LAUGHING OUTLAW RECORDS & MANAGEMENT


		RETROSPECTIVE Plug Uglies RRP: ~~$24.95 AUD~~ Now: $15.00 AUD Customers outside Australia don't pay GST You can also buy online from iTunes AND CDBaby

"The world may turn but Plugs law is static; they are as they always have been, always will be, the Goddamnedest band in the world, and if you don't know what that means, you're never gonna learn. Where every other rock 'n' roll band is a dead and hollow beast, having one-upped itself to extinction, Plug Uglies continue to move, not forward, but around, a vicious pacing back and forth, a vital oscillation that rock has lost."
Simon Killalea 1991

Their first line-up in 1986 consisted of Johnny Gorman on rhythm guitar, Roger Norris on vocals, Tina Havelock Stevens on drums, Angus Douglas (ex Tactics) on lead guitar, and Wayne Baker on bass. They were as unstable as the 1830s New York street gang they were named after, and several line-up changes occurred early on. They settled for long enough to record six songs at Kings Row Studio in 1988. Producing the EP was Johnny's brother, Michael Hiron from the Riptides. Before the songs were finally mixed, Johnny Gorman committed suicide.

Several months after John Gorman's death, Michael Hiron and the other members of Plug Uglies decided to release the six track EP "Knock Me Your Lobes" as a way of documenting Johnny's incredible songwriting. In late 1989 they recorded a sad, dark track called Johnny Panic. A twelve-inch single with Johnny Panic on the A-side was released with two live songs and an early demo on the B-side. It received regular airplay on 2JJJ, just as that station was morphing from a regional into a national network.

In 1991 the band decided it was time to do an album, so they recorded a demo on a 4-track machine with only three tracks working. In some ways it was the closest they ever got to capturing the energy of their live performances. Plug Uglies released one more single, the neo-country Pounding Grace. The flip side was a piece of bitter bubblegum entitled Grubby Supper from the Johnny Panic recording session. Everyone was tired. Michael Hiron decided to quit the band in late 1991. They played a farewell gig to a sold-out crowd at the Annadale Hotel in March 1992.

In 2000 the remaining Plug Uglies members started creating a collection of their best available songs - as much for their own enjoyment as for anyone else. In March 2001, just as they were about to master the songs onto CD, Michael Hiron died and the project was put on hold. The 19 track retrospective CD was released in October 2005, almost twenty years since the first distorted sounds from a bedroom in inner city Sydney proclaimed the birth of the Plug Uglies.

1. Dipsomania (the drinking song) / 2. All Done In / 3. Salty Believers / 4. Powerless Thing / /5. Mr Parkinson / 6. The Body Is Dirt / 7. Hozomeen / 8. Pre-Adamite / 9. Sea Shanty / 10. Johnny Panic / 11. Grubby Supper / 12. The Don / 13. Zealous Host / 14. Hands / 15. Hey Roy / 16. Lumberjack Jack / 17. Deep Six / 18. Dead Weight Walk / 19. Pounding Grace