The Reels was an Australian rock band which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976. It disbanded in 1991, and reformed in 2007. Its 1981 song "Quasimodo's Dream" was voted one of the top 10 Australian songs of all time by a 100-member panel from Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) in 2001. The Reels had top 10 Australian singles chart successes with covers of Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love with You" (No. 7, 1982) and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" (No. 11, 1986). Rock music historian Ian McFarlane described the group as "one of the most original and invigorating pop bands to emerge from the Australian new wave movement of the late 1970s."
Career
1976–1980: Early years
Native Sons, consisting of John Bliss on drums, Craig Hooper on lead guitar and synthesiser, and Dave Mason on vocals, formed in the regional centre of Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976. Mason is the son of NSW parliamentarian, John Mason, who was the state's Liberal Party leader during 1978–1981. Colin (Polly) Newham (keyboards/brass) from Orange, N.S.W. joined in 1977.
Native Sons played in the Dubbo/Orange/Newcastle area for two years, with a repertoire of cover versions and original songs. After moving to Sydney in 1978, the band added Paul Abrahams on bass guitar and changed its name to The Brucelanders. It developed an original repertoire of fast-paced, quirky pop and ska, and its energetic performances gained it a following on the east coast live music scene. It was given support in Sydney by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) rock radio station Double J, which continued when the station moved to the FM band in 1980 and became Triple J.
By 1979, the Brucelanders had secured a recording contract with the Australian branch of Mercury Records and changed its name to the Reels, with the line-up of Abrahams, Bliss, Hooper, Mason and Newham. It released its debut single, "Love Will Find a Way" in October, which entered the top 40 of the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The group's self-titled debut album was produced by Mark Opitz (the Angels, Cold Chisel) and appeared in November, as did a second single, "Prefab Heart". The group's distinctive image meant it gained increasing attention with music videos featured on the influential national ABC TV pop show Countdown.
In July 1980, the Reels added a sixth member, also a synthesiser player, Karen Ansel, a former member of Melbourne group the Romantics. This new line-up released a third single, "After the News". It marked a transition in the Reels' music – the group minimised guitars instead utilising synthesisers as its main instruments. The Reels were one of the first groups to use headsets instead of traditional microphones.
During late July, the group undertook the innovative Reels By Rail Tour, using rail transport to destinations in the eastern states. At the end of the year, returning to its covers band origins, The Reels released a five-track Christmas EP, Five Great Gift Ideas from The Reels, produced by Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop, which included Jim Reeves' "According to My Heart" and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold". "According to My Heart" was accompanied by a folksy music video filmed at a farm in New Zealand. The EP included one original, "The Bombs Dropped on Xmas", co-written by band members Mason, Newham and Ansel with Pamela Shalvey.
1981: Quasimodo's Dream
In May 1981, The Reels released the single "Shout and Deliver" as a precursor to the album considered by many to be its best work, Quasimodo's Dream. Here The Reels displayed an impressive maturity in song writing, backed with strong performances, inventive arrangements and top-class production. It peaked at No. 27 in June. The album's title track was released as a single but, although widely considered to be one of the best Australian singles of that period, it failed to chart. The band undertook the Kitchen Man Tour, which saw the stage dressed as a fully equipped Australian kitchen.
The Reels' lack of top 10 mainstream commercial success was at odds with their strong live following, but it was due in part to the restrictive programming on commercial radio at that time, which gave little exposure to local "new wave" acts. The group's deteriorating relationship with Mercury was also a factor, as evidenced by the album's track listing: it included the earlier hit "According to My Heart", but a disclaimer printed on the sleeve noted that it had been included at the insistence of the record company (i.e. against the band's wishes).