Mental As Anything

Mental As Anything is an Australian rock music band which has released several albums and many innovative music videos, including "Creatures of Leisure", "Fundamental", and "Mouth To Mouth". Although they have worked in a much broader musical idiom, Mental As Anything are in many respects comparable to British band Madness, in that their music is typically delivered with a quirky, ironic sense of humour and a strong visual identity. The original lineup of the group, which boasted four songwriters and lasted more than twenty years, was:

Martin Plaza (Martin Murphy) -- vocals, guitar Reg Mombassa (Chris O'Doherty) -- lead guitar, vocals Andrew "Greedy" Smith -- vocals, keyboards, harmonica Pete O'Doherty -- bass, vocals Wayne "Bird" De Lisle (David Twohill) -- drums

Smith, Murphy and O'Doherty met at art school and formed the band in 1976; all became accomplished painters, with O'Doherty's work in particular becoming very well known through his designs for the Mambo clothing company.

The Mentals' music is characterised by poppy, accessible and well-crafted melodies and lyrics, and almost all their work showcases their ironic, satirical and self-deprecating sense of humour. They are arguably one of the most typically 'Australian' of rock groups, with their music and their satirical, good-time image deeply rooted in the milieu of Australian suburbia, despite the fact that two key members (the O'Doherty brothers) were in fact immigrants from New Zealand. The group's art school background and visual design skills also made them pioneers of the music video form in Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and their videos rank as some of the funniest and most imaginative produced in Australia at that time.

The core of the group formed in Sydney in 1976 while the of the members were studying at what was then known as East Sydney Technical College, the city's leading art school, where Martin Sharp and others had studied. They famously arrived for their very first live performance without a name, so the promoter chose "Mental As Anything" for them.

Shortly afterwards Chris O'Doherty's younger brother Peter joined on bass; the first performance by this line-up was at Sydney's Cell Block Theatre on August 17, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died. The band quickly built up a strong live following in Sydney with their legendary residency at the Unicorn Hotel in inner-city Paddington, where it has been reported that the crowds soon grew so large that band were forced to play on top of the hotel pool table.

The band were spotted by filmakers Cameron Allen and Martin Fabinyi, who founded their own independent record label, Regular Records, to record and release the group's music; Fabinyi's brother Jeremy Fabinyi became the Mentals' manager. Their first release was the now highly collectible three-track EP Mental As Anything Play At Your Party (Dec. 1978). It featured all original tracks, and is the only release on which Murphy and Chris O'Doherty were credited by their real names. By 1979 all but one of the band members had adopted a pseudonym -- Chris O'Doherty became "Reg Mombassa"; Murphy became "Martin Plaza" (his name copied from the that of title of the pedestrian plaza in central Sydney, fomerly known as Martin Place); Smith's voracious appetite soon saw him dubbed "Greedy" and Twohill became "Wayne Delisle".

With support from independent Sydney rock station Double Jay, the band gained wide exposure with their first single, another of their original tracks, "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" (July 1979), a classic drinking song which showed a stylistic debt to British New Wave. Soon after its release, leading Australian record label Festival Records took over distribution of Regular and they released a remix of "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" as a single. This was followed by the band's debut album, Get Wet, with Allen producing. With support from nationwide TV pop show Countdown "Nips" became the group's first national hit, and also made #1 on the UK alternative charts when released there by Virgin Records.

Their next two singles -- Plaza's "Possible Theme For a Future TV Drama Series" (Nov. 1979) and Mombassa's "Egypt" (Jan. 1980) were not particularly susccessful; nor was their second LP Expresso Bongo (named after the Cliff Richard movie). Their fourth single, "Come Around" returned the group to the charts and was followed by a major hit with their next non-album single in November 1980, an upbeat version of the 1964 hit "Just Like Romeo And Juliet" by The Reflections, which became a nationwide pop hit.

Thery scored another national hit with Plaza's " cleverly titled "If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?" (May 1981), which was accompanied by a classic music video shot on a building block in a Sydney seaside suburb. Smith penned the follow-up, "Too Many Times", which was arguably a rewrite of "Nips" but still became a significant hit. The next single, "Berserk Warriors" (Dec. 1981), was a satirical tribute to ABBA, although the concurrent release of the pop hit "Swords Of A Thousand Men" by British novelty act Tenpole Tudor prevented the Mentals from realising their plan to make a Viking-themed music video to promote it, although they did eventually make the clip as planned and included it on their subsequent longform music video compilation.

After teaming with producers Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop in 1982, their third LP Cat And Dogs became their biggest success to date, reaching #3 nationally. In June 1982, during his tour of Australia, Elvis Costello heard them and was sufficiently impressed to produce their next single "I Didn't Mean To Be Mean" (Aug. 1982), written by Plaza. It was preceded by a radio-only single, Mombassa's "Let's Cook" (Apr. 1982)

A compilation album was released in the United States and Men At Work, then at the peak of their popularity, reportedly insisted that Australian bands including Mental As Anything be given support slots on their US tours.

Peter O'Doherty wrote the band's next single, the sentimental "Close Again" (Nov. 1982), which was lifted from their fourth LP Creatures Of Leisure, as were the next two singles, the Smith-Mombassa collaboration "Spirit Got Lost" (Mar. 1983), which was accompanied by an imaginative animated videoclip, and Pete O'Doherty's "Brain Brain" (Sep. 1983). Their final 7" release for the year was the non-album single version of Roy Orbison's "Working For The Man" (Nov. 1983).

It was another year before their next 7" release, Mombassa and Plaza's blackly humourous Xmas single "Apocalpyso", which was one of the first Australian recordings to be remixed for release as a 12" 'disco' version.

From this point on Greedy Smith began to gain dominance in the band in terms of songwriting success. He penned both of the group's next two singles, both lifted from their Fundamental" album. "You're So Strong" (Mar. 1985) was followed by their first Australian #1 hit "Live It Up" (May 1985) which also reached #3 in the UK, was a hit in Europe, and was also included on the soundtrack LP of the hugely successful Australian film Crocodile Dundee .

Neither of the band's next two singles -- Smith's "Date With Destiny" (Sep. 1985) and Plaza's "Big Wheel" (Nov. 1985), were major chart successes, and the band's commercial fortunes gradually waned from this point, although they retained a strong following throughout Australia and beyond.

On August 16th, 1997 Mental As Anything celebrated 20 years together with the same line-up with a free birthday show at the Hopetoun Hotel in Sydney. Their 21st anniversary was marked by with the release of the last album by this lineup, Garáge.

In April 2001 Mental As Anything announced the first official change to their line-up since the band was formed in 1976. Peter O'Doherty and Reg Mombassa left to pursue their own musical projects (including their band Dog Trumpet and their art careers. They were replaced by David 'Duck' Barraclough (ex-The Exponents) and Murray Cook (ex-Leah Purcell, Mixed Relations).

Cook (no relation to Murray Cook of The Wiggles) has since left the band and was replaced by NewZealand born Mike Caen, who has worked with Jenny Morris, Margaret Urlich, Rick Price, Daryl Braithwaite and Tina Arena, was a member of Split Enz for two weeks (in their very early days), and was also briefly a member of Sydney 80s band Dropbears.