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Go-Betweens aim to strike public chord

Dave DiMartino — Billboard, 14 January 1989

At the end of the day, what do good reviews really mean? In the case of the Go-Betweens, whose debut Capitol album 16 Lovers Lane came 10 years into their career, they have in one sense meant everything.

"Put it this way," says Grant McLennan, guitarist, vocalist, and group co-founder. "If we hadn’t sold a whole lot of records up to this point and we hadn’t had a good critical reception, then the band wouldn’t be together. Because no record company would have given us a new deal. And record companies over the world have been giving us deals because of our critical acclaim--not because we sell records."

Ideally, the group’s track record with the public will change with 16 Lovers Lane. Like the group’s other albums, 16 Lovers Lane has won critical praise since its release in November. But in many ways it is also the band’s most commercial album to date.

Helping matters is the group’s new tie to Capitol, which in the latter half of 1988 demonstrated a strong commitment to alternative music, backing such bands as the Cocteau Twins, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, Marc Almond, Richard Thompson, and Skinny Puppy. The label promises releases soon by Martin Stephenson & the Daintees and Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, among others.

"It is good timing," McLennan says, "because you can feel that the record company is changing, and they’re going to be quite hungry in a way to break new acts. We’re not new, and neither are the Cocteau Twins, but we are to the American market. The label is going to try to sell those records, so it means they’re going to get behind them."

In fact, the Go-Betweens have had three previous U.S. albums: Metal And Shells, a compilation of material from their second and third albums, released on PVC, and 1986’s Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express and Tallulah, both out here on Beggars Banquet/RCA.

The band has done a lot moving--and not just from one label to another. McLennan co-founded the group in 1977 with singer/guitarist Robert Forster at Brisbane Univ. After that, the Go-Betweens relocated first to Melbourne, Australia, then to London, where they are now based once again.

McLennan thinks their return Down Under had a great effect on the songs on 16 Lovers Lane.

"I had a vision for this record," he says. "It was, in some way, just sitting down with acoustic guitars in sunlight, writing songs, and then making a record. It was as simple as that. And I get that vibe from the record, a summer feeling.

"It was 10 years since Robert and I had started the band, and we had moved to Australia, where we began. And it was a spiritual thing: Robert and I felt we wanted to get back together and try to touch on some of the things that first brought us together – just that period of what it was like when we were first working together. It’s been 10 years, and I don’t know what’s ahead."

In those 10 years, the band has made several personnel changes. Drummer Lindy Morrison has been a constant since 1980, Amanda Brown, who plays violin, oboe, and guitar and sings backing vocals, came aboard for 1987’s Tallulah; and new bassist John Wilsteed has replaced McLennan and Forster’s old Brisbane friend Robert Vickers, who decided to leave the Go-Betweens to move to New York.

While in the U.S. in late ’87, McLennan, Forster, and Brown played acoustic trio sets in LA and New York as a preview of a full-fledged band tour of the U.S. slated to start early this year. With that exposure, the Go-Betweens may soon escape the familiar plight of being loved by the critics and unheard by the masses.