Thirteen Tonne Theory: Life Inside Hunters and Collectors

Thirteen Tonne Theory: Life Inside Hunters and Collectors - My Library Thing Review

Mark Seymour's recent memoir of his time in Hunter's and Collectors: I saw this book at work and picked it up, curious to learn more about a band whose music I had mixed feelings for.

My earliest memory of this band was seeing the excellent videoclip of "Talking to a Stranger' on TV, Their earliest recordings were quite adventurous and avante garde. Driving bass, spidery guitar riffs, interesting percussion plus a horn section made their sound very distinctive.

Their better known work though smacked of a band desperately looking for commercial success. Towards the end of the band's duration they seemed to be perenially touring the country; interest had waned for their newer songs but they still had a substantial back catalogue of tunes that people would still pay to see them play live at some beer barn.

I saw them twice in the early nineties, paired up with Died Pretty. The first gig, at Wollongong, I thought was great but the second one I saw a couple of years later in Sydney, they seemed pretty flat. Died Pretty blew them away.

The book answers some of the questions that I had regarding them abandoning the adventuristic bent of their initial recordings and their turning towards using more simpler song structures. Dynamics within the band were altered when one of the original members was asked to leave. And Seymour admits that he tired of creating abstract music, that he wanted instead to write love songs.

'Thirteen tonne theory' is mostly a chronolgical journey. It is written in an almost fictional manner. The band members are given only generic names such as 'the bass player' or 'the doctor' (I think he was the Drummer - I'm not sure) so though you are given a sense of the band's collective experience a lot is held back and the reader can only see the rest of the band in the most foggiest sense.

Seymour of course is the character most revealed. The reader is given his viewpoint only. And in such a big band (they had up to 6-8 members at any one time) he comes across as quite an insecure character. One section of the book is devoted to a tour Hunter and Collectors did supporting Midnight Oil in America and how inconsolable he felt whilst doing it, feeling (correctly of course) that the punters in the crowd were more interested in the headlining act rather than his own band. And earlier in the book he recalls a conversation with a promoter who mentions his brother Nick who was playing bass in a much more internationally sucessful band called Crowded House.

All this insecurity on Seymour's part makes Thirteen tonne theory a humourous read. Seymour, 'The Singer' does not dominate his band, rather he seems engulfed by it. What relief he must have felt when the band finally came to a grinding halt.

(youtube clip embedded of "Betty's Worry or The Slab" : a song about . . . . . . frustration????)