Are the 1980s Australian bands Midnight Oil, The Angels or Hunters and Collectors known in America? Not suggesting they should be, so don’t jump on me. Just curious.
Midnight Oil is pretty well known, I think.
I’m a huge fan of The Clouds. I kinda like The Sleepy Jackson as well.
“Beds are Burning” is a staple of its era, so Midnight Oil is well know,
I’m a big fan of Flash and the Pan. They got some attention for “Hey, St. Peter” at the time, but aren’t well-known today.
Lime Spiders!
The Church are my fave, but even among relatively knowledgeable music aficionados they are typically not known.
Blue Sky Mine got a lot of airplay in the US as well.
I agree that Midnight Oil is pretty well known.
Men At Work is probably the first thing an American would think of when you mention 1980’s Aussie bands; Midnight Oil might be third, behind INXS.
“Under The Milky Way” is well-known in my experience by my peers (who grew up in the 80s), but whether they know the band by name, I dunno. “Metropolis” also made a decent splash in 1990, too. I’d expect a music afficianado to know them, though. Certainly the former is in regular rotation on classic hits radio around here, at least.
Midnight Oil was very well known to anyone who liked alt rock. I’ve heard of Hunters and Collectors - Throw Your Arms Around Me got a decent amount of play on college radio in the late 80s, but I don’t remember hearing them on commercial radio. I’ve never heard of The Angels.
I don’t know how obscure they are, but most didn’t get a lot of mainstream play here in the states:
The Saints
Hoodoo Gurus
The Triffids
The Go-Betweens
Crime and the City Solution
Definitely not obscure would be stuff like Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance, AC/DC, Little River Band, etc.
Yeah, the 80s Australian trio of American-known pop/rock are MAW, INXS and MO. We know a few solo acts from that era as well…ONJ and Kylie Minogue, mostly. (I think of the BeeGees as 70s, but we know them, too.)
No Secrets by The Angels is a great song.
I had an 80’s cassette tape called “Maiden Australia” it featured this Split Enz song 'Next Exit
Also this song by The Expression-‘Nothing Changes’
Also Mental as Anything, Skyhooks, Hunters and Collectors…etc…
Split Enz of course being Kiwis.
I am the only American I have ever met who owns Hunters & Collectors albums. Carry Me* is an amazing song and I’ll play it for anyone who’ll listen.
*No, I couldn’t find the live video referenced at that link. It’s a shame because the performance and recording are both phenomenal; truly a case of a band being better live than they are in the studio and they were remarkable in the studio. Still, Mark Seymour keeps on keepin’ on so there’s that.
I also remember Midnight Oil being marketed as Australian version of U2 because of their political and socially conscious songs. Still, it was rather odd that “Beds Are Burning” became a hit in the US since probably 90% of its listeners stateside didn’t know what it was about (native Australian land rights).
(I didn’t want to miss the edit window while I was getting links, eh)
Other bands I know that other Americans usually haven’t heard of include: Mammal (NSFW; also they broke up years ago now), Airbourne, Full Scale, Pineapples From the Dawn of Time and, of course, Radio Birman.
I reckon Cold Chisel is probably the band with the biggest following in Australia that seems unknown outside the country.
Midnight Oil, The Church, Hoodoo Gurus…all great bands. They all received airplay in the US, especially on college radio in the 80’s.
Heyday, Starfish and Gold Afternoon Fix are excellent albums by The Church. I still have a Starfish t-shirt.
I saw Hoodoo Gurus in Birmingham, AL in 1989. They even played the intro to “Sweet Home Alabama” during the show. Stoneage Romeos, Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! are really good Hoodoo Gurus albums.
I had a Lime Spiders and Hunters and Collectors album back in the day but they’ve disappeared over the years.
I was also a big INXS fan. I had Shabooh Shoobah, The Swing and Listen Like Thieves in high school. Kick was obviously their big mainstream breakthrough but also a really good album.
I always liked Midnight Oil too. I had Red Sails in the Sunset, Diesel and Dust and Blue Sky Mining. Lots of great bands from Australia.
90% of Australian listeners also didn’t know what it was about either due to Peter Garret, much as we love him, having one of the worst dictions in contemporary music.