Mi-Sex

Mi-Sex captured the essence of the fledgling electo-pop/rock of the late seventies/early eighties.

Mi-Sex was formed by Steve Gilpin, Don Martin and Kevin Stanton in New Zealand in 1977. It came about when Don Martin's band, 'Father Time' were winding up, Steve Gilpin was looking for another level to which to take his henceforth solo career and Kevin Stanton was looking for an outlet for his original songs after five frustrating years of trying to find musicians who had a similar goal of originality, identity, passion and professionalism.

Briefly the band played under the name 'Fragments of Time' and used that and Steve's solo name to secure the initial gigs to kick the band off. The band started out as a 'road' band as the members lived in all corners of New Zealand, rehearsing in Hamilton in time for the first major gig (which was booked even before the band existed!). The original line-up was Steve Gilpin (vocals), Don Martin (bass), Kevin Stanton (guitar), Alan Moon (keyboards) and Phil Smart (drums). The plan was always to put an original repertoire together, retain a balance of popular cover songs whilst the original songs were being developed, gain enough popularity and following in New Zealand to finance a move and hit Australia as a new and vibrant original band.

The first major change came about when EMI New Zealand was looking for an act that could be a 'showcase' for their sojourn into 'New Wave' music of the time. Fragments of Time were chosen as that act because of the original songs it had written, but the name had to go! At the time the band was playing a couple of songs by British band Ultravox, one being a poem about urban neuroses set to music called 'My Sex'. An excerpt from the poem: ".....my sex waits for me like a mongrel waits - down wind, on a tight rope leash....". This captured the band's imagination and with a little artistic license from Kevin adopted and adapted it to 'Mi-Sex'.

The first Mi-Sex single was 'Straight Laddie' backed with 'High Class Dame' - recorded at EMI Studios, Wellington, NZ. The line up at the time of the recording was Steve, Don, Kevin and Murray Burns (keyboards). Kevin had approached Murray, who appeared to be wasted in a Disco club residency in Wellington. The kaleidoscope of sounds and musicality of Murray's keyboard playing turned him into a 'must have' for the final Mi-Sex line up, lured by the prospect of the EMI recording, the national touring and move to Australia. The drummer situation was yet to be resolved, so Murray suggested a friend of his from a town called Gore in NZ, Richard Hodgkinson. This turned out to be an inspired suggestion and Richard became a big part of Mi-Sex's sound and feel with wall of sound drums ever present live and on record.

By then and approaching Christmas 1977, the band was setting house records in various places around NZ and looking forward to winding up and moving to Australia. This was finally achieved quite independently in August, 1978, with only a little bit of contact help from a couple of friends. Otherwise the band was left to its own resources.

Steve was 'the mouth' of the band and could quite easily talk his way into (or out of) anything. He approached local promoter Bob Yates for a showcase gig. Bob gave the band a support to Jeff St John at the Royal Antler Hotel in Narrabeen for the princely sum of $50.00 (for the whole band). It also should be said at this time that the band's financial resources were starting to look a little second hand, even after living on a diet of bulk rice and vegetables for six months! When Yates left that night, he did not wait to talk to the band, but left a note at the door for them saying, "The sky's the limit!" Bob became Mi-Sex's first Australian manager.

Mi-Sex, with Bob's local knowledge and astute marketing sense proceeded to crack the inner city Sydney club and pub scene with help also from John Hood, breakfast announcer for the then Double J (local AM radio to later become the national FM 'Triple J' network) inner city radio who thrashed 'Straight Laddie' every morning during this time and interviewed the band regularly. As the profile of the band increased, so did the interest from all the major record companies. After not too much of a struggle, Mi-Sex finally signed to CBS (now Sony) in February 1979 - 6 months after arriving in Australia.

The first album was recorded circa March 1979 and called 'Graffiti Crimes', the name inspired by Kevin's first home in Australia, deep in the heart of Woolloomoolloo. (historical fact: the cover of the album is Kevin's hand holding the 'Policeman's' notebook, with Murray's then girlfriend posing by the wall) As mid 1979 approached, Mi-Sex was gaining rapidly in popularity and ready to go national. An Eastern states tour with Talking Heads became a reality and the first CBS single 'But You Don't Care' was rushed out to coincide with the tour. The band held its own in front of Talking Heads' audience and 'But You Don't Care' became a top 20 hit, with the band performing on Countdown for the first time. This was before the 'official' launch of the album which was held after the tour at the Musicians Club in Surry Hills, Sydney.

The launch was broadcast live over 2JJ to a national link up through the ABC. One of the songs that was performed 'live' for the first time during the set was 'Computer Games', then a new and untested "experimental" song. The band's producer, Peter Dawkins approached Kevin after the show in a frustrated frenzy saying "Why didn't you play me Computer Games when we were doing the demos for the album??". Kevin answered in the most succinct way possible, "Because I hadn't written it yet!" So the band was thrust into EMI 301 studios for a second time to record the song, to be included on the album as a bonus single initially then integrated for the album's next print run. Heading into Christmas, 'Computer Games' vaulted to the top of the charts.

When Mi-Sex did a national support tour with Cheap Trick shortly before Christmas, 1979, 'Computer Games' had already reached number one and the organisers probably wished they hadn't booked Mi-Sex for the support. Mi-Sex were received easily as well as Cheap Trick and in fact (conspiracy theories aside) at a major show at the Bruce Stadium in Canberra, when Mi-Sex held back 'Computer Games' for an encore, Cheap Trick's crew refused to let the band go on to perform its #1 single....

(historical fact #2: Computer Games was the first song commercially released in Australia to feature an electronic sequencer).

The band was in very high demand and Radio 2SM, with Barry Chapman at the helm, was promoting the 'End of the Decade' concert, to be held on the Sydney Opera House steps just prior to Christmas. With 'Computer Games' at #1, Mi-Sex was the contemporary crowd favourite along with Mental as Anything and the Radiators, although the concert featured many of the previous #1 bands from throughout the 70's as well. At the time it was rumoured that there were up to half a million people at the concert, making it the biggest one-day musical event in Australia's history.

Mi-Sex took the opportunity to start planning for an US tour in April 1980 as 'Computer Games' was starting to chart in many isolated areas around America, going #1 in several places including Jacksonville Florida, San Diego, KROQ Los Angeles, Albany New York, Toronto Canada, Seattle and several others. Incidentally the song was also charting all around Europe and other far-flung places like South Africa. It ended up going to top 5 or higher in 16 countries.

Mi-Sex Part 2