Melbourne Little Bands 1980 Super 8 film

A film by Jacqui Ward with Sandie Wadelton, shot on Super 8 in Melbourne 1980 in and around the Little Bands scene.

The Little Bands was a unique post-punk inner city music and art community phenomenon in 1979-1980 where bands would form to perform once or at the most twice, with short 10-15 minute sets. The scene germinated from people involved in the influential Melbourne underground bands Primitive Calculators and Whirlywirld, and quickly grew into a vibrant creative movement. Little Bands shows were held in venues mostly in the inner north and CBD, and at the Paradise Lounge downstairs from the Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda.

Inner city Melbourne at that time was to a large extent a "bohemian" area with cheap rents (!) and countless share houses.

Super 8 experimental film-making was an esoteric and highly creative artform then, and this visceral film is full of the extended techniques of that art.

The untitled film was revived and post-produced in 2024 by Simon Grounds along with Jacqui Ward, with thanks to Tony McMahon, in response to a major Little Bands retrospective release by Fantastic Mess Records centred around live recordings by core Little Bands figure Alan Bamford.

The soundtrack is derived from a Little Band performance at the Paradise Lounge by The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies.

Kate Buck - vocals Terry Shannon - drums Jim Buck - guitar Paul Doogood - guitar Wendy Gauwitz - bass