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‘Two of the best songwriters Australia has ever produced’: punk pioneers the Saints return

Isolated in Brisbane, the Saints released a punk single before the Damned, Sex Pistols and the Clash. As they reform after their singer’s death, they recall their journey from school detention to Top of the Pops

Mudhoney’s Mark Arm is singing in place of Bailey, who died in 2022, and fellow heroes of Australian alternative music Mick Harvey (Birthday Party, Bad Seeds) and Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys) complete the lineup. We were working on something that was, in my mind, completely unique.” You can hear quite how focused that vision was on a set of home recordings from 1974, later released as The Most Primitive Band in the World: this is quite clearly high-energy punk rock, before the fact. As 1977 progressed and punk ossified into a series of postures – pogoing, gobbing, lowest common denominator riffing – the band felt more and more at odds with the scene they thought would welcome them.

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