Radio Birdman - "Ritualism" (Crying Sun Records, 1996)

We Greeks always had a special admiration/bond for all things Aussie, especially in Rock & Roll. As I documented countless times before in here, we‘re not much (I mean arithmetically) listening to these sounds, but we‘re 100% into it. To give you an example in the midst of REM craze, Madchester rave and pre-grunge days, the Sunnyboys and the Lime Spiders were household names in every cool bar of the city. And this city had many of them. The Dubrovniks were able to pack a 1000 persons club easily, and every time you dragged yourself to some record shop asking for these names, the ‘old’ ones were telling you to ‘go find the Saints and the Birdman’! Not bad, right?  And if the Saints records' due mostly to the French New Rose label were ‘easier’ to be found, Birdman’s was a HELL of hunting and a very good reason to let these bastards rip you off! I still remember my feelings contrast from the showcase to the cashier when I first saw ‘Radios Appear’ overseas version over hanged… Anyway, it took me some years to gather finally all Radio Birdman releases but the first was this!

Yep, the ‘re-union’ live CD can carry still a special place in my heart. I’m pretty sure that for about two months this small disc rarely got out of the machine. Forget here all these greedy old men trying to mess up with their past. The performances of the songs are at least revitalizing and this time with all the weight been thrown to the roll element of their punk, which for me is an A plus! The production was recorded completely live and with no overdubs. They picked on the best material of their catalogue (yes the Birdman had shitty songs too, don’t try hide it, ‘Man with the Golden Helmet’ is probably one of the worst songs I‘ve ever heard!) electrifying themselves, their instruments and the all the people heard this! Radio Birdman for me it's a brother band to the Dictators. A punk rock gang that never been scared to mark out their love for hard rock (‘Radios Appear’ for example comes from a Blue Oyster Cult song lyric just like their name from a Stooges!). It’s impossible to describe Birdman’s importance with a few words.  I’m fortunate enough catch ‘em playing and to this day I’m wearing proudly the baseball hat with their cool logo on it! Up there with the Stooges and the MC5, the better examples of what is high energy rock & roll!

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