Jim was the keyboard player in Fool's Kingdom but left us to pursue more serious music. He got his PhD in composition and musicology and was a lecturer in music for a while but left that to pursue live performance, teaching, and recording in Germany. He also spent enough time to become a shihan (Master) of the shakuhachi (Japanese flute) in the lineage of Yokoyama Katsuya-sensei and continues to make his living this way. He now resides in Japan with his wife. He is pictured here playing keyboards with Fool's Kingdom, that's Trevor's bum in the background.
From left to right Les, Theo and Trevor. Jim is off camera to the right. This was in 1980 or 81 Playing in a pub called the ASN, which is now a police station in The Rocks in Sydney. Correction…. since this album came out it has become an ice cream shop.
This was taken during rehearsals for a show called Dracula Spectacular in 1980, a high school play in which we were hired to play the music. The recordings of this still exist but it may be a very long time before we release those!
Taken during the 16 track recordings used on this album, this is the control room of the studio with Sallie in command and Theo getting in her way. The corner of the old 16 track machine is on the bottom right.
This was also taken during the 16 track recordings on this album. Jim came in having listened to rough mixes on his walkman on the ferry across the harbour on his way to the studio. We were all very impressed.
It's getting serious now. You can tell this was the 1980s as you were still allowed to smoke in the studio!
Theo's dad, who lent his voice to Intelligent Design, giving his speech at Sallie and Theo's wedding back in 1992.
When Sallie and Theo first moved to the US in early 1993 they lived in Atlanta Georgia and slowly started to get their musical acts together. They moved there as Theo had taken on a 2 year Postdoc position at Georgia State University thinking they would soon return to Sydney. Little did they know......
This is the drum set made out of wood, rubber, glue, and bits and pieces of old drum stands used to track the midi drums of several of the tunes on this album. The small rectangular things at the top are the "cymbals".
Taken at a gig in Topanga near Los Angeles around 2008 with Theo on the left, Ivo on bass, Alexis on vocals and Tom on the right. Kaspar is in at the back on the drums. Sallie must have taken this picture as she isn't in it. We did several Little Feat covers in those days and as they lived nearby this gig we hoped they weren't listening.
This was taken during the recording of Palm and Marengo. We turned Alexis and Tom's house into a studio for the weekend.
We did the vocal overdubs for Palm and Marengo at Sallie and Theo's house in Los Angeles. The clocks on the wall tell us the time locally, in Paris and in Sydney as despite being an Astronomer by trade Theo never learned to how work out time differences.
Also taken in their place in Los Angeles. This was a recording we did, mostly to amuse ourselves, of John Prine's song In Spite of Ourselves
This room was originally a bedroom but it was ridiculously large so it got turned into a music room instead. Those are the Roland V-Drums used for many of the tunes on this album at the back.
Pretty much the same gear as in LA except in a much smaller room and 8000 miles away from LA.
Taken on the day Les did his guitar work for this album in the Sydney music room. This was the first time the three of us had worked together for some years.
From about 2007 and taken at a gig at Caltech campus. Antoine was one of the aliens in Dangerous Aliens and plays on the Palm and Marengo tune on this album. He left the band for a job as an Astronomer in Chile and is now quite an important person at the European Southern Observatory. He still plays the keys rather well though.
For may years Theo and Sallie held a soiree at their home in Los Angeles. A number of times Bob Rice (who mastered this album) and Arthur Barrow came and we had fun playing some Frank Zappa tunes. If you're curious you can search for Theo's Soiree on YouTube.
The actual Cheap Red Stamp in Theo's passport.
Danni sang up a storm for us one night after coming over for dinner.
We met Richard for the first time at the recording session and he laid down the slide guitar on Not So Bad for us.
Dave was the first overdub on this album. He writes for several music journals and gives excellent talks on music history. He also runs an open mic night in Sydney.
Deb and Boyd lived across the road from Sallie and Theo in LA. They also lived in Atlanta but their paths never crossed ours at that time. Boyd used to be in radio back in the day and had the perfect voice for the Cheap Red Stamp song. He is very much missed.
Taken at one of Theo's Soirees, these are three most excellent women. Joan (on the right) lent her voice to Intelligent Design. Unfortunately Lori and Mandy were back in LA and were not able to contribute. Next time for sure.
Kaspar was also one of the Dangerous Aliens. Theo met him at Caltech and invited him to a Soiree that was about to happen. It turned out he was a great drummer and guitar player. Ivo also showed up and the rest is Dangerous Aliens history.
Petulant Frenzy is a Sydney based Frank Zappa tribute band. There are too many members to go into to detail but that's Kendal on the trumpet who saved Intelligent Design, Matt on vocals who did the art work, and of course the might Mr. Les. The Frenzy are really good at what they do so if you ever get the chance to go see them do it.
Like so many of our friends we met Martin at a pub in Los Angeles, and like Boyd he had the perfect accent for Cheap Red Stamp.
Theo met Marty at the Musician's Union office in Sydney in the early 80s and was one of the drummers in Marty's little black book for a while. Since that time he mastered the saxophone and lent his talents to this album and some Cruise Control tunes as well.
Michele (third from left with the pink hair) is an actor, a writer, and a teacher who helped get Theo through university by giving him a job as an actor in her theatre company touring the schools of Sydney. That's Patrick her husband behind her who also sang on Intelligent Design.
Trevor's guitar playing is, to coin a phrase, Not So Bad. This was taken during one of his Wasp Island recording sessions.
Trevor about to demonstrate that his bass playing doesn't suck either.
Patrick came over one day with Michele to add some voices to the Intelligent Design tune. He's an actor and teacher and together with Michele formed the Dramatis Scienticae company who perfumed around Australia.
Theo doing his thing. The Seagull has since been replaced by a Martin.
Trevor doing his thing recently at a pub down the south coast.
Sallie, Theo, and Trevor with guest drummer at an open mic done south performing Palm and Marengo.
Alexis and Sallie spent some months pretending they were not in Dangerous Aliens but gave in in the end. They made a dynamic singing duo.
Ivo doing his Alien thing sometime around 2009. You can just make out Kaspar behind the drums.
Another Dangerous Aliens gig in Topanga around 2008.
Sophia lent her voice to Intelligent Design.
You really had to watch out for these two at Dangerous Alien gigs
Theo met Tom while working at the Mount Wilson Observatory. Tom makes his living from writing very fast control software for optical systems, but is also a fine guitar player and sax player so naturally he ended up in Dangerous Aliens.