GANGgajang

Plugger35

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Thread starter #1
Don't know if anyone else caught their Rock Arena live concert on Rage last night. Reminded me of just what a great band they were, definitely one of the best and most underrated Aussie bands from the 1980's. Unlike a lot of 80's bands their music hasn't dated either and still sounds as great today as it did back in 1985 (when the Rock Arena concert was recorded).

I had the good fortune to see them live for the first time at the UWA Refectory back in the 90's on one of their comeback tours and it was one of the best live performances I've ever seen. Sure the 10 or so jugs of beer I'd consumed prior to them arriving on stage may have helped in my appraisal but they were nothing short of sensational. They reeled of all their big hits and had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. Me and a couple of mates were so impressed that we all went out and bought their Best of CD the next day and have been huge fans ever since.

For anyone that missed their live performance on Rage last night, a couple of highlights.

[YOUTUBE]tSxnvQeqnsE[/YOUTUBE]

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Couldn't find their Rock Arena live performance of this song but one of my favourites anyway.

[YOUTUBE]Qlf8WPs_fNY[/YOUTUBE]
 

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Leaping Lindner

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#3
Always loved Mark Callaghan's first band "The Riptides" but GANGajang were one of those late 80's OZ bands who ventured far too close to the middle of the road for my liking. Each to his own.
 

Plugger35

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Thread starter #4
Always loved Mark Callaghan's first band "The Riptides" but GANGajang were one of those late 80's OZ bands who ventured far too close to the middle of the road for my liking. Each to his own.
Well they might sound middle of the road if you just listen to their records but they were far from middle of the road live, they were a dynamic live band. Even those Rock Arena live performances can't compare to when I saw them in a packed, sweaty UWA Ref with a few thousand other drunk Uni students. GANGgajang were the best band in the world that night.

Not sure if being middle of the road is necessarily a bad thing anyway. That implies that GANGgajang wrote good old fashioned radio friendly pop/rock songs and for the most part they did but they were damn good radio friendly pop/rock songs. The irony was that as good and radio friendly as their songs were, they never really translated into huge popular success. Apart from 'Sounds of Then' none of their songs really made it big on the charts.

They actually remind me of one of my other favourite Aussie bands from the '80's, The Church. They both had one massive hit, ie. 'Sounds of Then' and 'Under the Milky Way', and most people just remember them for that one song and ignore all the other great stuff they have done. Probably explains why they are two of the most underrated bands in Australia.
 

bunsen burner

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#8
I remember this surf movie called Mad Wax with Ross Clarke-Jones, Tom Carroll, Rob Bain, and Gary Elkerton. The whole soundtrack was Gangajang. It was a pretty Gnarley movie with a bitchin soundtrack. Dude.
 
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