The Reels

Dubbo, a large provincial city in New South Wales, Australia, provided one exception to the rule that most bands in Australia originate from the large state capitals. Perhaps this helps to explain the Reels, whose musical direction has been erratic, however brilliant. Based around Dave Mason (vocals) and Colin ‘Polly’ Newman (keyboards/saxophone) with Paul Abrahams (bass), John Bliss (drums) and Craig Hooper (guitar), the band was the first to utilize backing tapes, organize a national tour by train and to do a show based solely on requests, gathered by the band before the show. The band began as a quirky post new wave outfit achieving notice with the single and album ‘Quasimodo’s Dream’ which remains their outstanding song. National success came with an album of MOR covers, Beautiful, marketed by the K-Tel label on television, but by 1978 the band was reduced to a duo, performing with backing sequencers and a computer. Their 1988 album consisted entirely of covers of well-known Australian bands. The band’s two homeland hit singles have been a straight cover of Burt Bacharach’s ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’ in 1982 and a slow whimsical version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Bad Moon Rising’ in 1986.