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.
History
The band was formed in 1984 when then
Celibate Rifles 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 and enlisted drummer Geoff Milne and former
Lime Spiders backing vocalist Bill Gibson on bass. After some rehearsals the three became The Eastern Dark, named after a place in
The Phantom 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 XLP may refer to:
* Extreme-low power
Low-power electronics are electronics, such as notebook processors, that have been designed to use less electric power than usual, often at some expense. In the case of notebook processors, this expense is pr ...
(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