Underground Lovers

The Underground Lovers emerged as pioneers who connected Australia's longstanding drums-and-guitar rock tradition with the technology-driven, electronically colored sounds that took hold from the late 1980s onward. Their story originated in the creative partnership of Glen Bennie and Vincent Giarrusso and, after ten years and six albums, returned to that same core.

Issuing their debut single, "Blast," in 1988 as GBVG, the pair immediately defined the group's essential traits through Bennie's hypnotic guitar atmospheres set against Giarrusso's precise pop instincts. Forming a full band the next year allowed those ideas to expand further, with Philippa Nihill's serene vocals supplying a fresh dimension that offset Giarrusso's rhythmic focus. Live, Nihill and Giarrusso traded vocal and keyboard roles while bass and drums anchored the sound beneath Bennie's distinctive guitar style. The Underground Lovers played their first show in Melbourne during May 1990, and after just two more performances they captured their independently released debut album.

Leaves Me Blind appeared in England ahead of its Australian release when the head of 4AD, visiting Australia, heard the finished record and signed the group to a one-album deal on the label's sister imprint Guernica. The 4AD connection generated strong import sales in the U.S., prompting American listeners to assume the band was British, while British audiences linked the Underground Lovers to the rising Manchester scene. In reality the group drew from both Joy Division and New Order and from local Australian sources. Their third album, Dream It Down, marked their first release on a major label; the lush record nearly produced a hit with "Las Vegas."

Unhappy with major-label constraints, the Underground Lovers departed rather than accept direction on how to secure that hit single. Rushall Station followed on their own Mainstream imprint. Although Philippa Nihill had departed for a solo career, she still contributed to several tracks. With Bennie and Giarrusso now fully in control, the band could shift its approach on record or onstage to suit any situation while remaining unmistakably the Underground Lovers. The same approach yielded two further albums, 1997's Ways T'Burn and 1999's Cold Feeling. Between those releases the pair issued another single and performed again as GBVG. Bennie later produced Philippa Nihill's first solo album, 2000's A Little Easy, while Giarrusso wrote and directed the film Mallboy in 2001.