By Josh Nixon
My conversation with Peter “Blackie” Black was always going to be long and reverential. After all, this man’s career—and that of his most well-known band, Hard-Ons—is equally long and rightly revered (though, I proffer, not nearly as revered as it should).
40 years on…
2023 marked the 40th anniversary of these fine punks from Punchbowl in Sydney (the current line-up including newer members Mr Murray Ruse of Newcastle and Mr Tim Rogers of Melbourne, of course). Or so I thought.
“It’s next year,” Mr Black corrected me. “I had a few jams and played my first-ever show in 1981, and Keish (De Silva) and I jammed with a drummer called Brendan Crieghton, who moved to the Gold Coast to form a band called Thrust.
“Then we got Ray (Ahn bass/vocals) and played a few parties, but our first pub show was in 1984 after I turned 18 at The Vulcan Hotel on 4 July. I still have the handbill somewhere.”
One thing the 40th anniversary won’t involve is looking backwards. There’s simply too much happening in the now.
and Blackie is not slowing down.
You see, dear reader, Blackie is likely The Most Recorded Musician in Australian Punk Rock History. In 2016, he produced 12 albums with 365 songs as a part of his Song A Day project, one of the most overlooked artistic achievements in contemporary music this century. He plays in Nunchukka Superfly with Hard-Ons compatriot Ray and has produced eight further solo records on top of the Hard-Ons output.
We caught up on a day when he was tracking a new Nunchukka Superfly record and mid-way through his daily routine. This routine comprises personal training from 7am until midday with the afternoon into the evenings spent on music.
My call came during the music portion, interrupting preparations for another Hard-Ons album, showing no slowing following this year’s excellent ‘Ripper 23. I told you there was a lot on.
Despite this weighty workload, Blackie doesn’t see himself as the busiest, most recorded musician in the country.
“I wish I was!” he chirps. “I wish I was like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and had my own studio to go into whenever I want. Like, even just twice a month to go and work on shit.
“One of the main reasons I did Song A Day was because if I could have a perfect job, I would have loved to have been one of those guys in the Brill Building; just clocking in and working on some tunes. That would have been fucking bliss.”
The Brill Building. The storied hit factory of songwriters and musicians in New York in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s that included Neil Diamond, Connie Francis and Burt Bacharach on the staff (Google it!), pumped out hits for radio from Yakety Yak to The Loco-motion and River Deep Mountain High. Blackie would have been right at home.
Finally a real four piece band!
For a band with a 40-year career, you could forgive them for coasting on the back catalogue. This is not the case. Partly due, as Blackie reminded me, that kinda happened already.
“For the 30th-anniversary show, we learned 30-40 old songs and basically let people spin a wheel and pick one,” Blackie recalls. “Keish came back for that show after a decade away with a lot of energy. We asked him to stay around and put it into new music.
“We did that for eight years until it all went to shit.”
The discussion of the historical view at this point has also been made difficult by the circumstances of Keish’s departure from the band. A crowd-sourced documentary (Hard-Ons: The Most Australian Band Ever) was on the cusp of release but was cancelled when allegations of sexual misconduct against De Silva surfaced in 2021.
Ray and Blackie immediately fired Keish. After taking a breath to recover from the gut punch and fall out, as with every collaboration of theirs, they landed on their feet.
“We’ve been so lucky,” Blackie reflects. “We got Pete (Kostic of Regurgitator/Front End Loader/ Nazxul) when Keish left the first time. When Pete left, Ray suggested trying out Murray, and I was really unsure”, he reveals, referring to Ruse’s intensely brutal lineage from Adelaide’s insane grindcore outfit Captain Cleanoff and Newcastle’s molten hardcore unit Conation.
“Murray gelled straight away, and not just with his playing on the old stuff. He brought a swing and a swagger on top of his power.
“And when we got Tim, it was just the best. Suddenly, we have someone who isn’t just contributing to the writing and playing but has all these incredible vocal flourishes and harmonies.
“It was like, “Fuck, we are finally a real four-piece!”
Indeed, that was my impression after first seeing this line-up. Free from vocal duties, Blackie had more time and space to focus his considerable energy on the guitar playing. This energy carried through into the album I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff is Taken, which came on the heels of some fantastic but, fair to say, eclectically diverse records.
The result was, stylistically speaking, a more focused effort than the preceding few albums.
Exploring Pop…
“You go through phases,” Blackie muses. “Even before Tim joined, I thought it was time to make a more concise record. Cause every now and again, I feel like doing something a bit straighter. When Tim joined, and I heard what his voice could do, that made me wanna explore pop. Well, not explore; fuck we’ve always explored it.
“In many ways, I see us as a pop band, but Tim’s voice made me want to do so much more. Moving into Ripper ‘23 and thinking about power pop, in the past, I tried to cover shortcomings from vocals by putting tonnes of distortion on the guitars. On the new one, I think I only turned the distortion on once the whole time. I just relied on that classic setup: the Gibson and the Marshall.”
Between Blackie and Massappeal’s Brett Currota, few people have set a better example of this quintessential tonal pairing, particularly in the punk and hardcore genres. Blackie’s 1986 SG, which I have dubbed “Excalibur”, was drawn from the stone of Downtown Music in 1987 (“I got it for cheap!” Blackie enthuses. “The headstock had been repaired, and they told me Araldite is stronger than wood!”). It is as ever-present and iconic as a punk rock equivalent of Angus Young or Tony Iommi’s use of this instrument on stages worldwide.
That pairing is applied with aplomb on Ripper ‘23. The cheeky artwork pays homage to a couple of great compilation albums of the 1970s (Ripper ‘76, Ripper ‘77) and features Tim Rogers’ partially exposed booty in the starring role.
and overflowing with ideas.
To my earlier point on being able to coast on past glories by this point in their career, it’s remarkable that the band has never been more potent, seemingly overflowing with ideas.
Makes Me Sick shows off the signature raucous delivery, but with that reigned in distortion Blackie spoke of. As does Sling Shot. There are the flat-out rockers on offer, of course. Still, that pop sensibility is on prime display with the Beach Boys infused Goin’ It Alone, the angular Never Been Handsome, and the blend of all of these ideas in the killer opener Apartment for Two.
Part of this overflow, I suggest, is due to the range of external outlets, triggering ideas with existing members, combining a back catalogue as diverse as You Am I’s Hourly, Daily and Captain Cleanoff’s Symphonies of Slackness taking with Hard-Ons’ Smell My Finger.
“I think a factor is to never stop learning and being hungry for new music,” Blackie posits. “I don’t get to listen to as much as before because when you’re working on as much shit as me, you need to be uncluttered.
“But I’ve gone back and listened to disco, which I hated as a kid, Afro-funk, and heaps of dub music. And there’s all the hardcore bands I missed from the early ‘80s; it makes me hungry for more.
“During COVID, for example,” Blackie continues, “I had an album by this funk band called Mass Production that just blew my mind. Then there’s getting into post Bones era Discharge, and I have mates who say, ‘What’s wrong with you??? Don’t you listen to the old shit anymore??’”
Blackie’s cheeky laugh broke up his thought.
“It’s like, no, I’ve never stopped loving the Damned! I don’t know, some people like being nice and neat, but I’m just fucking hungry! I buy stuff, and it’s like, “I wasn’t into this first listen, but my friends like this. Maybe I’ll give it a fucking go and try them.”
The drive and inspiration from all sources inspire a bottomless well of riffs and arrangements. With multiple releases to help usher in the Hard-Ons’ fifth decade, Blackie summarised the future succinctly.
“Some bands get to a point where they think they’ve reached a peak, thinking, ‘Yeah, that’ll do’. Then there’s the Melvins, who never stop learning, trying things and bringing it to each release.
“I’ve never been a ‘that’ll do guy.’”
Never change, long may they reign, and here’s to another 40.
Hard-Ons play Pot Belly Bar on Thursday, 14 December and are supported by local legends Hydranaut. Tickets are $39.80 via Oztix.
Give ’em a listen on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music