Biro - Collection

Indie music in Brisbane

This features recordings from various incarnation of 'Biro' such as Small Fantasy, Skippy and of course Biro. What happened to the really old Melnik members? Well, after returning from overseas, John Swingle teamed back up Trevor Ludlow and Nick Naughton to form Biro. The band put out a couple of tapes called Ready To Go Steady and Hula before Trevor left to go overseas. When he returned the band reformed, with the addition of Dave McCormack's brother Dylan on guitar. Biro Mk.2 released a CD called Spare Parts for Broken Hearts. It's wonderful pop/rock stuff. Biro then broke up, however they reformed a few months later under the moniker Small Fantasy and issued a self-titled EP. The EP featured the track DSS, which came in at number 5 on ZZZ's Hot 100 of 1996 (ZZZ = Brisbane's public radio station).

John then left Small Fantasy. Trevor, Dylan and Nick soldiered on as a three piece, playing a show under the moniker Mall Fantasy (aka "Small Fantasy" without the S for Swingle). The trio then changed their name to The Lookalikes, which was a joke about how dissimilar all the band members were. The Lookalikes eventually called it quits, however Trevor, Dylan and Nick then got together for an impromptu show at Ric's where they billed themselves as Skippy. The name stuck and the trio decided to keep playing shows. At some stage Ben Corbett from Six Foot Hick started performing with Skippy at some of their gigs. Eventually this combo morphed into Gentle Ben and His Sensitive Side. The band has released two albums, The Beginning of the End (2004) and The Sober Light of Day (2005).

At some stage John and Trevor formed the B-Sides with Cass Melnik. The B-Sides didn't release any CDs, however a recording was made of the band's final show. At the show John played drums and Cass and Trevor swapped between guitar and bass.

John has been part of Treehouse and Special Branch. Special Branch released an album called Time To Go Home in late 2005. The album received a good airplay on ZZZ, where it sat atop of the most played list for a few weeks. Sadly the album launch for Time To Go Home doubled as Special Branch's final ever show (and John had actually left the band a couple of months before this anyhow). It's also worth noting that Trevor has been in a bunch of other bands over the years including Adults Today, the Metrosexuals and Arbuckle. Arbuckle released a great pop/rock EP in 2003 called No Heroics - although Trevor actually joined the band after they'd recorded the CD. In 2006 Trevor released a solo album called I Was Here.

The compilation features: New Tattoo and Ladies Man from Biro's Spare Parts for Broken Hearts EPDSS, Soft Side and the Small Fantasy theme, from Small Fantasy's self-titled EPSpace Girl, Difficult and Formula One from Biro's Ready to go steady cassetteEasy Come, Easy Go from a Biro live set on ZZZSkippy Theme, from Skippy's Dare to Dream CD

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