When I was in my late teens and early twenties, my favourite band was The Simpletons. I found out about them because my father decided to take us to see Willie Nelson play at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in 1994. For some strange reason, The Simpletons were his first support act. They were completely out of place there and to be honest I didn't know what to make of them.
However, my future brother-in-law had the good judgement to buy a copy of their EP Smother. When he opened it up there were two discs inside, one on top of the other. So he gave me one as a birthday present. That disc was soon my favourite, eclipsing Guns 'n' Roses, Queen, even Willie Nelson!
They released several more EPs over the next few years, as well as a couple of albums. The best of their albums for me was Matter. I must have listened to it a squillion times. It kept me company through some dark days. (Unfortunately, as so often happens to the discs you listen to the most, most of my Simpletons collection is now badly scratched and scratched discs make my stereo system jump like a Frenchman from Maine.)
I saw the band play live a few more times, including the time they played a Thursday gig somewhere in East Brisbane (I think) which is the only time in my life I have ever had to have a sickie due to a hangover. At least I came away with the band's signatures on a souvenir T-shirt - thanks guys! Of course, I wore the shirt so much that it disintegrated and is now long gone.
This evening I'd been listening to Matter again (scratches and all) for the first time in years, and I thought I'd check out the interwebs to see what I could find out about what the band members have been up to. And I got a nasty shock. I found out that their singer Shane (or Cheyne) Gelagin died suddenly in 2003. He was probably only a few years older than me. The guy was an awesome songwriter.
Shane himself wrote and sang, in the song Postcard, "It's better to become candlewax than to burn on". Long gone T-shirts. Scratched discs. Dead young men. It all seems sad and futile in hindsight. But I'm glad it happened once rather than not at all.
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3 comments:
Just found your blog - albeit 2 years after you wrote it! What a fantastic band and a such very sad story too. I'm glad i'm not alone in being the only person to still miss this band and their songwriting skills. Would love to have been at the Willie Nelson gig...I heard the story how the band ate Waylon Jennings steak backstage..haha!
I'm sure you are aware that Shane's side-kick Darren Hanlon is still out playing and performing both in venues around Australia and globally.
If you don't have his debut mini-album 'Early Days' (2000) then i'd strongly suggest you grab a copy as it continues nicely where The Simpletons mk.1 left off. Kind've sounds like Simps fan favourite 'danielle' (which, incidentally, Hanlon wrote). All his recordings to date are worth a listen - 'Falling Aeroplanes' and 'Wish that i was beautiful for you' are career highlights.
Btw, you can get pretty much all but the last Simpletons album 'Popcore' on i-tunes now - a lasting legacy of the much missed Candle Records bands. You can also find a couple of slices of early video footage on Youtube, although none of the song vid-clips (mostly made by Shane) are there. If anyone reads this and has those clips PLEASE upload them!!!
There's also a Myspace fan-page here with select tracks from ep's and all 3 albums (plus one track from Shane's solo recording 'Deep Backward Square' called 'Meet the Shaggs');
www.myspace.com/simpletons2480
Enjoy!
2480
hey, thanks for the informative comment. I do like Darren Hanlon's solo stuff but have never got around to getting any of it. I must do so.
hi i stumbled upon this blog too,,,in 1996-97 i lived in surry hills sydney. i can't remember how i met cheyne but i was lugging for a band and studying acting and we seemed to bump into each other everywhere. i lost his name and i just found it and have learnt he died! i am shaken as he was a really memorable guy. i was actually in a movie he was filming in stanmore , at a house, it was just made up on the spot virtualy. i always wondered what happened to that. i was crewing for nitocris the same year and watched the simpletons from side of stage in brisbane and it was an amazing set, they were really different to me, very loose and unashamably very musical.... my story i still say to people is "i used to know this guy from the simpletons, one night i took him somewhere in my van in sydney, he needed a lift, he had everything he owned, a duffle bag , and in it was a black and white battery powered tv. Cheyne said he'd been living in everley street redfern in a squat and the aboriginal blokes liked him staying because he had that tv. he played poker with everyone there.... i knew i was from a different part of the world when i heard his stories.... Cheyne was a special person, wish i knew him more.... he called me years later maybe 1999 and asked me if i wanted to audition for the simpletons. i was now living on the gold coast and had put my guitars away, i got massive goosebumps, it was like this guy was following me around, he didn't have anything, but somehow he knew my phone number after a few years ..... wow, massive goosebumps again, i didn't remember this story until tonight...RIP Cheyne. you were just a very decent person i understood well, in a very dirty city...Drew Kruck
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