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The Du Monde
Years
Despite the record ban during 1970, du Monde records were able to achieve several top ten hits. However most of their releases were not so successful, but some of the artists recorded are well regarded even in this age. McPhee's album remains one of the most collectible (and enjoyable) Australian albums of its time, as does Flake's How's Your Mother. Erdman has organised the package into 4 cds: Disc one titled Rock and Pop contains 20 tracks of original songs written and recorded by bands and soloists of the day - from McPhee to Sister Janet Mead, Flake to Kerry Lyons. The 2nd CD contains another 20 tracks, but this time of cover versions of overseas' artists recorded by Sydney artists (and a NZ artist T-Kiwis), consisting of Flake, Elm Tree (John Paul Young's first recording experience), Donnie Sutherland and Lindsay Horner covering a Jimmy Little song. Disc 3 has 26 tracks, covering 13 fun songs, 10 country tunes and 3 "songs of peace". While this set didn't interest me much it documents the wide variety of artists who recorded with Erdman, much of it impossible to obtain or collect these days. The CD-ROM contains pictures, information, record covers, spoken interviews press clippings, photographs, videos, reviews and trivia collected by Erdman over the years. A real museum piece showing Martin's meticulous organisation to have collected the memorabilia of his work over the years.The CD-ROM has five songs that can only be played on PC computers which are children songs. Collecting the du Monde and its offshoot label Violet's Holiday - Martin does not explain why he needed two labels or why he had the 2nd name - would virtually be impossible to do these days. On the one hand there are around 30 releases on du Monde and about 15 releases on Violet's Holiday, but the scarcity of some releases would make trying to collect the whole labels virtually impossible. I have not taken into account some of the country releases issued by the labels. I was surprised to learn that Nev Nichols, a country and western singer, recorded at least one ep and album with the labels, so there are possibly even more obscure releases to collect than what I know could be found. In the information booklet, writers Glenn A Baker and Ian McFarlane write about the impact du Monde records and Martin Erdman had on the industry and the importance of the independent label to the Sydney music industry at the time. I enjoyed more Erdman's own story of how he established his studio and his comments on recording sessions, techniques & equipment were interesting. On each track appearing on the compilation, Martin makes notes about the recording, who performed on the recording and mentions which tape players and equipment he used on the session! At the end of 1973 the label was put on hold while Erdman worked as a recording engineer for Festival records for ten years. Since the mid eighties, Martin worked in video production with the odd foray into sound. However he has plans to transfer even more sound recordings on reel to reel format over to CD, and one of these includes a whole album of King Fox, which has never seen the light of day prior to this. I look forward to more of Martin Erdman's projects and collectors and afficionardos can anticipate some more fascinating glimpses of Australia's recording legacies, that should be emulated by many other record companies. I believe the the set retails for less than $60. References
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columns Chris Spencer is author of the "Who's Who of Australian Rock'. He can be contacted through Moonlight Publishing. |
Of
the CD re-issues I've reviewed over the past 5 years for Collectormania,
this month's featured release would have to be the most compelling
collections for readers to purchase. Limited to 500 copies, numbered
in a plastic pouch, the issue comprises nearly 4 hours of music
over 3 CDs, a 400 page interactive book on a CD-ROM and a 23 page
informative booklet. The breadth and scope of the work presented
is a magnificent account of an independent music label run by producer
and engineer Martin Erdman. Erdman set up his studio and record
label in Ramsgate in late 1969, and with the inspiration of having
a band competition, promoted over 2UW, recorded over 100 bands who
responded to a talent quest. Many of the tracks were played on air,
with the eventual four winners obtaining a record contract with
du Monde records! - King Fox, The 69ers, Samael Lilith and Clapham
Junction.
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