Blue Sky Pop
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday July 31, 1991
IN THE Playroom on the Gold Coast on Saturday night, the Sunnyboys had returned to their home turf. Admittedly, it was just a little further up the coast from where Jeremy and Peter Oxley spent their youth playing football, surfing and learning guitar in Kingscliff, but it was close enough to ensure the turnout of friends and family.
They had ventured up the Pacific Highway for two reasons - to see their old mates, and to enjoy one of Australia's most fondly remembered and better pop bands from the early 1980s.
Upstairs, away from the mob of slam dancers down the front, were the mums and dads and mothers of girlfriends. Probably a few aunts and uncles to boot. Downstairs, old pals and surfing buddies joined 1,000 or so punters who had packed into this sweaty beer barn halfway between Palm Beach and Burleigh Heads for a night of rock and pop stamped with the Sunnyboys style - tough as leather yet always melodic.
Anybody worried about a dinosaurs' reunion with embarrassing versions of classic old guitar pop songs would have been pleasantly surprised. The Sunnyboys had vowed to keep this tour clean - no booze or drugs and plenty of mineral water on stage - and it showed.
"It's just the way it had to be," says bass player Peter Oxley, who has taken on the lion's share of promotional work for this tour. "You can't play when you're smashed. It's that simple."
Dynamically the band was crisper. Jeremy Oxley's rich, deep vocal had matured further and Peter Oxley's harmonies were vastly superior compared with the old days. (He admits with a laugh to being taught how to sing by his younger brother, Tim.)
It is seven years since the original line-up of the Sunnyboys (Jeremy Oxley, Peter Oxley, Bill Bilson and Richard Burgman) called it quits. At times they were a glorious pop band - sometimes bordering on hard rock - with main songwriter, singer and guitarist Jeremy Oxley possessing a fine sense of melody. He was also an underestimated lyricist for a man barely out of school, often writing personal and black songs about alienation.
After four albums, everything came to a halt. The Sunnyboys had spent as many years touring and recording, and had established a huge and loyal live following. Put them in a beer barn in any capital city in Australia and it was full-house time, but unfortunately the punters didn't always match this enthusiasm when it came to buying their records. In the end, the frustration of not touring overseas, and returning to the same local venues again and again tore the band apart.
"We were at a funny stage of Australian rock'n'roll from 1980-85," says Peter Oxley. "The great progress has been made between 1984 and now. People like Chris Murphy with INXS and Sally Collins with the Triffids decided that they weren't going to wait until their bands were huge, they were just going to pack up and go through Europe and America.
"When we split, INXS were just starting to do that. It was a bit of a shame and quite frustrating for us, and in the end was the reason why we split. The industry at that time thought you needed to be a really huge band before it was worthwhile taking you to America or Europe. Now, it's how it should have always been. There was a great independent scene thriving all over the world at that stage anyway, but the Australian industry was left out."
For this tour, Jeremy, Peter and Bilson spent two months rehearsing before being joined by Burgman.
"We were a little worried about how it would sound," says Peter. "We rehearsed for that long to make sure it had the right feeling. It was there from the start, so it was OK. Then we were a bit worried about whether people would come along and stuff like that, because we weren't a huge band. A lot of people loved us, but it wasn't a total commercial success."
Since the last Sunnyboys show on Christmas Eve, 1984, at the Graphic Arts Club in Sydney, Peter has been busy with the Sparklers, a pop/soul band fronted by his younger sister, Melanie, and with Flathead, headed by younger brother Tim. The Sparklers broke up after releasing a handful of excellent singles (Overworking, So Often Dreaming, Merry-Go-Round) and an album, Persuasion. Flathead have recorded nine songs, but has no record deal.
Peter Oxley has also been working at a glass workshop near the city, utilising skills he learnt with the Mambo design warehouse a few years ago.
"I've been decorating glass," he says. "I got a job in a little workshop and I'm learning traditional methods of decorating glass and etching glass. It's been pretty good. I learnt to screenprint and worked for Mambo for a couple of years, and to etch glass is a screenprinting process. Because it's such an old company run by a family, I've learnt the older methods, because they started the firm in 1906."
After the Sunnyboys' tour, Peter Oxley will be heading off on a long-awaited trip around the world. Flathead will be put on hold, although as they have already recorded nine songs, Oxley has set himself the project of scouting around for an overseas deal while travelling.
And the other members?
"Well, Bill runs the Mambo factory and Richard was in Canada, tourmanaging bands. When he was there with Weddings, Parties Anything he met a Canadian girl and they settled there. And Jeremy has been pretty quiet actually, just writing songs and living in Sydney."
The Sunnyboys play tonight at Temptations, Mt Druitt; Friday at Waves, Wollongong; Saturday at the General Bourke Hotel, Parramatta; Sunday and Monday at the Annandale Hotel; and Tuesday at Tracks in Epping. GAP has five doubles to the Annandale Hotel show on Monday night to the first to call 519 7215 between 10.30 and 10.35 am today.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald