Radio Birdman

Title: Ritualism  -  Company: Crying Sun/Citadel (Australia)

Cat No: (csr001)  -  Format: cd album  -  Released: 1997  -  Status: In print - To order, click HERE

 

The band's first offering on its own label, this low budget but high quality live album was recorded in one afternoon during their reunification tour of 1996. They were invited to play to a small audience of contest winners at a studio in Melbourne, for the independent station 3RRR, which was given the broadcast rights to the performance. The band got triple-R t-shirts and a tape. The album was initially released mail order only, a limited number coming in a beautiful oversized booklet format.

The album is completely live, with no overdubs. There are two new Radio Birdman songs, previously unrecorded. It also contains an interesting and compelling version of TV Eye, with free jamming and unplanned segue into a few bars of Looking At You during the track...a song last played by Radio Birdman 20 years previously. The band was happy to have again offered a quality record directly to the people, minus industry involvement.

 

Track Listing: (40:22)

Burned My Eye ( D Tek ) (1:31 m:s)

Smith And Wesson Blues ( D Tek ) (2:56 m:s)

Anglo Girl Desire ( D Tek ) (3:02 m:s)

Hanging On ( D Tek ) (3:36 m:s)

TV Eye ( The Stooges ) (6:42 m:s)

Revelation ( D Tek / R Younger ) (2:44 m:s)

Aloha Steve & Danno ( D Tek / R Younger / M Stevens ) (3:33 m:s)

Alone In The Endzone ( D Tek ) (1:59 m:s)

455 SD ( D Tek ) (2:42 m:s)

Walk The Earth ( C Masuak / D Tek ) (5:04 m:s)

What Gives? ( W Gilbert / D Tek ) (2:26 m:s)

New Race ( D Tek ) (4:01 m:s)

 

The Musicians:

Rob Younger - Vocals

Deniz Tek - Guitar 

Chris Klondike Masuak - Guitar

Pip Hoyle - Klavier

Warwick Gilbert - Bass

Ron Keeley - Drums

 

Technical Details:

Recorded by Dave Warner / Engineered By Tim Johnston  at Seed Studios, Melbourne

Mixed by Chris Masuak and Rob Younger  at Electric Avenue Sydney

Mix Engineered by Wayne Connolly

 

 

Of Interest

Ritualism contains 10 new versions of standard Radio Birdman material as well as two new tracks, Revelation and Walk The Earth. The session was recorded over a six hour period at Seed Studios in South Melbourne on a day off between Melbourne shows. A small but lively audience of 25 hardcore fans attended, these being the winners of a Triple R phone in competition. They were stuffed into the corridor and control room of the studio where they were randomly captured by an overhead mike.

 

The production was recorded fully live and without overdubs. No efforts were made to cover up mistakes or doctor the performances. If it sounds like only a dozen people yelling at the end of the song, that's because it is. The option to edit in a raucous crowd response was dismissed by the band as being misleading. Two days only were spent on mixing the tracks some months after the recording. Only two songs from the session didn't make it onto Ritualism giving some indication of the playing prowess of the group.

 

The album was initially packaged in this A5 Digibook format for live show and mailorder sales only. The cover shots were taken at the band's Metro show in Sydney while the accompanying 12 page insert contains shots 'grabbed' from a video of their Perth 'Big Day Out' appearance. There is also a reproduction of the 'Radios On' tour poster.

 

To order as CD only or with fabulous A5 size full color booklet, go to the Citadel Records Mailorder website HERE.