Postings on Musenick are as rare as this 1998 Australian release, which quickly went out of print and now commands high prices.
I enjoy the Bee Gees' Australian recordings, despite their admitted flaws. Young Barry Gibb was a promising, if overly ambitious songwriter. He used this period (1963-67) to make a lot of mistakes and learn his craft. Still, the Bee Gees' best early recordings, such as "Claustrophobia," "Wine And Women," "Exit Stage Right" and "Playdown," are adorable Beatlesque confections. Maurice Gibb wrote songs, too, and some of his efforts are included in this set.
Brilliant From Birth, the Festival 2 CD-set of their Aussie output, is also now out of print. When I first posted this in 2012, it was easy to lay one's paws on.
Assault The Vaults remains impossible to find. It's my pleasure to share these HQ sound files with you of the album's 31 tracks. I don't have scans of the booklet, tray, or anything else, but there is a wordpad doc with the track listing info.
From pretty-good imitation country to great Merseybeat emulations to varying girl-group attempts and psych-pop experiments, these songs cut a wide swath through the sounds of their times. Ironically, the quality of songwriting, overall, exceeds that of the Brothers G's own recordings of the era. (The two tracks by Jenny Bradley are sickly pre-pubescent pop, and not recommended for hypoglycemics.)
Here's the track listing:
1. (Underneath The) Starlight Of Love - Col Joye (Festival FK 364, 1963)
2. I'd Like To Leave If I May - Lonnie Lee (Leedon LK 415, 1963)
3. Walkin' Talkin' Teardrops - Jimmy Little (from Festival LP
New Songs From Jimmy, 1964)
4. One Road - Jimmy Little (Festival Records FK 508, 1964)
5. I Don't Like To Be Alone - Bryan Davies (HMV EA 4362, 1964)
6. Love And Money - Bryan Davies (B-side to above)
7. And I'll Be Happy - Trevor Gordon & The Bee Gees (B-side, Leedon LK 829, 1965)
8. House Without Windows - Trevor Gordon & The Bee Gees (A-side to above)
9. Watch What You Say - Bryan Davies (HMV EA 4669, 1965)
10. Here I Am - Trevor Gordon (B-side, Leedon LK 924, 1965)
11. Little Miss Rhythm And Blues - Trevor Gordon (A-side to above)
12. I Should Have Stayed In Bed - Bryan Davies (1965 HMV single side?)
13. Who's Been Writing On The Wall - Jenny Bradley (Festival FK 1006, 1965)
14. Chubby - Jenny Bradley (B-side to above)
15. Everybody's Talkin' Michelle Rae (Leedon LK 971, 1965)
16. I Wanna Tell The World - Michelle Rae (B-side to above)
17. A Girl Needs To Love - Sandy Summers (B-side, Downunder UK-1455, 1966)
18. Messin' 'Round - Sandy Summers (A-side to above)
19. Hey - Bip Addison (Downunder UK-1454, 1966)
20. Young Man's Fancy - Bip Addison (B-side to above)
21. Talk To Me - Annie Shelton (Downunder UK-1456, 1966)
22. Don't You Go, I Need Your Love - The Mistics (B-side, Downunder UK-1362, 1966)
23. A Long Time Ago - April Byron (B-side, Downunder UK-1513, 1966)
24. He's A Thief - April Byron (A-side to above)
25. All The King's Horses - Ronnie Burns (Spin EK 1578, 1966)
26. Don't Say No - Jenene Watson (Spin EK 1715, 1967)
27. So Long Boy - Jenene Watson (B-side to above)
28. Town Of Tuxley Toymaker Part 1 - Jon Blanchfield (Leedon LK 1662, 1967)
29. Upstairs Downstairs - Jon Blanchfield (B-side to above)
30. As Fast As I Can - Barrington Davis (Spin EK 1771, 1967)
31. Raining Teardrops - Barrington Davis (B-side to above)
Some of this is dross, some wear out their welcome after a few listens, but most of it's surprisingly good. The original 45s go for a king's ransom. This is hard-to-hear stuff, for the most part. Sorry the song files are so gigantic (they average 20 MB apiece), but I don't have time to convert them and find them a new home on the internet. You can make them more manageable mp3s, etc., if you wish.
Get Part One (tracks 1-15)
HERE, Part Two (16-24)
HERE and Part Three (25-31)
HERE. They're newly hosted on still-reliable Box.com, as of 5/11/14.
