Barkly Street is about a share house in Barkly Street, Brunswick East which began falling down about 30 seconds after Greg and his friends signed the lease.
“The bridge that fell down” in Happy Birthday Helen is actually about the London Bridge near Port Campbell (now London Arch for obvious reasons) which fell down in 1990.
Tony hit the high note on the backing vocals of Happy Birthday Helen early in the demo process and then lost his voice and that note forever (or until our last tour anyway), meaning the finished song was a hybrid version of demos and recordings with tapes carried back and forth across town from Richmond to South Yarra and South Melbourne. Back in the days when you had to carry stuff across town.
Rain Fell Down is about another share house in which Greg and Mikey lived in in 1987. It is now an empty block of land on Alexandra Parade. They have never been entirely sure if they were inadvertently responsible for the demolition decision.
In the film clip for Happy Birthday Helen, Mikey was rendered unusually less cheery when nearly being hit by a hyper coloured tram. It’s all fun and games until you clown around near public transport people … think twice young folk rockers.
