar lessons but for some reason I didn’t take to it at that time and soon quit. The first instrument I learned to play properly was bass guitar at the age of 15, after me and a couple of school friends, including Moonscope drummer Drew Mellor, got into Sex Pistols and punk music and decided to get a band together. I went to a few bass lessons and after a few of them the teacher said, “I can’t teach you any further”, I seemed to pick it up very fast.
++ Had you been in other bands before Moonscope? What about the other band members? Are there any songs recorded by these bands?
Drew and I had our little three-piece punk band during the latter years at high school called MBC (Mutant Birth Control), it was fun but we were probably pretty crap. At the same time I was discovering the Beatles catalogue and a began to feel inspired to write songs and go beyond a simple punk band. I found a ‘bassplayer wanted’ ad stuck up in Foleys Music store and soon found myself playing bass for a 60’s psychedelic-inspired indie band called the Hipslingers, who had already released a number of singles and were quite well known, especially in Newcastle. I ended up recording a full album with the Hipslingers called “Panoramic” and a couple of singles before I left that band to concentrate on Moonscope, but the experience I gained was valuable. As far as I can remember, the other Moonscope members were new to being in bands when we started.
++ Where were you from originally?
I was born in Belmont, just south of Newcastle, next to the great Lake Macquarie, but grew up in Merewether, an inner suburb of Newcastle, near the ocean beaches.
++ How was Newcastle (NSW) at the time of Moonscope? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Newcastle in the late 1980’s was a city in transition from largely industrial working class and there was, as it is now, a large proportion of university students who made up the majority of punters who went to underground or indie venues. Some of these venues are legendary, such as the Uptown Circus, The East Room and the Air Force Club, the latter of which Moonscope probably played at the most. It was a great venue with a grungy, dingey vibe, and the stage was just a makeshift arrangement with boards covering pool tables. A lot of bands got their start there. As far as record stores goes, there were some good ones around town but my favourite was Rice’s Bookshop, which always had a huge collection of second-hand records and cassettes. I spent a lot of time in there but the owner was a grumpy old git!
++ Were there any other good bands in your area?
There were plenty of good ones and plenty of less than good. I really enjoyed seeing the Crying Suns playing at the Air Force Club, they were a great noisy pop/rock four piece with good original songs along the lines of the Sunnyboys and Radio Birdman. The Embers were a cover band playing The Kinks, Easybeats and other 60’s rock who I enjoyed seeing live. Bark were a great band, a little bit reminiscent of The Smiths and for a while I lived with Karl, the singer.
++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?
While I was in the Hipslingers, a fellow called Matt Laver came to our gigs and I got to know him pretty well, he played a Stratocaster and was into U2 and eventually we decided to try starting a band. This was late in 1987. He brought along a friend of his called Phillipa Rees to play flute and I roped in my old mate from school, Drew Mellor, to play drums.
++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?
I did lead vocals and bass, Matt did guitar, Drew did drums and percussion and Phillippa played flute, sang backing vocals and sometimes lead vocals.
++ Was there any lineup changes?
Towards the end of the band, late in 1989, I switched to rhythm guitar and a young guy called Jon Barry took over bass duties, I found it a bit easier to play guitar while singing and we thought it would add a new depth to our sound.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
++ Where did you get inspiration for your songs?
I’m not sure where Matt got his lyrical inspiration from, his lyrics tended to be a little bleak, like early U2, whereas mine were more about relationships in those days. In the song, “Almost Over”, Matt wrote some dark lyrics about a war scene where women and children were killed, cheery stuff, you know! We recorded that song at Trackdown studios and I hope to release it soon if the master tape is in good condition.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
In the early rehearsal stage, we were writing and playing music which could be described as ambient or atmospheric rock so we were trying to think of a name which fitted the sound. We thought of Moonscape which eventually changed to Moonscope.
++ The band released just one 7″ with the songs “Coming Back” and “Bitterness” on Skink Records. So let’s start there. Who were Skink Records? Was it your own label? A local label? Who was behind it and how was your relationship with them?
Skink Records was a small independent Newcastle-based label owned and run by Julie Johnston. By the time the single was released, Julie had become our manager. The label, as far as I can remember didn’t last long, and there was only one other release that I was aware of, an EP by a band called “Bark”, who I mentioned earlier.
++ The songs for the single were recorded in Sydney, at Trackdown Studios. How was that experience? And why did you decide to record in a different town than your own?
We had heard about Trackdown Studios in Bondi Junction, Sydney, through local band The Crying Suns, who I mentioned before. They had recorded a terrific single there called “Hands Up High” and we decided to book a day there to record two songs for a single and more if we had time. We were very well rehearsed for it and ended up recording and mixing four songs. It was all done quite quickly but everyone was totally focussed and we were really happy with what we’d put down. I had the benefit of earlier recording studio experience but the other three were totally new to it, but did a great job.
++ The producer for the single was Tim Ryan. How did you like working with him? What did he bring to the recordings?
Tim was brilliant. He managed to capture us at our best before we could begin to tire and lose the plot and he really knew his way around the latest technology that the studio was equipped with. He also, with help from his assistant, was great at facilitating our ideas for recording our instruments, including the use of gas cylinders for percussion in “Bitterness”. Basically, he was a skilled engineer who produced everything we asked for and managed to pull up great mixes on the same day!
++ Also do tell me about the illustration on the sleeve. It is quite cool. Where does it come from? Who made it?
That was all Phillippa’s work. She had a job at a graphic design place and she found the moon picture and touched it up a bit and hand drew the border. She knocked it all up more or less as a draft but we all loved it just as it was.
++ Were the songs on the single the first songs you recorded? Or had you done some demos before?
We had earlier demoed these songs and a few others on a Tascam Portastudio four-track machine, which I had just purchased, but unfortunately this demo has not survived the ages.
++ Speaking of demos, were there any that you put out as demo tapes perhaps?
We never released any demos publicly, but like with most bands, we distributed demos to industry people such as reviewers, record labels, venue bookers, etc.
++ I read that the song “Coming Back” had an unusual sound for you, that it was a pop song. From what I understand most of your other songs weren’t pop. How come? Who were your influences at the time?
It was different because it was an obvious pop song, with catchy melodies and riffs, while the rest of our music had an ambient, atmospheric, even experimental feel to it, probably because of the way we wrote together in the rehearsal studio with no one really leading and just letting songs form naturally. Collectively our influences ranged from Pink Floyd to U2 to Hunters and Collectors and even King Crimson. We definitely brought in our individual influences, I was the one that loved guitar pop music with jangle like REM, The Church (early stuff) and sixties pop/rock. This was the direction I wanted to go in when I started Burning Winter.
++ And then how come there were no more releases by the band? Was there any interest from labels to put your music out?
After the single came out, we had a bit of interest from a couple of small labels in Sydney, but nothing really came out of it. We never had the opportunity to record again before disbanding, which happened only a few months after the single was released.
++ And are there more songs recorded by the band? Unreleased ones?
The only unreleased songs are two songs, “Almost Over” and “Pink”, recorded at the Trackdown session mid-1989. “Almost Over” is an anthemic U2-style song and “Pink” is an atmospheric ballad featuring lovely flute lines and Phillippa on lead vocals. I’ve recently uncovered the beta master of these songs as well as “Coming Back” and “Bitterness” and, provided the master is in good condition, hope to release them soon. The versions already on YouTube were converted from a copy of the vinyl single and the quality isn’t great.
++ My favourite song of yours is “Coming Back”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
The song started in rehearsal with Matt’s opening jangly B to A chord riff, from there we developed the song as we usually did, shaping it during rehearsals. It was an unusually upbeat, even happy, sounding song for us. I came up with the words and melody and Phillippa pitched in with a catchy flute riff and some verse harmonies. Lyrically, the song is about falling in love with someone and searching for confirmation that they feel the same way about you.
++ If you were to choose your favorite Moonscope song, which one would that be and why?
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
We played a gig on average around once every 2-3 weeks, from memory. We had a small but loyal following, but enjoyed the live experience even though I wouldn’t say we were the tightest band around.
++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
The best ones were the Air Force Club, in the dingey atmosphere there. For some reason some of those gig were kinda crazy, and there was so much energy. Drew, in particular, would suddenly do bizarre stuff like run off the stage and, pretending to be an out-of-control robot, deliberately crash into someone in the crowd, or jump off the drum kit, run to the mike and yell out random things. One time during a song, I turned around to cue him only to find he had stripped down to his jocks, without missing a beat! He enjoyed shocking people, he was a larger than life character. Sadly, Drew passed away in 2019, he had been living in Adelaide for some time and regrettably we had fallen out of touch.
++ And were there any bad ones?
There were bad ones, mainly because of technical issues with dodgy leads or mikes or some other equipment. Sometimes it would completely derail a performance and one time we got halfway through the first song and had to abandon the gig because of a faulty power circuit.
++ When and why did Moonscope stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards? I know some of you were later in Burning Winter… Any other bands? I had read of Hipslingers and Doradus?
++ I had interviewed Craig Beck about Burning Winter and learned lots of interesting details about the band. But I do wonder what your take on Burning Winter is? What were the main highlights for the band?
Yes, I saw the interview with Craig and it was interesting to read his recollection of events. Burning Winter was a band that opened doors for the Newcastle indie scene, but was never really given acknowledgement. In 1991, we took our demo tapes to Sydney to knock on doors, the four of us staying overnight in a hellhole hotel. One demo was given to Jules Normington at Phantom records and he phoned us a few days later to say he loved the songs and wants to keep in touch. This led to the future compilations of Newcastle bands , “My Beautiful Pigeonhole” and “The Corridor” released by Phantom, that we were included on, and gave local studio engineers like Rob Taylor contacts which lead to their later successes with bands such as The Whitlams. There were big highs and big lows for Burning Winter but as far as highlights goes, the biggest would have to be the launch for the “My Beautiful Pigeonhole” CD at the Cambridge Hotel in 1993 and seeing the room packed with people really enjoying our set. Looking back I think this was the band’s pinnacle moment. I really enjoyed doing those early four-track demos too, there was no pressure and it was a lot of fun!
++ Back to Moonscope, was there any interest from the radio? TV?
We were played on 2NUR-FM, which was the Newcastle University radio station, but apart from that very little.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
The local music press did feature articles on the band occasionally and I remember the single release got some favourable reviews.
++ What about fanzines?
Not that I remember or was aware of.
++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for Moonscope?
For me without a doubt was the recording at Trackdown, it was an amazing day where everything seemed to fall into place and we have something we can look back on and be proud of. It was a creatively intense and highly satisfactory experience. But there are great memories of gigs where things seemed to verge on chaos.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
One hobby that I’ve discovered in recent years is photographing trains. I’m a bit of an enthusiast in my old age maybe because of where I live not far from a major rail corridor where you see a big variety of trains. My young son introduced me to trainspotting. There is something deeply relaxing about watching these machines winding through the land on rails. Maybe I should get myself a large train set!
++ I’ve never been to Newcastle (nor Australia) so I’d love to ask a local. What do you suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
I often take my family down to the Mornington Peninsula, which is a great destination for a hot summer’s day. On one side of the peninsula are the calm and beautiful bay beaches (Melbourne is built around a massive bay, Port Phillip Bay, from the shore it seems like a calm ocean), on the other side are rugged and wild ocean beaches, a completely different, but amazing, vibe. We love to grab our fish and chips and enjoy the beaches! It’s worth driving up into the Dandenong Ranges for spectacular views amid rainforest and giant tree ferns. Melbourne has everything as far as cuisines from around the world, but Lygon Street in Carlton has a high concentration of great Italian restaurants if you’re into Italian food. A Barossa Shiraz goes very well with a Fettucini Matriciana!
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
I think I’ve probably said enough, I hope my answers haven’t been too long, but thanks so much for the opportunity to revisit my young muso days in Newcastle, there are some great memories! I hope you found it interesting and keep up the good work with your fine blog! Cheers!
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Listen
Moonscope – Coming Back
