Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand. Douglas Galbraith
of me. But I like it now’.
•••
In January 1981, the Scientists broke up ‘in disgust at their unpopularity in Perth’. James recalls that they had ‘had enough of Perth, and three years of the band was enough, no future for us …’
Their last gig at Hernando’s Hideaway was supported by new band the Helicopters, featuring Tony Thewlis, who by now was friendly with Kim. Despite the clammy pall that Perth threw over the band, James looks back at this time fondly:
I didn’t think I was going to change Perth, but we tried to give it a kick in the arse! We felt hated in our own city! We didn’t have a lot of fans. But we have thousands now who say they used to come and watch us, but where were they when there was four people on a Sunday watching! We had fun doing it … We were just putting it up ‘em in Perth really. And the friendship of all those people, Rod, Boris and Kim still remains strong today (James Baker).
•••
The Mark 1 Scientists came and went in a flash. They were really a transition band for Kim, between the hard and fast punk of the Cheap Nasties and the unique mess of the Mark 2 Scientists to follow. They were a means to refine his song writing and performing, to learn who he wanted to play with, to consolidate his look, and to test his formula. The Mark 1 Scientists drew Kim’s identity into sharper focus, and he was clearly on the outside.
We were the next thing beyond punk (just plain contrary, in hindsight). We chose to take the next step that, to us, was to go through the rubble and pick up the things we liked and reassemble them … We were perverse. We revered the stylish loser, the unsung hero, the uncompromising unconventional unseen dandy, and the misunderstood misanthrope … Our heroes were incurable. They couldn’t help it. They were rock ‘n’ roll to the core. And so it was for us. People had got The Victims. They didn’t get us. We were loud, loose as buggery and yet had pop melodies and wore mop tops. And loud shirts. Were we punk? Old school rock? Or making some kind of art statement? Nobody could tell … At first, we didn’t care but soon it became apparent to us that we were becoming musical lepers around town. This only added to our righteousness …13
This enigmatic cauldron of noise, anti-style and fuck-off-attitude laid a large chunk of the conceptual template for the Mark 2 Scientists. There would be seismic changes to the concept of the Scientists in its second coming, but this version of the band took Kim one step closer to the formula he was after. Kim was still on a messy transition from his invisible childhood in the swamps, but with the Scientists he caught sight of something he was chasing. He had found a gang of misfits to feel at ease with. The Scientists had delivered plenty of triumphs in spite of the general hatred in their home town, and although the immediate future was blank, Kim knew he stood at an open door.
I felt like I had an idea that was so strong that I believed in it, and it came from me and the guys. Finally, I was in a little scene, it was the club of four Scientists. And I belonged in that. And we defined the terms, we could go out there and people could interpret that how they wanted but we knew what it was, and people could say what they liked, take it as they would, but we knew it was strong enough as it was. And it was the first time where it was like we knew better than everybody else — you don’t know shit! It was a great feeling. We were driven enough, me, James, Boris, we had enough drive. It’s us against the world. It’s good to be got. And the Scientists was a time where that happened.
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