We all remember where we were when we heard that debut album for the Living End - usually near a radio when "Prisoner of Society" was released.
That album debuted at number one and stayed in the ARIA chart for 83 weeks - insane by any standards.
25 years since its release, frontman Chris Cheney reflects on the creation of the album: “I think unknowingly our destination was always this; this album right here. All songs led here. All the gigs and all the songs we’d written and rejected over the years, all the lessons we’d learned had been building up to this….our first album.”
“Ultimately what we captured was a melting pot full of our influences but not to the extent that we sounded confused,” Cheney continued. “The way we played glued it all together. Stylistically, it had punk (‘West End Riot’), metal (‘Growing Up Falling Down’), pop (‘I Want a Day’), rockabilly (‘Second Solution’), hillbilly thrash on steroids (‘Prisoner of Society’), jazz (‘Fly Away’), ska (‘Trapped’ and ‘All Torn Down’), swampy surf twang (‘Bloody Mary’), country pickin’ and anything else we thought we could throw at it.”
The Living End celebrate this album with a huge show in Melbourne and a special vinyl re-release of the album with some cool extras.
This is Chris Cheney and Scott Owen from The Living End, on The Rider with Becko