Before The Quintessential Black Sorrows arrived, Joe Camilleri took me back to the very beginning – to the scrappy studios and café sessions that launched a band with no money, plenty of mateship, and an appetite for making records fast. The first four Black Sorrows albums, Camilleri says, were bound by necessity and invention, recorded with a shoestring ethic that somehow captured a raw, immediate sound which would become the band’s early signature.
Watch the Noise11 interview with Joe Camilleri
“The album’s about the footprint of every musician that I could put on the album,” Camilleri tells Noise11, explaining the compilation’s roots in a working history that stretches back more than 40 years. “This band’s 40 years old, probably had about 30 or 40 people in it, and I wanted to respect that and celebrate that part of it.”
The story begins with what Camilleri calls an “accident.” A café owner, Chris, wanted to make a record, so the band went into AAV and, in six hours, cut what became their first record, Sonola. “First track was Brown Eyed Girl, the last track was What A Difference A Day Makes,” Camilleri remembers. “Everything on that album was one or two takes and there was very little overdubs, because we were the guinea pigs for the console.”
That same DIY urgency carried through to Rockin’ Zydeco and A Place In The World, records made with minimal budgets and maximum intent. Camilleri admits not every choice landed perfectly. “Rockin’ Zydeco was recorded exactly the same way as Sonola, but for me there was maybe the Johnny Reo song was the best thing on it. It just didn’t work.” He also reflects on the kitchen-studio sessions where his songwriting partnership with Nick Smith took hold. “We recorded that record in a kitchen at Dave Herzhog’s studio… that was where me and Nick started writing
songs.”
It is Dear Children that Joe points to as a turning point, an independent effort made with sandwiches and determination, which nevertheless began to find an audience on FM radio. “FM were playing Mystified,” he says, and the airplay created momentum the band had never known. Camilleri contrasts the openness of those stations with the modern radio landscape.
Those early years of hand-to-mouth record making weren’t without risk. Camilleri recalls borrowing money against his home to make records, pressing 1,000 copies and finding 900 still in the boot of his car. That grit, he believes, was essential to the band’s development. “I borrowed $30,000 to make the record… we put up billboards, we kept gigging, and then a deal came,” he says, describing how the independent success of Dear Children led to the bigger budget sessions that produced Hold On To Me.
The leap to Hold On To Me brought better studios, more time, and the songs that would define The Black Sorrows to a wider public. Camilleri recalls being handed $80,000 to make the record. “We spent every penny, every cent,” he laughs, but the payoff was clear, with numerous singles and widespread recognition following. Even so, he keeps a sense of perspective about awards and sales. “The only album that I keep from a gold perspective is the Dear Children record,” he says, valuing the struggle behind that record more than the later trophies.
Across those first four records, Camilleri says the through-line was the band’s appetite for experimentation, and an instinctive approach to recording that favoured feel over perfection. “It was a joy to be in there,” he says of those studio days. “There was music being made, there were people that you liked to hang with.”
The Black Sorrows’ early period is both a who’s-who of Melbourne’s vibrant music scene and a testament to making do and doing it well. As Camilleri – now a veteran who still prefers the essential work of songwriting – puts it, the early albums were less a plan than a lived process, “one-for-all scenario,” and the results have become part of Australia’s musical fabric.
The Quintessential Black Sorrows – Tracklisting
CD1
Harley & Rose
Never Let Me Go
Brown Eyed Girl
Hold On To Me
Fix My Bail
Chained To The Wheel
City Of Soul
Cold Grey Moon
New Craze
Crazy Look
CD2
The Chosen Ones
The Crack Up
Wake Me Up In Paradise
Money Talkin
For Your Love
Daughters Of Glory
Snake Skin Shoes
St Georges Road
Wednesday’s Child
Livin’ Like Kings
What A Difference A Day Makes
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YouTube. See things first—Subscribe to Noise11 on YouTube
Follow Noise11.com on social media:
Bluesky
Facebook – Comment on the news of the day
