Career
1976–1980: Early years
Native Sons, consisting of John Bliss on drums, Craig Hooper on lead guitar and synthesiser, and Dave Mason on vocals, formed in the regional centre of Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976.[3] Mason is the son of NSW parliamentarian, John Mason, who was the state's Liberal Party leader during 1978–1981. Colin (Polly) Newham (keyboards/brass) from Orange, N.S.W. joined in 1977.
Native Sons played in the Dubbo/Orange/Newcastle area for two years, with a repertoire of cover versions and original songs. After moving to Sydney in 1978, the band added Paul Abrahams on bass guitar and changed its name to The Brucelanders.[4] It developed an original repertoire of fast-paced, quirky pop and ska, and its energetic performances gained it a following on the east coast live music scene. It was given support in Sydney by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) rock radio station Double J, which continued when the station moved to the FM band in 1980 and became Triple J.
By 1979, the Brucelanders had secured a recording contract with the Australian branch of Mercury Records and changed its name to the Reels, with the line-up of Abrahams, Bliss, Hooper, Mason and Newham. It released its debut single, "Love Will Find a Way" in October, which entered the top 40 of the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart.[5] The group's self-titled debut album was produced by Mark Opitz (the Angels, Cold Chisel) and appeared in November, as did a second single, "Prefab Heart". The group's distinctive image meant it gained increasing attention with music videos featured on the influential national ABC TV pop show Countdown.[1][6]
In July 1980, the Reels added a sixth member, also a synthesiser player, Karen Ansel, a former member of Melbourne group the Romantics. This new line-up released a third single, "After the News". It marked a transition in the Reels' music – the group minimised guitars instead utilising synthesisers as its main instruments. The Reels were one of the first groups to use headsets instead of traditional microphones.
During late July, the group undertook the innovative Reels By Rail Tour, using rail transport to destinations in the eastern states. At the end of the year, returning to its covers band origins, The Reels released a five-track Christmas EP, Five Great Gift Ideas from The Reels, produced by Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop, which included Jim Reeves' "According to My Heart" and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold".[1] "According to My Heart" was accompanied by a folksy music video filmed at a farm in New Zealand. The EP included one original, "The Bombs Dropped on Xmas", co-written by band members Mason, Newham and Ansel with Pamela Shalvey.[7]
1981: Quasimodo's Dream
In May 1981, The Reels released the single "Shout and Deliver" as a precursor to the album considered by many to be its best work, Quasimodo's Dream. Here The Reels displayed an impressive maturity in song writing, backed with strong performances, inventive arrangements and top-class production. It peaked at No. 27 in June. The album's title track was released as a single but, although widely considered to be one of the best Australian singles of that period, it failed to chart. The band undertook the Kitchen Man Tour, which saw the stage dressed as a fully equipped Australian kitchen.
The Reels' lack of top 10 mainstream commercial success was at odds with their strong live following, but it was due in part to the restrictive programming on commercial radio at that time, which gave little exposure to local "new wave" acts. The group's deteriorating relationship with Mercury was also a factor, as evidenced by the album's track listing: it included the earlier hit "According to My Heart", but a disclaimer printed on the sleeve noted that it had been included at the insistence of the record company (i.e. against the band's wishes).
Internal tensions were also a factor in the group's career vicissitudes. Bliss left just after the recording of the album, to be replaced by Stefan Fidock (who had played with Ansel in the Romantics). The new five-piece lineup promoted the album with the Kitchen Man Tour, after which Ansel, Newham then Abrahams left the band. Now reduced to a trio (Mason, Hooper and Fidock) The Reels continued performing by augmenting their live sound with taped backing tracks, and used the new Fairlight synthesiser for studio recordings.
1982–1985: Beautiful
In late 1982, having signed a new contract with the RCA Records label, The Reels recorded the Beautiful album, mainly covering middle of the road classics with a synthesiser feel. The Reels persuaded RCA to allow a Beautiful "Limited Collectors Edition"[8] to be released by K-tel, known for its licensed pop hit compilations and budget 'golden oldies'. At the time K-tel advertised extensively on Australian TV and was widely regarded as the antithesis of credible music. To emphasise the point, Beautiful was released with "bad taste" artwork that matched the K-tel aesthetic. Although the tracks on Beautiful walked a fine line between sincere tribute and gentle parody, it proved to be the biggest success of their career, selling in excess of 40,000 copies and reaching No. 32 on the album chart, as well as being certified gold. A single taken from it, a cover of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song "This Guy's in Love With You" gave the Reels their biggest hit in Australia, peaking at number 7 around November of 1982.[9] The album was later re-released through RCA.
In 1983, the band released a five-track EP of original songs, Pitt Street Farmers (the title is an old Sydney satirical expression referring to wealthy owners of rural land who never leave the city). This was followed by a new version of "Quasimodo's Dream" in December 1983, which also failed to chart on its second release. At this point Mason was forced to give up performing after contracting hepatitis, which effectively ended the group. Hooper joined the Church as keyboard player, and later joined the Mullanes, the original incarnation of Crowded House, and Fidock returned to Melbourne, joining the Sacred Cowboys.
By late 1985, Mason had recovered and the Reels was revived (with the line-up of Mason, Hooper, Bliss and Newham) and completed its commitments to RCA with a single, a cover version of Etta James's "It Must Be Love".
1986–1988: Later years
The band then signed with Regular Records and released a radically slowed-down, synthesiser-driven version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising". It proved to be another hit, reaching No. 11 (October 1986); the arrangement featuring prominent use of the Vocoder voice synthesiser, which the band also used extensively on stage to augment Mason's vocals. However, at the end of 1986, Bliss left the band again.
In January 1987, their next single was a cover of the Edison Lighthouse hit "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)". During that year, they embarked on the popular "Reels By Request" tour, where the audience was allowed to call out for the songs they wanted to hear, chosen from long printed lists.[10] This was followed by an 'all Australian songs' version of the same concept, which led to The Reels' next studio album, Neighbors - the name of which excluded the 'u' which would normally be contained in the Australian English spelling. This LP contained their idiosyncratic versions of thirteen Australian rock classics,[11] including the singles "Are You Old Enough" (originally a hit for Dragon) and "Forever Now" (by Cold Chisel). Steve Prestwich, who wrote "Forever Now", played on the Reels' version. The album also featured a new version of the Reels' own song "Shout and Deliver".
1989–2006: Breakup
In 1989, Mason appeared in the acclaimed Australian feature film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, in which he co-starred with Nick Cave. In September 1991, The Reels issued its first original single in five years, "I Don't Love You Anymore", followed by what proved to be their last single, a remix by Filthy Lucre of "Bad Moon Rising". The group officially disbanded to coincide with the release of the compilation CD Requiem.
2007–present: Comeback
In May 2007, Dave Mason released his first solo album, Reelsville, an acoustic re-recording of Reels hits. In August 2007, Reel to Reel was also released, a compilation of the Reels classic tracks with new liner notes as written by Mason.
In May 2008, Dave Mason, John Bliss and Colin Newham reunited and played shows.
At a subsequent show (the Gaelic Club, Surry Hills; 27 September 2008), Mason announced that Newham was retiring from the band. Original bassist Abrahams then rejoined the band, after 23 years. Despite this, the Reels never got to reunite as a six-piece group.
After the Reels
Hooper was also a member of the Church, the Mullanes (the original incarnation of Crowded House), and also recorded with Rockmelons and Ross Wilson.
Karen Ansel retired from the music business and became a noted film and TV computer graphics specialist in the US.[12]
Paul Abrahams also played bass in a band with Newham called Company of Strangers and was also a member of Peter Blakeley's band, The Resurrection. In addition, he played bass for Wendy Matthews, plus drums for Ya Ya Choral, Rat Tat Tat (Peter Blakeley and Jeff Stapleton) and The Bonerattlers who were regular buskers at Paddington Markets.
Fidock joined the Sacred Cowboys in 1987. Around 2008, he established his company Fidock Drums, creating handcrafted snares and drumkits.[13] He died from cancer in April 2020.[14]
John Bliss co-authored the book The A to Zen of Lawn Bowls with John Salter in 1997.
David Mason appeared in the Countdown Spectacular 2 concert series in Australia between late-August and early-September 2007 as a solo performer. He sang only one song, "Quasimodo's Dream".[15]
In 2007, Mason released a new album, Reelsville on Liberation Blue. He performed one gig to launch the album at The Basement in Sydney on 16 May 2007. A further gig was booked for the Factory Enmore Theatre in Sydney on 24 May 2008. This show became a local cause celebre when police with sniffer dogs arrested two 60-year-old punters for smoking illegal drugs.
On 26 March 2011, Mason appeared on episode 114 of RocKwiz on SBS TV. He performed "Quasimodo's Dream" and ended the show in a duet with Sally Seltmann performing the Conway Twitty song "As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone".
Mason, who now suffers from bipolar disorder, continues to play occasionally in three separate shows, an acoustic duo with Brendan Gallagher from Karma County and an electronic (one man show) 'Dark' with visuals by artist Libby Blainey, music by Scott Saunders from Dig; both these shows are mostly interpretations of Reels songs. 2017 saw the formation of the group Sandy Shores with Mason, Gallagher, Blainey together with Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown from the Go-Betweens playing hits from past bands but mostly new original material.
