The Triffids "Live at Alabama Café" 1987

From 26 December 1986 to 26 January 1987, The Triffids were on the bill of the Australian Made tour, which was the largest touring festival of Australian music talent attempted to that point. Jimmy Barnes and INXS headlined, and the rest of the line-up featured Mental As Anything, Divinyls, Models, The Saints, and I'm Talking. A concert film, Australian Made: The Movie, was directed by Richard Lowenstein and released later that year. The lead singer of INXS, Michael Hutchence, had insisted on The Triffids being part of the bill. 1987 also saw the release of three tracks recorded for John Peel on 5 May 1985, The Peel Sessions…...The Triffids were courted by several UK major record labels, based on the success of Born Sandy Devotional, eventually signing a three-record contract with Island Records in the UK in November 1986. Between April and August 1987, the band worked again with Norton, to record Calenture, their Island Records debut. The album, released in February 1988, saw them explore themes of insanity, deception and rootlessness—the title refers to a fever suffered by sailors during long hot voyages. The Triffids were nomadic, travelling back and forth from Australia to England to record the 'difficult' album—initial recordings with US producer Craig Leon were abandoned—and obviously related to the disoriented sailors. It provided the singles "Bury Me Deep in Love" in October 1987 and "Trick of the Light" in January 1988.

After Born Sandy Devotional, they graduated to the festival circuit and played alongside Iggy Pop, the Ramones, The Fall, Anthrax and Echo & the Bunnymen. By 1988, their fame was such that NME invited them to contribute a cover version of The Beatles' song "Good Morning Good Morning" to the tribute album, Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father, alongside songs by Billy Bragg and Wet Wet Wet.

The Triffids wanted to record the next album in Australia, but after the Calenture experience Island wanted to keep the band nearby. The Black Swan was recorded between September and October 1988 in Somerset, UK, and produced and engineered by Stephen Street. It was well received by critics, but the commercial success was not overwhelming, which disappointed band members. That, together with being tired from the constant travelling and touring, led to The Triffids being dissolved. The group travelled to the US in 1989 for a pair of New York dates before taking a much-needed vacation – one which turned permanent: "We didn't know they were final performances. Dave wanted to do a solo album and we were due to get back together after that. Much to his chagrin his solo album took longer than expected and he kept writing songs that sounded like Triffids songs. Domesticity snuck up on most of us, poor health snuck up on Dave, a planned '94 reunion tour was put on hold, and the Triffids faded into the mist." – Graham Lee

The band's last Australian shows were towards the end of 1989, with the final at the Australian National University in Canberra on 14 August 1989. 1990 saw the release of the live album, Stockholm, which completed their contractual obligations with Island. - wiki

BAND MEMBERS:

David McComb (vocals, guitar), Rob McComb (guitar, violin), Alsy MacDonald (drums), Jill Birt (keyboards, vocals), Graham Lee (pedal steel, guitar, vocals), Martyn P. Casey (bass)

trax:

01 Wide open road 02 Property is condemned 03 Personal things 04 In the pines 05 Hometown farewell kiss 06 Lonely stretch 07 Raining pleasure 08 Red pony 09 Jerdacuttup man 10 Field of glass 11 How could I help but love you 12 Stolen property 13 Once a day 14 Radio announcer

…served by Gaius...