THE RESPLENDENT RETURN OF LITTLE LOSER’S LOTTERY : #2

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

‘GIGS FROM YESTERYEAR, WHEN I WAS YOUNG + PRETTY AS A PICTURE’

# 02: The Dubrovniks, supported by O.K. Corral (1991)

Dear friends,

The Dubrovniks — an Australian super-group born straight from the beating heart of the country’s punk underground. Still, I’m willing to have small bet, you have never heard of them, have you? Which is a real shame, but I am here to rectify this situation – so let’s begin, shall we?

Formed in Sydney in 1986, The Dubrovniks brought together true icons of the Aussie underground scene: James Baker, legendary drummer for Beasts of Bourbon, founding member of Hoodoo Gurus, and a driving force in The Scientists; Roddy Radalj, co-founder of Hoodoo Gurus and veteran of The Scientists; and Boris Sujdovic, who also played with both The Scientists and Beasts of Bourbon.

Basically the genesis of The Dubrovniks can be traced back to Sujdovic’s departure from the The Scientists in 1986. Sujdovic had travelled across to Europe with Kim Salmon, Tony Thewlis and Brett Rixon in 1983. When his Visa ran out three years later, he returned to Sydney. Sujdovic teamed up again with old Scientists-pals Radalj and Baker plus guitarist Peter Simpson to form The Adorable Ones.

After learning of a Brisbane band called The Adorable Ones, Sujdovic, Radalj, Baker and Simpson chose the name The Dubrovniks in celebration of the Croatian (Yugoslavian then) city in which both Sujdovic and Radalj were born.

In Sujdovic’s mind, the new band was designed so they could play rock’n’roll without the threat of confrontation from audiences and venue owners. “With The Scientists, we’d have to be careful where we played half the time – we’d fear for our lives sometimes,” he laughs. “So with The Dubrovniks it was a bit of a relief at the beginning, not to have to worry too much about where we played. Though with Rod in the band, you never knew – he’d walk out with a turban on his head, and you’d think ‘Oh, here we go again’,”

The Dubrovniks’ first record, „Dubrovnik Blues“, was released on Timberyard Records in 1989, produced by Radio Birdman and The Hitmen guitarist Chris Masuak.

Well, that’s all you need to know as a matter of fact. This and the music, of course, which is absolutely brilliant, at least if you ask me: one can tell that all band members had already seen quite some stages at the time they recorded their debut album – to my ears it sounds highly professional for a debut. But judge for yourself:

Dubrovniks – ‘Christine’
Dubrovniks – ‘Dubrovnik Girls’
Dubrovniks – ‘Speedway Girls’
Dubrovniks – ‘Freezing Rain’

The second album, „Audio Sonic Love Affair“, released in 1990, wasn’t too shabby either, but nothing compared to the debut. This one wasn’t too bad perhaps:

Dubrovniks – ‘As Long As I Can Listen’

Now, what has all this got to do with me, you ask? I have already mentioned this before on various occasions on the old blog, so those of you who already know the story: please bear with me, I’ll keep it brief:

In February 1991 I had to join the airforce as a medic, not that I wanted to, but back then one had to. And they’re bringing the draft back right now, I am still unsure what to think about this … perhaps things have changed in those 35 years within German military structures – I strongly doubt this though! Either way, obviously money was always low when I got off the airfield at weekends, but luckily a mate of mine from school had established himself as a sort of questionable manager for various bands / freelancer for a local tour agency. So whenever there was something to do gigwise, me and another pal, the mighty Fatman, were called in for some slavery work.

Most of the time we were bored to death by what we had to do, but on occasion we had fun co-slaves, which made it all more worthwile then. Also, of course, I got to hear good music (which meant nothing to the Fatman, who was a great admirer of Elvis and thus classified everything as ‘hopeless’ by and large) and I met nice bands, and The Dubrovniks certainly were no exception: great lads, if memory serves correctly! Alas, James Baker passed away last year, I remember him as being an especially friendly bloke.

I saw The Dubrovniks on various occasions and spent a bit of time in their company, most likely on festivals. But they have toured Europe so often, I cannot remember when or where that was exactly. What I know for sure though is that I did an admission job for them at a gig in East Belgium, that’s where above backstage pass relates to.

Support band on that night were O.K. Corral, a Swedish cowpunk outfit – but as I had to work, I did not see them. Perhaps our friend Martin knows more?

Here, for the sake of completeness, a tunes of theirs from that era:

O.K. Corral – ‘Run For Your Life’

And should you be thinking that I made this up (I mean, The Scientists’ Kim Salmon last time and the remaining Scientists this time is somewhat strange, I admit), well, I am not. In fact I asked Little Loser why he chose this specific stub (and once more, he knows NEITHER of the bands nor any potential relations between them), his answer was: ‘because I quite liked the picture’.

So there you are, life’s little mysteries perhaps …

Enjoy,

 

Dirk