Sunday, October 9, 2011

Huxton Creepers Still Killing It

Huxton Creepers circa 1986
Huxton Creepers in 2012

Melbourne's Huxton Creepers very quickly leapt from the early '80s garage revival scene (which also included Olympic Sideburns, Tombstone Hands and others you can hear if you are lucky enough to find a copy of this) into the beer barns. By '89 they'd burnt out and were reportedly unhappy when major label interference saw them release a very polished cover of Manfred Mann's 'Pretty Flamingo'. The band played a reunion gig last night at the Corner (with other local '80s alt.icons The Moffs and Ups And Downs). Leaving 'Pretty Flamingo' out of the set, they instead included covers of Neil Diamond's 'Cherry Cherry', Flaming Groovies' 'Shake Some Action' and Blondie's 'Union City Blue'. They made their point. Most significantly though, they reminded us that they possessed a powerhouse rhythm section and mighty chantalong choruses in power pub anthems 'I Will Persuade You' and 'My Cherie Amour'. They could also jam out with the best of them, and last night included a "seventeen-minute" version of 'King Of The Road' in their encore that managed to pay homage to Them and The Doors. But still it's hard to go past their early efforts such as the jangly single 'The Murderess' from 1985.
Fuse have recently reissued their 1986 album 12 Days To Paris - order here.


Huxton Creepers - My Cherie Amour by Fuse Group Australia

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