You are currently viewing the Australia version of the site.
Would you like to switch to your local site?
32 MIN READ TIME

FILTER REISSUES

The will and the way

The final chapter of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan’s exquisite songwriting journey gets the definitive send-off across four LPs and seven CDs.

The Go-Betweens

★★★★★

G Stands For Go-Betweens Volume 3

DOMINO. CD/DL/LP

THE PREVIOUS volume in this definitive career overview of Australia’s best-loved band ended in October 1989 when, for reasons romantic, emotional, and possibly financial, co-founder Grant McLennan informed fellow co-founder Robert Forster that he wanted to leave the band. However, while fellow band members Amanda Brown, John Willsteed and co-founder Lindy Morrison would never again be part of a band called The Go-Betweens, and though a band called The Go-Betweens would not release another LP until 2000’s The Friends Of Rachel Worth, McLennan and Forster continued to work together throughout the intervening decade. Grant McLennan may have left The Go-Betweens in 1989, but he never split from Robert Forster.

As a result, one of the many joys of this deluxe box set is that it allows the devoted fan to contemplate moments throughout the 1990s when a possible Go-Betweens could have re-emerged. It’s certainly the narrative Forster adopts as he eloquently retells the final stage of the band’s story, in the third person, in the meticulously assembled linernotes.

Recorded in Brisbane’s Willowtree Studios, in July 1991 when the duo were about to embark upon a support slot tour of Europe and the US with Lloyd Cole, and still believed they owed a Go-Betweens studio LP to Capitol Records, their first collaboration – entitled Love In Foreign Rooms – is described by Forster as “the loosest... lightest demo [we] ever made”. That’s true and on first listen the assembled tracks seem to lack a certain bite. But gradually these 14 languid sketches about love and loss (McLennan) or romantic elation (Forster) work their way under your skin, revealing two songwriters emotionally at odds but artistically simpatico. A number of the tracks ended up on McLennan’s Fireboy LP and Forster’s Calling From A Country Phone, but new discoveries include Forster’s cramped and tense Baby’s On Ice and the desperate optimism of McLennan’s near-perfect pop song, Perfect Beat.

Live collaborations continued throughout the decade, the duo appearing as either The Go-Betweens or Robert Forster & Grant McLennan, but the documented performance contained here is a 13-song acoustic set from May 1999, recorded in front of a live audience in Germany for Bayerischer Rundfunk’s Nachtmix radio show while touring Go-Betweens best-of, Bellavista Terrace.

A mix of solo songs and Go-Betweens numbers, it’s available as a vinyl LP alongside the three reunion LPs proper, which seems like an extravagance until you listen. Tight yet relaxed, joyful and harmonious, it’s one of the best live showcases of what made McLennan and Forster so special, and contains the only duo performance of McLennan’s dark domestic drama, Suicide At Home, Forster adding ironic little waltz-like patterns on piano. It was around this time that McLennan suggested to Forster the idea of restarting The Go-Betweens and you hear that harmonic confidence, that commitment to a common purpose here. Then, in Seattle, the duo found themselves with studio time at Larry Crane’s Jackpot Studios and with Sleater-Kinney’s Janet Weiss volunteering her services as their temporary drummer. This is how The Go-Betweens’ second life begins.

Sam Charlton

“If The Go-Betweens had to end, there is no more fitting conclusion.”

Collected across two CDs entitled Stuck With Tape, the demos and rough mixes for what would become The Friends Of Rachel Worth show the duo with a surfeit of quality songs. This writer once criticised the resultant LP for sounding more like a set of Grant and Robert songs than the full Go-Betweens, but what songs they are – German Farmhouse, The Clock, He Lives My Life, Magic In Here – and to hear them evolve from intimate demos to final versions is a joy. Personal highlights include a grungy, sneering rough mix of Forster’s German Farmhouse and Grant’s Magic In Here, stripped of that curious accordion sound, but the real treat is three previously unheard McLennan songs – Bandages, Sign Of The Unicorn and Static – haunted tales of hopeful runaways, big city failure and sad childhoods that work together as some magical short story.

…Rachel Worth’s warm sound always seemed tailor-made for vinyl so it’s a delight to finally hear it on that format, remastered by Barry Grint at AIR Mastering, and sounding raw yet intimate; fully alive.

For their second reunion LP, the duo developed a “more intense” (Forster) collaborative relationship in Brisbane. The resultant Bright Yellow Bright Orange has always sounded underpowered to these ears, its edges blunted by extra keyboards and syrupy backing vocals. The hope was that some spark of life might be found in the demos, and it’s there, but in songs that never ended up on the final LP, specifically Forster’s extemporised romantic B-side A Girl Lying On A Beach and McLennan’s inscrutable Night Time Rising, and a number Forster rightly calls a “lost masterpiece”, McLennan’s Ashes On The Lawn, a relative sequel to Cattle And Cane, in which the duo harmonise about a young boy trying to leave a small ranching town but never succeeding. The final band demo, augmented by melancholy Mick Harvey piano, but with somewhat intrusive drums from Glenn Thompson, is so close to perfection it’s painful. But that perfection would come.

Following almost a year of constant touring the band arrived at White Room Studios in the hills above Brisbane to record a nine-song demo for what would become the group’s final masterpiece, Oceans Apart. From the driving defiant opener, Here Comes A City, to the serene, Delphic leave-taking of The Mountains Near Dellray, Oceans Apart is an LP that has only ever had one flaw, its shoddy CD mastering. Perhaps with that in mind, original producer Mark Wallis has remixed it for vinyl from scratch. The result is sheer perfection, clear, punchy yet warm. In the many outtakes you will find yet more wonder, including McLennan’s enigmatic, faltering Survivors and an early acoustic version of Forster’s A Place To Hide Away, which would finally appear, in somewhat diminished form, on his 2008 LP, The Evangelist.

Unlock this article and much more with
You can enjoy:
Enjoy this edition in full
Instant access to 600+ titles
Thousands of back issues
No contract or commitment
Try for $1.48
SUBSCRIBE NOW
30 day trial, then just $14.99 / month. Cancel anytime. New subscribers only.


Learn more
Pocketmags Plus
Pocketmags Plus

This article is from...


View Issues
Mojo
Jan-25
VIEW IN STORE

Other Articles in this Issue


MOJO
THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...
Henry Diltz Henry, who took this month’s cover
Theories, rants, etc.
MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. Write to us at: MOJO, H Bauer Publishing, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk
REGULARS
ALL BACK TO MY PLACE
THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...
Be Glad We Had Some Time
Outlaw country great, master songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson left us on September 28.
DECEMBER 1965 …Jackson C. Frank confirms Blues Run The Game
Out of the blues: the hapless Jackson C.
What are the oddest video cameos?
Double-take that: Arnie gives Angus Young a lift;
Analogue Switch-On
Win! A GO Bar Kensei DAC from iFi Audio.
Dave Barbarossa and Adam And The Ants
Destiny knocked in Wood Green. And then Malcolm McLaren offered a mad journey with no rules.
WHAT GOES ON!
Ballad Of A Young Man
THE HOT NEWS AND BIZARRE STORIES FROM PLANET MOJO
40 YEARS LATE, CREATION CULTS THE LOFT PREPARE THEIR DEBUT!
Kings of the Hill: The Loft’s Peter Astor
PETER PERRETT
The Only Ones’ resurgent exile talks 30 years asleep, the “diseased world” of art and crying at films.
Shabaka Hutchings
Brit jazz’s woodwind warrior exults in Björk’s Vespertine (One Little Indian, 2001).
HEAVY FRIENDS GATHER FOR A LIVE CELEBRATION OF MARK LANEGAN AT 60
ON DECEMBER 5, a mouth-watering one-off tribute concert
WHY DULCIMER-AND-BEYOND VISIONARY DOROTHY CARTER’S TIME IS NOW
Double exposure: Dorothy Carter vibrates on in 1976.
ALDOUS HARDING FRONTING THE BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND? TRY THE STRANGE BREW OF NAIMA BOCK
Tales from the dark side: Naima Bock creates
BEYOND OASIS AND RIDE, ANDY BELL PUTS HIS HAND ON THE GLOK
BEST KNOWN as a founder member of Ride
MOJO PLAYLIST
Hear ye, the month’s best funky soul, disco malaria and yob rock.
FEATURES
The lodestars of folk, old-time and Americana survived an actual tornado to deliver one of MOJO’s albums of the year. Not bad for the “Martians” of contemporary music. “Even in the folk world we were weird,” say Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
Getty Images THE LEAVES ARE BEGINNING TO change
BABY WE'LL BE FINE
A QUARTER CENTURY SINCE THEIR INCEPTION, CINCINNATI-VIA- BROOKLYN'S NEUROTIC OUTSIDERS HAVE SURVIVED STAGE FRIGHT AND LOCKDOWN BREAKDOWN TO TAKE THEIR NERDY, SERIOUS ALT-ROCK INTO ARENAS AND BEYOND. NOW THE NATIONAL'S MULTITUDE OF FANS INCLUDES TAYLOR SWIFT, BUT THEY STILL RECALL WHEN A CROWD OF 50 WAS A LUXURY. "WE FELT PROFOUNDLY UNCOOL," THEY TELL TOM DOYLE
THE STRANGE BIRTH OF SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
With roots in the Welsh-language rock scene, and informed by acid house and psychedelic rock, 1996’s head-spinning debut Fuzzy Logic came with an armful of hits. Soon, Howard Marks, Steely Dan and Oasis were all drawn into their slipstream. “People in mega-cities are hip to everything,” say the band and intimates, “but it might not be the best place to make something unique.”
NEIL INNES was the musical marvel of THE RUTLES, PYTHONS and THE BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND, with a genius for treating sittiness seriously and vice versa. Five years since he passed, his wife's memoir, an upcoming tribute show and a Bonzos box set mean 2024 ends in celebration, yet in his time the business treated him shabbily. "It's a massive body of work," friends and colleagues tell JIM IRVIN, "but he got rather overlooked."
Barrie Wentzell, Shutterstock TO THOSE WHO FIRST SAW
THE BEST OF 2024
THE MUSIC AND MUSICIANS THAT MATTERED IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS
“Brian Told Me He Hates Most Music Films”
Eno – Gary Hustwit’s portrait of pop’s über-egghead – was anew kind of rock doc, one that was literally different every time you viewed it. David Sheppard’s mind remains boggled.
“Noel’s Got A Divorce Going Down. It Is What It Is.”
Oasis’s reunion news melted ticket sites and fans’ minds alike. But perhaps, reckons Pat Gilbert, we should have seen it coming.
“I Think She Almost Enjoyed Herself!”
Twenty-two years on, Beth Gibbons’ Lives Outgrown was the extraordinary return of a singular talent we’d almost given up on. “She’s happy to work at a glacial pace,” learns Martin Aston.
ON YOUR MOJO CD THIS MONTH...
David Kaptein, David James Swanson, Ross Halfin, Aliyah
“I Don’t Want To Be A Cult! I Can’t Bear It”
How Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson gave flesh to the enigma of Felt, Denim and Mozart Estate. “I was very stunned,” its subject tells Ian Harrison
“I’m Looking For That Cool Breeze”
Jack White’s stripped-down de-invention brought a fresh new energy to his music, but what was it – and his guerrilla campaign – all about? Andrew Male cracks the code.
“Bowie Was Bawling His Eyes Out”
AKA, the Ziggy-era anniversary box set: only two years late but worth the wait, says Mark Paytress (with help from Ken Scott).
“THE BEST THING I’VE HEARD ALL YEAR!”
WHO NEEDS ALGORITHMS? THE MAKERS OF OUR BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 RECOMMEND THE MUSIC THAT MOVED THEM.
COVER STORY
MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY
As 2024’s Archives III box underlined, NEIL YOUNG’s late ’70s were as fertile as they were confounding. Entering his thirties in romantic and career turnaround, he hit a streak, from Zuma to Live Rust , as brilliant and unpredictable as any before or since. Along the way there’d be The Last Waltz, Like A Hurricane and “Eat a peach”. “It wasn’t about Neil trying to remain relevant,” discovers GRAYSON HAVER CURRIN. “It was him trying to keep moving as fast as possible.”
MOJO FILTER
Not the end of the world
Josh Tillman’s latest grand orchestral apocalyptic vision is bleak but joyfully delivered. By Tom Doyle. Illustration by Bill McConkey.
BaBa ZuLa
★★★★ İstanbul Sokakları GLITTERBEAT. CD/DL/LP Turkish psych legends
Rough justice
Sixty years on, Ireland’s finest troubadour is still calling out the wicked and refining his skills.
JAZZ
Vazesh ★★★★★ Tapestry EARSHIFT MUSIC. CD/DL Expansive studio
DeWolff
Southern comforts: DeWolff follow their dreams to Alabama.
Tighten up
The king of Ethio-jazz cuts loose in Tel Aviv.
Contrarian western
Boundary-pushing guitarist digs deep into tradition to reinvent the bluegrass wheel. Again.
AMERICANA
Silkroad Ensemble With Rhiannon Giddens ★★★★ American Railroad
Dora Morelenbaum
★★★★ Pique MR BONGO. CD/DL/LP Dora explores
Toward the light
Revealing live performances by the mystic guitarist unearthed.
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Dark stars: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan conjure
Two sevens clash
1977 debut sound from the smartest band around, expanded.
Melanie
Vocal hero: Melanie’s true worth is her voice
U2
Nuclear energy: U2, raw and unpolished on …Atomic
Devoto Flow
The Manc post-punk spooks’ mighty oeuvre back on vinyl.
The sadness of King George
The reflective work of a reluctant high-flyer reveals its true value 50-plus years on.
Sur Le Plage
Unearthed from rock obscuria’s basement, Seasick Steve’s secret past in French yacht-disco.
Taylor Swift
The Millennial Springsteen: MOJO’s version. By Victoria Segal
FILTER BOOKS
We All Shine On: John, Yoko, & Me
The long goodbye
Elton’s story (re)told in flashbacks and farewell tour footage. By Tom Doyle.
Chat
X
Pocketmags Support