picture Bleddyn Butcher.
The Moodists were a Melbourne band. A really Melbourne band. We didn't travel to Sydney until 1982. When we got there we slept on peoples floors and drank cans of Victoria Bitter constantly. We felt obliged to conduct ourselves so. The tv was never, ever off. Sydney people seemed to want to wear loud , colourful clothes and be outside all the time. We lived and played (almost exclusively) in the derelict, bohemian Melbourne suburb of St Kilda and when we travelled to Sydney, we played almost exclusively in the derelict, bohemian inner city suburb of Darlinghurst. Both places had a warm red light glow which infused the residents with a "big city" feeling.
The Moodists put out two singles and an ep on Bruce Milne and Greta Moons' Au Go Go label. In late 1983 we moved to London where we spent the rest of what was our career, (save for six months in 1985).
Our friends and contemporaries were the Go Betweens, the Birthday Party (and later, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), the Laughing Clowns, the Triffids, the Died Pretty, the Beasts of Bourbon, the Feral Dinosaurs, the people with chairs up their noses and Buick KBT.
Our first shows in the UK were opening for the Fall and the Go Betweens. The London music scene, compared to Australia, was full of drama and intrigue. It was also heavily played out in the pages of the weekly music papers. We were totally into being in a band. Drinkin and stayin up all night and writing songs all together. We had no manager or buffer zone of any type between us and the rest of the world. We were very raw. We liked the music of the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, Suicide, Flipper and the hard country sounds of Merle Haggard, George Jones and Hank Williams(Jnr and Snr).
We went to the UK as a short cut to live the kind of ferocious, footloose kind of life we thought you had to live in order to make music. We weren't "rootsy", it was more of a journey away from any roots that we had. I would characterise it as more of an interior, mythological trip we were on. All the music we heard and the magazines we read were imported. It was all exotic and so very far away. In Australia, the suburban pubs were where you went to pursue a career in music. We only played the inner city venues. We never even really tried to venture any further. (Famously, the Scientists opened for pub rock chart toppers, The Angels at the Parramatta RSL and were canned off the stage). In essence, most of the inner city crowd all came from the outer suburbs and didn't really want to go back. Clare and Steve and I were a little outside of this dynamic as we all came from South Australia, we were a little more removed. Through friends of our friends, the Birthday Party, we received some outlandishly good reviews of our early singles in the UK press and, after a visit to Australia to check both us and the Laughing Clowns out, Londons' Red Flame records, signed us all up.
A nice overview of the Moodists from FAST AND BULBOUS online magazine.
Dave Graney memoir-WORKSHY-out on Affirm press.Order it here.
If in the UK - Book Depository is the best place to order from. Free postage.
2020 shows
No MOODISTS shows
”...brilliant show. Best band in this country by miles. Graney and Co. are totally unique. Whatever line-up, always amazing. And FUN!”.
Jon Schofield (musician)
"An incredibly
compelling live band. Dave Graney was overly dramatic on stage at a time
when people simply weren't. The Moodists played this wonderful, passionate
music composed of melody and hard, tough rhythm lines. I can remember Dave
swaying across the audience and hearing the great Australian cry of 'wanker!'.
Australian crowds have become more tolerant since, but back then the Moodists
would play very powerful, moving music to people who simply didn't understand."
Greta Moon, AuGoGo records
40 minute interview with Dave Graney by ABC's Richard Fidler- ranging across entire career and life.
read some reviews from the period
See the Coral Snakes sections for discography and other archival information pre 1998.
the dave graney show- an outstanding album recorded for Festival in 1998
Kiss tomorrow goodbye (2000)
heroic blues(2001)
the third woman (2002)
The soundtrack to the movie Bad Eggs (David Graney and Clare Moore,Liberation,2003)
the brother who lived ? (2003)
Keepin' it Unreal (2006)
Rock Formations - (Salmon (Bang! 2007)
We wuz curious (2008)
Knock yourself out (2009)
SUPERMODIFIED (2010)
rock'n'roll is where I hide (2011
YOU'VE BEEN IN MY MIND (2012)
Harry Howard and the NDE "PRETTY" (Spooky records
2013)
soundtrack to the movie JOHNNY
GHOST (digital only release 2013)
Harry Howard and
the NDE "near death experience" (SPOOKY records 2012)
POINT BLANK and LIVE IN HELL (digital narrative show albums 2013)
Fearful Wiggings (dave graney solo album 2014)
"THE MERCURY YEARS" 4 disc set of albums recorded for Universal 1994-97. Includes the disc of rarities and unreleased tracks "Lobster palace royalty"
play mistLY for me(digital only live recordings collection march 2015)
Once I Loved The Torn Ocean's Roar - 80s/90s Demos Vol 2 - dave graney - COCKAIGNE - digital only album at itunes and Bandcamp.
night of the wolverine demos/early 90s songwriter demos - dave graney (cockaigne) digital album
LET'S GET TIGHT - 2017 CD from DAVE GRANEY AND CLARE MOORE
Harry Howard and the NDE "Sleepless Girls" (SPOOKY records 2012)
ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? 2019 album #1
ONE MILLION YEARS DC 2019 album #2
a short bio of Clare and David
The Moodists and pals, words from people who were there
