Mental As Anything 2016 Release of second single “Goat Tracks In My
Sandpit” Shows in China and NZ amongst busy Australian touring
schedule. Martin Plaza off the road for long periods while dealing
with chemotherapy. Mike Caen and Craig Gordon take turns to step back
in to cover Martin’s guitar parts. October Martin back in but has to
pull out after a month and Tony Adams (ex Riptides and Cyberia) joins
to finish the year. While Martin has been out all the shows have been
extremely well received and the Mentals are at the top of their game.
The audiences have been united in sending healing thoughts to Martin.
As of Christmas 2016 he is responding very well to a new chemotherapy
treatment and sitting on a fresh batch of songs. 2015 Mentals sign
with Demon Music ( part of BBC Worldwide) for U.K. and Europe. Bassist
Zoltan Budai leaves and is replaced by James Gillard who has played
with Mondo Rock, Casey Chambers, Lee Kernaghan and Jimmy Barnes. Late
in 2015 release of first single for many years “Shake Off Your
Sandals”produced by Steve James. 2014 Martin back on tour. Mentals
sign with Universal Music. Guitarist Mike Caen leaves to concentrate
on a solo album and his Bar Tones band. He is replaced by Martin Cilia
who after ten years has just finished the last tour of legendary
Australian surf band The Atlantics (with their international hit
Bombora). He also played in the eighties with Dave Warner’s From The
Suburbs. 2013 September Martin Plaza undergoes surgery to remove a
kidney tumour. Craig Gordon from Mr Breeze covers Martin’s guitar
parts while Greedy sings Martin’s songs. 2011 Bassist Dave the
Duck Barraclough and drummer Robbie Souter retire due to health
problems. Bassist Zoltan Budai and drummer Jacob Cook join up. Zoltan
ex Richard Clapton and Brian Cadd and Jacob a young veteran of live
playing and hip hop production. This rhythm section pumps up the
Mentals for years of shows in pubs clubs theatres festivals and even
restaurants around Australia and occasionally overseas
(Shanghai,Beijing and NZ) 2010 ‘Let’s Cook’ recorded with the
Wiggles. Long time connection with Cockroaches. Touring Australia
extensively. Win Mo award best original live band. Wiggles win Aria
for best childrens album with Let’s Eat featuring the collaboration
with Mentals on ‘Let’s Cook’. 2009 Warner Music Australia
discover they have Mentals on their roster and plan to relaunch the
greatest hits. The revamped collection called “Essential As
Anything” contains “Close Again” and Martin Plaza’s solo
monster “Concrete n’ Clay”, and as a bonus Monumental 1 & 2 –
37 of the Mentals video clips on DVD for the first time ever. The
band’s back catalogue is now made available for digital download on
iTunes. The Mentals started out on vinyl records and have ended up on
the net. What next? The Release of CD and DVD collection Essential As
Anything on Warner Music. For the first time all the original hits and
videos are available together. Mentals most well known tracks are now
made available through ITunes and Rhino around the world. In September
Mental As Anything are inducted into the Australian Record Industry
Association’s Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame along with Little Patty,
Kev Carmody, The Dingos and John Paul Young. Around this time Warner
Music releases Tents Up an album of new original Mentals compositions
recorded at Electric Avenue in Sydney and mixed by Steve James at
Rocking Horse near Byron Bay. Release of new original album “Tents
Up” on Warner Music – the culmination of all the effort, blood,
sweat and tears of the past most tempestuous five years in the life of
Mental As Anything. The band continues touring to promote both
releases including a series of australia-wide A Day on the Green
concerts with the B52s and the Proclaimers. 2006, 2007, 2008 The
Mentals head into Electric Avenue Studios in Sydney to lay down tracks
for Tents Up. This is the most satisfying recording experience for the
band in a long time, but it turns out due to legal issues, it will be
a long time before it will be released. Most of the tracks are mixed
at Rocking Horse Studios, Federal in northern NSW, by Steve James
(“Rock n’ Roll Music” producer) and mastered by Aussie Leon
Zervos at Stirling Sound, New York. While this is going on, the band
is constantly touring Australia with detours to Shanghai and Macau and
a short tour of Port Moresby in early 2007. 2005 Release of Plucked.
An album of acoustic recordings of familiar Mentals tunes for
Liberation Blue. This shows Mentals classic repertoire in a thoughtful
mood. Produced by the band, mixed by John Haeny (Linda Ronstadt,
Little Feat and The Doors). This gives the new line-up a taste for
recording to be realised with the sessions for a new original studio
album. 2004 Continues touring. September – David Twohill aka Wayne
de Lisle aka Bird is asked to leave. He is replaced by the charming
and talented Robbie Souter, drummer with the Dynamic Hepnotics and
then Slim Dusty for the last fifteen years of Slim’s career. 2003
Release of Roadcase. Recorded and mixed by David Barraclough and the
band. Continued touring in Australia. Mentals drop Cranium Management
and appoint Grant Bartlett as manager of Mental As Anything touring.
2002 Murray Cook replaced on guitar by Mike Caen in March. Originally
a New Zealander, Mike is a most talented guitarist, songwriter and
composer (recorded by Darryl Braithwaite, Dragon and Marc Hunter among
others) and has played with Dragon, Jenny Morris, Margaret Uhrlich,
Pink Slips and Street Talk. He keeps in the band that bit of Kiwi
sensibility from Reg and Pete. Roadcase album recorded and Australia
toured. 2001 Video clip for “Stretchmarks” directed by Mark
Hartley. Walkabout Club Shepherd’s Bush, London; King Tut’s Wah
Wah Hut Glasgow, and Whelan’s Pub, Dublin. Short but successful OS
tour. More touring across Oz. 2000 Mentals play Ho Chi Minh city in
Vietnam on Australia day. Soon after, Reg Mombassa leaves the band to
concentrate on his art. He is a major designer for the closing
ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. He also continues as a major designer
for Mambo Surfwear and he continues to have sell-out exhibitions of
his painting, drawing and print making, both in Australia and
overseas. Both Peter and Reg will continue to successfully perform and
record as Reg and Pete’s Dog Trumpet. Meanwhile back in the Mentals,
Reg is replaced on guitar by Murray Cook, a gifted
multi-instrumentalist who has played with Midnight Oil, Warumpi Band,
Mixed Relations, Marlene Cummings, Leah Purcell and Lock, Stock and
Darryl. Recorded Beetroot Stains album produced by the band, recorded
by David Barraclough, mixed by John Haeny, Andrew Beck and Jonathon
Burnside. 1999 Bass player and songwriter Peter O’Doherty leaves the
band to become a full-time painter. He goes on to win numerous art
prizes and continues to this day to have very successful exhibitions
around Australia and abroad. He is replaced by Rockhampton raised
David Barraclough who had spent the previous seven years as guitarist
for New Zealand pop rock idols The Exponents. He decides to switch to
bass for The Mentals. 1998 Tour UK 1997 Release Garage LP. Mentals III
art exhibition opened in Sydney by ex- PM Gough Whitlam. This
exhibition then tours Australia continuously till late 2002. 1996
Marianne, the final single from Liar, Liar…, is released and the
band retreat into the studio to work extensively on their new album.,
An appearance at the Mountain Rock Festival in New Zealand, followed
by the Australian Tour with Chris Isaak and a tour of New Zealand with
The Exponents. 1995 The album Liar, Liar Pants on Fire enters the top
40, to glowing reviews, and the single Mr Natural hits Top 30. Two
other singles are released – Nigel, which instantly becomes a radio
hit, and Whole Wide World, a cover originally written and recorded by
Reckless Eric. 1994 Bicycle EP Tour – limited copies of the EP given
away to loyal fans around the country – Radio picks up Mr Natural
off the Bicycle EP CD sampler 1993 Release B Sides and rarities album
Chemical Travel Release B Sides and rarities album Chemical Travel
1990 Then deputy Prime Minister, Paul Keating, opens second Mental As
Anything Art Exhibition with works by all five Mentals attracting huge
critical acclaim. It tours Tamworth at the Country Music Festival,
travelling on to Melbourne, Lismore, Campbelltown and back to Sydney.
1989 Another Top 40 Album – Cyclone Raymond with the No.15World
Seems Difficult and top 5 hit Rock n Roll music. 1988 Rock & Roll
Music from the film soundtrack YOUNG EINSTEIN reaches No. 6 on the
charts 1987 Release Top 20 album Mouth To Mouth. Singles Let’s Go To
Paradise & He’s Just No Good For You also enter Top 20. – Also
release a Top 40 cover of Elvis Presley’s Love Me Tender – Band
tours UK again and then N.E. USA and Canada with Robert Palmer. 1986
Live It Up -no.1 in Scandinavia No.2 in Germany and No.3 in the U.K
– Band tours UK, Holland, Spain and Italy (Band wins coveted
Telegatto award on Italian TV) 1985 Fundamental As Anything –
Platinum Best Selling Australian Album – Live It Up – Best Selling
Australian Single – singles You’re So Strong( No. 8) / Date With
Destiny(No. 18) – multi platinum Greatest Hits Vol I goes to No. 2
on the charts – Live It Up received Apra award for most performed
work and Countdown award for best single and song writer. 1984
Apocalypso (Wiping The Smile Off Santa’s Face) the band’s only
Christmas single 1983 Spirit Got Lost & Brain, Brain released off Top
10 album Creatures Of Leisure. Also release cover of Roy Orbison’s
Working For The Man. Too Many Times hits Top 20 in Canada as the band
tours Canada and USA – First Group Art Exhibition, with works by
each of the band members, held at Watters Gallery, Darlinghurst
(Sydney). Buyers included Patrick White and Elton John. (White later
bequeathed one of Reg’s works to The Art Gallery of NSW) 1982 Tour
USA. Release single I Didn’t Mean To Be Mean (produced by Elvis
Costello). First single, Close Again, from the album Creatures Of
Leisure. Band tours U.S and Canada. 1981 If You Leave Me Can I Come
Too? & Too Many Times, two of the year’s biggest singles off the
Platinum Album Cats And Dogs. Too Many Times goes to number 19 in
Canada. 1980 Come Around off the album Espresso Bongo manages to hit
Top 20. Release another hit single (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet Dec
’80 1979 The Nips Are Getting Bigger and the album Get Wet hit Top
20 in Australia. Nips released in UK, reaches indy Top 40. 1978 Move
to the Civic Hotel, Sydney, for another year long residency on a
larger stage. 1977 – 16th August (the night Elvis died). MENTAL AS
ANYTHING (Reg Mombassa, Greedy Smith, Martin Plaza, Wayne ‘Bird’
Delisle and Peter O’Doherty) perform together for the first time at
the Cellblock Theatre, East Sydney Tech. Start a year long residency
at the Unicorn Hotel, Sydney (using the pool table as their stage).
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