CD REVIEW: SHY IMPOSTERS – Shy Imposters

CD REVIEW: SHY IMPOSTERS – Shy Imposters
Citadel Records
February 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

A nugget from the deep underground Sydney scene from 1979 and 1980, Shy Imposters collects all seven demos of this woulda – coulda – shoulda band.

The band lasted from September 1979 to June 1980 – a scant ten months – and built quite the following playing inner city Sydney pubs, even releasing one single on Phantom, featuring At The Barrier and Seein’ Double.

Fronted by Penny Ward, who wrote most of the songs here, the rest of Shy Imposters went on to make names for themselves: guitarist Richard Burgman with Sunnyboys, The Saints and Weddings, Parties, Anything; bassist Peter Oxley with Sunnyboys and Ed Kuepper; and drummer Michael Charles with Lipstick Killers, Screaming Tribesmen and Mick Medew.

Indie music in Sydney was thriving at the time, and perhaps there was just so many good bands gigging that there wasn’t enough room for Shy Imposters. It’s a damn shame, as these tracks hint at a bright future, with impossible to resist, fuzzy-edged melodies and well-crafted songs.

Sweet Defender and My Sin Is My Pride (a cover from The Astronauts) in particular are unpolished gems, which could have been big hits with the right producer twiddling the knobs.

Lovingly restored from the original tapes by producer Jason Blackwell, the seven tracks here sound great, bristling with energy and promise, and listening to them all these years later we can only marvel at what might have been.

Category: CD Reviews