Or, as I know them better as, Spy Vs Spy – but the guys got themselves into trouble from the comic publication of the same name so they had to alter their name for legal reasons.
My love for them started around 1987. They had released the album A.O. Mod. TV Vers. at the end of 1986 (which alludes to a film censorship classification used on Australian television and stands for “Adults Only Modified Television Version”) and the lead single from it was a song called Don’t Tear It Down. I loved the song when I heard it. The follow up single was one called Credit Cards and I loved that too. I ended up buying A.O. Mod. and just played it and played it and played it! At the same time I explored their other releases. They had been around since the early 80s and had released a couple of singles and an E.P. They briefly split and and then reformed and under new management – sharing a manager with Midnight Oil, they released an E.P. called Meet Us Inside in 1984 with One Of A Kind being the single from that. From there, the albums, Harry’s Reasons and A.O. Mod. TV Vers. were both released in 1986.
Anyway, I better stop talking about them in a Wikipedia sense and let you know what makes me love these guys so much.
They come from that place of Oz politi-rock. I can see why they ended up under Midnight Oil’s management because they had that same ethos in their music. Quite political and shining a light on things that were happening locally too. A very Australian focused band. It was rock but had punk, ska and reggae elements to the sound as well, which I loved. And just three guys: guitar, drum and bass. Their lead singer, Craig Bloxom – a not shabby looking, tall, fantastically rocky and distinctively voiced man and a great bloody bass player. A fantastic guitarist in Mike Weiley as well, who also did share some vocal duties too. Lastly, the fantastic drumming talent (and rather fine graphic artist and painter), Cliff Grigg, completed the trio.
I think the Spys were probably the first band I got into of my own accord – found via my own independent musical exploration and not influenced by the tastes of my older siblings. These guys gave me an education due to the nature of the music they were creating. From Harry’s Reasons songs like: “Out And Dreaming” – which talked about having something to aspire to “I’ve got to get out and dreaming / Oh, I wish that I could / But I’ve got no jokes and no money / Oh, I wish I could be by myself”. “Learn To Laugh” worked on similar lines, “I’m taking it as it comes / I’m taking it a day at a time / Learn what you can / Remember what you learn / Be kind and you’ll live a long life”, with the rather light-hearted approach of opening the song with a call of “Are we ready?”, followed by a burp. Lol. The album’s title track, Harry’s Reasons, focused on the pitfalls of heroin (and other drugs) addiction “I see the needle in a hundred haystacks / I see the haystacks waiting / Why don’t you change? / How long will this game play out?”. Other tracks focused on the political. “Something” pleaded for truth, “Give us something that we can read / Just as long as it tells the truth … You tell us that we’re happy this way / I say that it’s a season of changes / I think there’s something that we should know / But you say let’s keep it a secret.” All Over The World, Iron Curtain and Injustice broadened the focus out to the wider world.
I loved the tracks on Harry’s Reasons, but what followed on A.O. Mod only strengthened my love for the blend of politi-punk power pub rock that the Spys produced. They had me thinking about things and their songs had such intelligence and tenderness to them. A case in point is one of my very favourites of their songs. It’s called “Mission Man”. Mission in this sense is to do with the Sydney City Mission. This was a charitable project which gave food and shelter to Sydney’s homeless. I am going to try and remember the lyrics. In fact, I have found lyrics on a web page and I will place a link to them here – Mission Man (The “Merle” mentioned in the lyrics is Merle Hurcomb – she was the executive director of the Sydney City Mission at the time.)
Another song I love from the album, although I love all the tracks from it, is “Take Me Away” which is a song about going on holiday. It’s got simple lyrics. It’s not being arty or clever, just matter-of-fact. The second verse is the one I love most, “Sick of waiting / I’m counting the days / Anticipating my ride on that plane / I’m gonna do nothing / but eat, sleep and play / I know that I’m gonna have a great time away” – it’s not exactly Wonderful In Young Life but it conjures up similar feelings in me (and would at times bring me to tears too).
The next album from them is “Xenophobia (Why?)” released in 1988. I bought it upon release and loved it also…but maybe not quite as much as the first two. There are a number of strong tracks on it and I certainly played the album a lot. Clarity Of Mind and Mingle ‘n’ Mix were the faves on this for me, as well as the album’s opener, Test Of Time.
The next album, Trash The Planet was pretty much their last as the band I loved. I felt as though this was a step back up the rung from where the previous album had taken a couple of steps down the ladder. I loved the lead single from it, Hard Times, Have No Fear, the album title track, as well as the final two singles from the album, Our House (not to be confused with the Madness song) and Oceania.
Cliff Grigg left the band after this album and it seemed as though the Spys were at their end, but in 1993 they brought out Fossil and … I don’t think I bought it. I don’t really remember anything from the album at all.
My love for the previous albums remained undiminished though and I would still listen to them regularly.
I saw them live just the one time. They put on a free gig at Darling Harbour in, I think it was 1995? Or 1994…I’m not exactly sure of the date. There is footage on YouTube of a gig of theirs at Darling Harbour during the day which is the one I think I was at and the uploader has dated it as being in 1995 so I’m assuming they are correct and it WAS the gig I was at.
They all but disbanded shortly after that. No new material was recorded and their live performances were limited to Australia and I had moved away from Sydney in 1999. The final nail in the coffin for me, as a fan, was Craig Bloxom leaving the band in 2003. Blox had had enough of the music side of things and went into other ventures, becoming a chef, living in Mexico for several years before returning to Oz and residing in Newcastle. In his spare time these days he makes bespoke basses which he sells through a particular online auction site.
I follow Cliff Grigg on Instagram. He shares his artwork there and I love what he produces. You can see his stuff by following him here – dubwiseup
Very sadly, Mike Weiley passed away in 2018.
The Spys remain possibly my biggest mid to late teen angst-based love. They embodied that spirit and energy for me with their politically fueled, real life anthems and fantastic ska/post punk and pub rock vibes. I absolutely adored them! Where, say, Midnight Oil’s politi-rock was probably a little too “high brow” for me in terms of my ability to grapple with the themes of their musical output (as much as I love albums like “10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1”) – v Spy v Spy delivered theirs with tangibility, and to me, Blox was a way more appealing frontman than Peter Garrett ever was (bless you, Pete!) – and I don’t necessarily mean that in a visually appealing sense, either (but you know, as I said before, Blox wasn’t too shabby on the old peepholes, you get me).
I would highly recommend listening to their first two albums in particular, but the majority of their musical output is top class. Also the compilation “Mugshots” is a great anthology of their work too.