Is that right, Peter? Yeah.

everyone but myself i was still a high school student when the band sort of basically just sort of stumbled together it was martin and my brother ridge mobessa who had a had a bit of a jam they saw it that both were you know musicians and playing around at just art school parties and then they they got together and within a year they'd pulled together a band out of all art students at what was then the east sydney tech nowadays it's the national art school in sydney but um Yeah, you know, those guys, it was the art school that brought us together and I think in a way the art held us together.

I joined a couple of years or a year and a half later just straight out of high school and we were just a covers band really just playing all of our eclectic mix of favourite songs from the 60s and 50s rockabilly and, you know, just great songs from the 60s.

But we sort of learnt from doing that, you know, playing that kind of songbook that we sort of learnt the idea of, well, I can see how songs are constructed so...

You know, my brother Reg had a go at writing a couple of songs, so did Martin.

And before you knew it, we'd made our first album, which was Get Wet.

You just played a bit of Lips Are Getting Bigger, which was one of the songs on that album.

And I think Greedy would be very happy with you doing it too, Peter.

Is that right, Peter? Yeah.

Everyone but myself, I was still a high school student when the band sort of basically just sort of stumbled together.

It was Martin and my brother Reg Morbessa who had a bit of a jam.

They saw that both were musicians and playing around at just art school parties and then they got together and within a year they'd pulled together a band out of all art students at what was then the East Sydney Tech.

Nowadays it's the National Art School in Sydney but...

Yeah, you know, those guys, it was the art school that brought us together and I think in a way the art held us together.

I joined a couple of years or a year and a half later just straight out of high school and we were just a covers band really just playing all of our eclectic mix of favourite songs from the 60s and 50s rockabilly and, you know, just great songs from the 60s.

And I think Greedy would be very happy with you doing it too,

wouldn't quite be the right thing, but we're writing still songs for Dog Trumpet for our other band.

Yeah, I know.

We've been doing that steadily all the way through.

We're still working on Dog Trumpet material, but...

As far as the Mentals goes, we just thought because the 50-year anniversary was on this year, 2026, and it was 2076 when Rich first had a jam with Martin Plaza.

1976.

Wow.

just,

So why are you coming back at this point to rethink, I mean, yes, the anniversary, of course, but why tour for the anniversary at all?

Well, there was a documentary film being made that was released a few months ago and that had been in the making for two or three years.

Matt Walker, the director, had been working really hard on that, compiling all and pulling all this interesting material out of the woodwork about the Mentals and, you know, film clips and interviews and very sort of arcane bits and pieces and things that we hadn't seen before.

So they put together a really, really good film about the band because, you know, again, you know, being the subject of that is a bit odd, you know, and, you know, it was a bit touch and go whether that would... be very uh accurate or you know authentic but it really they did a great job and you know you can only tell part of a story of anybody because it's only you know it's just chipping off the surface but um they did a great job and there's 50 years since reg was at art school with with martin plaza martin murphy in those days and they started jamming and then within a few months they'd you know, put together a band of other art students.

And, um, that was mental as anything starting in 1976, really with the, you know, the first, and I joined in 1977, just fresh out of high school.

I didn't go to art school, but, um, you know, then we had 22 years, the same lineup playing, recording, traveling, you know, we toured relentlessly, made a million film clips and wrote a lot of songs and put out nine albums together in those days.

And, And then we left and they continued with new members and it sort of, you know, a revolving door of members going in and out until it was too ill to play.

Why did you choose this extraordinary band? Well, a

How do you feel when you listen to Live It Up, for example?

Oh, look, I, I can see how it, a lot of people get, you know, get, have the same reaction as you, you do.

And I think that's the power of music in general is that, um, an art that, that, you know, sometimes I, I feel what's the purpose of, you know, of anything.

You know, like, and we all go through that, that exi- existential thing.

You know, why are we even here? What does it matter? Are our lives of any meaning? But I think art does that thing of leaving behind something concrete that, you know, that, that was at just a moment in someone's life when that was written.

It's a long time ago now.

Um, so it's like distant past and the songwriter has passed away and so it's just, it's like an artifact.

I'm sure you miss Greedy and the other fellas at times.