TRACKS
- Crazy
- Darktown Strutters Ball
- Don’t Blame Me
- Giving Up On Your Love
- Gonna Be Somebody
- Honky Tonk Women
- It’s All Over Now
- Jump In My Car
- Midnight Rendezvous
- My Little Girl
- Naturally
- Rock N Roll
- School Days
- Shake it Up
- She’s Got Me By The Balls
- State We’re In
- You Can’t Take It All
THE BAND
Ted Mulry
vocals, bass
Les Hall
lead guitar
Herm Kovac
drums
Gary Dixon
rhythm guitar
THE CREW
Ron Clayton
TM/PM/ fifth member
Garry Brokenshire
lighting, sound
Steve Donkin
sound
John Cobcroft
stage, production
Alan Lawson
stage
Thanx to Herm Kovac for the cover artwork, Nprint for the artwork, Phil Dracoulis and Herm Kovac for the mastering and TMG for their support of crew.
LIVE at the FAIRFIELD HOTEL, 1982 was recorded when TMG were becoming a heavier band. It includes hits as “Jump In My Car”, “Darktown Strutters Ball”, “My Little Girl”, “Lazy Eyes”, “Heart Of Stone” and “(You’ve Got) The Devil In You” and The Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women”.
Herm Kovac says that TMG were always a working class pub band who fitted in with their record company Alberts’ famous sound, which included AC/DC, The Angels and Rose Tattoo. In fact Herm Kovac and Les Hall earlier played in a band with AC/DC’s Malcolm Young.
“But all four of us in TMG loved The Beatles and melodic pop songs,” Herm explains. “In the early days we’d dress up like Rod Stewart & The Faces and The Rolling Stones, scarves and all. “So some may have thought of us as a pop band. But they changed their minds after they saw the live show. ‘We didn’t know you rocked so hard!’ they’ tell us.”
That LIVE at the Fairfield Hotel, 1982 got recorded and was released by accident. Garry “Squirt” Brokenshire was 17 years old when he joined the TMG crew as a lighting designer in 1978. He met them when he crewed for Sherbet as a 15-year old and the two bands toured together. In fact, Brokenshire used to join TMG onstage each night playing congas on “The Devil In You”.
By the Fairfield show he was no longer in their crew. But he was interested in sound, so he and their sound engineer Steve Donkin worked it out he could set up in a truck and record the show. The resulting cassette was “lost” for 40 years in a box with other cassettes in a storage space, and he found it quite by accident. “They were a great solid band, very nice guys, and Ted was a charismatic guy who wrote great songs. Going on the road with them was such an adventure for a 17 year old!”
It is only appropriate that LIVE at the Fairfield Hotel, 1982 is released on September 1st, 2021, the date of Ted’s passing. That month features a lot in TMG’s history. Ted Mulry was born on September 2 (1947) in England and died from cancer on September 1 (2001) in Sydney at the age of 53. TMG played their first show on September 2, 1972. “Jump In My Car” reached #1 in September 1975 and stayed there for six weeks.
“Steppin’ Out” b/w “It’s All Over Now” was released on September 2,1976. Ted Mulry started out as a balladeer with hits as “Falling in Love Again” and “Julia”. In the early ‘70s, after a visit to England, he returned excited after seeing bands like Slade, T-Rex and Status Quo and wanted to form a band with them. They had a mutual love for The Beatles, comedy troupe The Goons, and Heinz Baked Beans.
They were also tennis fans. Herm Kovac remembers the Fairfield gig, because it was the day Bjorn Borg lost to John McEnroe at Wimbledon, and he was so excited listening to the match on the radio on the way he almost totalled his car. TMG were a real “gang”, with recording royalties split four ways, and majority rules indecisions. The live shows were split five ways, with their “fifth” member, Ron Clayton, their long-time tour manager, production manager and driver.
Ron Clayton
“He had a day job (as a fitter and turner), and if we were starving he’d feed us,” says Herm. “He bought a 22-seat bus and built it so the gear was in the back and we were in the front. He did a lot more than what was asked of him.”
TMG’s starving days ended when “Jump In My Car” went to #1. The song, written by Mulry and Hall, was an album track. But influential DJ Barry Chapman of Sydney’s 2SM started to play it and urged them to release it as a single. TMG were in a bind. They knew Alberts wanted them to record a new album and would not issue another track from an early album. The band had a meeting with Ted Albert, head of their record company. As they crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Kovac told Mulry “Say to me, ‘We have to release ‘Jump In My Car’”.
Mulry was mystified but did as he was told. Their meeting with Albert did not bring up the song. Afterwards the band went to the office of the label’s A&R manager and pulled off a scam. Kovac said “We’ve just been upstairs and Ted told me to release ‘Jump In My Car’ as a single”, glossing over which Ted A few weeks later Ted Albert severely told the band, “I heard what you did. You’re lucky it was a hit!”
