The Reels

Native Sons, consisting of John Bliss on drums, Craig Hooper on lead guitar and synthesiser, and Dave Mason on vocals, formed in the country town of Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976.[1] Mason is the son of NSW parliamentarian, John Mason, who was the state's Liberal Party leader during 1978–1981. Colin (Polly) Newham (keyboards/brass) from Orange, N.S.W. joined in 1977.

Native Sons played in the Dubbo/Orange/Newcastle area for two years, playing cover versions & original songs. After moving to Sydney in 1978, the band added Paul Abrahams on bass guitar and changed their name to The Brucelanders.[2] They developed an original repertoire of fast-paced, quirky pop and ska, and their energetic performances gained them a following on the east coast live music scene. They were given support in Sydney by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) rock radio station Double J, which moved to the FM band in 1980 and became Triple J.

By 1979, the Brucelanders had secured a recording contract with the Australian branch of Mercury Records and changed their name to the Reels, with the line-up of Abrahams, Bliss, Hooper, Mason and Newham. They released their debut single, "Love Will Find a Way" in October, which peaked into the top 40 of the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart.[3] Their self-titled debut album, The Reels, produced by Mark Opitz (the Angels, Cold Chisel) had appeared in November. With the follow-up single, "Prefab Heart" also appearing in November, combined with the band's distinctive image, they gained increasing attention with their music videos featured on the influential national ABC TV pop show Countdown from early 1980.[4][5]

In July 1980, the Reels added a sixth member, also a synthesiser player, Karen Ansel, a former member of local Melbourne group, the Romantics. This new line-up released their third single, "After the News". It marked a transition in their music – they dispensed with guitars, using synthesisers as their main instruments, and were one of the first groups to use headsets instead of traditional microphones.

During late July, the group undertook the innovative Reels By Rail Tour, using rail transport to destinations in the eastern states. At the end of the year, returning to their origins as a covers band, they released a five-track Christmas EP, Five Great Gift Ideas from The Reels, produced by Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop, which included Jim Reeves' "According to My Heart" and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold".[4] "According to My Heart" was accompanied by a folksy music video filmed at a farm in New Zealand. The EP did, however, have one original, "The Bombs Dropped on Xmas", co-written by Mason, Newham, Ansel & Shalvey.

In May 1981, they released along with single "Shout & Deliver" the album considered by many to be their best work, Quasimodo's Dream, which saw the band displaying an impressive maturity in song writing, backed with strong performances, inventive arrangements and top-class production. It peaked at No. 27 in June. The album's title track, "Quasimodo's Dream", was released as a single but, although widely considered to be one of the best Australian singles of that period, it failed to chart. The band undertook the Kitchen Man Tour, which saw the stage dressed as a fully equipped Australian kitchen.

The Reels' lack of top 10 mainstream commercial success was at odds with their strong live following, but it was due in part to the restrictive programming on commercial radio at that time, which gave little exposure to local "new wave" acts. The group's deteriorating relationship with Mercury was also a factor, as evidenced by the album's track listing—it included the earlier hit "According to My Heart", but a disclaimer printed on the sleeve noted that it had been included at the insistence of the record company (i.e. against the band's wishes).

Internal tensions were also a factor in the group's career vicissitudes—Bliss left just after the recording of the album, to be replaced by Stephan Fidock (who played with Ansel in the Romantics). The new five-piece lineup (with Fidock) promoted the album with the Kitchen Man Tour, once ended gradually over a 6-month period Ansel, Newham then Abrahams left the band. Now reduced to a trio (Mason, Hooper and Fidock) continued performing by augmenting their live sound with taped backing tracks, and used the new Fairlight synthesiser for studio recordings.

In late 1982, having signed a new contract with the RCA Records label, the Reels scored a hit with a cover of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song, originally recorded by Herb Alpert, "This Guy's in Love with You", which reached No. 7. They followed this with a one-off album for K-tel, which was known for its licensed pop hit compilations and budget 'golden oldie'. Although the tracks on Beautiful walked a fine line between sincere tribute and gentle parody, it proved to be the biggest success of their career, selling in excess of 40,000 copies and reaching No. 32 on the album chart, as well as being certified gold. The album was later released through RCA.

In 1983, the band released a five-track EP of original songs, Pitt Street Farmers (the title is an old Sydney satirical expression referring to wealthy rural landowners who never leave the city). This was followed by a new version of "Quasimodo's Dream" in December 1983, which demonstrated the band's faith in the song, although it failed to chart on its second release. At this point Mason was forced to give up performing after contracting hepatitis, which effectively ended the group. Hooper joined the Church as keyboard player, and later joined the Mullanes, the original incarnation of what became Crowded House, and Fidock returned to Melbourne to live.

By late 1985, Mason had recovered and the Reels was revived (with the line-up of Mason, Hooper, Bliss and Newham) and completed their commitments to RCA with a single, a cover version of Etta James's "It Must Be Love".

The band then signed with Regular Records and released a radically slowed-down, synthesiser-driven version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising". It proved to be another surprise hit, reaching No. 11 (October 1986); the arrangement featuring prominent use of the Vocoder voice synthesiser, which the band also used extensively on stage to augment Mason's vocals. Bliss left the band again at the end of 1986.

In January 1987, their next single was a cover of the Edison Lighthouse hit "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)". During that year, they embarked on the popular "Reels By Request" tour, where the audience was allowed to call out for the songs they wanted to hear.[6] This was followed by an 'all Australian songs' version of the same concept, and this in turn led to the Reels' next studio album, Neighbors - the name of which, excluded the 'u' which would normally be contained in the Australian English spelling. This LP contained their idiosyncratic versions of thirteen Australian rock classics,[7] including the singles "Are You Old Enough" (originally a hit for Dragon) and "Forever Now" (by Cold Chisel). Steve Prestwich, who wrote "Forever Now", played on the Reels' version. The album also featured a new version of the Reels' own song "Shout & Deliver".

In 1989, Mason appeared in the acclaimed Australian feature film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, in which he co-starred with Nick Cave. In September 1991, the Reels issued their first original single in five years, "I Don't Love You Anymore", followed by what proved to be their last single, a remix by Filthy Lucre of "Bad Moon Rising". The group officially disbanded to coincide with the release of the compilation CD Requiem. In 1999, rock music historian Ian McFarlane described them as "one of the most original and invigorating pop bands to emerge from the Australian new wave movement of the late 1970s" in his Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop.[4] The Reels however, never got to reunite as a six-piece group.

In May 2007, Dave Mason released his first album in more than 15 years, Reelsville, an acoustic celebration of the Reels hits re-recorded by the original artist. In August 2007, Reel to Reel was also released, a compilation of the Reels classic tracks with new liner notes as written by Mason.

In May 2008, Dave Mason, John Bliss and Colin Newham reunited and played shows.

At a subsequent show (the Gaelic Club, Surry Hills; 27 September 2008), Mason announced that Newham was retiring from the band. Since Newham retired, original bassist Abrahams rejoined the band after 23 years.

Notes

Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974–1987, it presented music awards from 1979–1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.[11][12]