Radio Birdman

Radio Birdman is possibly Australian rock's most legendary band, cutting a completely individual path through the music of the day, and exploding into fragments at the peak of the group's power, just like fireworks should.

The genesis of the band was singer Rob Younger and guitarist Deniz Tek. Deniz was born and bred in Michigan Detroit and first visited Australia in 1967, returning with his parents in 1972. He brought with him the Ann Arbor Michigan influences which had given rise there to Iggy and the Stooges and MC5.

Deniz studied medicine at Sydney University, in his spare time learning guitar, playing in a band, and eventually sharing a house with Rob Younger. Younger was Australian born and bred, liked the same music as Deniz and had a band of his own, The Rats, playing New York Dolls, Stooges and Velvet Underground, all this American music which seemed to be completely passing Australian music by.

Deniz's group TV Jones wanted to pursue more of a commercial course. They didn't like the way Deniz treated the audience and wanted to replace him, which suited Rob Younger right down to the ground. After just 17 gigs The Rats was disbanded, so that Younger, the group's guitarist Warwick Gilbert and drummer Ron Keeley could team up with Tek and one of Deniz's medical school pals Pip Hoyle on keyboards to form a new group, Radio Birdman. Hoyle's involvement depended on his medical studies, and another guitarist, Canadian-born Chris Masuak was added later.

In December 1974, within a month of forming , Radio Birdman was performing its first gigs, playing some originals, and extending their repertoire with cover versions of songs by the Dictators and Blue Oyster Cult, surf songs, Ventures, The Doors, Alice Cooper, John Lennon's 'Cold Turkey' and more. Promoters had trouble with the group's aggressive and uncompromising ways and Radio Birdman found a lot of trouble finding places to play. So they created their own gigs. Radio Birdman developed a do-it-yourself approach to the running of their career from now on.

As well as being loud, Radio Birdman added to their menacing image with paramilitary stage clothes, and the parading of the band's mystical-looking eagles wings-flying saucer symbol, the band and its followers a cult united against the world. Some people thought they saw Nazi overtones. It could just as easily have been the Salvation Army. It added another dimension to the band's impact.

The Saints' 'I'm Stranded' came out in September 1976, Radio Birdman's debut EP 'Burn My Eye' in October. In London The Sex Pistols were still a month away from their first gig.

Having built up a solid following in Sydney which stayed on and partied with the band long after the gigs themselves were over, Radio Birdman started venturing interstate, and in June 1977 released an album 'Radios Appear' on their own Trafalgar label. ('New Race' on YouTube) They were also signed to a contract with America's Sire Records, home of The Ramones. For the American version they remixed a couple of tracks from the Australian album, re-recorded others, and added some new material.

In February 1978 the band arrived in post punk Britain to record an album at Rockfield Studios in Wales. Their long hair and intensity set them apart from the current crop of London bands. Critics and audiences were not kind, and Sire Records' support was lacking too. Denik Tek and Pip Hoyle had to go back to their medical studies and the band split up after a final gig in Oxford on June 10, 1978. The Rockfield album was released in 1981 under the title 'Living Eyes', using a quarter-inch cassette safety dub instead of the original multi-track masters.

Like all good religions, interest in Radio Birdman just went on without them. In a first for Australian music Radio Birdman became the subject of a live bootleg album 'Eureka Birdman' (recorded at the Eureka Hotel in Geelong on November 30, 1977).

Following the split Tek, Hoyle and Keely formed The Visitors. Masuak and Gilbert went on to the Hitmen. Later Younger, Tek and Gilbert teamed with MC5's drummer in New Race, and then Younger went on to The New Christs.

Remixing their albums for CD release in 1995 led to Radio Birdman itself reforming for a national tour, returning in December 1996 in support of a mail order only live album 'Ritualism' on the band's own Crying Sun label. In May 2002 international interest in a CD compilation 'The Essential Radiohead' inspired another reunion. They set up Australian dates to finance a European tour, but when the European side of things fell through they went ahead with the Australian dates anyway. The European dates eventuated in the latter half of 2003. Jim Dickson, who had previously played with the New Christs had replaced Warwick Gilbert. Drummer Ron Keely left the band in 2004 after the band's performance at the Azkena Festival in Spain, and was temporarily replaced by Nik Reith. He was replaced after six shows by You Am I drummer Russell Hopkinson.

With a fresh rhythm section opening up new possibilities, the band spent the better part of 2005 readying an album of new material for the first time in 25 years. In the past Deniz Tek had dominated the songwriting. With vocalist Younger and guitarist Chris Masuak having successfully fronted their own groups since the initial 70's break-up, 'Zeno Beach', recorded in Sydney in December 2005 and produced by Deniz Tek with engineer Greg Wales is the most collaborative album of the group's career. Bass player Carl Rorke, who played with the band briefly before the classic line-up came together, died during 2006 and 'Zeno Beach' is dedicated to his memory. Supporting the album's release, on August 30, 2006 at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles the band launched its first ever tour of America.

Released on the band's own label 'Zeno Beach' is completely self financed. Throughout their career Radio Birdman has maintained complete artistic freedom and controlled and directed everything at arms length from the established music industry.