In this thread we will be discussing the Australian band Mental As Anything. Each week we will discuss each album in chronological order. We will also be including works by related groups and artists Dog Trumpet, Martin Plaza, Greedy Smith, Greedy's People, Beatfish and The Stetsons. Please feel free to join in with your memories, favorite songs or favorite versions of Mental As Anything (and related) songs.
In this thread we will be discussing the Australian band Mental As Anything. Each week we will discuss each album in chronological order. Mental As Anything has released 12 studio albums, one album of acoustic re-recordings, one live album and several compilation albums. In Australia, the group had 20 singles reaching top 40 or higher on the charts and several of their albums have sold gold and platinum. In 2009, the group was inducted in the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. The band’s classic line-up, consisting of Martin Plaza (vocals, guitar), Reg Mombassa (vocals, guitar, slide guitar), Greedy Smith (vocals, keyboards, harmonica), Peter O’Doherty (vocals, bass, additional guitar) and Wayne Delisle (drums), was together between August 1977 and April 2000. In addition to discussing Mental As Anything’s albums, this thread will also discuss the albums released by related group Dog Trumpet which consists of former Mental As Anything members Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty. We will also discuss the solo albums by members Martin Plaza and Greedy Smith as well as side projects such as Beatfish (an early ’90s duo featuring Martin Plaza and James Freud of the group Models) and The Stetsons (a ”super group” featuring Martin Plaza, Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty plus members from the groups GANGgajang and Flying Emus). Please feel free to join in with your memories, favorite songs or favorite versions of Mental As Anything (and related) songs. The format will be to go through one album per week in chronological order. For the first album I will allow around two weeks to get everyone on board, but after that proceed at one per week. I’ll try to start each new album on Monday (European time). Any respectful commentary is welcome including favorite songs, versions, memories, relevant concerts you have seen or any other snippets you wish to share with us. An approximate itinerary (dates subject to change!) · Mental As Anything: Get Wet (plus the EP ”Plays At Your Party”) – August 10 · Mental As Anything: Espresso Bongo (plus the stand-alone single ”(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet”) – August 23 · Mental As Anything: Cats and Dogs (plus the stand-alone single ”I Didn’t Mean To Be Mean”) – August 30 (NOTE: In Europe and North America the equivalent album was titled If You Leave Me Can I Come Too? and included ”I Didn’t Mean To Be Mean” · Mental As Anything: Creatures of Leisure (including the song ”Working For The Man” which was a stand-alone single in Australia and included on the album elsewhere) – September 6 · Mental As Anything: Fundamental As Anything (plus stand-alone singles ”Apocalypso (Wiping The Smile Off Santa’s Face)” and ”Sloppy Croc”) – September 13 · Martin Plaza: Plaza Suite – September 20 · Mental As Anything: Mouth To Mouth – September 27 · Mental As Anything: Cyclone Raymond – October 4 · Dog Trumpet: Two Heads, One Brain – October 11 · Beatfish: Beatfish – October 18 · Dog Trumpet: Kiss a Gun Down (EP) and Strange Brew (EP) – October 25 · Mental As Anything: Chemical Travel – November 2 · Martin Plaza: Andy’s Chest – November 9 · Mental As Anything: Liar Liar Pants On Fire – November 16 · Dog Trumpet: Suitcase – November 23 · Greedy Smith: Love Harmonica / Greedy’s People: Greedy’s People – November 30 · Mental As Anything: Garage – December 7 · Mental As Anything: Beetroot Stains – December 14 · Mental As Anything: Road Case – December 21 · Dog Trumpet: Dog Trumpet – January 4 · Mental As Anything: Plucked – January 11 · Dog Trumpet: Antisocial Tendencies – January 18 · Mental As Anything: Tents Up – January 25 · Dog Trumpet: River of Flowers – February 1 · Dog Trumpet: Medicated Spirits – February 8 · Mental As Anything: 5 Track EP – February 15 · Mental As Anything: At Play – February 22 · Dog Trumpet: Great South Road – March 1 If possible, the thread will also discuss the record(s) by The Stetsons. Martin Plaza, Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty were all part of this group on their self-titled debut album releaed in 1987. As this album is long out of print and to the best of my knowledge doesn’t stream anywhere, it will be discussed on the forum thread if there is sufficient interest. About me: I’ve been a Mental As Anything fan since 1983, when I got the LP If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too? (essentially the international equivalent of the Australian Cats and Dogs album), and a Dog Trumpet fan since their debut album was released in 1991. I live in Vallentuna, Sweden.
Get Wet (1979) This week’s (and next’s) album is Mental As Anything’s debut album Get Wet, released by Regular Records in November 1979 and in Europe by Virgin Records titled just Mental As Anything in January 1980. The founding members of Mental As Anything had first met at the National Art School, at the time known as the Alexander Mackie College, at the East Sydney Tech campus. Their first gig as Mental As Anything was at a fundraising dance at a venue called the Settlement in Sydney on May 14, 1976. The original line-up was Martin Murphy (to be better known as Martin Plaza) and Chris O’Doherty (to be better known as Reg Mombassa) on vocals and guitars, Steve Coburn on bass and David Twohill (who would later use the stage name Wayne Delisle on the first seven Mental As Anything albums). Andrew ”Greedy” Smith would start playing with the group, first on an occasional basis, in December 1976. Steve Coburn left the group in 1977 and was replaced by Chris O’Doherty’s younger brother Peter O’Doherty and thus the classic line-up of Mental As Anything – Martin Plaza, Reg Mombassa, Greedy Smith, Peter O’Doherty and Wayne Delisle – was in place. In 1978, filmmakers Martin Fabinyi and Cameron Allan decided to set up a record company, as a way of getting income to make movies, and named it Regular Records. Fabiny and Allan caught Mental As Anything at a gig at the Unicorn in Sydney and asked them to join their fledgling record label. The band agreed and their debut EP Mental As Anything Plays At Your Party, produced by Cameron Allan, was released in December 1978, featuring the songs ”C.Y.O. Dance”, ”The Nips Are Getting Bigger” and ”Golf Shoes”. The EP was initially mainly sold at live gigs, but in early 1979 the Sydney radio station 2JJ started playing ”The Nips Are Getting Bigger” and the song became a radio hit. Released as a stand-alone single in July 1979, ”The Nips Are Getting Bigger” became a top 20 hit (#16) in Australia. (Source: the book The Mind and Times of Reg Mombassa by Murray Waldren; plus Wikipedia) Mental As Anything Plays At Your Party was re-issued in Australia in 2018. The track "C.Y.O. Dance" is also available on the albums Chemical Travel and Live It Up: The Collection, both of which stream at, for instance, Spotify. The latter compilation album also includes "Golf Shoes". The debut album Get Wet was released by Regular Records on November 1, 1979 and featured the following songs: The Nips Are Getting Bigger (written by Martin Plaza) Spanish Gardener (Martin Plaza) Business and Pleasure (Reg Mombassa) Sheilah (Martin Plaza) Possible Theme For A Future TV Drama Series (Martin Plaza) Talk To Baby Jesus (Reg Mombassa) Egypt (Reg Mombassa) Another Man’s Sitting In My Kitchen (Greedy Smith) Can I Come Home? (Reg Mombassa) Fringe Benefits (Martin Plaza) Insurance Man (Greedy Smith) Empty Hearts/Open Wounds (Reg Mombassa) Love Is Not A Gift (Peter O’Doherty) Wolf At Your Door (Peter O’Doherty) The album was produced by Cameron Allan. Line-up: Martin Plaza – vocals, guitar Reg Mombassa – vocals, guitar, slide guitar Greedy Smith – vocals, keyboards, harmonica Peter O’Doherty – vocals, bass Wayne Delisle - drums The album was released by Virgin Records in Europe as just Mental As Anything in January 1980. It had the same track listing, but ”Love Is Not A Gift” was re-titled ”Pork Is Not A Gift”.
I know Mental as Anything even less than I know Icehouse. I'm not yet familiar with any of the albums. So, this will be a voyage of discovery. Listening to Get Wet now.
I'm in Stefan! I may get a little behind as I'm travelling but I'll be contributing to this discussion! Pretty excited to revisit some old favorites and discover more recent Mentals stuff!
I only added Get Wet to my record collection last week, so this is a timely thread! Although I really enjoyed their singles during the 80s, I'd never invested in a Mentals album until this year — now I have six of them and I'm a big fan. A good friend of mine has been raving to me about Get Wet for decades, so I was especially curious to hear their debut. It's early days for me and this record, but I'd say it's a very good album without being great. I love that it's so New Wave sounding (the keyboard is very Elvis Costello) and it certainly has a lot of energy. Martin's vocals are perfect, right from the very start, and the Mentals signature sound is there — it's just a bit primitive and unrefined. I'm also not sure about the mix on some of the tracks. The vocals aren't upfront enough, or something. I think the three (Australian) singles —'The Nips Are Getting Bigger', 'Egypt' and 'Possible Theme For A Future TV Drama Series' — are the standout tracks, but there are other songs like 'Fringe Benefits' and 'Can I Come Home?' that I'm really enjoying. I really need more time with this record to say much more. In Australia, 'The Nips Are Getting Bigger' is considered a classic and is arguably their most popular and beloved song (even though they had seven singles that charted higher).
Some additional information regarding the singles released from the Get Wet album... "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" was released as a single in Australia in July 1979 and reached #16 in the Australian singles chart. The B side was the instrumental track "Instrumental As Anything", written by Martin Plaza, a song which was later also included on the Chemical Travel album. The single was also released in the UK by Virgin Records. The second single in Australia was "Possible Theme For A Future TV Drama Series", released in November 1979. It reached #57 in the Australian singles chart. The B side was "Typical Romance", written by Reg Mombassa. As far as I know, this song has not been included on any other release. The third single in Australia, and second in Europe, was "Egypt", released in January 1980, but did not chart. The B side was the album track "Pork Is Not A Gift". It is worth noting that the Australian 7" single had a longer mix of the song (3:26 instead of the album's 2:42). The longer mix has later also been issued on the compilation albums Greatest Hits, Vol.1!, Best Of, Essential As Anything and Live It Up: The Collection. (I am not sure which mix is used on the most recent compilation, Surf & Mull & Sex & Fun: The Classic Recordings of Mental As Anything). According to Murray Waldren's excellent book The mind and times of Reg Mombassa, "Egypt" was "Single of the week" in the influential Melody Maker.
Mental As Anything performing "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" on the Australian TV show Countdown in 1979:
What I love about the Mentals is that they really were about the visual and musical. They have always had really anarchic, arty videos and I love them! I'm kind of a casual fan of the Mentals. I've seen them a couple of times, but really they form a fabric of my pre-teen and teenage life (as I'm sure it does for many Australians). I'm personally finding it very funny that US iTunes is classifying the Mentals albums as "Hard Rock". I'm not even sure where that is coming from... Hopefully I'll have time this week to listen to Get Wet in full - although I do know the singles already, but I'll reserve commenting on them until after I've refreshed my memory banks! Thanks Stefan for starting this thread!
Thanks Stefan for the invite. I’ve been visiting the forum for years but never signed up until now. As the Mentals are my favourite group, rating their albums would be like rating your children (thankfully I only have one so that’s easier than this task). Much to love here, Reg’s wonky guitar and vocals and warped pop sensibility are more prominent than on later albums. The bluesy boogie of Baby Jesus. The opening bars of the Nips still send shivers down my spine. A few random facts about the album: The media launch for the album in both Sydney and Melbourne was a swimming carnival pitting members of the media against the Mentals in various aquatic events usually culminating in water pistol fights. The tour to launch the album was a national support to Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds Rockpile. The album had overseas releases in New Zealand on Interfusion, the UK on Virgin as well as Benelux, Germany, Spain and France. It was available on import to the USA but the inability of Virgin to get a proper release there was part of the reason the Virgin deal only lasted one album. Here’s a good read commemorating the 50 th anniversary of the album: Mental As Anything Debut Album 'Get Wet' Turns 40 | NFSA
Shane, welcome to the forum thread! I know you have enormous knowledge about Mental As Anything and related groups and am looking forward to your posts here! Shane was, in fact, the one who told me about the album Chemical Travel having been released way back in 1993 (when I hadn't heard any news about the group for years). Apart from being a big fan he is also a truly great guy!
Hey everyone! I think it's great that you've started this thread Stefan. The Mentals are my favourite band and they don't get talked about anywhere near enough. Really looking forward to going through their albums. As for Get Wet, I think it's a decently solid debut with a few really enjoyable tunes. The highlights for me are definitely Nips, a classic with great, fun lyrics and just a great sing-along tune, and Talk to Baby Jesus, a great rocker with some killer harmonica and guitar work. Overall, a promising album to kick-start their career, but bigger and better things were to come.
I feel like this information here really sums up the humor of Mental As Anything. I didn't know that piece of information but I'm not surprised! Good humored anarchy! Agreed 100% on Reg's guitar work. It's just so distinctive.
The Mentals were beautifully unique and quirky. They were almost ironic in terms of pop music. The Nips Are Getting Bigger is a song for the ages, and if ever anyone thought they weren't a musical band, the interplay between the guitar and bass is wonderful, and would instantly dismiss that.
I think we may have discussed this in another thread, but I've always thought the Mentals share a similar sense of fun and irreverence to Split Enz. They both have that quirky, very artistic and ironic take on pop music, while still managing to sound completely unique.
As a big fan of both groups, I agree totally with this. And both groups also have several members contributing songs and lead vocals as well as a real sense of the visual aspects - clearly, they had a unique vision both regarding their music and how it was presented in cover artworks and video clips.
