X-Aspirations Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ian Rilen

Born in Victoria, Rilen was a feature of a number of bands that were prominent during the 1970s. These included Band of Light, the Blue Aliens and Blackfeather. In 1976 he joined the newly formed Rose Tattoo as their bass guitarist. The band soon developed a devoted following for their hard rocking sound. Rilen would write the song "Bad Boy for Love" for the band, which would become Rose Tattoo's debut single and their biggest selling song.

However, Rilen left to form X, just prior to the song's release... as hard rocking as Rose Tattoo were, he wanted to go harder.

Answer: The death of guitarist Ian Krahe

The four members who were to form the band were Steve Lucas, their lead vocalist and guitarist, Ian Rilen on bass, Steve Cafiero was stationed on drums and Krahe on guitar. Krahe, who was a schoolyard friend of Steve Lucas, had a reputation for playing the guitar without a pick and would often finish a gig with bleeding fingers. Sadly, as brief as it was, this would be the only band he'd ever figure in.

After a show at the Bondi Life Saving Club in June of 1977, Krahe succumbed to an overdose of heroin.

Answer: 1

Frontman Steve Lucas was the only member of the original line-up that was still alive. Guitarist Ian Krahe overdosed on heroin in 1977, went to sleep and never woke up again, drummer Steve Cafiero reacted to dye injected into his body for an x-ray and passed away in 1980 and Ian Rilen succumbed to bladder cancer in 2006. He was fifty nine at the time.

Answer: 5 hours

"X-Aspirations", released in 1980, has been labelled as a "crucial" album in the development of the Australian rock music landscape, so much so that it was included as one of "The 100 Best Australian Albums", a 2010 publication by journalists John O'Donnell, Toby Creswell and Craig Mathieson.

As to the legend regarding how long it took to record, well, that's a little hazy. Did they record it in four hours or was it five? Regardless, what does remain is that they walked into Sydney's Trafalgar Studio on a Saturday afternoon and walked out later that same afternoon with an almost complete product. Each song was recorded in a single take and the only post-production was a little bit of chorus added to "I Don't Wanna Go Out".

Answer: Lobby Loyde

Once described as a "sonic anarchist", Loyde has been a significant influence on an array of Australian musicians, including teaching the late Billy Thorpe how to play guitar. International acts such as Kurt Cobain and Henry Rollins have also come forward and cited Loyde as an influence in their development. Loyde adopted a significantly laid back approach when it came to producing the "X-Aspirations" (1980) album, loosening the reins on the band and allowing them to be themselves.

It proved to be a master stroke. Steve Lucas would recall in his liner notes for the 2009 re-issue of the album "Loyde just said "set it up, get the sound, and record"... and he was right".

Answer: True

This remains the remarkable enigma that was X. Their albums failed to chart. Likewise, neither did any of their singles make any impression on the charts, yet they constantly played to packed out houses and clubs and their debut album has often been cited as an important piece of Australian rock history.

When they went into the studio to record, they had gone in with the intent of creating a hit single. In the 2017 I-Bar 94 article "Forty Years of X-treme Doings", Steve Lucas made the comment "It was all so new to me, I thought: 'What are we going to do?' We decided to throw everything down and pick the best song for the single".

At the recording session Charles Fisher, later to be Savage Garden's producer, observed "There isn't a single here boys. Why don't you come back when you've got one"? Steve Lucas' response was "(expletive deleted) he's right.

This is an album". Steve added, "We just walked into the studio, played and that was that. "I Don't Wanna Go Out" was the eventual single. We released that (after the album) with "Waiting", but there was no real plan. How were we going to get a single in the Top 40 anyway?"

Answer: False

In an interview with Brian Griffin (Loudmag) in 2017, Lucas described their working relationship as "problematic, at best". When the relationship was good, he added that it was "very, very good" but a lot of the times "we needed to be as far apart as possible". Rather than this being a negative, Lucas described it as a necessary thing. "It meant that there was passion here, and your creative best stems from passion". Being far apart seemed to be a regularity with the band with the members breaking up and reuniting constantly.

Despite constant line-up changes, the band survived for more than forty years, though there were times when it appeared to be doomed. For example, the members went their separate ways not long after the release of their first album in 1980 and would not re-unite until 1983.

Answer: Mother

Recorded in 1970, the song appeared on the "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" album and was released as a single in the same year. Alf Lennon, John's father, left his family while John was still an infant and his mother did not live with John. Despite this, John and his mother managed to maintain a good relationship, right up until she was hit and killed by motor vehicle.

X released a cover of the track as a single in 1984. It was the first release by the band since their debut "X-Aspirations" in 1980. During the period in between, the band members had gone their separate ways. Ian Rilen had formed Sardine V, while Scott Lucas busied himself playing in bands such as Harold Holt and the Sharks and The Feel. Surprisingly the single did not appear on their follow up album "At Home With You" (1985) though the b-side, "Halfway 'Round the World", did.

Answer: Revolution

Whilst I am not usually a fan of lyrics based questions, this one seemed appropriate as it best summed up the band's attitude and approach to their craft. Whilst they were labelled punk, and their sound was raw and, to a large degree, primal, they saw themselves as a pure rock and roll band.

They showed disdain for convention, they ignored counter-culture trends and were not concerned with what was mainstream. Their creed was to create music, the way they wanted to make it. In his liner notes to the 2009 re-release of "X-Aspirations" Lucas wrote "if ever our heads did get up in the clouds, our feet were still firmly nailed to the gutter".

Answer: INXS

In his 2017 interview with Loudmag, Lucas explained that their promotional gimmick was the painting of large red Xs around Sydney. It became a trademark and one of the most recognisable symbols in the city. In the late 1970s and early 1980s INXS toured with X and they (INXS) were given the coveted "middle" spot at gigs. This meant that they played prior to the headlining X and would almost be guaranteed a full house. This worked well until Michael Hutchence started toying with his band's logo, changing the all upper case INXS to lower case letters but leaving the X in capitals. "I nearly took Michael Hutchence's head off over that" continued Lucas. "It would have been a huge stoush if Ian hadn't dragged me off".

Interestingly INXS, who have maintained their logo/band name in capital letters, released their seventh studio album in 1990. It was titled "X" and the cover of the album had the bands name in black lettering, except for the X, which was a brilliant red colour.