New TISM live tape from 1988 to raise funds for road crews

The Australian Road Crew Association (ARCA) has continued to inject resources into Support Act’s Roadies Fund with its Desk Tape Series, recorded by sound engineers during shows by major acts.

With the live industry virtually closed due to the coronavirus, Support Act’s resources are stretched to the limit as musicians and industry workers turn for health and financial help.

ARCA plans to release a range of tapes over the next few weeks, with the first from TISM (This Is Serious Mum), featuring a show from 1988 at the Corner Hotel, Melbourne.

“The idea of our Desk Tape Series began some years ago for us to help in a small way to help give road crew recognition to themselves and to the public for their contribution to the Aussie music industry,” say founders and co-directors of ARCA, Ian Peel and Adrian Anderson.

“But with the country’s live performance industry estimated to have lost $350 million worth of work by the first week of April, we have to remember that crews are the most at-risk sector…

“No crew, no show.  It is a great honour for us to be able to present these memories to all.”

TISM formed in Melbourne in 1982. Their collision of electro-pop, vicious satire and performance art, made them one of the country’s most popular live acts with mainstream chart success.

Hiding behind masks, pseudonyms and elaborate stage costumes, TISM turned every performance and interview into an art event.

In one interview, journalists were stood at the opposite end of a football ground to the band, and forced to communicate via megaphone.

On their first appearance on national TV on Hey Hey It’s Saturday, TISM appeared with 28 fully costumed members, performing their single ‘Saturday Night Palsy’.

This track is featured on the 1988 Corner show, along with other singles ‘Defecate On My Face’ and ‘I’m Interested In Apathy’ from their ARIA-winning debut Great Truckin’ Songs Of The Renaissance.

TISM would go on to win another ARIA for their 1995 Top 10 album Machiavelli And The Four Seasons.

TISM shows featured all manner of distractions, including debating competitions, an onstage wedding, a stock market simulation, a full performance of Shakespeare, a ‘Save Our TISM’ telethon, and even a show where two TISMs performed simultaneously at either end of the venue.

The 1988 gig at the Corner was a more stripped-down affair, however, it still saw the band revving two lawnmowers onstage during the set.

ARCA says tapes are coming from Australian Crawl, Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, The Church, Cold Chisel, Crowded House, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, Wendy Matthews, Men At Work, Mental As Anything, Midnight Oil and Paul Kelly — all of whom have agreed to participate by foregoing their performance royalties to assist the crews who have helped them on their journey.

The first of the series, Redgum’s Live in Amsterdam 1985 was released December 2018.

The tapes are released through ARCA’s Black Box Records, with MGM providing worldwide distribution. The TISM tape is out now.