I was holed up in Upwey with an inflamed facet joint. Don’t let it happen to you. My facet was fucked and I was feeling the flames of pain.
I received a message telling me Mental As Anything was rocking in the sunshine along Port Phillip Bay. Loaded up with panadeine forte, I said, “Fuck You Facet!”, and found my place amongst a very large throng gathered to hear tunes we all knew the words to. (Note: I found out later that they had played a pub show the night before….FOMO!)
Reg Mombassa and his brother Peter O’Doherty, founding members, were there, and they were joined by Shannon Stitt on keys, Declan O’Doherty on drums and Simon Rudston-Brown on vocals/guitar. I can hear your brain….so how was it now, without Greedy and Martin decades later?
Fun. It was fun. What would you expect? You did not have the whacky Greedy up front and that always tugs at my heart, but the music sounded sweet and cheery and the crowd lapped it up. I had a friend from Italy with me who had no idea who The Mentals were and I said, “Just watch, everyone will be singing along!”
Sure enough from “The Nips Are Getting Bigger”, “Too Many Times” and others (playlist below) you could see the packed crowd really enjoying themselves. Summer. The Beach. The Mentals. Thank you weather gods for giving us a spectacular day to live it up.
And yes, the crowd got especially loud on their biggest hit from 1985, “Live It Up”. Rudston-Brown sounded so good taking on Greedy’s vocal part that, for a moment, I thought they were using a recorded version of him singing. Even if they had, who would have cared?
I was lucky enough to latch onto The Mentals when I came to Australia in 1984 and saw them at the legendary Narara Festival. I’ve crowed on about that weekend once before, but it was a great line-up and for me a good intro to Aussie Rock back then.
I tried not to miss them during my decades living in Sydney.
Mental As Anything will be playing around this year. They will be bringing their tunes to Byron Bay for The Bluesfest, and I am sure some venues up and down the coast.
Fun.
Happiness
Beer
Joints
Dancing
Singing
Coming out sooooon, real soooon, is this film. Watch the trailer and even if you don’t know them….you will like them after seeing this little video.
Come Around
Too Many Times
Egypt
If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?
He’s Just No Good for You
Berserk Warriors
Apocalypso (Wiping the Smile Off Santa’s Face)
The Nips Are Getting Bigger
Mr Natural
(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet
Live It Up
Postscript: And Reg and Pete are Dog Trumpet…and that little ‘side project’ has been rolling out some magical music for 36 years now. Due to some foul-mouthed language, you will have to go to YouTube to watch the song below, but make sure you do. It’s a corker, as they say.