A Glimpse at SCALA's Cassette Series
1990 to 1994
| SCALA started issuing its CD series in 1995. However in the years before the CDs (1990 to 1994) we released annual professionally recorded albums
(mixed to DAT) on cassette tape. These albums initially contained winning songs from the annual Songwriters Event. In 1988 the Folk Federation of South Australia had
asked SCALA to help run its Songwriters Event song competition at its annual State Festival. The Federation wanted the competition to be a true "event" rather than a "competition" and accordingly it
wanted to see a significant number (approximately a third) of each year's entries recorded - this meant about 12 to 14 songs each year!
SCALA took on this rather daunting task and over the next few years issued 6 albums on cassette. Along the way we added songs from other competitions SCALA was involved with - the Clare Arts Festival Song Competition in 1992 and the Safe Sex Song Competition in 1993. The resulting albums present a slice of some of the music SCALA was involved with at the time although without the breadth of the CD series. Still the cassette series taught us a lot about studio techniques, production ... and organising musicians! Here you can find details of each of the pre-CD albums - alas none of the cassettes is any longer available for sale. |
|
1. Sean Mangan Terry Mac 2. Kate Battersby Laurie Tredrea (Baby Dreams) 3. Des Fenoughty Many Years Ago 4. Steve Bellew Day For Atonement 5. Kestrel Promised Land (Dave Greenslade) 6. Wendy Joseph We Got The Right 7. Tom Trasy Soul of a Gypsy |
Recorded, engineered and mixed by Geoff Prideaux* Produced by Robert Childs Cover design - Tom Trasy Copyright © JT Trasy 1990 Total Running Time approximately 53 minutes * Track 5 recorded by Henk deWeerd (Hard Yacka) Winning songs from the 1988 Songwriters Event. |
|
SCALA's debut album, released at the same time as A Decent Meal (see below), was almost never recorded! The Folk Federation had hoped to get a grant to cover the recording costs of
the winning songs from the 1988 Songwriters Event but its application wasn't successful. The next year sponsorship from Soundworks Studio and The Rock Shop had been secured to record the 1989 winners
and the 1988 winning songwriters were beginning to wonder if they'd ever get the chance to record their songs. As it turned out the Folk Federation found a small amount of money and SCALA found a
friendly studio that put in a huge amount of time and The Action Is Good was the result.
Mind you, producer of both albums, Robert Childs, found himself going from recording sessions at Geoff Prideaux's Bower Road Studio (a western beach suburb) on one day to Cran Wilton's Soundworks Studio (north eastern suburbs) the next. It's also worth mentioning that for all of the cassette albums, artists had one hour each to record their songs (true!!). It's amazing what you can achieve when you have time limits! Some artists recorded more than acceptable versions of their songs in just one take. The Action Is Good contains a number of fine songs including Sean Mangan's Terry Mac (the overall winner of the 1988 Songwriters Event), Kate Battersby's Laurie Tredrea (Baby Dreams) (winner of the contemporary section) and Des Fenoughty's Many Years Ago (winner of the traditional section). |
Return to Contents
|
1. The Bedridden Bateman's Bay 2. Esther Parham Port Dock Dreams 3. Sean Mangan Walkerville Rats 4. Kestrel The Irishman 5. Chris Davies Sweet Smiling Boy 6. Kate Battersby Charmed Circle 7. Judith Crossley The Teams |
Recorded, engineered and mixed by Cran Wilton at The Soundworks* Produced by Robert Childs Cover design - Tom Trasy Copyright © JT Trasy 1990 Total Running Time approximately 50 minutes * Track 4 recorded by Henk deWeerd (Hard Yacka). Track 5 recorded by Geoff Prideaux. Winning songs from the 1989 Songwriters Event. |
|
In only our second year of running song competitions we found ourselves plunged into controversy following the 1989 Songwriters Event. The Bedridden had arrived and some "traditional" songwriters were upset! There's probably nothing to gain by raking over the controversy again but it's a matter of history
that The Bedridden went on to achieve cult status releasing a number of highly sought-after albums.
A Decent Meal is noteworthy (amongst other things) for the appearance of Songwriters Event founder, Judith Crossley, with her song The Teams (a one-take wonder). There's also an appearance by Chris Davies who later became part of the band JustaBoutEverything. |
Return to Contents
|
1. Colcannon For The Little Slavies 2. Phil Day Feast Your Soul 3. Denise Alexander-Grieve Immigration Blues 4. Chris Henderson Beneath The Drive-In Screen 5. Esther Parham Farrier's Green 6. Steve Bellew Bushwalker 7. Jim Lesses Trivial Pursuit |
Recorded, engineered and mixed by Cran Wilton at The Soundworks* Produced by Robert Childs Cover design - George Will Copyright © George Will 1991 Total Running Time approximately 48 minutes * Track 1 recorded by Stephen Snelleman and Wayne Baker at ABC Studios, Adelaide. Track 8 recorded by Sean Brown at Rage Rhythm, Adelaide. Track 12 recorded by Graham Dodsworth at Wodonga, Victoria. Winning songs from the 1990 Songwriters Event. Copyright © SCALA 1991 |
|
After the shock of the 1989 results, the 1990 Songwriters Event must have seemed like a return to some kind of normalcy for some people with John Munro's For The Little Slavies (a song
about British children shipped to Australia in the first half of the 20th century) judged the winning song.
Set The Record Straight still caused a ripple of controversy though! Some people objected to the cover illustration (by George Will) of a smoking "straight" record man (hmm!). The album contains the debut recording by Denise Alexander-Grieve (Immigration Blues) - now known as Alex in The Borderers. Set The Record Straight has the distinction of being SCALA's first album to include the lyrics of each track - something continued in all subsequent SCALA albums. |
Return to Contents
|
1. Leigh Newton Twelve Months To The Day 2. Bindi Blacher Sometimes 3. Romany Soup Mosquito Fleet 4. Shamrock and Thistle Across The Waves (David Wheeler) 5. Phil Day The Sharp Edge Of The Knife 6. Daisyheads Window Bright Like Sky 7. Bindi Blacher Adelaide City Song (Corey Rolfe) |
Recorded, engineered and mixed by Mick Wordley at Mixmasters Produced by Robert Childs* Cover design - George Will Copyright © George Will 1992 Total Running Time approximately 49 minutes * Tracks 6 and 10 produced by Mick Wordley and The Daisyheads. Winning songs from the 1991 Songwriters Event. Copyright © SCALA 1992 |
|
For the 1992 album The Strongest Troop In Town (containing winning songs from the 1991 Songwriters Event) we ventured to Mick Wordley's MixMasters Studio (or, at least, the 1992 version
of it). In recent years Mick and/or his studio (now a purpose built facility with foot thick rammed earth walls) has won a number of awards and has the distinction of having recorded the first single
by Superjesus which went on to score a major label deal. Mick was also responsible for recording and producing most of the material on our "tourist promotion" CD South
Australia: A Sense Of Place issued in 1998.
The Strongest Troop In Town is unique amongst all our albums insofar as it is the only one, to date, with all tracks recorded at the one studio. There are a number of fine songs and performances on this album including Leigh Newton's eulogy for his late father, Twelve Months To The Day, Mike McGregor's tribute to the days of sail, Mosquito Fleet, Michelle Lynton's powerful song about alcoholism, Early Graves and David Wheeler's beautiful song of longing, Across the Waves (sung by Shamrock and Thistle). The Strongest Troop In Town also includes debut recordings by Bindi Blacher with her song Sometimes and Adelaide City Song (written by Cory Rolfe) and the Daisyheads' Window Bright Like Sky. Daisyheads' guitarist Lachlan Coles also features on the album with his descriptive Wet Day Song. And there's the first recording of Matthew Bagley's very dry Living With Gout (later rerecorded for his Something of a Rake2 CD) plus Phil Day's The Sharp Edge of the Knife. Phil was one of the dominant winners in the Songwriters Event years between 1989 and 1993 along with Mike McGregor and Kate Battersby. |
Return to Contents
|
1. Esther Parham Little Boat Song 2. Steve Ashley Song For Michael 3. Wendy Joseph Ghan 4. Mike Roberts Heartland 5. Cactus Stay That Way 6. Marek Lambert City Lights 7. Judith Crossley Spaceship Earth 8. Dave Cobb One Life 9. Louise and Tanya Weapons In The Wilderness |
All tracks recorded at Gumboot Studio except track 1 - recorded at Seventh Wave Studio (produced by Roy "Spider" Godfrey) and track 14 - recorded
somewhere in Victoria (exact location unknown).
Produced by Robert Childs and Dave Cobb. Engineer Rob Lock. Mastered by Phil Hibberd and Geoff Prideaux. Cover design and layout - Lyn Davidson
Winning songs from the 1992 Songwriters Event and the 1992 Clare Arts Festival Song Competition. |
|
Another year and another studio. Someone To Greet You was mainly recorded at Gumboot Studio (engineer Rob Lock) with Dave Cobb sharing production with Robert Childs. This is the first
SCALA produced album to venture beyond the Songwriters Event. In 1992 SCALA ran a one-off song competition as part of the Clare Arts Festival. With 13 songs from the 1992 Songwriters Event as well as
the 3 winners from Clare, our albums were beginning to expand in length which meant more hard work for the volunteers involved on the project.
Someone To Greet You includes Esther Parham's Little Boat Song about the treatment of "illegal immigrants", a song which arguably has more relevance now than when she wrote it. This album also includes the youngest performer so far on any SCALA album - Marek Lambert was 10 or 11 years old when he wrote and recorded City Lights (he also programmed and played all the instruments on the track!). There are also songs by Wendy Joseph, Steve Ashley, Judith Crossley, Dave Cobb, Kathy Gibbings and Mary and Sudjai Cook (amongst others). |
Return to Contents
|
1. Kate Battersby The Ballad Of Widow Jean 2. Howard Kehl and Darren Constable You Don't Practice Safe Sex You Just Do It 3. Karen Plisko and Margie Russell C.O.N.D.O.M. 4. Matthew Bagley Arigo, Surgeon Of The Rusty Knife 5. Imajen Nation Jesters In Time 6. Michael McGregor The Bilby 7. Phil Day Broken Hearts And Broken Souls 8. Pat Rix, Juan Crosby and Peta-Belinda Ashton Let's Get It On Together 9. Rachel Flemming and Natalie Newband Condom Rap 10. Andrew Bunney Safe Sex Man
11. Dave Cobb Just A Little |
All tracks recorded at The Soundworks studio with the exception of 7 recorded at Brian Brophy's place (Victoria), 10 recorded by Andrew Bunney and 17 recorded in Esther's lounge room. Engineered and mastered by Cran Wilton and Iain Thomas. Produced by Dave Cobb.
Cover design - David Walters
Winning songs from the 1993 Songwriters Event and the 1993 Safe Sex Song and Jingle Competition. |
|
Innocent Babes (substantially recorded at Soundworks) is an interesting hybrid of songs from the Songwriters Event 1993 plus winners from the 1993 SCALA run Safe Sex Song and Jingle competition. The latter was an initiative of the SA Health Commission which wanted to raise (!) awareness of Safe Sex (we even had Channel 9 filming part of the competition). Hence there are songs on the album with titles like C.O.N.D.O.M, Condom Rap and You Don't Practice Safe Sex You Just Do It. There's also the Andrew Bunney jingle Safe Sex Man. Innocent Babes is also noteworthy insofar as it introduced the current SCALA logo to the world.
Even though all the songs on these releases were professionally recorded, after 6 cassette based albums we realised that we needed to move to CD format to increase the possibility of radio airplay of the songs and to more professionally present the artists. We also were about to start our first FOOM Song Competition in 1994 so it made sense to change. Innocent Babes, with 18 tracks and over 63 minutes of songs was approaching the length of many of our later CDs. We certainly learned much about organising recording and production from our cassette series. CD though is another level and that's a story for another time. |
Return to Contents
Adapted from Before the CDs by Robert Childs.
Part One first published in SCALA News # 78 (November/December 2000).
Part Two first published in SCALA News # 80 (March/April 2001).
Copyright © Robert Childs 2001