FOR the founders of Sydney rock legends the Hard-Ons, their longevity is proof of the power of punk rock and the bonds of friendship.
Forty years after their inception, the band have been undergoing a revival of sorts after drafting in long-time friend Tim Rogers on vocals – the driving force behind You Am I.
Their first album together, released in the same year, I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken, scored the band their highest ever chart position.
Crashing into the charts at No.4, this was followed up by last year’s Ripper 23.
The Hard-Ons, who are currently touring, formed while still in high school in the multi-cultural south west Sydney suburb of Punchbowl.
Mirroring that multi-culturalism, the core band (despite members come and gone) comprised three kids of East Asian, South Asian and Eastern European parentage.
The members had been weaned on high energy rock’n’roll (Kiss!) and then the early punk and post-punk eras (with a focus on local Australian sounds, in particular the ’76/’77 punk of The Saints, Radio Birdman, Victims and the Psycho-Surgeons, the new group appeared on a Sydney scene that took itself fairly seriously.
With one foot in the Ramones/Radio Birdman-influenced garage-punk scene and the other in the spikey-haired punk-inspired scene of the early ’80s, the Hard-Ons found a common denominator of noise and energy and appealed to a young crowd who was open to anything.
With their youthful and unforgiving band name, transgressive graphics and diverse ethnicity, the Hard-Ons quickly began to build a large following.
Soon, new elements had entered their sound, including thrash metal and psychedelia.
Their unruly and unstylised look, which soon came to involve shorts, thongs and bare torsos, became a look in punk circles as the decade wore on.
The Hard-Ons had become trendsetters and were welcomed with open arms in international punk circles.
In their original incarnation, the Hard-Ons shared bills with the likes of the Ramones and Nirvana and appeared on numerous Big Days Out.
They scored a never-bettered 17 consecutive number ones on the Australian independent charts and in 1989 were the only Australian band still based in Australia to hit the top 5 in the NME charts (the only Australian artists to have achieved that – Nick Cave and the Go-Betweens – had both been UK-based).
Despite a break-up, the Hard-Ons regrouped in the new millennium and found a whole new audience – kids who knew of their influence on subsequent groups like the Meanies and Frenzal Rhomb.
Over the years, the Hard-Ons have won the vocal support of artists like Dave Grohl, AC/DC’s Malcolm Young and Jello Biafra among many others.
They’ve influenced not only subsequent generations of punk bands but a wide-ranging groundswell of Australian alternative artists – from You Am I to Spiderbait, Silverchair, Regurgitator, Magic Dirt, Powderfinger, the Dirty Three and The Chats.
The Hard-Ons play the Soapbox Beer in Brisbane on October 18.