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The Go-Betweens

Go-Betweens, The

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Go-Betweens Aim To Strike Public Chord

Profile and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Billboard, 14 January 1989

AT THE END of the day, what do good reviews really mean? In the case of the Go-Betweens, whose debut Capitol album 16 Lovers Lane ...

Audio interviews

The Go-Betweens' Robert Forster (1988)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, March 1988

The Go-Betweens' co-frontman talks about the band's return to their native Australia: the contrasts between London and Sydney or Brisbane; the lack of a particularly Australian music; his dislike of the London Soho/The Face mafia, and having had enough "edge"; the new album 16 Lovers Lane; the Australian fear of indulgence and artiness, and thinking of hemispheres rather than nations.

File format: mp3; file size: 67.7mb, interview length: 1h 10' 29" sound quality: ***

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Singles: PiL, Cabaret Voltaire, X-Ray Spex, Chris Bell, The Cars et al

Review by Hugh Jarse, ZigZag, November 1978

PUBLIC IMAGE: 'Public Image' (Virgin) 'ELLO, A LOW-key re-emergence which grows on ya. I know everybody was expecting another anthem but here ya go, this ...

Go-Betweens

Profile and Interview by Clinton Walker, Roadrunner, December 1979

IT WAS ABOUT two years ago. In Brisbane, at Baroona Hall, the Survivors and the Leftovers were playing... ...

The Raincoats, Three Courgettes, The Go-Betweens: The Venue, London

Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 5 June 1982

HAVING SUCCESSFULLY thrown off the worst aspects of their twee post-punk amateurism with the release of the refreshing Odyshape last year. The Raincoats took several steps backwards ...

The Go-Betweens: The Gentle Three-Headed Monster

Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 21 August 1982

Treading carefully among the Go-Betweens – these Aussies bite! ...

The Go-Betweens: Before Hollywood (Rough Trade)

Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 26 March 1983

ABSOLUTELY SWEET BETWEENS ...

Orange Juice/The Go Betweens: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 9 April 1983

THERE COMES a time in every upwardly mobile popster's career when he/she is faced with the almost inevitable prospect of playing the Lyceum. The ...

The Go-Betweens: King's College, London

Live Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 4 June 1983

DON WATSON SEES THE GLINT ON THE EDGE OF THE GO-BEES' POP KNIFE ...

Ridiculous and Wonderful: The Smiths/The Go-Betweens at the Venue, London

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 1 October 1983

TWO STRANGELY jarring acts from Rough Trade, one increasingly abstruse, t'other ever more open, engaging. ...

The Go-Betweens: Mysteries of Exile

Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 1 October 1983

The GO-BETWEENS come from Australia, but you don't need a visa to love them. Lynden Barber suggests we drop our passport control mentalities and tune ...

The Go-Betweens: Up From Down Under

Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 26 November 1983

HOW TOUCHINGLY ENGLISH this all is. Outside in the late autumn Notting Hill Gate landscape shoppers shuffle through the leaves, surprised at the novelty of ...

The Go-Betweens: Past Hope, Past Care, Past Help?

Profile and Interview by Blake Gumprecht, Matter, April 1984

I FEEL KINDA SORRY for the Go-Betweens. A lot has happened and just as little, since their first brief trip to America around Christmas time. ...

Go-Betweens: Spring Hill Fair (Sire K925179)

Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984

TO SUMMARISE the Go-Betweens' appeal would be a destructive exercise, because the core of their charm is a moveable feast. From the lush beauty of ...

The Go-Betweens: Money Can't Buy You Love

Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 13 October 1984

THERE'S NOTHING quite like a love affair to shake you out of an autopilot trance and put you back in touch with your feelings; feelings ...

The Go-Betweens: Fencing Lessons

Interview by Mick Sinclair, ZigZag, November 1984

AS THEIR man Robert Foster notes: "There are a small group of people who like the Go‑Betweens intensely. I see the band as having good ...

The Go-Betweens: Camden Palace, London

Live Review by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, 1 December 1984

GOING GONE ...

The Go-Betweens: Tallulah (Beggars Banquet)

Review by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, May 1987

AS THE chief dreamboat Forster sighs at yet another of life's improbabilities, as the waggish McLennan makes some more compelling assumptions, as these roguish Go-Betweens ...

The Go-Betweens: The Knitting Factory, New York NY

Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Billboard, 10 December 1988

A FULL decade after they released their first single, Australia's Go-Betweens have finally found a home on a major U.S. label. Presumably, with the beautiful ...

The Go-Betweens: 16 Lovers Lane (Capitol)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989

AUSTRALIA'S GO-Betweens have been quietly recording wonderful albums of engaging pop for almost ten years. Previous records featured cleverly structured tunes with even cleverer lyrics, ...

The Go-Betweens: Warehouse, Leeds

Live Review by Dave Simpson, Record Mirror, 17 June 1989

THIS IS getting a bit ridiculous y'know! For years now virtually every pop scribe in the country has been telling you, the public, how wonderful ...

The Go-Betweens: The Go-Betweens – 1978-1990 (Beggars Banquet)

Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), January 1991

IT WAS PROPHETIC that the Go-Betweens should have prepared this album, a double compilation of their greatest "hits and misses", or rather "misses and outtakes", ...

The Go-Betweens: The Go-Betweens: 1978-1990

Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), January 1991

IT WAS PROPHETIC that the Go-Betweens should have prepared this album, a double compilation of their greatest "hits and misses", or rather "misses and outtakes", ...

The Go-Betweens: The Fleadh, Finsbury Park, London

Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, August 1997

SOME BANDS just seem to outgrow their natural life through sheer influence. Something profound dictates that as their reputation accumulates people remember them as a ...

The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset)

Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 14 September 2000

Sleater-Kinney aid return of '80s post-punk rockers. ...

Evan Dando: Baby I'm Bored/The Go-Betweens: Bright Yellow Bright Orange

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 28 February 2003

A DECADE AGO, Evan Dando was pretty much the perfect pop star. He was a tousle-haired, scatterbrained blond who posed for teen magazines with his ...

The Go-Betweens: Liberty Belle & the Diamond Express, Tallulah, 16 Lovers Lane

Review by Alfred Soto, Stylus, 15 November 2004

ROBERT FORSTER and Grant McLennan are my kind of guys. Thoughtful, wary, bemused, these are men who have known love and lost it, kept their ...

Prehistoric Sounds: In Search of an Australian Rock'n'Roll

Overview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 28 December 2004

I'VE STARTED writing this story a hundred different ways and every time I think I might be getting somewhere I end up stumbling across some ...

The Go-Betweens: Oceans Apart

Review by Alfred Soto, Stylus, 12 May 2005

THERE'S NOTHING FOOLISH about the Go-Betweens' remarkable consistency, but their arrangements sure could use some hobgoblins. That's the impression I got from listening to their ...

The Go-Betweens: Their Back Pages

Profile and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, June 2005

IS ROCK 'N' ROLL just a fairy tale? Once upon a time there was a magical group called the Beatles. We thought they'd last forever, ...

The Yin and Yang of the Go-Betweens

Live Review by Steven R Rosen, LA CityBeat, 23 June 2005

LIVE, THE GO-BETWEENS may just be the most perfectly balanced rock band around. And it's nice to have a rare chance to witness it. Last ...

Goodbye Fireboy: Grant McLennan 1958 - 2006

Obituary by Toby Creswell, Rock's Backpages, May 2006

GRANT MCLENNAN, who died in his sleep on MAY 6, 2006, was one of the outstanding songwriters of his generation. He was acknowledged an artist ...

Brisbane's Pig City Festival

Report by Clinton Walker, Brisbane Courier-Mail, July 2007

THE QUEENSLAND Music Festival, which is launched next Friday with a dawn concert in Winton and runs for a fortnight till July 29, is an ...

The Go-Betweens: G Stands For Go-Betweens – Volume 1, 1978-1984 (Domino)

Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2015

DOMINO TAKE a fittingly comprehensive approach to anthologising this rarefied band. The first in a planned three-volume set, it collects the group's first trio of ...

Robert Forster: I wouldn't be able to make sense of Madonna or Drake

Interview by Everett True, The Guardian, 22 January 2015

As a new Go-Betweens box set is released, Brisbane's great purveyor of awkward pop talks about turning critic and which of his songs Ed Sheeran ...

Simon Goddard: Simply Thrilled: The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records

Book Review by Pete Paphides, Medium, 4 September 2017

THIRTY-THREE YEARS have elapsed since the wildly prodigious Roddy Frame volunteered Aztec Camera's most impressive song to date for release on Alan Horne's Postcard label. ...

"It's a widely misunderstood song": How the Go-Betweens made 'Streets of Your Town'

Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 19 September 2018

Is the winner of Guardian Australia's Songs of Brisbane poll about Brisbane? Even band members aren't sure. ...

Tracey Thorn's new book, My Rock 'n' Roll Friend, is settling scores for women

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 28 March 2021

The pop star turned author on her memoir of the Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison ...

see also Grant McLennan

see also Robert Forster and Grant McLennan

see also Jack Frost

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