The Reels

The Reels were one of the most eccentric and unconventional groups Australian music has ever produced, a fact perhaps influenced by their beginnings in New South Wales provisional backwater Dubbo, and perhaps by the fact that while band leader David Mason was making his way up the music ladder is father John Mason was making his way up the political ladder. He was Liberal Opposition for two and a half of the years when Neville Ran was NSW premier. He resigned when The Reels delivered their second, and most memorable album, 'Quasimodo's Dream'. If David Mason purposely decided on a musical path which could not embarrass his father, and still have creative satisfaction, he succeeded with the direction the Reels took. If that wasn't his purpose, the effect was the same.

Starting out in Dubbo meant playing music that appealed to a broad cross-section. Dave Mason met guitarist Craig Hooper at school, and with John Bliss on drums, in the early 70s formed a band , Native Son, which played the Dubbo area for three years. Along the way they picked keyboard player Colin 'Polly' Newman who had been playing in cabaret bands (there wasn't much more) in the nearby Bathurst/district.

In 1978 the group moved to Sydney, acquired a bass player in Paul Abrahams, and took on a new name, the tongue-in-cheek, The Brucelanders. Their music took on a mix of the pop influences of the day - the eccentric pop of XTC, the rhythmic ska - and evolved a style which contrasted significantly with the rest of the rock Sydney was embracing from the likes of Cold Chisel and the Angels. They won a recording contract anyway, and changed their name to the Reels for the 1979 debut single, 'Love Will Find A Way'. It came from a first album produced by Angels producer Mark Opitz on a mobile recording unit on the verandah of a country property back in Dubbo. Just called 'The Reels' the album also contained the group's first hit, 'Prefab Hearts'.

In February 1980 the Reels added a sixth member, Karen Ansell, another keyboard player, and recorded 'After The News'. It was the first taste of a "new" approach. They dispensed with their guitars and became a synthesizer and drums group. When they first arrived in Sydney the group felt they had to give up their Dubbo 'cover band' ethic and be a conventional rock band. The Reels now decided to "be themselves". They recorded a pre-Christmas EP 'Five Great Gift Ideas From The Reels' which contained versions of Jim Reeves' 1961 country song 'According To My Heart', and Freda Payne's 1971 r&b/pop hit 'Band Of Gold'. They were now in the hands of pop-oriented producers Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop.

The second album 'Quasimodo's Dream' represents this point of the band's career, and contains 'After The News', those EP tracks mentioned, a new single 'Shout And Deliver', and the unusual album title track, which has become one of the classics of Australian music, even though when it was released as the next single at the time it "flopped". Too unusual. But it's a recording that has stood the test of time, and as a song is one of the few Australian songs to see two very different cover versions, from Kate Ceberano and Jimmy Little.

John Bliss left and was replaced just after the recording of the 'Quasimodo's Dream' album. Before the album was released Colin Newman left, and it was a five-piece Reels which recorded a new single, 'No.3' before both Paul Abrahams and Karen Ansell left. The trio of Dave Mason, Craig Hooper and new drummer Stephen Fidock carried on with the help of a tape recorder on stage for live performances. In the studio they used Fairlight synthesizers for whatever else they needed musically. Along the way the Reels had found their own niche in music, with a taste for having their own way with old songs.

In November 1982 The Reels delivered a fairly straight version of Burt Bacharach's 'This Guy's In Love With You' under a new record contract with RCA, and then made the highly unusual and novel move of recording an album for K-Tel, the TV marketers specializing in licensing golden oldies. The album, 'Beautiful' flirted with synthesized middle of the road, and was filled with easy listening love songs, including 'This Guy'. The album went on to sell in excess of 40,000 copies.

1983 saw the band travel to Los Angeles and London, release a five track EP and their own new version of 'Quasimodo's Dream' in December 1983, which turned out to be a fitting, unintended epilogue to this period of the Reels' career. Hepatitis forced Dave Mason to retire from music. While he recovered Craig Hooper joined the Church as an extra player, and was an early member of the Mullanes, the group which became Crowded House.

By August 1985 Dave was back in shape, and put the Reels back together, completing their RCA commitments with a version of 'It Must Be Love', and starting their relationship with Regular Records with a radically reworked Creedence Clearwater Revival 'Bad Moon Rising', followed by 'Love Grows', formerly by Edison Lighthouse. No song was safe or sacred. This was the Reels tour de force now. In 1987 they embarked on a 'requests' tour, where the audience was allowed to call out for the songs they wanted to hear. This was followed by an all-Australian version of the same concept, which ultimately inspired the Reels' first studio album in six years. 'Neighbors' contained the Reels versions of 13 Australian classics, and generated the singles ' Are You Old Enough' (Dragon) and 'Forever Now' (Cold Chisel).

In September '91, the Reels issued their first original single in five years 'I Don't Love You Anymore', before dissolving the group completely with the release of a farewell 'best of' called 'Requiem'. In 2007 Dave released his first album in 15 years, doing what he used to do to the work of others, turning his own catalogue on its head for 'Reelsville', part of Liberation Blue's Acoustic series.

Dave Mason, John Bliss and Colin Newham resurrected themselves as the Reels for a national tour in May 2008 for the first time since the 'Reels By Request' tour 1987.