Top Ten Flashback: November 5, 1994

Welcome to the Australian singles charts from 20 years ago today. This is a particularly memorable top 10 for me, as a particular single by my favourite band made its debut appearance. It would only remain in the charts for one week, but it gave that band their highest-charting single in Australia. What else was charting at the time? Let's find out.

10.  The Offspring – "Come Out And Play"
I actually didn't like this song when I first heard it, but it quickly grew on me. The Middle-Eastern sounding bass riff was an element I liked, and its low-budget music video "made it stand out from the usual bilge", according to one of the band members in an interview at the time. The single had a very long chart run despite never getting higher than number 8 – which it peaked at on two separate occasions in December 1994 and February 1995 – an impressive 29 weeks in our top 50.


 
9.  Kylie Minogue – "Confide In Me"
So, this was her 'comeback' single. Can't say I was a fan of it, although the video was quite interestingly done. For me, the most notable thing about this song was that it jumped 30 positions to hit number 1, the third-highest chart jump for 1994 behind "Swamp Thing" by The Grid (34 places, 43 to 9) and "The Sign" by Ace Of Base (32 places, 41 to 9).




 
8.  Luther Vandross & Mariah Carey – "Endless Love"
What's the bet this inane ballad was recorded separately by the two performers? You should know my feelings on ballads by now. Drivel. They should have deleted the "Luther Van...& Mariah Carey" off the cover, as well as the song title, so that it just read "dross", which'd be quite apt, I reckon.




 
7.  Tina Arena – "Chains"
"Meh!" That was my reaction upon hearing this sleep-inducing tedium. It sure wasn't "I Need Your Body", that's for sure. And it'd all started out so promisingly as well.





 

6.  Nine Inch Nails – "Closer"
Or "Closer To God", as it says on the cover artwork. I could never work out why. I could only hear this song on Take 40 Australia, as Rage never aired the video. And with good reason, you might add. When I first heard the song, I thought "I thought Nine Inch Nails were a heavy metal band?".



 
5.  Madonna – "Secret"
This was the first single from Madonna's album Bedtime Stories, which I bought dirt-cheap on cassette in India in 1997, and as the title implies it was enough to send you to sleep. I honestly don't recall anything notable about it. But then I was in India for a month and had to listen to something besides Bollywood bhangra.






4.  Nirvana – "About A Girl" ºº
This was what I had been keeping my beady eyes out for while watching Rage 20 years ago today! Almost exactly seven months after the untimely death of Kurt Cobain, this single from their MTV Unplugged appearance was due to chart, and when I watched the chart countdown, there it was at number 4. Being a limited-edition single of 5000 copies, they all sold out, which was enough to get it into the chart for one glorious week. (Actually, it apparently charted for a second week having dropped back to number 76, but the full top 100 information was well beyond my grasp, especially in 1994.)



3.  Boyz II Men – "I'll Make Love To You"
No thanks.










 
2.  Bon Jovi – "Always"
Here comes the single which holds the dubious record of spending the most weeks at number 2 (seven) without getting to number 1, for the entire six year period from 1990 to 1995. And as someone who couldn't stand this power-ballad claptrap, I can't say I was disappointed about this.






1.  Silverchair – "Tomorrow"
Hey, remember when Australian musicians used to get into the Australian singles charts? No? Well they did 20 years ago. Remember when 15 year old boys used to get to number 1 with their debut single? No? Good, because this is the first time it happened, to my knowledge. I actually prefer the 'single' version of this song to the album version that followed. Although Silverchair were lumbered with the dreaded 'grunge' tag, this sounds like blues-rock to me, with more of a frayed edge to it. And that ain't bad, mister.

Japanese Video Tapes

I lived in Japan from 2001–2002, and in that time, I purchased a lot of VHS videos to watch at home. I got a lot of them cheap from ex-rental shops. But they do take up a lot of space, and I'm thinking of getting rid of most of them as I already have pretty much all the programmes on DVD now, or digital files. But here's a look at some of what I amassed. Some VHS sets come in different coloured cassettes:

The videos above are the set of 7 that make up the British comedy series The Thin Blue Line, from 1995–1996, starring Rowan Atkinson. The video covers are below. (By the way, the series was subtitled, not dubbed.)

Here's the set of 6 videos of the early 2000s anime series Burn-Up X. 

And finally the Mr. Bean series, with identical cover art to the original.

Now, git outta 'ere!

Airbury Academy IV: Now On Sale!

Here it is, Airbury Academy Volume IV – the comic I've been working on since November 2012, set about self-publishing in mid-February, got my proof copy of on March 6, and received 30 copies fresh from the printer today! I've had work published before in magazines, but never my own book, so this is pretty special.

If you want to buy a copy, you can click here to buy online. Or, you could send me an email and tell me your address, which is easy if you live in Australia. If you don't, the first option may be easier.

Thanks go out to Dave Piper who helped a lot through the pre-printing process and also with the logo you see on this very cover. Check his stuff out at Sunday ink!

Wall Or Nothing: Painting A Mural

Rob Scholten and I have been painting a mural in David Street, Preston, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Ben, the owner of an Eastern-themed home goods and furniture store called Funky Stuff, asked him to do it and supplied the paint. It was Rob's design; he has done murals before – I was just adding flourishes, but it was interesting to work on street art in public for the first time.

We started the work in December 2013 and Rob had just put the finishing touches to it. Here's a visual record of our progress.

The wall originally was bright orange, 30 metres long and 10 metres high. Rob started by making lines in spray paint.

  

It needed to incorporate Buddha, and this is Rob's preliminary sketch.

In the early stages, using the roller and line work.

Embrace the wall, man!
 

Almost there...getting to this stage took about 5 sessions, lasting until sunset.

And finally, in March 2014 it's complete.

Lino Carving: Airbury Logo

I'm gearing up towards the possibility of getting Airbury IV printed, so the cover art has to look decent. After showing the rough version around it became apparent that the logo or header needed to be improved. The rigorous precision of the words "Airbury Academy" in the Trajan Pro typeface looked nice, but didn't really stand out. And if anything has to stand out, it's the title, right?

So the other day I got this small piece of lino I'd had since my TAFE days and transferred the header onto it in reverse, then used my lino-carving tools to carve the lettering in relief.

Using black ink and a roller, I made a few prints onto cartridge paper. Each print was different, with its own 'character'. It gave a pleasingly rustic and handmade look, as befitting the titular Academy which started in the 16th century. The pages above were scanned and a comp image was made...

And dropped into Photoshop, the end result being quite satisfying. Maya will feature on the cover for Volume IV, holding a snowball, or rather a snowman's head with carrot attached. More news on the possibility of the book will be coming soon!