The Ways We USED To Find New Metal Artists

[Slammed]

Metal Mayhem was originally Metal For Melbourne, they moved to Northcote in the 00's sometime and I believe they've actually shut down now.

I don't remember Smoke Dreams being in Swanson, I remember them in Flinders kind of opposite Banana Alley because we used to go out of MFM an straight over to Smoke Dreams. They weren't great for music initially but they got better.

 

[Sirjack]

yeah is wasn't the JB on Elizabeth but that was quite cool for DM cd's in the early days - Andrew Haigh worked there as their 'metal guy' - couldn't stand his show but he sourced good shit
but yeah l reckon I'm just thinking of another bong shop across from Collector's Corner
l missed both those gigs, that's the problem coming from Bendigo, but l did see Fear Factory and Damaged at the Sarah Sands and the Sepultura and Carcass tours. l missed loads tho - Pungent Stench, one of my favourite bands toured in 93 and they'd gonbe before we even heard they were coming! And after they toured it was all over the fucking news! remember this? Ban This Sick Band! - that's when MFM got raided
Ahh Metal Mayhem was MFM?

 

[Slammed]

Living in the country I missed a lot of radio shows. Back in those days we used to have a huge antenna mast for Melbourne TV channels and I stuck an FM radio aerial on it to try and pick up PBS and RRR but it was very hit and miss so I didn't get to hear Haigh often. JJJ came in clearly and 3 hours of power was okay but not great. I remember having a list of about 20 metal shows on various stations and if I was lucky I could pick up about 3 of them. Our radio show had a listening audience of about 5

I worked plenty of shitty gigs at the Sarah Sands, fuck I hated that place. We worked the Sepultura gig where the crowd tipped over a car out the front of Festival Hall. We lined up at Myers in Dandy from 3am to buy Metallica tickets for the AJFA tour. We saw Fight and met the band afterwards at the Palace. I worked gigs all over the place in the late 80's and 90's, then after I got back from Sydney in 2002 I took a while to get back into it and apart from a few suburban gigs the only big ones I did was a few Soundwaves.

I'm pretty sure Metal For Melbourne became Metal Mayhem. Not sure of the business model and who did what or if one closed down and reopened with a new name but I'm pretty sure it was all related down to the same address and only a very short time between MFM disappearing and MM opening up. Maybe it had something to do with the MFM label being dissolved.

 

[Sirjack]

Ha you worked at Sarah Sands? yeah l would not enjoy that, l worked a few bars in London for 4 years. Terrible.
You know the best thing that happened to me working pubs?
One night this family of four walk in on a quiet Tuesday night.
im working in King's Cross/Euston London
Mum, Dad and 2 sons one of which l reckon l know
They sit at the U shaped bar and im across the way in the 'hatch'. im freaking out.
l tell a college to serve them, and they all have a pint of Guinness except the mum who drinks something else
All the time lm questioning if it's the bloke im thinking it is
They just have the one drink and then start getting up to leave, the blokes kinda looking towards me, sensing l may know him
So l fumble as quick as l can over to him and say.. 'are you bill steer man'?
he sits down straight away and says 'yeah' his family all stop and pause
lm likje..l don't know what to say...lm going red..'agh man...uhh..mannn...uggghhh..can you-....ugh..can you sigh my guitar?
so he's like 'sure' - l bolt upstairs - i'm on the third floor- and grab my butchered Ibanez RG770DX for him
bolt downstairs, now a bit calmer, and he loves my axe! signs 'To Sam, All the best, Bill Steer' on the headstock
so l start talking to him about Carcass, what he's doing now,what band's he's in etc

this was 98/99 so Carcass had broken up in 95....bt yeah how fucking cool was this...but

the next morning, i'm out the front of the pub, putting up the umberellas in the tables, when out of the corner of my eye, someone walking towards me from the other side of the road
it's Bill's fucking Mum! She comes up to me and says it was soo nice to have someone recognize Bill after Carcass disbanded 4 years earlier and that the reason they were all out together was because it was the eve of Bills wedding day! Today!
She knew l was Aussie but didn't know where l came from. l told he, then she said Bill was marrying a nice girl from Sydney..too cool

​

 

[Slammed]

Nah I didn't actually work at Sarah Sands, I worked with a number of bands that did work there, as well as many other places. "Worked" was a default term because when I say things like "we played there" or "we did gigs there" people often default to thinking I was in the band when for most part of the 90's I was working doing sound, lights, security, designated drinker...oops I mean driver, that sort of thing.

That's a cool story, most of mine like that only involve local bands and many not even metal, there is a few internationals but most of the gigs we worked were for local bands in the burbs.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Metal Mayhem? Yeah man that ring's a bell but where was that?
there were 2 Smoke Dream's too huh? One on Swanston and the other across from Banana Alley? Or am l just thinking of a bong shop on Swanston? l remember the Flinder's St Smoke Dream's started to sell loads of metal cd's around 2001 or so...

I have this memory of a shop on Elizabeth, down near where Minatour Books is/was that sold music but I can't remember the name of it. Otherwise the only other memory I have of a music shop in on Elizabeth was JB up the top end but that wasn't until the mid 90's I guess.

I’m pretty sure Metal For Melbourne became Metal Labyrinth and It ended up moving to Ballarat at some point. I think Metal Mayhem was different people. I could be wrong though.

Smoke Dreams is still there, it’s just bongs and vapes and accessories now though. I never bought music from there but they had the best range of metal shirts in there at one point.

I have good memories of the Sarah Sands, my old band played there several times before we fucked off to the UK. We supported Mortal Sin there once and another time our guitarist had his 19th birthday there and played in the belfry out the back with Necrotomy, Acheron and Christbait I think. After the gig it turned into full scale all night acid-soaked debauchery.

 

[Slammed]

Actually Metal Labyrinth sounds right because I remember thinking at the time it as a silly name. Metal For Melbourne explained everything the shop was and did, Metal Labyrinth was stupid.

Sarah Sands wasn't the dingiest, shittiest hole of a place to play, but it was definitely up there.

 

[Satanstoenail]

I’d rather a dingy shithole pub than more apartments, but alas the place has just been totally gutted in preparation. Only the facade left.

 

[Slammed]

City dwellers need apartments and I'm thankful they do because it keeps them out of the regional areas