16
Aug

At last a quiet Sunday. It’s sunny outside, the day looks great from my window, but today I’m staying in. I have lots of work to do, and there’s football to watch. But before I start with these very important tasks, and, while I’m waiting for lunch to arrive, I thought ripping some vinyl. It’s been a while since I got to recommend a very obscure band on the blog. While I’m waiting for my ham-pepperoni-chicken-onion pizza, to taste it, to have a bite, let me introduce you to Taste This.

I feel this is as obscure as it can get. If you search on google, shows up that Da Capo store in Netherlands used to carry it. And that’s all. On top of that, there’s barely any information on the sleeve. The front cover says the name of the band, the back cover has the track names. And that’s it. A side being “Sweet Refrain” and B side being “Right Mood”. On the 7″ labels there’s a bit more of information. It says Made in Australia.  So that’s a start. The label is called Formula, but finding information about it, seems impossible as well. Two other details, the producer of this single is Larry Ponting and the engineer is Tim Ryan. Do these names ring a bell to you?

There’s no information about band members or even when was this single released. By the sound of the band I’d say late 80s, as it reminds me a lot to bands like The Crystal Set or The Benedicts. But then that is a wild guess. Both songs are really nice pieces of jangle pop. I had a hard time choosing which song to share with you as both are quite distinctive. “Sweet Refrain” is a slower guitar pop song, much in the vein of Perth fabulous Stolen Picassos. “Right Mood” is much more upbeat on the other hand, like an epic version of These Future Kings. Don’t know how hard it is to track this record. I found it on ebay for 5 bucks a couple of months ago, so I’m guessing it wouldn’t be hard for you. Anyways, have a listen! And if you happen to know anything else about this very mysterious band, please give me a shout!

PS. We need that Australian obscure 80s pop compilation soon!

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Listen
Taste This – Right Mood

10 Responses to “:: Taste This”

Great. Reminds me of the Lime Spiders and other such garage bands that I used to listen to in the mid-80s and discovered via Bucketfull of Brains (BoB) magazine that I used to subscribe to at great expense back then. Maybe they could help? Man, I wish I had all those mags now.

Michael Horton
January 26th, 2011

Larry Ponting was indeed producing records in Brisbane in the 80s. Formerly of Triple Z, he played with Ninja Skill (featuring John Caskey and Charlie Owen, among others) before going on to produce local bands, and then progress to tour managing major national acts including Do Re Mi, Diesel, Divinyls, Hoodoo Gurus and Icehouse.

Larry remains a key part of the industry – now based in Melbourne, a manager with big sound guys JPJ Audio, producing major events, and – when they hit the road – still touring with Icehuse.

Jane
January 6th, 2014

Two of the members of the band are our dads! They aren’t making anymore music together, but its funny you know their record.

Sophie and Juliet
September 26th, 2014

Here is a link to their youtube channel! Decided to post some of their music 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaz78RIOMABxt8J94VkivPA

Juliet
September 27th, 2014

Hi Juliet!
Thanks so much for sharing this! Great great songs! Would your dad would be interested in doing an email interview for the blog?

Roque
September 27th, 2014

Hi, glad you like the songs! He would be fine to do an interview.

Juliet
September 29th, 2014

Hi Roque,

Thanks for the cool review, its been a while since i have heard this song. I am the bass player from Taste This and
wrote this song in conjunction with the other band members.

In short, Taste This was a 3 piece band made up of

Micheal Garland – Vocals and Guitar
David Stodart (me) – Bass Guitar and backing vocals
Wayne Garland – Drums

I see above that you may do a email interview with Wayne – (Juliet’s Dad) Let me know how it goes as i would be happy to provide further information. Wayne, Michael and myself are still all in regular contact and still good mates, and would be happy to provide more information, or some other tracks we did later on in the bands life.

Cheers
Dave

David
October 11th, 2014

Thanks Dave! I’ll let you know. I hope to hear soon from Wayne with the interview answers! 🙂

Roque
October 13th, 2014

Hi Roque

Not not sure if you are still updating your website. Just in case, I have uploaded on to YouTube all 17 songs recorded by Taste This. If you search “Taste This Wayne Garland” you will find them.

Wayne Garland
February 20th, 2016