The Missing Links
Driving You Insane

LONDON - "The criminal records of tens of thousands of prisoners who were sent from Great Britain to serve their sentences in Australia starting from the late eighteenth century are accessible on the internet, through www.ancestry.co.uk, a site commonly used by UK residents to trace their genealogy. It is believed that two million Britons and 22% of Australians could find, in their family tree, at least one ancestor who had to serve a sentence in the land of kangaroos." (from La Repubblica, July 25, 2007).

 Surely among the list are the ancestors of the Missing Links, one of the first and roughest beat rock formations in the entire Australian continent. The original line up was born in Sydney in 1964 and debuted with the single "We Two Should Live / Untrue". It was a good success, but the tapes ready for the album disappeared, and the four founders decided to focus on other matters. We have to thank roadie Chris Gray for the survival of a myth, keeping the name for a second line up that loves the Stones, the Animals, and especially the Pretty Things.

 And everything changes, because the group represents the missing link between the "I want to be dirtier but hold back" of English beat and the "I indulge shamelessly" of garage rock. Even before our own Iggy Pop, it was young singer Andy James who transformed into a wild stage animal. Perhaps his New Zealand origin made things easier for the youngster, but he was really shocked when he saw the length of the other members' hair. "You're Driving me Insane" and "Wild about you" (covered by the Saints, who paid this blood debt in their 1977 punk debut) are two garage shards that the rough long-haired execute by smashing their instruments on stage as they had seen their distant English "relatives" do, while Andy's concluding scream is impressive: "yessss you're so wiiiiilld!!!".

 The evocative "Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut" is the successful attempt to make psychedelic Bo Diddley's song, also redone by the "masters" Pretty Things. The hypnotic rhythm and guitar feedback make it really a wild piece for the time, with Andy’s bestial screams that in concerts was able to dilate the track for forty minutes of contortions on stage.  More references to the distant homeland of their ancestors with the version of "Bald Headed Woman" by Shel Talmy, a great producer of bands like Kinks and Who (who also had this song in their repertoire) while an angry cover of Dylan’s "On the road again" completes the first eponymous album along with driving original tracks like the aggressive garage blues of "Hobo Man".

 This CD reissue also includes the EP "Links Unchained" with a great incendiary version of "I'll go Crazy" by James Brown and a wonderful "Don't give me no presion" that suddenly transforms into a maelstrom of noise feedback. 

  Additionally, it contains the only single from the first line up and some unreleased studio tracks from the same lineup, originally lost. They testify to the tendency to embrace British beat ("All I want" is pure Animals) which would later be violently transformed by the second garage incarnation of the Missing Links.

 They lasted just a couple of years before they disbanded, with the talented guitarist Doug Ford continuing with the equally valid "cousins" Master's Apprentice, the rhythm section refounding the Showmen, and keyboardist Chris Gray getting lost in stories of drugs.

 And the wild frontman Andy James? With his real name Andy Anderson, he became a famous actor starring in several Australian TV series. Incredible to see him singing as an aged crooner for a crowd of enthusiastic older ladies!

Undoubtedly with his motherfucker!!!.... even today, the contemporary Iggy is something else.