When some terribly serious coot makes a history of 90’s Australian pop, I doubt they’ll deign to mention TISM.
But for a kid from the country who, in those pre-Internet days, was blown away when the diet of Hits and Memories radio was turned on its head by the introduction of JJJ to Albury in 1994, TISM are special. This is Serious Mum and their p*sstake dance-pop will remain a touchstone. So I was saddened to read that Jock Paull, aka Token Blackman of TISM, got a tumour that may not have started in his brain, but crept into his lungs, and ended his life prematurely at 50.
So, in honour of a man whose name I didn’t know until now, but whose music made me laugh every time I heard it, let’s all demand a vodka rider from our nearest student union, and dance like a d******d to one of TISM’s finest moments, He’ll Never Be an Old Man River. Guitarists may pass, riffs live forever…
Sad news!
I was too young to be there, but I heard that the best joke ticket ever in the UQ student elections was in 1989 – TISM – complete with the white boiler suits and songs in the Main Refect. Maybe Lefty E will pop in and tell us more!
IT was TISV – this is serious voters, as i recall!
In honour:
Death. Death. Death.
Amway. Amway. Amway.
Thanks, sc! Like I said, I was still in high school!
Ahhh… shit…
I can remember a gig at the Ozone Bar in Perth, way back, where TISM had a full live debate going on, on the stage behind them, with two sides and a moderator and the little bell, on the death penalty.
When they would stop during the songs, you could hear the guys – they carried on regardless while TISM were playing.
Never seen anything like it before or since…
One of the best live shows I ever saw was Blue Ruin supporting TISM at the Old Greek Theatre on Bridge Rd, Richmond in the late eighties.
Blue Ruin were at the height of their powers as a hard rocking post-punk band sardonically borrowing 60s dirty Las Vegas trophes and delivered a dynamite performance.
For their encore, they came back on stage all wearing balaclavas, with suddenly a few extra balaclava sporting members, and ripped into a juicy honky tonk gut bucket stripper blues version of TISM’s “Defecate On My Face”.
After an appropriate intermission, TISM hit the stage, with a few extra balaclava sporting members, and launched into a very witty techno deconstruction of Blue Ruin’s “Bad Gin”. They went on to deliver a fantastic show.
By the time TISM got round to encores, no one could really tell who was who from what band under the balaclavas on stage.
It struck me as a very TISM, and Melbourne, kinda gig.
Even though that night was before Jock Paull’s time, it’s what people like him and his cohorts have come up with that makes Melbourne’s music scene one of the nation’s great and too often under-appreciated assets.
I’ll miss whatever Jock was going to come with next.
Saw TISM at a festival up near newcastle just after Xmas in, ummm, 1998? It’s all a bit vague…
Brutally great set, and the TISM on-stage theatrics punctuated by dozens of naked people hopping about on stage as kangaroos.
I guess you could say the date’s vague, the dates more memorable!
kim: i was only a fresher that year – and still 16 yo in O Week if i recall the dates right!
We must be the same age, sc! I was 16 in 89. Not at uni though.
I hope you stayed away from the Rec Club til second year! I wouldn’t want to have to start a retrospective moral panic about underage female yoof drinking!
Born in 72. (Qld let 4 yo’s start year one provided they turned 5 by end of Feb back then). Had a 4 year degree and a job by 20.
Oh i was a pretty good baptist girl from Rocky in first year. Oddly enough I’d been going out to clubs since i was 14 (can you imagine that now?). Even my very conservative christian mother didn’t mind as long as the older ‘youth group’ boys looked after me. What else was there to do in Rockhampton in the eighties after watching Brat pack movies ? Hang out at the mobil service station with the Torana boys?
Some more TISM nuggets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv59ABtcLDM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTm9aititM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phuaH2gE2WM
and the one started it all, overwhelmingly voted best new act in a nationwide poll conducted by JJJ in 1986.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pd_xCURto8
A provocative study of the analism inherent in Fascism, set to a killer beat.
What lifted and separated them from being a one joke act like Devo was some seriously barbed, lovingly localised yet universally pungent observations. And better musicianship.
Ah ok, I was born in 73.
Just quietly, I had a birthday on Friday. I’m 35! OMG!
Are you assuming the options in Brissie were any wider at the time?
I first hit The Beat when I was 15, I think! More fun than the servo or the skatin rink!
There are at least two Devo joke acts!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo_2.0
At least y’all had FM radio in the eighties in Brisbane
ZZZ!
I saw them around ‘93 at the club in the bottom of the myer centre in Brisbane. Then again at the first BDO at the Gold Coast.
The BDO show was at 3:30 in the afternoon. Stinking Qld humidity up to my ankles in mud.
Recently I got their live DVD to relive the glory days. In memory of Jock, next time I’m in Melbourne I’m going to do a left hand turn at Springvale Rd/Frankston Rd intersection.
Thanks for that Robert. James Paull has a myspace music page here with a selection of his non-TISM music.
Happy Birthday Kim!
And yes I was sad to read of Paull’s death yesterday. Nabs, Buick KBT supported TISM at the Old Greek, but it would have been around mid-80s rather than late 80s? I think Blue Ruin may also have been involved? Must try and check.
They were a pain to support, because of the anonymity thing, backstage was off limits!
I saw them around ‘93 at the club in the bottom of the myer centre in Brisbane.
I remember that night – one of Ron Hitler-Barassi’s better on-stage rants (concerning corruption), set to:
Russ Hinze’s body lies a-rotting in his grave.
But Queensland goes marching on.
mister Z, i think I was at the same gig, ‘cos that’s my memory of TISM and I had been wanting to see them for years. When I was in highschool (back when you would sneak your music in on disc mans) they seemed to me to be one of the few bands out with a sense of humour who weren’t taking life seriously (whatever their named claimed). When I first heard ‘There’ll never be an old man river’ I was torn been hysterics and scandalisation, ahh those days when I was a proper young catholic school girl.
Thanks Helen!
TISM are shit (but who the fuck isn’t?)
I played a couple of shows supporting them in Perth with one of my old bands. Very nice chaps with a jolly fine rider they were too.
A ex-bandmate was recruited to mime keyboards as a band member for the previous tour of the West – apparently this was quite common – it was mostly just ADAT playback for lots of shows, with some live guitar and vocals.
Anyway, vale Jock. He’s defecating on angels now…
In early nineties the house of the much loved President of the Monash Student Association burnt down and she was trapped inside. For six weeks (from memory) the doctors were not sure she was going to make it.
Some friends of hers organised a benefit concert, partly to raise money for anything she might need, but mostly because it was the only thing they could think of to do. Most of the acts were small Melbourne bands who were friends, or friends of friends of hers. However, after the gig was organised TISM contacted the venue about doing a secret gig to try out their new material. It was a perfect fit and they were slotted onto the line-up under some pseudonym (although word got around).
Ironically, given the cause, the attendance would have been close to double the firelimit, so in a seething mass of far too many people, many light-headed at the news that Janoel would make a full recovery I was one of the first witnesses to a live performance of the song Robert posted, along with quite a few others. Truly an experience to treasure.
A truly great band. I only ever got to see them live once and that was in ‘98 on their Caveat Emptour with Regurgitator and The Fauves. The album they were promoting ‘www.tism.wanker.com’ is in my opinion one of their best and was to be their last relevant album.
I’m sure Jock would be smirking and appreciating that TISM staple ‘40 Years-Then Death’ right about now. I still say ‘Saturday Night Palsy’ is one of the best songs they wrote but perhaps none more fitting for Jock than that B-side on the ‘Yob’ single, ‘The Last Australian Guitar Hero’.
This is sad news. Seeing the youtube video bought back many memories of the several times I managed to see tism.
The nude cricket playing on stage at glenworth (it was a hot day!)
Funky light suits at BDO
And I think they had red dragon suits at a homebake.
The big signs before every song.
My condolences to Jock’s family. His music touched a large number of people, and made them smile.
My memory of TISM was a support they did to some big name international act at The Palace in St. Kilda in the mid-80s. That period was not particularly kind to my quota of brain cells and when push comes to shove, the identity of the headline act seems to have left the building. The Cult, perhaps?
But what is burned strongly onto my memory is that the entire TISM set was accompanied by a full wedding reception taking place on stage behind the band. Long table, 3-story cake, bride, groom, bridesmaids and best men, all fully dolled up and nodding politely to one another. The utter banality of it all was spectacular and the contrast with the manic writhing taking place in front was sheer poetry. Not many bands ever imagined operating on that plane. They were a one-off.
Feral at 24, I think the pseudonym offered for the gig was ‘mist’. Yet another awesome gig.
Took a japanese friend to a tism gig a few years ago. She could hardly speak for a few days after that.