No Bull in Buffalo
RAM, April 9, 1976

Buffalo, on any night, are the most powerful raw rock band in Australia! They are the most ripped-off band in Australia! Consider where AD/DC, Hush and a host of lesser known punko rock bands got their shit from. The guitarist from Hush is playing now what John Baxter (not Dave Baxter a recent album review on Mother's Choice would have you believe) was playing back in 1972 in Buffalo's Dead Forever period. The punk rock bands that are big nationally are a watered-down commercialised version of what Buffalo has been, during the years, at different times. Buffalo has produced some of the best rock guitarists that have come out of Australia - ie John Baxter, Norm Roue, Karl Taylor and of course the ultimate heavy metal kid, Peter Wells on electric bass. Their new guitarist, Chris Turner, would rank with anyone in the world for pure rock and roll. But, unfortunately, Buffalo will never be big nationally - unless of course they break up or Dave Tice becomes a big solo artist, or Peter or Jim OD or something - and then there will be a situation like what happened with the Velvet Underground or MC5 in the States, where years after the event people will realise what was there. Buffalo have, I think, reflected the times at which they were recorded. For me, at least, Dead Forever was almost a hippy/dope album. Some day, people will pick up on songs like Bean Stew like they did with Lou Reed's Heroin years after the original release of the record. Volcanic Rock was another album that probably is the only true Mandrax/downer album ever produced in Australia. Only Want You For Your Body was the ultimate punk rock statement, supremely cynical with songs like Kings Cross Ladies and Skirt Lifter. How about that for pre-Dingoes, Ayres Rock etc nationalism! Mother's Choice is the untimate '75 Sydney neurotic album! Anyhow, Buffalo are the original punk rock band in Australia - the first and the best. Who else could blow a joint on national TV and get away with it? They did in fact (contrary to the report in the RAM Dirt Column) show shots on TV, in one of the two songs they did on the Phonogram Gold Fever Show, of the dreaded weed being smoked. Peter Wells looked so stoned no wonder they gave him a chair. Besides just getting away with it, Buffalo looked like they were doing it as a natural part of playing a song - like not just for a pose or something. Long live the only true Outlaw Rock Band in Australia - Buffalo!! A Buffalo Fan from beautiful downtown Darlinghurst (as they say on 2JJ)

RAM, April 9, 1976 No. 26

I'm sick of the stuff we're doing," Dave Tice is saying. "I don't get that much out of it. There's no singing to be done - it's just yelling words." "You get to a stage were you have to change," says bassist Peter Wells, leaping in for his two bob's worth. "They force you into a mould and you have to break away from that ..." Dave and Pete, together with drummer Jimmy Economou, have been part of Buffalo for as long as anyone cares to remember. In the beginning there was also a guitarist called John Baxter , and John Baxter's guitar guided the band through their first four years and three albums. If this Buffalo were limited, they were also ferocious and powerful: and the kids (most of us) loved 'em. Mean and loud and heavy - everything, in fact, that mother told you never to touch. Pretty soon - before it was even fashionable - they earned themselves a label heavy metal punkoid. To which some knowledgeable source added: in the mould of Black Sabbath. And that was that. But not quite, because Baxter left and it was, everyone decided, time for a change. Two new guitarists joined - Karl Taylor and Norm Roue on slide. The two guitarists proved 'musically incompatible' and Norm, who also had problems in the keeping-the-head-together dept left. The band was back to four-piece and as such, never quite found that "new direction" they were looking for. '75 was a so-so year for Buffalo that's reflected in the album it spawned, Mother's Choice. There were sparks but they just didn't fire. Early this year Colin Stead joined the band as a songwriter and rhythm guitarist. His track history is several universities away from that of the restof the band. Largely his efforts have been in the aesthetic singer/songwriter vein ... 'nice harmonies and tht kind of thing." Immediately Colin joined there was another bout of Musical Incompatibility another - this time between Colin and Karl Taylor. The result ... exit Karl and enter another guitarist, Chris Turner to take over lead. Now Chris, as he'll tell you, has been playing around for fifteen years. His past musical ventures (Younger Bros/Drain was the latest) have fallen into the 'Musical Integrity' category. In his youth he played with David Bowie and Steve Marriott (he really did). Over to Chris. "With two new members - like there's five in the band so two's almost half - with two new members there's gotta be a completely different direction because Colin's background and my background are so different. Now the band themselves (ie,the old members) are talking about a complete change - sort of 'this is it'. So with them and two new guys as well there's no way it can stay the same." Ok, point taken. But um ... just what form are these changes going to take? "We're gonna be more into stage movement then we ever were." says Dave. "The music's gonna change dramatically ..." "It'll be more melodic .." add Pete Wells. "We're still going to play rock 'n' roll." Colin explains, "but like - instead of playing a sixties rock 'n' roll copy of the fifties, we 're going towards seventies rock 'n' roll. But that's a hard way to explain it. You'll really only be able to see it in three months time or when the new album comes out." He settles back comfortably before a flash of inspiration compel him to add: "It'll be cocaine and Seven-Up music." It all boils down to the fact that Buffalo would like to make it Big. It means that the new Buffalo are trying to be more "commercial" in the sense that their music will appeal to a broader cross-section of the market (whoops sorry audience that's meant to be) and it also means that the approach will be "more professional". As well as arriving on time for gigs, "more professional" includes things like making better use of the studio and co-ordinating the release of a record with the stage act. Previously, Buffalo procedure with their material was to write the song, then after playing it on stage for twelve months, record it on that year's album. "But now," explains Chris, "we'll be using the studio to create and enhance the music and then taking it on stage ..." But getting it together with a batch of new material like Colin Stead's songs takes time. And for a band that needs to rake in $120 a week to break even, time is money. "What we're doing at the moment is just playing together ... a transition." says Dave Tice. What that actually means, is that the band at present is hacking it with a somewhat limited assortment of "Old Buffalo" material: Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones and a couple of original tracks from past Buffalo albums. It's a long way from where they want to be. So, it turns out, is their recently released album "Mother's Choice", and a single, Sweet Little Sixteen - both recorded with the old line-up. I asked the band for comments on "Mother's Choice": "...it's disgusting - I hate it." - Colin. "...and it could be improved on a lot." - Chris. "Arrh, ... it's great." Jimmy. "...just a record of what we were playing last year." - Pete. And Dave Tice sums up with "We wanna do another album real soon and forget the other four..." The scene changes. We are rolling to a Buffalo gig in the group's new mini-bus. "What we are, and what people think we are," yells Jimmy from the front of the bus, "is for us to know and for them to find out." Great! Quotable quote of the week time! Enough to send the conscientious reporter flying for the notebook. But I don't bother. Because it's the fifth time I've had that particular gem thrown at me in the past few days and I know it off by heart already. Otherwise he's straight to the point - "I don't care what you say about me, as long as it's honest. If you think I'm a cunt, say I'm a cunt. ...Hey lissen have I told yo about what we did in Canberra? Got into shaving chicks we did ..." Jimmy has the personal subtlety of a demolition squad, and that's also pretty much the manner in which he approaches his drum kit. Bash the shit out of it. In standard 4/4 r&r time. Solid, I believe it's called. Sab Chase who's concentrating on guiding the Buffalo bus through red lights, adds explanatory notes to Jimmy's machine-gun rhetoric. "Buffalo's got five players but six members," someone said, Sab, as manager (read strategist) is the sixth. The man is amazing. On one hand he and Jimmy are the "Team" which runs the "Q Club" - ('hey, yeah put in the Q Club - gotta get that organised properly this year - get a penthouse or something ..." The Q Club is devoted to promoting feats of extreme sexual debauchery, in case you're interested.) On that level Sab does more than passable imitation of a twentieth century Bacchus - a claret-soaked, pissed-totally-off-his-face little lush. Then when the occasion demands it, he materialises as Sebastian Chase, manager - smooth-talking and v. astute. The man one might even suspect of running the whole show. "Art is what you can get away with," he says at one night's gig, "and rock 'n' roll is art." "We've all got roles in the band," Dave explains. his own, he sees as "the man up front, singing the words." The bridge between the band and audience - but there's something else too. In the band context he also operates as link between Pete and Jimmy (the old and the basic) and Colin and Chris (the new & progressive element). The bus pulls up at a suburban dance hall ..."Hey it's Buffalo!!! An there's Dave Tice!!! (no, you ask, I'm too embarrassed). Hey Dave can we take your picture?" He complies politely, grinning obediently at the little girls (and I mean, they are little) drape theselves over his person and best friends fumble and flash Instamatics. The suburbs are Buffalo country. Bread and margarine money: and at the moment that means a constant procession through clubs, pubs, dances and the occasional concert. Dinky barewalled dressing rooms, backdoors, bars and faces. Out in their audience the percentage of guys is relatively high. The Buffalo image is realistic: the identification thing is strong. Like the small person who introduces himself to the band before one of their sets at a suburban dance. He likes Buffalo - reckons thy're great. he likes "that thingo" around Jimmy's neck. Jimmy in turn admires the fellow's earring and tatoos. The guy's about four and a half feet high, and as he turns towalk away the band speculates: "How old d'you reckon he is?" About ten. But by far the most obvious component of the audience is the women. They range from the thirteen year old camera brigade, all nervous giggles and Buffalo tee shirts handstitched with sequins, through to the older sophisticates who provide a 24-hour groupie service. "Hey c'mon, c'mon down sweet Virginia" .. demands Dave, opening a bracket. And tentatively, all these sweet young things hustle themselves delicately out to the dance floor. For the first few numbers of a bracket there's not a guy to be seen dancing. They're waiting - and watching the band. The band, they're watching the women. And the women watch each other watching the band. C'mon down indeed. The Stones' song Star Star is trotted out at least once every gig. Star fucker star, fuck a star, fuck a star, fuck a star ... it's almost a hymn to the popular Buffalo image. Jimmy, Pete and Dave all agree that the image is one part of Buffalo that won't be changing. As Dave says: "We're that sort of people - when we go to excess, we go to excess..." Chris's reaction to the whole Buffalo ethos is typical. "I'm unaffected," he says. "I do the music for free and get involved in al these orgies for the wage they pay me." "Chris is our token musician..." comments Dave. Buffalo is teaching him about the "entertainment" side of the biz, says Chris, and it's nice to be getting paid each week." "Or nearly every week." he adds as an afterthought. And then there's Colin. His attitude to the band's sexual role is ... well, "not interested" states it mildly. After one pretty average bracket, he sprawls in a chair in the wings. "I hate twelve bars," he says morosely. Ignoring the women being hustled into the dressing room, he turns, levels his gaze and recites a few of his lyrics ... "You drink your rum and coffee/you're raving like a lunatic/who hasn't said a word for weeks/your memory is floating/you're going down, down, down/shadows in the city/it's just another matter for the blue boys." (From: The Blue Boys). He's totally involved with his lyrics: "Do you like them? Ok, here's another one... "Well I've saddled up my shoestrings/and packed away my smiles/if the sun keeps on cooling/I will freeze for many miles/I've put away religion/in my hard enamelled brain/when I see familiar sightings/I might start to pray again." (From: Cheyne Walk) The mind does more than boggle at the possibilities and/or probabilities of the revamped Buffalo. Viz - the Perceptive Songwriter rips out his exotic tunes, passes them to the Purist for stamp of Musical Integrity, whereupon they are devoured by Gut Level rhythm section (tried and true), to be delivered to the masses by that man with the Golden Smile ... The Master Plan - almost mathematical in its perfection. But just how many twelve bars and Blows in A Minor make a transition? Seen from the dance floor, Buffalo is getting it on. Great dancing music. In between vocal lines Dave T. whirls across the stage, something like a cross between a manic dervish and a grinning rock 'n' roll Nijinsy. "I'm gonna get my hair cut tomorrow" he tells the crowd. "No!" they shriek back in horrified unison. He laughts and bounds over to Pete who"s wearing that look of inscrutability reserved especially for bass players. Stage right and Chris Turner's face is obscured by a brown fedora pulled low - but then it's not the face of the man you watch, it's those fingers. They fly - nice an' easy ... they're really rockin' in Boston ... From the wings you can see a band that's getting perilously close to mechanical self parody. For, despite the logical, neat methodology of The Master Plan, Buffalo are at the moment still pumping away at the work mill - grinding out gigs in order to pay the bils and provide enough left over to completely update the group's equipment. Despite Colin's joining the group to provide a whole batch of new material, nobn of it has been rehearsed yet, and the chances of a new Buffalo album in the next 3 months look pretty remote. Mother's Choice, the album that only Jimmy Economou has kind words for, is selling well around the country, especially in Melbourne and Buffalo are currently in Melb. promoting it. And that's a strange one - a band promoting an album they don't really like, in order to get the money to make the musical changes they could be rehearsing right now, if only they weren't promoting a new album from an old Buffalo ... Stay tuned it can only get crazier.
Felicity Surtees

Buffalo won't win the mums
Advertiser, Adelaide

One thing is certain about Buffalo's latest album "Mother's Choice" - it wouldn't be. Buffalo's album is dirty, tough, loud rock'n'roll and it's doubtful that many mothers in Adelaide would choose it for their children, let alone themselves. Buffalo still has trouble (after four albums which have sold exceedingly well) getting radio airplay. So most mums have never heard of Buffalo, let alone seen them. That Mother's Choice is not going to be heard on the radio no longer concerns Buffalo. Lead singer, Dave Tice (who is getting airplay for hs new solo venture "Sweet Little Rock-'n-Roller) said: "We have given up complaining. Our attitude now is to work our guts out and show people we are a top rock band - with our without airplay." Buffalo has run into trouble with its previous LP covers and Mother's Choice was to have been called Songs for Frustrated Housewives until the record company vetoed the title. "We then decided to have this real chintzy cover with an old Mum on it," said Dave Tice. "It's really funny - you have that beautiful cover and inside you have some dirty rock-'n-roll." Buffalo likes playing live best because the band members become "frustrated" if they are not on the road. "But we have wanted to change ever since the third album." said Tice. "It has taken us until now, although our scene is still pretty hard music. "But it's starting to mellow."

Juke, April 17, 1976

BUFFALO return to Sydney this week after ten weeks of harassing anything that came in their way, between Sydney and Perth, and dropping in on Adelaide to say hello to DON DUNSTAN.

... Buffalo singer DAVE TICE, who divides his time equally between science fiction books, singing, anal intercourse and motor cycles, has a version of P.J. Proby's "Hold Me" on the flipside of his currently released debut solo single (whew). The A-side is Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Rock'N'Roller". And the only time BERRY gets the B-side of a Buffalo record is when he writes both sides ... Dave's disc was produced by G. WAYNE THOMAS but I understand that he wasn't present at every recording session. So for only a buck fifty you can buy a cheap Mother's Day present. A great single by a wonderfuly fabulous artiste ....