Sold Date: August 17, 2020
Start Date: August 22, 2019
Final Price: $37.99 (AUD)
Seller Feedback: 413
Buyer Feedback: 17

ITEM: VINYL 12” LP 33 1/3rpm
ARTIST: CAPTAIN MATCHBOX WHOOPEE BAND
TITLE: Wangaratta Wahine
COUNTRY PRINTED: OZ
CAT No: Image, ILP-744 [ORIGINAL 1974-STEREO]
COVER: Gatefold (Grade at EXCELLENT) light water affected bottom right cnr front & back. Just causes cvr to be “wavey”
LABELS: (Grade at NEAR MINT+)
VINYL: (Grade at EXCELLENT+ to NEAR MINT-)
TRACKS:
Side 1:
"Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me"
"Lovesick Blues"
"Half A Moon Is Better Than No Moon"
"Jug Band Music"
"Wait For Me Juanita"
"Top Hat"

Side 2:
"If Youse A Viper"
"That's What The Bird Sang To Me"
"Wangaratta Wahine"
"Flamin' May"
"Your Feet's Too Big"
"Hernando's Hideaway"

PERSONNEL:
Tony Dunn: 2nd jug on "Jug Band Music"
Uncle Bob's Band: bird noises
Producer: Ern Rose
Engineer: Robin Gray
Photography: Sue Wood
Cover: Michael Leunig

PERSONNEL:
Jim Conway (harmonica,kazoo, vocals)
Mic Conway (vocals, washboard, ukelele)
with:

Tony Burkys (guitar) 1978-79
Stephen Cooney (guitar) 1978-80?
Chris Coyne (sax, flute) 1979-80
Mick Fleming (banjo, mandolin, guitar, vocals) 1969-73
Dave Flett (electric bass, slide dobro, backing vocals, ukelele) Nov 1973 Nov? 1976
Geoff Hales (drums, washboard) Nov 1973 - 1975
Dave Hubbard (guitar) 1969-73
Peter Inglis (guitar, vocals) 1969-73
Graeme Isaac (drums, washboard) 1976-77
Rick Ludbrook (guitar, sax) 1976-78
Eric McCusker (guitar) 1979-80
Gordon McLean (banjo, mandolin, guitar, vocals) 1976-
Louis McManus (guitars, fiddle,mandolin, banjo etc ) 1978-80
Peter Martin (guitar) 1980
Peter Muhleisen (bass) 1976-1980
Jim Niven (piano, pedal organ) 1969-76
Fred Olbrei (violin, vocals) Nov 1973-1976
Manny Paterakis (drums, washboard) 1974-76
Robert Ross (drums) 1979-80
Jack Sara (violin, vocals) 1976
Peter Scott (tea chest bass) 1969-73
Jon Snyder (guitar) Jan? 1974-?
Colin Stevens (mandolin, blues harp) 1976-7
Chris Worral (banjo, mandolin, guitar, vocals) 1975-76
COMMENT: MILESAGO

If asked to name the most entertaining and best-loved Australian band of the early '70s, it's a fair bet that most young people who lived through that period would nominate The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. This crazily brilliant Melbourne-based ensemble played a uniquely Aussie brand of jug-band blues, spiced with jazz, swing, popular standards, cabaret, sideshow alley schtick and vaudeville routines including slapstick, tap dancing, juggling, magic and even fire-eating.

  An obvious and common comparison would be England's Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, but it would be quite wrong to label Matchbox as mere copyists -- in fact Mic Conway has said that didn't hear the Bonzos until long after Captain Matchbox had been formed. The Conway brothers were born into a family with strong background in music and popular entertainment, particularly vaudeville theatre and opera -- their grandfather was an original vaudevillean, and their Aunt Lyla was a dancer on the famed Tivoli circuit.

  As related in the documentary film The Jim Conway Blues, Mic and Jims father (a wool buyer) tried to dissuade his children from the uncertainty of a musical career, to no avail. The greasepaint obviously ran in the veins of his illustrious scions; as well as Mic and Jims well-known exploits, their sister Janie is also a noted musician whose credits including the late '70s Melbourne new wave band Stiletto with Jane Clifton.

  As teenagers at Melbournes Camberwell High School, Mic and Jim formed the forerunner to Matchbox, The Jellybean Jug Band and entered the school's annual talent quest "for a laugh" but they annihilated the competition, as this former CHS student recalls:

  "I remember standing in the packed gym, watching the Jelly Bean Jug Band -- with Mic on ukelele, washboard and the whisky keg (filled with jelly beans which were thrown at the audience after the performance! Jim played the kazoo and harmonica (and later became Australia's best proponent of that instrument) The whole gym erupted into cheers when they won the event ... we all knew they were talented and SO different. Jug band music in 1969 was a new sound to us. When they evolved later into Captain Matchbox, their first album, Wangaratta Wahine was the most popular LP around. It was everywhere. I still treasure my copy.

  After high school Mic and Jim founded their first professional band, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, which centred throughout its life on the Conway brothers. Their inspirations came from their family background in vaudeville, and in particular from Mics fascination with the family collection of vintage 78rpm records of music by Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton and other classics of jazz, swing and hot music. In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Mic also named American satirical composer Tom Lehrer as one of his musical idols.

  Probably the very first film of the band's in its earliest days (which was featured in the Jim Conway documentary) was captured on film by their neighbour and fellow CHS student Chris Lofven, who went on to be a pioneer of Australian music video. Chris is well known for the classic film-clips he made for Spectrums "I'll Be Gone" and Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock " in 1971, and directed the cult road 1976 movie Oz. These wonderful images of the original Captain Matchbox were taken from Chris Lofven's experimental short film 806, which also includes priceless footage of Sons of the Vegetal Mother, Myriad and Quinn. Happily, this long-unseen short is now available as a bonus feature on the DVD edition of Oz.

  Captain Matchbox emerged at a time when there was a vogue for these styles and they were contemporary with similar local acts such as The 69-ers, Starving Wild Dogs, The Original Battersea Heroes, The Gutbucket Blues Band, The Stovepipe Spasm Band and The Moonshine Jug and String Band (which later evolved into The Angels). Billed as Australias loudest jug band, the unique, irreverent Matchbox style was a hit on the theatrically inclined Melbourne underground scene and they became a regular attraction at venues like the TF Much Ballroom and the Thumpin' Tum, alongside acts such as Spectrum, Daddy Cool and Jeff Crozier.

  Their popularity with so-called head audiences was doubtless enhanced by their repertoire, which was liberally spiked with covers of classic jazz and blues numbers that contained thinly-veiled dope references -- songs like "Smoke Dreams", "If Youse A Viper", "That Cat Is High" and "My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes".

  VINYL GRADING SYSTEM

MINT:
RECORD: New condition with no surface marks or loss of sound quality.
COVER: New condition with no surface marks, creases or wear.
NEAR MINT:
RECORD: Barely noticeable surface mark with no loss of sound quality.
COVER: Barely noticeable surface mark/ wear.
EXCELLENT:
RECORD: Some signs of being played with extremely little if no loss of sound quality.
COVER: Slight wear or creasing.
VERY GOOD:
RECORD: Obviously been played with noticeable surface marks & the occasional light scratches but exhibits no major loss of sound quality.
COVER: Noticeable wear on cover, seam or spine.
+(PLUS)/-(MINUS):
Slightly up or down in condition as appears in the comments above.
NOTE:
Gradings are done visually unless there appears to be a questionable surface mark on the vinyl, it is then put on the turntable to check. A comment describing the outcome will appear if this is the case.

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