AUSSIE CRAWL....SONS OF BEACHES

Australian Crawl or to use the more popular vernacular, Aussie Crawl were a great fkn rock band founded by James Reyne (lead vocals/piano), Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), Paul Williams (bass guitar), Simon Binks (lead guitar) and David Reyne (drums) in 1978.

first time I saw them, was in 1979 at Maroubra Seals, on a mate's say so, funnily enough, from Maroubra, a beach suburb of Sydney, he raved about 'em, so being westie smart arses we thought we would wear hawaiin shirts to the gig, and on a side note, i had a busted wrist at the time and was in a cast...WELL...the band came out , and bugger me drunk, if James Reyne didnt have a hawaiin shirt on AND 2 busted arms...didnt i look like a bloody super fan ..anyway from than on Aussie Crawl were a firm favourite in the record stack.

Australian Crawl were associated with surf suburbs and some say they played surf music..really... I didnt think so then and I dont think so know, they were however a solid rock band in every sense of the word, they sang about surfing and everything else, subjects like crass materialism, car accidents, and cautionary tales of romance...and Daughters of the Northern Coast
Mind you they did sponsor a surfing competition in 1984, so they must of hade a touch of fin-dick about them

Their 1980 debut album, The Boys Light Up reached #4, Australian Crawl had two #1 albums; 1981's Sirocco and 1982's Sons of Beaches.

Their early singles reached the top 25 but none broke into the Top Ten, their best performing single was #1 hit "Reckless" which showed a better song construction and more solid approach than earlier hits, and came from their 1983 Semantics EP

Some of my personal favourite songs and those that live on  my mp3 player to this day are:

BOYS LIGHT UP, RECKLESS, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, DAUGHTERS OF THE NORTHERN COAST ( SONS OF BEACHES), HOOCHI COOCHI FUROOCI MAMA, INDISPOSED
OH NO NOT YOU AGAIN, ERROL, LAKESIDE and THINGS DONT SEEM

However as with all good things, the band suffered from internal upheaval from 1983 onwards. First Bill McDonough left, then, and this shoked me and stunned the aussie music scene to its core,  his brother Guy McDonough died from pneumonia in 1984, then various other members left. Their 1985 release Between a Rock and a Hard Place was expensive but sales were diabolical and they disbanded early in 1986.

The band's status as an icon on the Australian music scene was acknowledged by induction into the 1996 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. Founding guitarist Brad Robinson was unable to attend the Hall of Fame induction in person, as he was hospitalised with lymphoma and died two weeks later.

Lead singer james Reyne kicked on with a solo career, having hits like Fall of Rome, motors too fast and a cover of the Dingoes hit Way out West with James Blundell, James also formed Company of Strangers with Daryl Braithwaite and Reyne sang lead for The Party Boys on more than a few nights and also appeared on tv in various tv shows and to be fair he wasnt too bad at the old acting

So there you go...there you have the Crawl...give em a listen , the songs deserve to live on....hers is some tunes..get in to it