YOUNG IDENTITIES - Positive Thinking- 540 Records Reissue

YOUNG IDENTITIES - Positive Thinking- 540 Records - 540 018- 7"

When you were a kid, did you ever have that crazed urge to put your hand into an open fire or maybe ride your bike into the path of an oncoming bus? Well, it was with a similar mindless obsession that a gang of adolescent misfits from Brisbane Australia formed a punk band in 1978 called The Young Identities.

Teenage rebellion has had many forms over the last five decades, but the ‘punk explosion’ of the mid seventies was clearly a case of blatant mold breaking. It was In that time of unbridled mayhem the brothers McLeod (Clayton,Gavin and Rod) along with cohorts Dave Robinson and Paul Murray needed some sort of outlet from the mind-numbing tedium of their suburban existence. Typical of teens at the time (when time was typically too much of what you had) listening to outsider music was a major part of their lives. The Dolls and The Stooges were godheads, but reproducing that kind of noise seemed above their meage and limited talents. Cue The Saints, The Ramones and The Leftovers. Suddenly there was more to amuse these freaks than under-aged drinking and tearing around on dragsters!

The band quickly congealed like a pimple. Being far too young to get gigs at the local pubs and clubs run by quasi mafia figures and stoner hippies, they perform their raucous routine for their peers at parties and practice rooms. It’s soon decided that if this much fun is so cheap and easy, why not make a record! To make this unlikely dream possible The Young Identities (along with fellow reprobates Just Urbain and The Bodysnatchers) form Savage Music, their own haphazard independent label and book the cheapest recording studios in town. For around $300, all three bands slam down the tunes that would feature on the first 3 Savage Music releases. The Young Identities limited edition 45 boasts 3 tracks and a hand printed cover. It hits the shops in early 1979 but hardly anyone in sleepy old Brisbane really cared much for what a bunch of spotty brats from the backwaters had to say and sales of the record reflected this apathy.

Today, after over 30 years, the first Young Identities EP is a much sort after collectors item and has become associated with what is lovingly described as ‘Snot Rock’. Loud, unruly and without pretense. The ages of the band members at the time range from 13 to 17. They were too young to vote and too naïve to care. But they sure could make a wild teenage racket!

So, like some bizarre neglected virgin at the mouth of some mythical volcano, here is their first tortured offering!