Richie 1250 Shares His Five Most Overlooked Australian Records From the 50s to Now

The term ‘colourful character’ is often useds as code for someone you may want to avoid sharing a small, enclosed space such as a radio studio with. But when it comes to diverse and eclectic music, Richie 1250 is a ‘colourful character’ you very much want to listen and tune in to.

Charismatic, passionate and driven by music, Richie and his weekly radio program Stone Love, broadcast on Melbourne community station PBS 106.7 FM, brims with the best R&B, soul, garage and rockabilly and various other kind of "oldies" from the 45 era. He’s also known to throw in disco, reggae and general amazing weird shit. Last week the entire show was dedicated to jazz, including Lester Young and the Chico Hamilton Quintet. The week before he was playing Al Green and Prince’s “Little Red Corvette”

As part of Take The Plunge, the 2016 PBS radio festival where the station is calling on listeners to sign up to a membership and help keep PBS independent, Richie has put together a small sampling of his diverse range and tastes in music.

Lee Gordon – “She’s the Ginchiest” (1959)
Gordon was an American entrepreneur who moved to Australia in the 50s and introduced to our fair land the drive through restaurant, the exotic dance club and the rock and roll package tour. He also had his own label, Leedon, and recorded one 45 himself, this lost classic in the pantheon of beatnik parody records. "I dig the cool, fat feel of romance; cause she wears a skirt, and I wear pants. She's the ginchiest…"

Lynne Randell – “That’s a Hoe Down” (1967)
Lynne Randell was a teenage hairdresser from Melbourne who made some cracking beat records in the mid-60s, and through an association with Davy Jones managed to find herself touring the U.S. in 1967 on a bill with The Monkees, Ike & Tina Turner and Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was the opener! This single, recorded in the US during that tour, is one of my favourites.

Jacky Winter – Ornithology (2007)

A few years back Melbourne rock and roll lifer Phil Gionfriddo, aka Jacky Winter, started listening to Wu-Tang and bought an MPC, and now he’s on this whole groovy late-night sex music trip I am enjoying immensely (you can dig it on his The Nails EP). But I still like to revisit this great document of where he was at a decade ago, cooking up these magic demo’s in various bedrooms with a guitar and a whole lot of some wonderful Italian echo machine. Fatti Frances – Lie for Me (2013)
This thing barely even got released, just a fanfare-less upload to Bandcamp more than a year after it was finished. It’s out there for the listening though, and it’s bloody spectacular! Icy R&B jams with huge womping bass lines, skittering drums and hypnotic whirring synthesizers all hanging majestically in their own strange dubbed out space. And great songs inside them.

Lovers of the Black Bird – Ocean of No Time (2016)
The people have barely had time to ignore this one yet. As my friend Amanda Roff from Time for Deams and Harmony said after one of their shows. “If this was some 70s freak-folk re-issue people would love it, but with Monty and Joe up there in these matching velvet outfits wailing about “Betty’s Dead!”, it’s just a bit too real.” Indeed. I think Julie Montan and Joe Foley are making some of the spookiest, most original music out there, and I implore you to dig it. Face the realness!

Take The Plunge, the 2016 PBS 106.FM music festival runs from May 16 - 29.

Listen to Stone Love Fridays at 5pm.