The Sports

The Sports were one of Australia's prime contributions to the mid-seventies 'new wave' era of rock.

They grew out of Melbourne group the Pelaco Brothers who'd done enough to elevate lead singer Stephen Cummings to cult status and to give Stephen a taste for a career in music rather than his original plan to become a stand-up comedian. With the end of Pelaco Brothers Stephen hand-picked a casual bunch of acquaintances, and with his tongue still in his cheek called his assemblage, The Sports. Musically they carried on with the Pelaco Brothers' eclectic rockabilly, but put aside the sarcastic lyrics.

The new group started its recording career in early 1977 by pressing 500 copies of an independently produced EP, 'Fair Game'. A friend in London posted the record to the New Musical Express which declared it Record Of The Week. In shades of the Saints' 'Stranded (On My Own)' a couple of years earlier, the Sports found themselves right in tune with the very latest music trend dominating London rock. They became part of the promise of a new beginning for song-based rock as an antidote to punk, dubbed New Wave. At the forefront of the movement were Tom Petty, Graham Parker and Elvis Costello.

By the time the Sports recorded their first album for Mushroom they'd introduced guitarist Andrew Pendelbury to the line-up, bringing some of that eclecticism into some kind of focus. Also helping pull the music into line was producer Joe Camilleri, another ex-Pelaco Brother, by now leading Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons. The album was a slicked-up version of the band's sweaty pub rock performances. Its first single once again put the band on a head-on collision with what was going on in England. Sports' 'Boys (What Did The Detectives Say)' accidentally coincided with an Elvis Costello single titled 'Watching The Detectives". Shortly after the release of 'Reckless' Pelaco Brothers' survivor Ed Bates was shoved aside in favour of Martin Armiger. The move was on to make The Sports more musical.

After supporting Graham Parker's Australian tour late in 1978, early the following year Parker arranged for the group to support him again in London. Elvis Costello's London record company signed the Sports to a recording contract, and on a roll reviving 50s rock names, Stiff Records wanted to change Stephen Cummings' name to Steve Cochran, an opportunity he resisted. The Sports recorded a four track EP in London, 'OK UK' including their version of the Easybeats' 'Wedding Ring', while in Australia we were listening to the second Mushroom-released album, 'Don't Throw Stones'. The band returned to Australia to support the new album's top ten status, and then it was off to play in front of a celebrity crowd in New York to back up the release of 'Who Listens To The Radio'. In front of Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop and others the Sports mucked up its first song twice. Angry and embarrassed Stephen Cummings spent the entire show with his back to the audience.

Not surprisingly, the group's third album 'Suddenly' coincided with more line-up changes. A rock band is always only as good as the sum of its parts, and Sports was becoming a leaking vessel. After 1981's 'Sondra' (named after Clint Eastwood's girlfriend Sondra Locke) the Sports went their separate ways without announcements or farewell tours, just one final EP of mostly obscure Bob Dylan songs.

Stephen Cummings' solo career picked up where the Sports' left off, with none of the associated encumbrances. His solo albums are dominated by his voice and his songs, but Stephen Cummings is very much a collaborator and each solo album is also an expression of the musicians he has assembled to record it.

In November 1998 The Sports reassembled as part of Mushroom Records' 25th Anniversary celebrations at the MCG.