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Hoodoo Gurus.
 "That's my life, right there. Be gentle," warns Dave Faulkner, head honcho of the Hoodoo Gurus and bona fide pop-culture fanatic/expert, as I tell him of the pile I'm examining on my desk. That pile contains no fewer than seven Gurus albums, dating back to 1984. Each one has now been meticulously remastered and repackaged, complete with bonus tracks and brand new liner notes. And not only has EMI felt fit to re-release all of this golden material, they have accompanied it with the brand new 'Tunnel Vision' DVD containing all the band's filmclips, a bit of live footage, and a complete feature-length documentary. Faulkner, though, seems quite overwhelmed at all of this.
"EMI have had [this] thing, they've planned to release the albums for twelve months actually. They've been very focussed on that; to be honest, much more than we were. Some stuff hadn't been available, it had been deleted, and they wanted to release it all in a way that was definitive. I think they've done a fantastic job. They got our input on stuff, but there were some lovely ideas which were theirs. The liner notes, we didn't ring up people to say nice things about us - they did all that. I'm quite knocked out, to be honest."
The liner notes, printed in the sleeve to each remastered album, were actually written by the Hoodoos' contemporaries and fans to provide a retrospective memoir of the band and the era they lived in. 1984's 'Stoneage Romeos', for example, has notes written by Frenzal Rhomb's Lindsay McDougall, who was six years old at the time. All this was organised by the record label, which Faulkner couldn't be more thankful about.
"You often hear people dissing record companies, but we've had nothing but positive [experiences] with EMI - they've been terrific from day one."
However, the band has gone through its moments. During the documentary, Faulkner passes judgement on what was probably the band's most successful record, 1986's 'Blow Your Cool' (that which featured What's My Scene?), declaring that this album's typically '80s production was actually quite a disappointment. I ponder whether the remastering has redressed any Faulkner's misgivings about that record.
"We have done various things over the years for different compilations, remastering them [the songs from 'Blow Your Cool']. But there are some things that you just can't change. Those reverbs and digital effects, they're on the mix forever. But I wouldn't change them now anyway, because that's part of the flavour of what people have lived with. It's not up to me to repaint the Mona Lisa!"
Another typical feature of that era was, well, the hair. Whilst there certainly is more than a hint of embarrassment in Faulkner's tone on this subject, there will be no apologies. "Well, to be honest, the reason I teased my hair in the early days was because it was slightly thinning, I thought I'd bulk it up a bit. We kind of did it to be outrageous, to shock people and be idiot musicians."
But, of course, Faulkner was nothing compared to guitarist Brad Shepherd. "Well, Brad is a glamourpuss, let's be honest. He's a good shopper, he's always getting new items of clothing. Often for me, some of my looks persisted well after their use-by date. It would take losing a shirt for me to change it!"
As for the future, The Hoodoos' last album 'Mach Schau' didn't do so well, a fact Faulkner attributes to a failure of marketing. But, as before, that doesn't mean you won't get to see the boys in action - three of the four Hoodoos, for example, also play in The Persian Rugs. Faulkner gets quite excited whenever the 'Rugs are mentioned, but he's still quite realistic.
"Brad's developed an obsession with martial arts, he's learning martial arts now. I'm not sure that Brad will be doing the side projects, he seems quite involved in these martial arts. He did say to me a while ago that he doesn't enjoy carrying his own amp and playing to fifty people, so the idea of doing something for love, I think Brad's past that. And I don't blame him, you have to want to do it. He'll do Hoodoo Gurus shows, but I might have to find another guitarist for the Persian Rugs."
Ben Revi
 | 'Tunnel Vision' and the entire Hoodoo Gurus back catalogue are out now through EMI. The Hood Gurus also play at the Clipsal 500 after-race show on Sun 20 March. |
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