Weddings Parties Anything

Borrowed from a Clash track called “Revolution Rock,” the name Weddings, Parties, Anything already hinted at the Australian group’s eclectic tastes, which also drew from Woody Guthrie, Tex Morton, and the Rolling Stones. That blend made tidy classification impossible: part rock, part punk and alternative, part country, and part whatever impulse struck at the moment. Michael Thomas, the chief songwriter and de facto leader, brought prior experience from solo gigs and Australian bush-band work when he launched the project in 1985 alongside drummer Marcus Schintler. Accordionist Mark Wallace, guitarist Dave Steel, and bassist Janine Hall—previously of the Saints—joined soon afterward. An independent EP and relentless national touring attracted WEA Australia, which signed the band in 1987 and issued its first full-length album, Scorn of the Women. Hall departed after that release and was succeeded by Peter Lawler, whose arrival completed the lineup responsible for 1988’s Roaring Days. Exhaustion and a sense that too little of his own material was appearing on W.P.A. records prompted Dave Steel to exit following a North American tour later that year; his WEA solo debut arrived in 1989. Richard Burgman stepped in for the 1989 album Big Don’t Argue and its supporting dates. Extensive road work occupied the next three years, yielding only the 1990 EP Weddings Play Sports (and Falcons), a set of covers drawn from the bands Sports and Falcons. Burgman left in turn, and Paul Thomas took over guitar duties when the group resurfaced on CD in 1992. Thomas, Wallace, Schintler, Lawler, and Michael Thomas held together long enough to deliver King Tide in 1993. After the subsequent world tour, both Lawler and Schintler exited; Lawler later pursued a solo path. Michael Thomas rebuilt the roster, and by 1996 the refreshed lineup—violinist and mandolinist Jen Anderson (ex–Black Sorrows), drummer Michael Barclay (formerly of Paul Kelly’s Coloured Girls and Messengers), bassist Stephen O’Prey, plus Michael Thomas, Paul Thomas, and Mark Wallace—issued the independent album Donkey Serenade. The sound tilted from folk toward alternative country, and the band chose to concentrate on the domestic market, trimming overseas commitments. Riveresque appeared on Mushroom/Sony in 1997. The following year the members elected to pause collective activity and turn to individual projects, among them Michael Thomas’s musical Wide Open Road. Throughout its history the group displayed a rare capacity to absorb fresh personnel and stylistic shadings while preserving a distinctive identity.