Goodness Gracious, Great Ballsof Fire

Fri 25th Aug, 2006 in Features

It took eight years for The Fireballs to become a great band, and eight more for everyone else to realise. A pioneer of psychobilly – a musical fusion of the swing and shuffle of 1950s rockabilly and the ferocity of 1970s punk – the frantic three-piece threw open the door to mainstream success for imitators like The Living End with years of exhaustive touring, yet somehow imploded before they too could ride that same wave.

Now, a decade after the release of final album So Bad It’s Good, the lads have returned, unleashing their back catalogue upon a new generation of rockers and following with a national tour to boot.      

Guitarist Matt Black is still pinching himself. Talking from his hotel room after a riotous performance at the Tokyo Big Rumble Psychobilly Festival, Black gibbers excitedly about Japanese audiences with the excitement of a rookie.  

“Tokyo was off its fucking head, let me tell ya,” Black says. “They go absolutely mental when you play, really full-on slam dancing, and there was a lot of blood spilt. Everywhere there were people with concussion and split heads, their mates carrying them out saying, “It’s OK. It’s OK.” Then in between songs, you’ve got 1000 lunatics with mohawks standing there in deathly silence waiting for the next song.”

The chaotic swirl of the moshpit provides an accurate metaphor for the band’s activities over the past twelve months. Tired of record companies, touring and each other, The Fireballs lay dead in the water until just a year ago when an unexpected invitation provided an opportunity for the group to come out of retirement.

“Last November, we got a call asking us to play with Motley Crue and Motorhead,” Black explains. “I don’t know where it came from but some people have suggested a Lemmy connection,” Black says, in reference to Motorhead’s tenacious frontman. “Sure enough, when I spoke to him at the show, he knew about us!”

To accompany the performance, the band booked a headlining spot at the Prince of Wales Hotel in hometown Melbourne. It sold out in less than a week, but it was the speed at which the official Fireballs merchandise moved – all tee-shirts gone before the band took the stage – that highlighted the untapped potential of the brand.   

“In June last year, Eddie [Fury, vocals/drums] and Joe [Phantom, double bass] came to me and said they’d seen our stuff on eBay for well over $150,” Black says, “They wanted to re-release our back catalogue, which I was into, and start up as a band again, which I wasn’t into for a whole bunch of reasons.”

With the success of last year’s shows as motivation, The Fireballs pressed 3000 copies of each of the band’s three full-length albums – Terminal Haircut (1992), Life Takes Too Long (1995) and So Bad It’s Good (1996). The pressing has been independently financed and is available only via the The Fireballs’ official online store. The band clearly cares little about big business, the lads tainted by unfulfilling experiences with their early record companies (Au Go Go / M.D.S.).

“They [record companies] did fuck all for us in the day, so I can’t see what they would do now,” Black says.

It’s easy to view the decision to strip things back, to release on such a small scale, as a throw back to the James Dean-style rebellion that underlines the 1950s rockabilly spirit, but to do so would be a half-truth. The boys know too well the underlying culture of record collecting within their sub genre, and are using the website to restrict supply, charging import prices appropriately. Black is quick to highlight the band’s status as a pioneer as justification. He’s in no doubt as to the power of The Fireballs as a brand.

“There’s money to be made. There’s no hiding our motivation there and we don’t apologise for that,” Black asserts. “Money has never been a driving force but you don’t get to Japan on smoke and fog. We’re older now. Everyone’s got mortgages and bills to play. We’ve worked our arses off, so we’re entitled to reap whatever we can.”  

Hitting the road for the first time since last year, The Fireballs play Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney in support of the re-release. Once indefatigable road warriors with an insatiable work ethic that included hundreds of shows a year through the mid-1990s, the band is more selective about its touring commitments.

“We’re back together in a part time way, these days,” Black says. “We don’t need to tour like that because we’ve done it already, plus there aren’t anymore Wednesday night gigs in Blacktown. Whether you can pull a crowd or not, the gigs just aren’t there.

That The Fireballs can tour at all is a testament to the group’s time away, their heinous appetite for live shows long blamed for the disintegration of their mateship and the premature implosion of the band. Even after eight years, Black couldn’t resist taking a verbal shot at Fury during last year’s Melbourne show. Now, asked about the band’s internal relationships, Black is predictably diplomatic.

“We each still have our quirks but everyone’s grown up a bit,” he says with a chuckle.

Does that mean there might be a new record in the wings?

“I wish we were that organised. There’ll be something coming out soon. I don’t know what, and I don’t know when, but we do have a plan,” Black says, decisively. “It’s a vague plan, but it’s a plan nevertheless.”

Black’s words herald great news for Fireballs fans. Here’s hoping we don’t wait another eight years for it.

Fireballs tour dates:
Saturday September 2 – The Century Theatre (formerly the Metro). Tickets are on sale now from all Moshtix outlets, ph: 9550 3666 or online at www.centurytheatre.com.au