Part 1 - Perth
Part 2 - Sydney
Part 3 - Melbourne 1992-1995
Part 4 - Melbourne 1995-2002
Part 5 - Melbourne 2002-2010
The band toured nationally thru 1995, and ended the year with a very successful, if somewhat irreverent, tribute to Elvis Presley on New Year's Eve. This was to be the beginning of a tradition for the Susans, as each subsequent year they have returned to The Corner Hotel in Melbourne to play the best and the worst of the King's back catalogue. Sadly in '98 the King was put to rest.
A national tour with Paul Kelly followed in the Summer of '96, with current drummer Mark Dawson joining the Blackeyed Susans after many years involvment with both Ed Kuepper and The Jackson Code.
The band also had cause for celebration when news confirming their signing to American Recordings came through, with Mouth to Mouth slated for a May release in America and Canada. The band travelled to New York to play with the man in black himself, Johnny Cash, at CMJ in September '96, before touring in the U.S. and Canada. Oddly enough they had already written and were performing the song Smokin' Johnny Cash before any of this occurred. Phil Kakulas has said that Cash thanked him for the song after the show.
The relationship with American however would prove to be short lived. The label "released" the Susans from their contract, along with most of their other international acts, in the great slashback of '97.
In December '96 Some Night, Somewhere was released in Australia as a Xmas bonus disc with Mouth To Mouth. Recorded live at the Continental in Melbourne this limited edition cd has long since been deleted and as such is much sought after by those eager to hear the Susans live in their living room.
Summer '97 saw the band back in the studio to record the Spin the Bottle album, released in July. Produced with the very dapper Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave and the Bad seeds, Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, Luna) the record featured 10 new original songs and a cover of Billie Holliday's You're My Thrill. It spawned three singles - Smokin' Johnny Cash, Spin the Wheel and Blue Skes, Blue Sea and proved to be their most successful release to date. A busy touring schedule saw the Blackeyed Susans occupied for almost a year, concluding in March '98 with a national tour with The Whitlams. The album also recieved a nomination in the ARIA awards for the year.
Also of note during this period was the release of the Wminc Productions' compilation album Where Joy Kills Sorrow, which featured Phil Kakulas and Mark Dawson playing on several tracks, as well as Rob Snarki collaborating with Matt Walker on If You Don't Want My Love.
Likewise, keyboardist Kiernan Box released the very wonderful Wet Your Beak album by his band The Disappointments, featuring Mark C. Halstead on vocals.
After some much needed respite the Blackeyed Susans reconvened in August to record the La Mascara EP, released Nov. '98. It featured 5 new tracks including Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Oh No and To Skin A Man . Both received much airplay on yer J's and other like-minded stations. A video for Skin was commissioned. Produced and directed by Adam Kyle and Holly Shorland, it's provocative images of flesh and blood were too much for the ABC who chose to screen it only in black and white. A tour ensued through the summer and well into 1999.
In February came the sad news that Blackeyed Susans co-founder David McComb had died at his Northcote home. Dave, of course, had been the singer and songwriter for The Triffids since forming the band at high school with Alsy McDonald and Phil Kakulas in the late seventies. In the nineties he had suffered much ill health, culminating in a heart transplant in 1995. He is truly missed. Some words about Dave, including much biographical information written by members of The Susans, can be found here.
From May to July '99, The Susans worked on 13 songs on a four-track in the living room of Rob's flat, living only on a diet of corn chips and tea. News first filtered through in August of a new album, Shangri-La, to be recorded and released in the new year. 'Less rock, more roll' they said at the time 'with an op-shop kind of feel. Whatever that meant.
But it was not to be. In May 2000 The Blackeyed Susans parted ways with their record company Mds after it was bought by Festival. The Shangri-La album was put on hold. 'We hope to record it by the end of the world, um the year' said the band as they hurried down to the market place to hock their wares. By December 2000 the Shangri-La album had become as elusive as the lost paradise of it's namesake.
2001 saw The Blackeyed Susans back with a new album, Dedicated To The Ones We Love, released on their own label, Teardrop, and distributed through Shock. The record paid tribute to the influences and aspirations of the band - twisting Hollywood Elvis and epic Sinatra into Big Star and The Velvet Underground. Well received by the public and lauded by the critics, a national tour followed keeping the band busy until the end of the year.
Early 2002 saw band members busy themselves with solo and side projects, most notably the recording of an album from Rob Snarski and Dan Luscombe entitled, There Is Nothing Here That Belongs To You, released later in the year on the Quietly Suburban label to much praise and national tours with Marianne Faithfull and Paul Kelly.