Me and BLM

Born in the firey month of October, 1982, Redmond Hamlett began his long journey. Along the way many friends were made, and enemies defeated through strugles of epic proportions. Well, not really. . . I'm just trying to work out what I should write about myself.

I spent the majority of my education at Trinity Grammar, in Kew (near Melbourne) where i completed my VCE. I'm interested in film, music, art, design, journalism and literature. I've been involved with making short films and a few jazz and stage bands playing tenor saxophone, however i can play guitar, drums and bass to a certain degree, and think at times, being able to sing. Also currently trying to get a radio station going through Deakin Uni, writing songs under the name of "The Resident Tourist" (steal the name and i'll have ya!!) and a music appreciation society (shit name hey!?) going in Deakin as well.

This is a story that must be told. It's a tale of a young man who, by accident, stumbled across Blueline Medic's music, through adventure, gaining a better understanding of music and conquering peer pressure (or popular judgement)

Now that I sit down to write this, I actually realize that this started a while ago. Back when I was in Year 10 in 1998, we had an annual fair at our dearly (un)beloved school. The best thing about it was the cheap record stall where i picked up some of the best bargains. Whilst siffting through the boxes and rows of cd's, i stumbled across many a fine record; Pavement, Sandpit, Crettins Puddle (I wish i got it, damn!!) and one Caustic Soda record, called "Music From The Motion Picture". I had heard the name somewhere, and thought what the hell (it was only two bucks). I didn't realise it at first, but in retrospect, that was one of the best record buys ever.

After taking my bounty of CD's home, I plugged them into the mini hi-fi at home and had a listen. To be honest, I didn't like what i heard. So I took it to school and showed some friends, and they all didn't like it. I showed it to one of the "music jocks" and he said the singer sounded like the guy from Bad Religion! Those guys tried to tell me punk wasn't music. Those guys missed out.

So, the CD sat on my rack for about a year and a half. Till a time came to when I was even considering selling it. I decided one more listen, to see if I like it. Low and behold, it all made sense. I realised that this was some of the best material I had ever listened to. The roughness, the deep and meaningful vocals, and even the bass players punk-ass voive . . it all came together. I always associated the band with Donnie's vocals sounding similar to Marianne Faithful (scratchy voice, its cool). "Like a Day", "Trampoline Sky" and "Incapably Driven" were in my mental songbook for days.

I grew a real appreciation for them. I read up on them, and discovered that just after I began to like them, they had changed names, and never again play a full set of Caustic Soda songs. It would be for the next two years that i would be fortunate enough to see them live. They met expectation, even if i didn't know any of the songs.

But the bits in between and after is all history. Since then I've become a bigger fan, and endevour to own every release and see them at any chance I get.

Thanks

Many thanks to my friends and family (even though they've never even heard of Blueline Medic), Andrew Tijis for info, Matt Attlee for Aus Music Scrapbook, Mondo Bizarro for playing the tunes and to anyone who as ever visited this site.

Big thanks to Stuart Rice for giving me a guideline on how to make this site and his support. He knows his stuff. Also big thanks to Andre for making his cool Caustic Soda site and finding all those lost articles. That guy is a dude!

Special thanks goes to any of the past or present members of Blueline Medic or Caustic Soda, who's music has inspired me to make this site possible.

Cheers and Beers

Reders