The Dead Salesmen Duo
It’s very fitting, you see…The Dead Salesman Duo played The Very First Meredith waaayyyy back in 1991. Can’t remember how that came about but someone knew them, probably the Ballarat connection, and they said they’d do it, even though ‘Meredith Music Festival’ meant absolutely zero to anyone at that point. Aunty was almost ‘young’ then and remembers it like it was yesterday – these two unassuming forthright young musicians made a big impact on the festival. They played on the Saturday, Ryda on acoustic guitar and Hap standing up drumming and singing. And most memorably they made it back onto the stage on the Sunday for an impromptu singalong with members of the crowd that spilled on and off stage all day, completely unscheduled. Actually, that’s what ‘Sunday at Meredith’ is still based on, that feeling of having bonded the night before and sharing music and stories together. Wonderfully, we have some footage of them at the very first Meredith here. But way beyond sentimental reasons (as strong as those are) The Dead Salesman Duo are here because they are truly brilliant. Plaintive, emotive songs played with verve and sincerity by Ryda and sung with a world-stopping natural honesty by Hap. ‘Wendouree’ is a half-lost Australian gem. The Dead Salesman Duo play rarely, and we really appreciate them playing at the 20th. See you at the 40th then the 60th fellas?
The Dead Salesmen Part History
A Brief History of the Dead Salesmen as recalled by Ryda
Frank Banner and the Pencils
It was 1986 (I think) when Hap and I formed Frank Banner and the Pencils. We were both in high school and Hap’s older brother was seeing my older sister. The Pencils were very serious and also quite crap. We had a girl from my form, Julie Reeves (the baddest girl in school) on bass and (Diamond) Danny Van Kalken (a good friend of us both to this day) also playing guitar. We only played one gig, Hap’s brother’s 21st party. That night I met Len Hyatt (Dead Salesmen drummer). Didn’t get into a night club.
Moths in Hedges
A great semi-gothic band Hap played in with Murray Ellis (brother of Warren Dirty Three). At one gig, the keyboard player’s shirt caught on fire from the candles used for mood lighting.
The Mavis’s
I had a stint on bass with the Mavis’s. I was 17, and worshipped these older guys (they were 18 & 19). I recorded 4 songs with them and then got kicked out; I don’t know if it had something to do with the fact I didn’t own a bass or that I didn’t own an amp.
The Dead Salesmen (Duo)
After The Pencils, Hap and I started as a two piece. Hap had just moved out of home and we would write a song every time we got together. We fought tooth and nail about the name; I liked The Cucking Funts while Hap liked (I can’t remember). We played every Friday night at the Bridge Mall Inn in Ballarat at “The Banana Arcade” (a night we started just to get a gig). We recorded our first album during the summer of ’90/’91 with Len Hyatt (Dead Salesmen drummer) and Pat Bath (Dead Salesmen bass player) producing. A highlight of the two-piece days were our yearly trips to the Port Fairy Folk Festival to busk. To sum up the period I would say “Dole Bludging, Hippie, Pot/Piss Head Freaks” and still proud of it.
The Dead Salesmen (Big Band)
The two-piece Dead Salesmen would traditionally play at the Bridge Mall Inn in Ballarat every Christmas and New Years Eve (providing Matt Thomas’s Boxing Tostados couldn’t play their traditional Boxing Day, in which case they’d play Christmas Eve and we’d do Boxing Day). Anyway, for the two eve shows in ’91 we formed The Dead Salesmen Big Band and liked it so we kept the four-piece line up and just stopped saying “Big Band” after it. We recorded “Jealousy” ’93, “Bluestoned” ’95ish. “Beer” ’97ish and “Tentative” ’98ish. This line up stayed the same until Julitha Ryan joined us to record our fourth (and last) album “Amen” in ’98, and our third (and last) EP in “Only Fire” 2000ish. The Dead Salesmen played our last show in March ’02. It is hard to sum up the band in a paragraph; the main thing was we were absolutely dedicated to making and playing music with sincerity.
They said goodbye to their friends and fans at the beginning of the twenty-first century, (with a memorably chaotic finale over the March long weekend at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne and The Bridge Mall Inn in Ballarat) and went off to explore new adventures, and in some instances, get married, have children and venture into the ‘daytime world’.
