Episode 35 - Powderfinger

So do we wanna start with Richard as usual? Do you want to tell us a little bit about Powderfinger? Have you, have you read one of their biographies during the week?

Uh, I've done a little bit of research.

So, um, sometime around 1989, God was bored with resting after the seventh day and decided to form this group.

Now, well, almost.

They were formed in 1989 by Steve Bishop on drums, John Collins on bass, and Ian Haug on guitar and vocals.

All three members were a band of the stu- were students at Brisbane Grammar School, a private school in Spring Hill, close to central Brisbane.

They started off as a cover band playing pub rock classics by famously pub rock bands, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Neil Young.

Yes, folks, the way Wikipedia tells it, you walked into any Australian pub in 1989, and those are the bands you would find playing.

Has anyone told Wiki the jukeboxes don't count and bands actually have to be in the effing pubs? Anyway, I do digress.

The band's name comes from a Neil Yong, Neil Young song of the same name, which is released on the amazing Rust Never Sleeps album.

That is an album really worth checking out.

Despite the band's popularity in Brisbane, they were once booed off stage at a heavy metal gig in Newcastle.

Quite what a Rolling Stones and Neil Young cover band were doing playing a heavy metal gig is anyone's guess.

Ian, uh, sorry, Coll- yeah, Collins and Haug attended the University of Queensland, where they met Bernard Fanning in an economics class, and the trio bonded over a shared love of music.

And, um, M- Fanning joined the band in 1990, taking over the vocals.

Later in 1990, John Cogill, an- another uni student, replaced Bishop on drums.

Bishop's exit was described as a mutual leaving and has also been described as personal reasons.

But when Powderfinger took a hiatus in 2005, the original trio of Powderfinger formed The Predators.

So read into that what you want.

I cast no stones personally.

In 1992, the band had one final change when Darren Middleton joined on c- guitar.

I've not been able to find out if Darren is related to rugby league histat- statistician and historian and author Dave Middleton.

In August 1992, the band released an EP, which was officially called Powderfinger, but it's also known as the Blue EP.

The release included an early version of Save Your Skin, which featured on their debut album, Parables for Wooden Ears.

There were seven songs on the a- on the EP, but none of them made Parables.