UCI the album: Wollongong the Band creates rock'n'roll memorabilia for cycle fans

Songs inspired by road closures, false starts and pedal power make up the 15-track improvised rock album, written and recorded in a day as an ode to the controversial UCI Road World Championships.

Read more: The day the 2022 UCI Road World Championships came to Helensburgh

Band member Joel McLean said the fun side project had been running for 10 years, where everything they produced was improvised - even live shows.

"Everything we do is improvised, we makeup everything on the spot," he said.

"We set aside three to five hours of a day, go into the studio ... and we just start playing. The whole cycling album was recorded in about one hour and that included us having conversations in between about what [we were going to do] like 'how about road closures'."

Read more: Watch Rupert Guinness try out the UCI Road World Championships Wollongong 2022 elite course

You can listen to their music via Bandcamp.com for a giggle, while you could even buy the album to keep for a bargain price of $1.

McLean said it's hard to convince people to listen at first, but the usual response is: "It's a lot better than I thought it would be."

"My favourite song is Maximum Acceleration, it's just one chord the whole way through and we just repeat the word 'maximum acceleration' and it just gets faster and faster," he said.

"By the time we finished singing that my stomach was in pain from trying to keep singing ... and [guitarist] Jack by the end the tendons in his hand were about to break. But I thought it turned out quite fun."

There is even Wollongong The Band merchandise, though sadly they haven't had a significant amount of sales in the past.

McLean hopes that will change with their dedicated cycling album, especially with the influx of international visitors and global coverage during the September event.

"It'd be great if the UCI [Union Cycliste Internationale] got hold of it and brought us along to each of their events and we did an album for every UCI event around the world," he joked.

"It might spark some interest and people wonder 'what does an album inspired by this event sound like through the minds of four crazy guys', I think that's about as much as we could hope for."

Once the hype of the UCI road race dies down, the four rock'n'rollers will continue to work on their 100^th album. This will be their second ever planned album (like their 50^th attempt in 2015) with the aim to release this summer.

Wollongong The Band are: Joel McLean, David Burt, Jack Tickner and Michael Manzini. Find them at: www.facebook.com/WollongongBand.

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