SEKRET SEKRET
Title: Happy Town Sounds (Singles, Live & Rare)
Label: Feel (Australia)
Catalogue No: (feel008)
Format: CD (double album)
Release Date: September 2008
Price: $ 30.00
Described variously as 'psychedelic post-punk' and 'paisley-pop', Sekret Sekret lived a short life (1979 - 1984) and served as the missing link between electronic pioneers SPK and mainstream chart toppers The Cruel Sea (guitarist Danny Rumour serving time in both while SS frontman David Virgin was the co-writer on the first three impossibly rare SPK singles). Releasing just four singles in their time, Happy Town Sounds is Sekret Sekret's first ever long player and includes all four 45's as well as live radio broadcasts and studio out takes and includes covers of the Velvet Underground and The (Syd Barrett-era) Pink Floyd.
Track Listing - Disc 1:
- Charity
- Hope You Can
- Jaquelines Secret
- Patience
- Say Yes
- The Shop
- Bigger Than Life
- Hungry Life
- Wear Glasses
- Puppets
- Doesn't Feel the Same
- Bad Side of Love
- Hero's Brother
- New King Jack
- You
- Moose Beach
- Bride Of Ivy
Track Listing - Disc 2:
- Sisters of Mercy
- Give it Up
- Craft
- Here She Comes Now
- Lucifer Sam
- Lace
- Chimes
- Girl With A White Stick
- Make it New
- She Doesn't
- I Hear
- Born Of Love
- Barefeet
- Just to Love You
- Waterbirds
Sekret Sekret confused, bemused and delighted Sydney audiences from their birth late in 1979 until their untimely demise some five years later. Along the way producing enough material to fill three quality albums yet sadly, only releasing four independent singles including, the noted underground classic, New King Jack.
All that has changed now, though, via the research and diligence of Feel Presents archivist Tim Pittman and founding Sekret Sekret member, Des Devlin. Between them unearthing some 32 tracks; 23 of which have never before been released in any format. These include:
- All four singles (and their b-sides); Charity, New King Jack, Girl With a White Stick, Just to Love You.
- Two Triple J radio sessions recorded, respectively, at Sydney's infamous Rock Garden (1980) and the Trade Union Club (1983).
- Two further desk recordings - again from 1980 and 1983.
- The lone remaining track from a 1981 demo session with Oz guitar legend Lobby Loyde.
Additionally, and as with all Feel Presents archival releases, this 2CD collection comes with a 26 page booklet chronicling the rise of the band from the ashes of Sydney's infamous punk pit 'The Grand Hotel' and such legendary outfits as Johnny Dole and the Scabs, The Broken Toys, Blackrunner and SPK - right through to their eventual collapse and subsequent rebirth (via three of the original five members) under the altogether more successful banner of The Cruel Sea. It's a fascinating story, one that has yet to feature in any of the recent flurry of Australian revisionist CD's or books doing the rounds and, an important one at that.
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