The Go-Betweens: Australia's most influencial indie band of all time?

On a recent business trip to Brisbane [state capital of Queensland, Australia], a bout of insomnia saw me walking the streets of the inner-city in the early hours of the morning.

Heading north, a prominent sign caught my eye: GO BETWEEN BRIDGE. Lodged in the back of my mind was a recent newspaper story, detailing the re-naming of an existing vehicle & foot passenger bridge [linking Brisbane's inner-city to the suburbs] in honour of one of the city's most popular indie bands of the 1980's.

During my teenage years of the 1980's, I was always vaguely familiar with the musical work of The Go-Betweens. The group had only 1 "hit" single ["Streets Of Your Town"], just making the lower reaches of the Australian Top 40 in 1988, however they were a band with a presence. Whilst they were hardly tabloid fodder [University-educated and bookish-looking], there was always something remotely Fleetwood Mac-ish about The Go-Betweens. The "classic" band line-up featured singer-songwriters Robert Forster & Grant McLennan, and their respective life partners Lindy Morrison & Amanda Brown. When these relationships dissolved, it generated The Go-Between's best work and, ultimately, the band's demise. Ironically, The Go-Betweens never sold records at multi-million levels like Fleetwood Mac's best-seller "Rumours"...

I managed to track down a copy of "Bellavista Terrace: Best of The Go-Betweens" in order to re-acquaint myself with the band's work. What struck me immediately was the level of musical influence heard in the songs; Joy Division and early The Cure are very much present in their early 1980's material. It is of no surprise that The Go-Betweens relocated from Brisbane to London at the start of that decade. As a counter-balance, The Go-Betweens were on this planet long before either The Smiths or REM, yet I hear Robert Forster's vocal style in both Morrissey and Michael Stipe.

"Cattle and Cane" has been named one of the 30 most prominent Australian songs of all time, yet it was never a hit single anywhere. Grant McLennan's simple lyrics about his early life in rural Queensland are endearing; the song's iconic status is deserved.

Whilst The Go-Betweens garnered a level of critical success in Australia, the United Kingdom & Europe, they also attempted to gain a foothold in the lucrative United States market. "Spring Rain" was featured in one of those 1980's John Hughes-directed teen movies, however the USA and The Go-Betweens were never meant to be.

Grant McLennan's melodic writing style and Robert Forster's lyrical cynicism [plus the oddity of a female drummer in Lindy Morrison] made The Go-Betweens very much "the thinking person's band". Brisbane is a tropical city, where men are men and beer is king. It was a natural progression for The Go-Betweens to relocate to the United Kingdom, where their musical style was always going to be appreciated on a greater level than the pub-rock dominated Australian music climate of the early 1980's.

This being said, it is an enormous honour to have any form of landmark named after you. The music lovers of Australia should have acknowledged The Go-Betweens' musical stature during their 1980's peak. With the passing of Grant McLennan in 2006, that time has now gone. There will continue to be a thriving indie music scene for ever more, thus The Go-Betweens' influence shall still live on...