the saints

was in half price this evening and stumbled on a clean vinyl copy of the saints' i'm stranded. the saints were the _other_ band (with radio birdman) that started aussie punk in the early '70s. while saints gtrist ed kuepper lacked the finesse of birdman's deniz tek and chris masuak, the saints had energy on a stooges level, a better riddim section, and a frontman (chris bailey) who looked like he could honestly give a shit about anything. he's kept the band going with numerous personnel shifts right up to the present day, and i was surprised a coupla yrs ago to see him on tv performing with nick cave & the bad seeds. here's some vid of a classic saints performance from paddington town hall, 1977.