Celebrating Thirty One Years Of “This Is The Sharp”

The Sharp are Charlie Rooke (guitar/vocals), Allan Catlin (double bass/vocals) and Piet Collins (drums/vocals). Formed in Collingwood in 1990, the three piece already had a strong live following but when they released an independent single Love Your Head the band quickly gained radio support on Melbourne’s Triple R and PBS.

Triple J were soon behind the band and a record deal with Warner Music was struck. Their debut album This is the Sharp went Gold and the band received ARIA nominations, magazine covers and appearances on just about every TV/Radio show in Australia. Comedy program The D-Generation loved The Sharp so much they did a parody of hit single Scratch My Back and it became Skivvies are Back in reference to the now famous black skivvied uniform the band had adopted.

Rigorous touring ensued before the band settled into the studio to record its second album Sonic Tripod with American producer Rick Will (Ziggy Marley, Diesel). A brief tour of Europe and the US saw the band back home exhausted but ready to take on more touring.

Finally, after nearly five years in the limelight, the rigorous touring schedule brought the band to a crossroads and a decision was made to end on a high note. A collection of singles Single File was released as the band’s final album and a final tour Thank you Goodnight saw them playing to packed houses around the nation. When the band played its last shows in 1995, many (including the band), wondered when (or if) it could all happen again.

Now many years later, and thanks to some persistent pestering from fans, The Sharp are back and sounding better than ever. Singer Bass player Allan Catlin is not involved due to personal reasons, but he is ably represented by Scott Owen (double bass) from The Living End with lead singer duties taken care of by the amazing Louie Lee Feltrin. Playing all their hits plus some rockin’ covers. 31 years after the release of their debut album This is the Sharp, The Sharp are back with a vengeance! Piet Collins talks to Hi Fi Way about returning to Adelaide.

Do you get nostalgic with these milestones that roll around?
Yeah, I guess the band really happened from 1993 up until about 1994, which is not really that long I suppose, but it was very intense when it did happen. We did a hell of a lot of TV and a hell of a lot of touring and a hell of a lot of radio and recording it was basically seven days a week go, go, go. There you go. It was definitely a fun time to be around making music and having a bit of an impact back in the day.

Did it feel like whirlwind and were you expecting things to take off like they did?
I guess you don’t. This is this is the thing that faces every band and every artist is that you put your heart and soul into something and you dedicate yourself to it but there’s never any guarantee that the public’s going to respond in any way. We’re quite a different sort of a band when we came out happened as Nirvana was happening, so it was all grunge and stuff like that, and our sound was very clean and our image was the black skivvies. No one looked or sounded like us when we brought that out. We weren’t trying to be something that we were not. Everything came from us. We weren’t told to be a certain sound or certain look. That was all of our own doing and luckily people responded well to it.

Were there any moments that stood out from the time when things were taking off?
There were heaps of things, I think playing at the Adelaide Grand Prix in front of fifty thousand people was pretty crazy. Some of the supports we did with the Spin Doctors and playing larger venues and big supports that we did other over the years was amazing.

Was it difficult to end things in 1995?
I think what had happened was that the first album was really successful. When we got gold record from that and the second album was still popular but didn’t get the same sort of success. We had been touring non-stop for four years, doing everything non-stop for four years. I think we were just completely burnt out. But now all the stars have realigned and we’re having another go. It’s all been fun. We’ve done some shows now which have been well attended and the band is sounding better than ever. We’ve got Scott Owen from The Living End on bass.

It’s a great get for us, it was probably about December of last year when I called him. I’d sort of known him a bit over the years and when I asked him, he was straight away, yes! I had no idea that he was such a big Sharp fan, but I suppose it makes sense, doesn’t it?

Have you found that you have got a couple of curious Living End fans coming to the shows now?
Yeah, he’s been posting things on The Living End website and a few Living End fans are getting to know The Sharp now. It’s perfect, it really is the coming full circle because you know The Living End supported The Sharp a couple of times way back when they were little kids and they were called The Runaway Boys. They were like a rockabilly band and they apparently really looked up to us because we were a three piece because we had the double bass. They were doing rockabilly, but when they saw us, they realised that with that format you could do more than just rockabilly, you could do rock and different styles of music.

What was the catalyst for getting The Sharp back together? Was that fan driven?
It was, there was a Facebook group called The Sharp Worker Ants and constantly pestering us to do things and whatever. A mate who runs a venue here has been on my case for a few years as well. The reason to do it was just so that we could bring the music back to the people that really loved it, to get out and perform again and have some fun. The other thing we’re doing as well is recording new material. That’s even more exciting. We have recorded three new songs, Scott’s written one, I have written one and Charlie’s written one. It sounds like The Sharp, it’s amazing.

Do you feel pressure with these new songs or is it that whatever happens is a bonus?
Oh yeah, we don’t feel pressure because we don’t have a record company. Everything we’re doing, we’re doing ourselves. That’s the way we like to do it. We don’t have a manager, and we’re doing everything ourselves.

Is it disappointing that Allan can’t be a part of it?
It is, it’s very disappointing. We asked him many, many times if he wanted to be involved and he kept saying no. We thought we can either eave it at that or we can try to keep going without him. As I said, when I when called Scott, he said yes instantly. It’s been perfect actually, he really is the perfect guy to fill those shoes. Our singer Louie can sing high like Allan could and none of us could cover those notes, no way!

Pressing the album on must be a great thing as well? Can you pick any sound difference?
It was never released on vinyl back in the day. Don Bartley remastered it now, thirty one years later on to vinyl. I think you would have to have supersonic ears and it also depends on what sort of record player you’ve got and the quality of your speakers and all that, but there’s definitely something about having that vinyl record spinning around and it’s just it’s just a nice thing to own having all the artwork and the whole thing.

Is the intention to make another album?
Well, we’ve got three and we’re really happy with how those three have come up. They are three minute Sharp songs, fun and raucous. We will either release the three as an EP, possibly, or we’ll just keep recording until we’ve got a full album. Everyone’s writing and the results are really cool. It sounds like The Sharp, but it’s a more current version. We’ve got a handful of gigs to go before the end of this year. We’ve got something booked in January already but we can’t go too crazy with the bookings because The Living End have got a new album about to drop and so they’ll get busy doing that, so we can we can work around Scott’s schedule pretty much.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Sharp on the following dates…

FRI 18 OCT. Wheatsheaf Hotel Adelaide SA

SAT 19 OCT. Crown and Anchor Hotel Adelaide SA

SAT 2 NOV. Corner Hotel. Richmond VIC. (James Reyne support)

FRI 29 NOV. The Odeon. Richmond VIC

FRI 13 DEC. Memo Music Hall. VIC

Connect with The Sharp – www.facebook.com/thesharpaus