H-BLOCK 101

Now on haitus, punk rockers H-BLOCK 101 were a Melbourne fourpiece were an influentual force matching their heroes – think Vice Squad, The Damned, The Clash, Anti Pasti and more.

It all began back in mid 1994 when Karl Mautner decided the only way to find proper bandmates was to put up ads in local indie record stores Missing Link and Au-go-go Records. Looking for people to start a “Clash/Damned/Anti-Nowhere League sounding band” , Karl found himself with only a couple of applicants.

In amongst them were drummer Dave Culliford (“a guy who knew just about everything there was about ‘77 punk”), and guitarist Brent Millhouse, both of whom would join and then quickly depart the fledging group (only to later re-join). While the initial line-up wouldn’t even last out a few weeks, and another ad had to find its way into Melbourne’s The Age before the band was finally on its way, the basis of H-BLOCK 101 was in place.

Setting aside a few more line-up changes and the occasional blow-up, eventually H-BLOCK’s early members (Karl Mautner, Dave Culliford, Rick Munro and Jason Mahony) undertook their first live gig a mere month after forming. It was, Karl recalls, on a quiet Tuesday night in an inner-city pub, with only three original tracks and covers of The Clash, The Dammed and The Only Ones thrown in for good measure. A few months later the fourpiece recorded their debut album New Inventions, releasing 500 copies in late 1995 but refusing to press any more after they sold out because, as Karl now jokes, it “sounded like shit”.

A few more line-up changes (goodbye Dave and Jason, hello again Brent and newcomer Matt Bodiam) and it was November 1996 when the A Voice In The Crowd EP made its way to the shelves. A year later saw independent album number two, No Room For Apathy, the band hitting the road and heading to New Zealand with Smut as well as headlining their own gigs here at home. In 1999 they released the “Synergy” EP, and by this time the major labels had realised something was up and come knocking. H-BLOCK 101 signed with Universal Music and, soon after, released the anthemic “Koka-Kolonisation” single – which immediately became a favourite with Triple J listeners. Heading across the nation as support to Grinspoon and doing shows alongside Groove Terminator, H-BLOCK 101 made their major label debut with the hard-hitting Burning With The Times with legendary producer Steve James (The Clash, Sex Pisols) at the helm.

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