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The Cruel Sea Tex Perkins' Dark Horses Beasts of Bourbon Tex, Don & Charlie Tex Deadly & The Dum Dums Sekret Sekret Tex Perkins & His Ladyboyz Tex Perkins (best of tour - songs from my black cattle dog)
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Tex Deadly & The Dum Dums
In early 1982 Greg Perkins inherited some guitars from some acquaintances who didn't want them anymore, and joined a band called CORPSE OF CHRIST. This was 2 days before they were due to play a gig, and his performance on that occasion was such that they immediately threw him out. A few months later, after a lot of pondering, he formed THE DUM DUMS as : Greg Perkins (vocals) Ian Wadley (guitar) Greg Wadley (bass) Greg Gilbert (drums). Totally at odds with everything else that was going on, young Greg had become converted to the cult of Lux & Ivy, and this initial lineup of the band was intended to be an Australian version of THE CRAMPS (at their first gig they did a whole heap of CRAMPS covers ... plus an old country and western standard "Ring Of Fire" which was a taste of things to come3 Later that year the bass player left for a couple of months, and with a replacement the band went on to play another L or 5 gigs. It was around this time that Tax started listening to country music, and those in tile vicinity christened him Tax. Unknown to him the band's name was changed to TEX DEADLY AND THE DUM DUMS for their next gig.
Greg Wadley (who bore a marked resemblance to Henry from "Erazerhead") returned in January 1983 in time for his brother Ian (who apparently looked like ET) to leave because work and school commitments wouldn't allow him to go with the band on a planned Sydney tour. His replacement was one Peter Jetnikov (who, legend has it, looked like Fred Flintstone) - he stayed for the Sydney trip but left soon after they got back to Brisbane.
The sagging lineup was then bolsted by the addition of Marco (with a K) as new guitarist, and Steve Timms on drums who only lasted one gig (and eventually turned up in DIE DANCING BEARS).
In spits of all the internal instabilities they'd progressed strongly musically, as everyone started getting into THE CRAMPS ~so Tax shifted the emphasis to country and western tunes (although the rest of the "scene" ultimately absorbed that as well). Throughout all of this they'd had 8ilch popularity in Brisbane, but had gone down well in Sydney on their short trip, and were strongly advised to make a permanent move south. Somewhat surprisingly, when word of this proposed move got out, they became very popular and the last 3 Brisbane gigs ware filled with eager fans.
In March they made the big move to Sydney as a three piece, but soon got a drummer and had a stable lineup for the next three months. Their first gig was at the Strawberry Hills Hotel and although virtually unadvertised, and the band supposedly "unknown" it was packed out. After that they never looked back, starting in small (but crowded venues) and building up.
All went well for several months, apart from a short break when Greg Wadley was replaced by a bloke named Cyril. This last lineup did a few shows in Sydney, a 2 week tour of Melbourne (even got an interview in "Juke") before returning to Sydney to break up in mid 1983. Moat or the people who left the band did so because they found themselves at odds with Tex's ideas on the musical direction of the band (Tax described them universally as wimps), and the final split occurred when two people left at the same time. Tax was fed up with it all and didn't think it worth the effort to get new members and keep the band going. All too frequently the situation would arise whereby Tax would be screaming his guts out while the rest of the band quietly want plink plonk on their instruments behind him. This obviously called for drastic changes ... which took place on numerous occasions.
THE DUM DUMS never officially released anything, some of their demos did turn up on some compilation cassettes and some live bootlegs are obtainable.
Written by Harry Butler for DNA fanzine issue 38. October 1984.
www.ozmusicbooks.com
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