The Eastern Dark is an

Australian rock Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock and Aussie rock, is rock music from Australia. The nation has a rich history of rock music and an appreciation of the roots of various rock genres, usually originating in the United ...

band who formed in the 1980s as an offshoot from another Australian band,

The Celibate Rifles The Celibate Rifles were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with a line-up that included mainstays Dave Morris on rhythm guitar and Kent Steedman on lead guitar, within a year they were joined by Damien Lovelock on lead vocals. T ...

History

The band was formed in 1984 when then

Celibate Rifles The Celibate Rifles were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with a line-up that included mainstays Dave Morris on rhythm guitar and Kent Steedman on lead guitar, within a year they were joined by Damien Lovelock on lead vocals. T ...

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

James Darroch decided to leave and form his own band. Darroch switched from bass to

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and enlisted drummer Geoff Milne and former

Lime Spiders Lime Spiders were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with Mick Blood on lead vocals. He was later joined by Tony Bambach on bass guitar, Gerard Corben on guitar, Richard Lawson on drums, and David Sparks on guitar. Their debut ...

backing vocalist Bill Gibson on bass. After some rehearsals the three became The Eastern Dark, named after a place in

The Phantom ''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...

comics. The three piece began playing live in May 1984, quickly garnering local support and earning notoriety for their habit of opening each set with a different Ramones cover, working their way chronologically through the Ramones' discography. Their first single, "Julie Is A Junkie/Johnny And Dee Dee," was released on Waterfront Records in July 1985. With

Rob Younger Rob Younger (born Robert Kent Younger) is an Australian rock musician, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He is a founding mainstay of the punk rock group, Radio Birdman, and a pioneer of the local independent music scene. Radio Birdman, forme ...

as producer the band recorded the EP ''Long Live The New Flesh!'' in 1986. On 4 March 1986, days after finishing the EP, and en route to a week-long series of shows in Melbourne, the band's van went off the road; Darroch was killed, and Milne and Gibson were hospitalised. ''Long Live the New Flesh!'' was released posthumously later that year, and a collection of live recordings and demos was released as ''Girls on the Beach (With Cars)'' in 1989. A CD collection of the previously released material, ''Where Are All the Single Girls?'' was released on Half A Cow Records in 2000 (and re-released in 2010).

Discography

*''Julie Is A Junkie/Johnny And Dee Dee'' "(1985) *''Long Live the New Flesh!'' P(1986) *''Girls on the Beach (With Cars)'' xLP(1990) *''Where Are All the Single Girls?'' D(2000)

References

External links

The Eastern Dark at Australian Music Online
Australian rock music groups {{Australia-band-stub