It’s not often you hear about public transport’s effect on the Wollongong music scene.
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But Steve Abrahall from the “reforming for one night only” Mutated Noddys remembers the early 1980s in Wollongong as a lean time for the local music scene – and the trains didn’t help.
“In ’83 we were still a bit isolated,” Abrahall remembers.
“There were no electric trains at that stage, so going out in Sydney wasn’t the easiest.”
So that meant heading to places like Dapto Leagues or Collegians to see bands who played top 40 covers of the same songs you heard on 2WL or 2OO (now Wave FM and i98 respectively).
“When you’d go to see certain bands you’d see a lot of the same faces but not many people were into the idea of starting their own band,” Abrahall says.
“A lot of people would talk about it but I think there wasn’t a great deal of reward in having a band together because there wasn’t really anywhere to play.”
But, in mid-1983, Abrahall started the Mutated Noddys anyway, a band channelling the Detroit rock sound espoused by the likes of MC5, The Stooges and Radio Birdman.
While The Oxford Tavern is spoken of as the iconic Wollongong music venue, Abrahall says, back in those days, it was another pub that changed things – especially for those bands and punters who liked it loud.
“The biggest difference was when the North Gong started getting great indie acts, such as the Lime Spiders, Hummingbirds, Exploding White Mice, Died Pretty and The Hitmen,” he says.
“Wollongong indie bands were able to gain exposure supporting them and, in some case, do their own headlines.
“That was a great scene – everyone hanging out the front in summer, drink in hand, between bands. Just magic.”
The band broke up in mid-1994 and guitarist Abrahall, bassist Gary Uren and drummer Brett Bradley went their separate ways.
That was until longtime fan and Wollongong musician Ronny Van Dyk asked if the band would reform and play a gig for his birthday.
“Ronny just asked, ‘I suppose I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of the Noddys reforming for my party’,” Abrahall says.
“I asked our drummer who lives in Nimbin and Gary who lives in Chicago what they thought.
“And they felt it’d be a bit of fun.
“It was just by sheer coincidence that Gary was coming back for Christmas for about a week.”
The Mutated Noddys play at Jane’s on Friday night supported by Crapulous Gee Gaw and OCDeeDee. The bands kick off at 8.30pm and tickets are $5 at the door.
