The Tote’s booker, amused and impressed by the singer’s exuberant on-stage antics and the band’s devil-may-care punk rock sound, decided these guys needed a manager; six months later, he was the band’s bass player. The band subsequently whipped up a tornado of local interest. A series of now-classic singles were quickly lapped by the band’s adoring fans, while a succession of high profile supports – including a spot on Nirvana’s 1992 Australian tour – saw the band thrown on course for national and international celebration.
That band was The Meanies. It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, however: in the mid ‘90s Link Meanie pulled the pin on the band for the sake of his own health and sanity, before agreeing to reform the band a couple of years later. In 2008 The Meanies lost their original guitarist, DD Meanie, to cancer; six months later Tas Meanie (who’d replaced DD in 1995) was killed in a freak car accident on the Bellarine Peninsula. But The Meanies live on, as punk in spirit, attitude and sound as ever.
When I meet Meanies lead singer Link and bass player (and still, after all these years, the band’s manager) Wally at a Vietnamese restaurant in Richmond, Link is on crutches, courtesy of an accident on stage at the band’s recent Adelaide show. But being the rock’n’roll trouper he is, Link not only finished the Adelaide show with what turned out to be a broken foot, and managed to play the Sydney leg of the band’s 25th anniversary show entirely on crutches (“A couple of times he forgot he was on crutches and decided to dance around a bit,” Wally laughs). “You got to pretty well in hospital to get out of doing a show with The Meanies,” Link remarks, “But the worst was probably when I had my jaw broken by a disgruntled punter who took umbrage at me being naked on stage.”
Given The Meanies’ longevity, my plan of interrogation at the interview is via the SWOT – strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats – analysis typically adopted in corporate environments. Given The Meanies’ decidedly un-corporate approach for the entirety of their career (“None of us have that corporate mentality,” Wally observes), it’s wholly inappropriate to adopt that line of analysis – but that’s the point.
So, what are The Meanies’ strengths? “Me!” laughs Wally. “That is one our strengths, yes,” Link replies. “But I think one of our strengths is that we’re much better musicians and performers these days, we also enjoy it a hell of a lot. So it’s always a pretty good vibe. We’re capable of being proficient and prolific. And we all get along really well – they’re a great bunch of guys.” Beyond the strength of his own personal involvement, Wally sums up The Meanies’ essential qualities as simply, “Great frontman, great songs.”
Turning to weaknesses, and, not surprisingly, Link identifies his “whole body” as a specific weakness, coupled with The Meanies’ lack of financial acumen. “It’s a weakness that the band isn’t available to be our number one thing at the moment, so we can’t go at it like we used to,” Wallys says “But while that’s a weakness in the literal sense, we don’t consider it a weakness because we prefer it to be a bit loose.”
When we get to opportunities, The Meanies’ future recording and touring plans, Wally promises “the opportunities are endless at the moment.” “The night before our last show of this 25th anniversary tour, we’re playing the Triple R performance space, which we were invited to do, so that’s really nice. Then the re-issues start: Tym Records in Brisbane is re-issuing our Never 7”, an old t-shirt is being reproduced and the artwork from the 7” or the t-shirt is going to be appropriated onto a skateboard deck.”
But don’t send any money yet – there’s more. “Tym are putting out a vinyl version of our Cruelty is Fun EP. Buttercup Records is going to put out a split 7” with Nursery Crimes. Then we’re going to put out the series of 7” singles we started a few years ago with an unreleased Meanies track on one side, and other bands covering us on the B-side. The first one, featuring Double Agents and Digger and the Pussycats will be out before Christmas, with You Am I, Glenn Richards, Even and a bunch of other bands on the next lot of 7”s. And Poison City records are putting out all our other stuff on vinyl with bonus material, starting later this year. And then we recorded a new album, that’ll come between now and next June.” Whew.
Finally, what are the band’s threats? “I threaten to be around a lot longer yet,” Wally offers. Link is less brazen, more considered. “I find the notion of not having any skills apart from music a threat – ending up in the gutter when I’m 70.” Wally concurs. “Maybe because The Meanies is all we’ve got, there is the threat of living in a boarding house in our old age.” “Maybe we’ll just find ourselves taxidermied,” Link muses. It’s an idea Wally finds perversely appealing. “How good would that be? Maybe that’s what the next album should be called: Get Stuffed,” he laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
