Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk 001.
Table Talk
Do you want some dead fish?……no kapish
Do you want some dead bird?……whats the word
Do you want some rat stew?……..no thank you
Table talk
Lyrics by Adrian, music by the band. Recorded live at an unknown venue in Sydney in 1984. Filmed by Adrian.
Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk
Formed in Sydney 1983 by a group of friends drawn together to create a band that integrated elements of visual art including film, into music performance. Preceeding Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk, Mark (vocal) had written and performed with the band Du Dux Dan. Adrian (saxophone), Yvette (drums) and Tom (guitar) with Real Fucking Idiots, and Chip (bass guitar) with Anti Hierarchy. Real Fucking Idiots and Anti Hierarchy performed together on occasion and realised a potential for the combination of the two. In 1982 Tom and Amanda (RFI) formed the band What with Dean, Owie and Tony (AH), performing until Amandas death late in that year. Dean and Owie then formed Itchy Rat and Tony joined Soggy Porridge.
RFI were a riot of intense no-wave art punk. Anti Hierarchy created an urgent punk music inspired by anarcho punks Crass, Discharge, Disorder etc. Du Dux Dan were post punk, melodic and quirky. The combination of these three was always going to create something interesting. Adrian and Chip were (and still are) likely to infuse any of their music projects with elements of visual art, so Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk became a vehicle for film making and mash ups, screen printed posters, murals, painted clothes and photography. Some of this material is preserved in a collection of Super 8 films with accompanying soundtracks.
Sydney had a thriving and well documented alternative music scene in the 70’s and 80’s. A search for the book Inner City Sounds is a good start. The city and innermost suburbs were riddled with small independent venues, which started to be closed down from as early as 82. It was an incredibly creative period and a fortunate time to develop as a musician/artist. The punk community had many factions and centered in venues from the Cross and Darlinghurst, over to Millers Point and around to Surrey Hills and Redfern. The CBD itself was a great hangout. Sydney at this time attracted artists and audiences from other cities, drawn to the swelling numbers in the sub cultures, gangs with distinct styles of dress and music that evolved over time. The art punk scene was already well established but seemed to go through a burst from 82 until the late 80’s. Bands formed, merged, fell apart, people died, went crazy, reemerged, escaped……. The earlier bands gave way to an invigorated new no wave sound and a label: Black Eye (of Red Eye). Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk were recorded by Adrian on his Tascam 4 track quite well, and quite badly live on cassette walkmans.
Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk dissolved in 1985, unfortunately too early. Adrian and Mark moved onto No More Bandicoots (Black Eye), Tom to Feedtime (Aberrant) and Chip to Psilicybin.