Simon Binks: Difference between revisions
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During the court case media also reported that he fell out with Crawl co-founder [[James Reyne]] after claiming to have written "[[The Boys Light Up (song)|The Boys Light Up]]", one of Australian Crawl's early hits.<ref name="SMH"/> Binks denied this also, claiming that although he wrote the introductory musical theme from "The Boys Light Up" such work was not usually credited, and that the basic chords and lyrics of "The Boys Light Up" were written by Reyne.<ref name="news"/> After an appeal by the Council, in September 2007, the amount Binks was awarded was reduced to $304,750.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=91517 |title=Less damages for Australian Crawl member |publisher=''National Nine News'' |date=[[2007-09-18]] |accessdate=2008-04-09 }}</ref> |
During the court case media also reported that he fell out with Crawl co-founder [[James Reyne]] after claiming to have written "[[The Boys Light Up (song)|The Boys Light Up]]", one of Australian Crawl's early hits.<ref name="SMH"/> Binks denied this also, claiming that although he wrote the introductory musical theme from "The Boys Light Up" such work was not usually credited, and that the basic chords and lyrics of "The Boys Light Up" were written by Reyne.<ref name="news"/> After an appeal by the Council, in September 2007, the amount Binks was awarded was reduced to $304,750.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=91517 |title=Less damages for Australian Crawl member |publisher=''National Nine News'' |date=[[2007-09-18]] |accessdate=2008-04-09 }}</ref> |
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I am not with Blue Pie Records. They did sign me, but won't give me any money to make a record. What use is a record company if not to pay for the recording? |
SB "I am not with Blue Pie Records. They did sign me, but won't give me any money to make a record. What use is a record company if not to pay for the recording? |
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I can't talk about the court case until it is over. North Sydney Council are still wasting taxpayer's money by taking me to the High Court, having lost the Supreme Court Trial and Appeal. The facts are clear except for selective reporting by the tabloids. I broke no law and will prove it in a National Press release once North Sydney Council has finished attempting to evade responsibility at the taxpayers gross expense. Hell, do I have some things to say. |
I can't talk about the court case until it is over. North Sydney Council are still wasting taxpayer's money by taking me to the High Court, having lost the Supreme Court Trial and Appeal. The facts are clear except for selective reporting by the tabloids. I broke no law and will prove it in a National Press release once North Sydney Council has finished attempting to evade responsibility at the taxpayers gross expense. Hell, do I have some things to say." |
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===Personal life=== |
===Personal life=== |
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Revision as of 06:52, 14 April 2008
Simon Binks |
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Simon John Binks[1] (born 1956,[2][3][4] Mt. Eliza, Melbourne) is an Australian rock musician who is best known for his guitar work and song writing with Australian Crawl from founding in 1978 to 1984.[5][6]
Biography
Early career
Binks was raised in the Mornington Peninsula suburb of Mt. Eliza on the outskirts of Melbourne and educated at The Peninsula School.
Spiff Rouch[5][6] was a band formed in 1976, it included Binks and fellow locals Brad Robinson, James Reyne, Bill McDonough, Guy McDonough, Paul Williams, Robert Walker and Mark Hudson.[6][7] By early 1978 Spiff Rouch had separated and Clutch Cargo was formed with Binks, Robinson, Reyne, and Williams, they were joined by James Reyne's younger brother David Reyne (drums).[6][7]
SB: "Clutch Cargo was one of many names thrown around at Rod Matheson's house in Caulfield one night as we searched for a name for what was to be Australian Crawl. It was quickly dismissed. Australian Crawl was the one name that didn't revile at least one of us, so Australian Crawl it became. I can't recall who thought of it. James maintains it was he. OK. We were Clutch Cargo for all of five minutes. Less. Rod Matheson is another old Peninsula School friend and was our first roady/tour manager.
Mark Hudson was never part of Australian Crawl. James and I used to play with him when we were first starting to put bands together, either in a cramped South Yarra house, or hiring Baxter hall, with James on drums and no bass player. Mark was a great guitarist.
Spiff Rouch was more the McDonough brother's band. They asked James to join and James then asked me. We worked for a while, made a demo, but James and I wanted to start our own band, so we left. I went to Singapore, Bali and Penang with Rod.
This was when Singapore still had a red light district - Bugis Street. We were befriended by a young Chinese guy who took us into a house in Bugis Street. The corridors were lined with what at first glance seemed beautiful girls. But they spoke with husky voices and it soon dawned upon us that all was not as it seemed.
We ran out of there and returned from our first International trip changed men. Not that changed, or Australain Crawl would never had gained the reputation we had."
When we got back, James and I started to put together what was to become Australian Crawl".
Australian Crawl
Clutch Cargo was renamed Australian Crawl and performed their first live gig in October 1978.[8] Bill McDonough replaced David Reyne within the first year.[5][6]
Binks wrote or co-wrote four tracks[1] for the Crawl's 1980 debut album The Boys Light Up as well as lead and slide guitar and vocals.[9] Guy McDonough (guitars) joined Australian Crawl later that year.[5] For their second album Sirocco in 1981, there were two Binks tracks,[1] and he added acoustic guitar to his other guitar work.[10] Third album, Sons of Beaches from 1982, had Binks providing lead guitar only.[11]
Drummer Bill McDonough left early in 1983, the Crawl recorded an EP Semantics with Graham Bidstrup on drums.[5][6] Of the four tracks, Binks wrote "White Limbo"[1] which was also the B-side of the European single release "Reckless". The EP Semantics charted on the Australian Singles Charts to reach #1 and consequently some sources list "Reckless" as a #1 single.[12][13] After the EP, John Watson replaced Bidstrup as drummer.[5][6]
Phalanx released late in 1983 was a live album which saw Binks and Australian sound engineer Ross Cockle[14][15] as producers.[6] Australian Crawl toured England supporting Duran Duran in late 1983 but they returned to Australia with Guy McDonough seriously ill and subsequently dying in June 1984.[5] Later that year Binks left the Crawl while Simon Hussey (ex Cats Under Pressure) joined to provide guitars, keyboards and song writing.[5][6]
"SB: No, no, no. I was never replaced in Australian Crawl. I started the band with James and I broke it up by resigning after the recording of the final record, 'A Rock and a Hard Place', as though the songs were as good as any from prior records, it was the only record where James worked out the songs with session musicians, not the band.
In the recording for 'A Rock and a Hard Place', I came to the studio for the first day of recording, having already set up my extensive array of vintage guitars, acoustics and old Marshall, Orange and Vox amps, only to find another guitarist playing on songs I had not even heard, using my amps & guitars.
This was a huge slap in the face for what James himself had acknowledged to be the Musical Director for Australian Crawl. It bit hard, so i quit. I simply left a note on Brad's keyboard that said "Dear Brad, I quit. Simon".
Brad convinced me to stay for the tour to promote 'A Rock and a Hard Place', as this was the first album on our own record company. It was our money and due to a huge blow out, ended up costing $500,000.
$125,000 of that was my money and as one of four directors of Freestyle Records, Brad, James and Paul being the remainder, a lot of legal questions hung suspended.
Paul was told he was not to be used either, so he walked straight out. Paul and I comprised 50% of the company.
But these were my friends. More than that, I considered Australian Crawl my second family.
Brad, James and I were in the same year at school. I had known Brad since at least grade 2. There is a Peninsula School book with a picture of Brad and I standing together in a Grade 2 class shot. James came through around form one (year seven), to the best of my recollection.
Brad, James and I had been the impenetrable inner circle of Australian Crawl. We travelled in the same hire cars, which we named 'black clouds' as we critisized everything and everyone we passed.
It was a scramble to make sure we all sat together, as if one missed out, he could be sure he would be the topic of conversatin, and his entire Id dissected.
With Brad and I it was all just fun. We spent 7 years laughing. But there was always something dark in James, most noticeable when drunk. Still, we were best of friends, we all knew this. There was not much about each other that we didn't know.
Brad and I were so close that people used to think us gay. I hate to categorise friends but if pushed, I would have to say that Brad and I were the closest of friends, from when he lent me his skateboard in year 11, his running his father's Datsun 240z into my front fence (still year 11), having us desperately scramble to have the car repaired before Brad's father returned from a business trip, right up until his death from cancer in 1996. He is sorely missed and the object of many sad and restless nights still, over ten years later.
I was Best Man at Brad's wedding, and he flew to Singapore for mine.
The big conundrum is why James, with the help of some Australian Crawl staff (we were managing ourselves, or this would never have been allowed to happen) decided to take charge of a record for the first time.
The question as to who actually wrote a song in a band environment is as old as rock (any?) music itself.
There is no question that the songs bearing James name as writer are his songs. And our songs are like our babies.
But when one comes into a band situation with three chords and a set of lyrics, and the band all puts in all their contributions, is it still simply the property of the instigator?
There are two fundamental income streams from a record; one for being a member of the band and another for being a songwriter, or contributor. The disparity is vast, and makes the songwriters a disproportionate amount of money. This is an Industry problem and needs to be fixed.
Here's the trouble. A band is, in varying degrees, a producer of music where the whole becomes greater that the sum of its parts. We had developed a patent Australian Crawl sound. Any song we did, be it one of James, Guy's, Bills, Paul's, Brad's or mine, had the Australian Crawl patent sound. Even covers took on an Australian Crawl identity - the patent Australian Crawl sound.
I use the old Gerry Rafferty song "Baker Street" as example. I admit to being no Gerry Rafferty aficionado, but the only thing I remember about that song is the sax theme. I've checked, and unless Gerry Rafferty wrote and played that sax part, the most memorable component of the song was not credited.
So 'A Rock and a Hard Place' was destined to answer the song writing question for all time. If the songs were all James, and all the songs were James', as he refused to work on anybody else's songs, with no input from any other member of Australian Crawl, this would be our greatest success.
It must be considered that James had been surrounded by sycophants for seven years, telling him that HE WAS Australian Crawl and everybody else was expendable. After seven years of this, who wouldn't want to believe it?
It had been discussed, James was intractable on his position. His songs were his songs, but there remained an uncomfortable undercurrent, as I was the MD, wrote most guitar parts, played most (in some cases all) guitar parts and produced Australian Crawl. Bill McDonough (drummer 1980-84) describes my professional/musical/song-writing relationship with James as being a "Jagger/Richards arrangement. I wish.
James used to call me his "Brother by different parents". We were that close personally. Or were we? I dunno.
But Brad, James and I were inseparable during most of Australian Crawl.
The first thing James did when he came back from shooting Return to Eden was call me up and ask me to pick him up from the airport, as he needed to 'return to his roots'. I guess that makes me part of James' 'roots'. We had known each other long enough and had been the best of friends, struggling to get bands together before Australian Crawl.
So Brad had convinced me to stay for the tour. The album's staggering cost and gross overproduction held no resemblance to the, buy that time, patented Australian Crawl sound. This sound was generally acknowledged by media, friends and Industry to be based largely on my guitar sound, musical passages, parts and general arrangements.
If we had any hope of recouping our losses (a profit was out of the question), Brad had convinced me that it was in my interest to give 'A Rock and a Hard Place' its best shot.
It was an absurd departure at this point in time. I saw little hope for success.
It was the only Australian Crawl album which I didn't virtually co-produce, the only where I was not the only member present in the studio at all times.
By contrast, James was the only Australian Crawl member to play on 'A Rock and a Hard Place'. It was the really first James Reyne solo album, funded by and with the momentum of Australian Crawl.
At that stage, Australian Crawl consisted of James, Brad, Paul and me. $125,000 of my money had financed it, against my will and predictions that it was an absurd departure from our patent sound at that point in time.
I was all for progressing the Australian Crawl sound. But I wanted a great acoustic piano player and the progression to be considered and properly managed.
A Rock and a Hard Place was Australian Crawl's only failed record.
James, Brad and I were the only full-term members of Australian Crawl. Though I consider Paul to be as well. He left during 'A Rock and a Hard Place', but this was not really an Australian Crawl record, so as long as Australian Crawl was Australian Crawl, Paul was a member.
To be able to handle the final tour, I had to bury the sense of betrayal I felt over this entire issue. I remained friends with James, stayed at his house many times on my return from my many trips abroad after A/C had split, and James did finally admit to my being "Right all along about Adam Kidron", the English Producer who had allowed, if not pushed, for things to go so far out of balance.
I was wearing one of James' shirts during my contentious car accident of 1995. Sorry James. They cut it off.
Simon Hussey was never a member of Australian Crawl. But he was a very talented producer, who supposedly had a falling out with James after producing what I am told was James' most successful solo album. I was living in America during this time. Simon had been married to James' sister Pudge (Elizabeth). It must have been a big fall.
Simon is a very sensitive guy. I would like to locate and work with him, and have made attempts to do so, to no avail. He can't be found. A great loss to Australian music.
These are the facts. SB.
© Simon Binks, April, 2008. Any portion of this taken out of context to create a rift between James and I will be open to litigation. Enough of this crap. This was all over twenty years ago. James and I were the best of friends."
Later career
Binks played guitar in the Broderick Smith Band in 1988.[16] He signed with Blue Pie Productions, in July 2004.[17]
An injury in a 1995 car crash at a North Sydney Council roadworks left Binks slightly brain-damaged with some sensory loss and restriction of finer movements of his right had prevented him from regaining the high level of skill he previously had shown.[4][18][19] A court in 2006 awarded him $330,253 in damages, down from an estimated $750,000 because he was said to be over the legal limit.[4] Binks later disputed the alcohol reading as belonging to another driver and stated the remuneration mostly went to his lawyers.[19] During the court case media also reported that he fell out with Crawl co-founder James Reyne after claiming to have written "The Boys Light Up", one of Australian Crawl's early hits.[4] Binks denied this also, claiming that although he wrote the introductory musical theme from "The Boys Light Up" such work was not usually credited, and that the basic chords and lyrics of "The Boys Light Up" were written by Reyne.[19] After an appeal by the Council, in September 2007, the amount Binks was awarded was reduced to $304,750.[20]
SB "I am not with Blue Pie Records. They did sign me, but won't give me any money to make a record. What use is a record company if not to pay for the recording?
I can't talk about the court case until it is over. North Sydney Council are still wasting taxpayer's money by taking me to the High Court, having lost the Supreme Court Trial and Appeal. The facts are clear except for selective reporting by the tabloids. I broke no law and will prove it in a National Press release once North Sydney Council has finished attempting to evade responsibility at the taxpayers gross expense. Hell, do I have some things to say."
Personal life
By November 1993 Binks was married and they had a child.[21] During his court case v North Sydney Council, evidence was presented that he suffered from migraines most of his life and had been taking injections of pethidine to combat them.[21] Binks separated from his wife Sharon in 2006.[4][19]
Discography
- Spiff Rouch (1976-1978)
- no known recorded output
- Clutch Cargo (1978)
- no known recorded output
- Australian Crawl (1978-1984)
for full list or for a quick link to albums and singles use infobox below. Studio albums with Binks:
- The Boys Light Up (1980)
- Sirocco (1981)
- Sons of Beaches (1982)
- Semantics (1983 EP, 1984 LP)
- Broderick Smith Band (1988)
References
- ^ a b c d "Australasian Performing Right Association". APRA. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "Simon Binks Band". www.fasterlouder.com. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
- ^ "Simon Binks". Showcase Your Music. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
- ^ a b c d e Wallace, Natasha (2006-05-26). "Rocker gets $330,000 for drunken crash". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h McFarlane, Ian (1999). [[Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop]] (doc). Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86448-768-2. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
{{cite book}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i "Australian Rock Database entry on Australian Crawl". Magnus Holmgren. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ a b "Howlspace entry on Australian Crawl". Ed Nimmervol. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
- ^ "Nostalgia Central entry on Australian Crawl". Retrieved 2008-03-01.
- ^ "MSN entry on The Boys Light Up". Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- ^ "MSN entry on Sirocco". Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- ^ "MSN entry on Sons of Beaches". MSN. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help);|format=requires|url=(help) - ^ Baker, Glenn A. (1983). "Phalanx liner notes". Axel Husfeldt. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
- ^ "Discogs entry on Ross Cockle". www.discogs.com. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
- ^ "Internet Movie Database entry on Ross Cockle". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
- ^ "Australian Rock Database entry on Broderick Smith". Magnus Holmgren. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
- ^ "Blue Pie Productions Archived Nooze". Damien Reilly.
- ^ Wilmoth, Peter (2007-06-10). "Home, James". The Age. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b c d Temple, Will (2005-05-26). ""Guitarist wins compo claim"". news.com.au. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Less damages for Australian Crawl member". National Nine News. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Brown, Malcolm. "Court cuts musician's damages". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help); Text "date2007-09-18" ignored (help)