Fifty years ago, Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey birthed a blistering punk missive called ‘(I’m) Stranded’.
On a late train to his parents’ house in the Brisbane suburbs, Kuepper developed the melody and the first verse of what would become The Saints‘ debut single, before passing it on to band mate Bailey to finish off. The Saints, comprised of Kuepper, Bailey, drummer Ivor Hay and Kym Bradshaw on bass, independently pressed and distributed just 500 copies, the single pre-dating the first releases by the likes of The Damned, The Sex Pistols and The Clash.
Their debut album, recorded in December 1976, was essentially the band’s live set comprised of songs like ‘Nights in Venice’ and ‘Messin’ with the Kid’, which they’d developed over the handful of gigs they’d played at that point.
The Saints had their fans, but also met with plenty of resistance. “We were hillbillies from Brisbane,” Bailey explained to the ABC’s Long Way to the Top series. “Apart from the Bee Gees, nothing had ever come out of here, and they were foreign as well. Anyway, we’d been given a record contract from overseas, and at that particular point in time, with cultural cringe, Australian acts just didn’t make it overseas. So that was like a double whammy. And quite frankly, most people at the time thought we were crap.
The band’s relocation to London in 1977 proved equally challenging. They refused to ingratiate themselves to the English press, nor align themselves with the stylised imagery or fashion of punk staying true to their DIY ethos and the rigorous strains of social alienation that permeate the debut record, “(I’m) Stranded”.
It seems decidedly ‘unpunk’ to romanticise the story but, half a century on from its genesis, our understanding of its impact on Australian music and its role in the explosion of punk, rock and grunge around the world only continues to grow.
The Australian rock legends The Saints are reuniting this November to celebrate the release of a special vinyl box set featuring their iconic 1977 debut album, “(I’m) Stranded”. Following the tragic death of former lead singer Chris Bailey in 2022, the touring line-up includes two founding members—guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay—alongside honorary Saints: Mudhoney’s Mark Arm on vocals, Sunnyboys’ Peter Oxley on bass, and former The Birthday Party/Bad Seeds guitarist Mick Harvey. Billed as ‘The Saints ‘73-’78 Tour’, the live shows will cover the sounds of their first three albums: “(I’m) Stranded (1977), Eternally Yours (1978), and Prehistoric Sounds (1978),
Upon announcing the vinyl box reissue, the process of putting it together both “thrilling and exhausting.”
The exhausting part was that—and it wasn’t like I was working on it day in and day out—it took a long time editing it. There’s a lot of stuff that we didn’t include, and yet there’s a shitload of stuff that was. It was the booklet that took the longest time, just getting things into the correct chronological order, so it’s like a photo essay of sorts. You start at one point and then move through to a number of months or years after. It all took place in a relatively short period of time, so it took some time choosing what to include and exclude.
It’s almost like doing a biography or something. Because I was involved right from ’71, going through the music was easier because we knew what had to be included. It was a bit of an effort getting all the tapes together, but we managed to get that together and get them remastered with Don Bartley. It’s the first time it’s been mastered for vinyl in 40 years, and it sounds great. I was really taken; in fact, I think it sounds better than the original release.
The Fat Angel Sings 