EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES

A long time ago, (seems like just yesterday), the city of Sydney was a thriving hotbed of creativity in which a miasma of live music flowed forth from venues on every other street corner. On a global scale, The Sex Pistols had been, The Knack released a huge hit single (twice!) and a kid with a rock pedigree wearing a school uniform (complete with shorts and rolled down long socks) was playing lead guitar in a new Aussie band that shook the world.

A new wave with familiar shape had hit the town as Vespas parked on Oxford Street footpaths and modern mirror images from Quadrophenia battled leftover punks instead of Brighton Beach rockers. But music brought them together at venues like the Civic Hotel, Bondi Lifesaver, French’s, The Trade Union Club and The Stagedoor Tavern.

Young musos could play six nights a week in pubs, clubs and wine bars all over town. And four of those who did, often bumped into each other while on the same bill as big overseas or home-grown headline acts. Mark Mulligan led The Transistors (and later Finger Guns). Mark Alchin was lead singer/songwriter and bass player in The Clones (and then The Reasons Why). Bruce Carter was The Transistors' drummer (and later played with Silent Types and The Persuaders). Murray Cook was another Transistor and then Finger Guns' guitarist before treading a path that somehow led to a career wearing a red skivvy in The Wiggles.

In the studio these guys had recorded revered cult classics like The Transistors' Still in the Haight EP, The Clones' double-A sided Tired of Hiding/Happy I'm With Her (RCA), The Reasons Why's In the End on the Phantom label, Finger Guns' Heartman is Breathing, Happy Screams and In Love With a Legend (BMG) and Silent Types' Midnight to Dawn, Burning Stage and Dancing Floor EPs (Reaction).

At the same time on the other side of the world in still-swinging London, a young lad named Richard Stevens was playing piano and keyboards in bands like Zenith and The Horn, little realising that his destiny lay in the colonies two decades down the track.

Flash-forward to Sydney in a new millennium and these five song-soaked musos were still being driven by the passion to play. The urge to rock with like-minded souls burned as strongly as ever and as if drawn by some powerful magnetic force, the five magically came together in a different era to again play electrifying and infectious songs that grab people from the first chord.

Within weeks of their return to the stage, word had got out. Venues clamoured for the services of Bang Shang a Lang and fans queued up to witness the revival at first hand. Rosie's Tavern and The Unity Hall Hotel became shrines for true believers as the energy emanating from the unified five surpassed anything currently on offer in venues that had survived the dance 'n trance scene.

The band ripped the roof off venues across town as the itch to write their own material and the drive to express the devil inside returned. Lead singer Mark Mulligan's song-writing prowess in particular, having lain dormant for a time, is once again wowing faithful punters. He describes his new songs as: "Thrashmetalsurfpunknewagealtcountrynewwavenewromanticpop."

The band has just released their new CD, ‘Unreal, Orange Peel!’ featuring four new original songs all written by front-man Mark Mulligan and typical of the pop pantheon that informs their every musical move. This new CD, which also features seven of Bang Shang a Lang’s favourite cover versions, is the standard bearer for all things great about rock n’ roll, past, present and future!

Do yourself a favour and jump aboard the Bang Shang a Lang bandwagon early, before their popularity once again carries them around the world, touring before a whole new audience.