on men and munchies

Rip It Up, Issue 59, 1 June 1982, Page 10

on men and munchies

Ann Louise Martin

' People will relate to music that is rhythmically strong, and has a melody" - Colin Hay's theory on the success of Men At Work.

It's a theory born out at the band's Auckland Town Hall concert where every recognized song met with a rousing reception. The single Be Good Johnny' was released by CBS to coincide with the tour.

"We didn't think we needed to release another single, but it’s good people know it", Greg Ham, saxophonist comments. The video was the band's idea, actualized with help from director Tony Stevens who's been involved with all Men At Work clips.

Men At Work are now recording their second album in Sydney. The first has just been released in the States, and is selling well in Canada and Europe. More units of 'Who Can It Be Now' were sold in France than in Australia, while 'Down Under' got to No. 2 in Holland. Men At Work may visit Europe after recording but Colin Hay doesn't want to go anywhere where its cold. As with February's interview, Colin Hay, Greg Ham and drummer Jerry Speiser are present. Last time they reckoned pub gigs were their bread and potatoes. Is it still the case? Greg Ham replies:

"We've been obsessed with food for the last two hours. All we’ve been talking about is what we had

for dinner last night, what were having for dinner tonight, what we iust had, and then you bring up oread and potatoes!"

Speiser joins in: "Food's great", and Hay adds: "It's something we have in common with Mental As Anything. They're heavily into food.. I think that's why we get on so well. I said to Greedy Smith 'we're going to New Zealand'.' 'New Zealand!' he said, the lamb there's fantastic!' "

Do Men at Work agree with Greedy? "We went to the hotel restaurant last night," relates Ham, "but there was no lamb on the menu." Has success affected the band?

Hay replies: "You are less anonymous. One guy thought he knew me from a diamond mine. 'I know you man, did you ever work in a diamond mine ,in Western Australia?' I say no, you've seen me on the telly', he says 'really! what are ya? I say Tm a rock star'. You get so sick of people saying how does it feel tQ be a rock star?' It feels about the same," says he, pinching his flesh. "I like the people who don't believe it," Speiser chips in.."One'll say 'look there's the guy from Men at Work!', and the other will say Na, what'd he be doing here?'

"We're successful because we've been working at it. We just want to play and record albums, and perform, and success means you can do it, and you don't have to hassle a gig." More on Colin Hay s success theory: "What Men At Work do is employ conventional means to convey their music. We play songs that have feels, that have melody.

Melody was ignored for a while. The way our music is structured it has universal appeal timewise. Pre rock and roll or pre jazz people can relate to it equally because it has the basic rhythms and melody." Jerry Speiser comments: "Music's gone through a real dip, with the punk, and then disco thing, with the bass drum booming through, and then Hooked on Classics and Hooked on Swing: I saw the Sex Pistols in London and what they were about was playing out of tune, and badly."

"I don't agree about the punk thing," Hay interrupts. "What came out of it was really strong. It' kicked a lot of people up the bum. They might have played out of tune but at least they had energy and bands started writing and performing strong songs again. So I don't see it as a dip." "More like a spread," says Ham.

The Men At Work info sheet says the bands origins will remain a mystery. Why? Because they're boring. They were born, went to school, and the rest is irrelevant.

"It's not an attempt to create a mystique about ourselves," says Ham. "It just doesn't make interesting news."