The Welcome Mat
Encyclopedia
The Welcome Mat was a four-piece Australian indie rock
group which formed in Sydney
in 1989, and broke up in January, 1997. Throughout the early-to-mid-1990s, their songs "Last of the Great Letdowns", "Cake", "Landspeed", "10,000 People", "Hell Hoping", "Play Me" and "Hey! Illusion" topped the Australian alternative charts, with the videos receiving play on Rage and MTV Australia
. The first band ever to play Australia’s Big Day Out
festival, The Welcome Mat toured extensively around Australia with the likes of the Hoodoo Gurus
, Died Pretty
, Buffalo Tom
, The Lemonheads
, The Wonder Stuff
, You Am I
, Smudge
and Bob Dylan
.
in the late 1980s. Drummer Peter Bennett and bassist David Moss worked with Connolly at Fairlight
digital audio company, and were asked to help work on songs demoed on a Tascam four-track recorder. The guitar-based songs were heavily influenced by New Zealand's Flying Nun Records
label, as well as US Indie rock
performers R.E.M.
, Husker Dü
, the Replacements, Dinosaur Jr
, The Lemonheads
, Buffalo Tom
, and UK bands The Smiths
, The Stone Roses
and The Wonderstuff.
Inspired by the unexpected commercial success of their friends The Hummingbirds
, Connolly and Messenger approached local promoter Steve Pavlovic
, who booked the band's live debut, a mid-week gig at the Landsdowne Hotel in inner-city Chippendale in January 1990. The name The Welcome Mat was chosen at the last minute by Connolly, in the belief that it was reminiscent of the name of another musical influence, The Wedding Present
.
In 1990 Waterfront Records
founder Chris Dunn agreed to distribute a vinyl 7-inch single, "Last of the Great Letdowns", recorded at Sunshine 16-track recording studios in Surrey Hills in May 1990. The record appeared on the band's own Plenny O'Hooks label in late 1990. It garnered a small amount of airplay on local community radio stations such as Sydney's 2SER
, Melbourne's 3RRR
and 3PBS, and Brisbane's 4ZzZ
, allowing the band to tour the East Coast of Australia.
In 1991 The Welcome Mat released their second single, "Cake", and the E.P. Fairydust (a reference to the "Troggs Tapes"), which featured "10,000 People". Both "Cake" and "10,000 People" received airplay on the newly-national triple j
radio network, boosting the band's audience significantly. Around that time, Moss left the group and was replaced by ex-Benedicts member Leo Mullens, adding another songwriter to the line-up.
After appearing as the opening act at the first Big Day Out
, the band was signed to Martin Fabinyi
's Regular Records in 1992. They released the E.P. Spare and recording their debut album, Gram, at Paradise Studios in Darlinghurst, Sydney, with US production team Sean Slade
and Paul Q. Kolderie
(Dinosaur Jr., Hole
, Radiohead
, Warren Zevon
, Sebadoh
). National tours with Hunters and Collectors and Buffalo Tom
followed in late 1992.
Although most of their previous singles and E.P.s had topped the ARIA
Australian alternative charts, Gram and its singles "Hell Hoping" and "Play Me" failed to achieve mainstream commercial success. The band left Regular Records in 1994, releasing a single, "All or Nothing More," and the self-funded Headset E.P. on Melbourne independent label Summershine. Signing to id/Mercury in 1996, they released a second album, Lap of Honour, produced by Brad Shepherd of the Hoodoo Gurus
.
After Lap of Honour and its singles "Hey! Illusion" and "Can't Wait to Remind You" failed to chart, and following many months of record company difficulties, management problems and band in-fighting, The Welcome Mat played their final show at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney in 1997. Connolly has since played with Knievel, Mullens with 2 Litre Dolby and The Small Knives
, and Messenger with Auto Circus Cop.
EPs
Singles
Australian indie rock
Australian indie rock is part of the overall flow of Australian rock history but has a distinct history somewhat separate from mainstream rock in Australia, largely from the end of the punk rock era onwards.-Beginnings:...
group which formed in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1989, and broke up in January, 1997. Throughout the early-to-mid-1990s, their songs "Last of the Great Letdowns", "Cake", "Landspeed", "10,000 People", "Hell Hoping", "Play Me" and "Hey! Illusion" topped the Australian alternative charts, with the videos receiving play on Rage and MTV Australia
MTV Australia
MTV Australia is 24 hour general entertainment channel specialising in music and youth culture programming which serves Australia and New Zealand. It is operated by Viacom International Media Networks Australia owned by Viacom and primarily features imported shows as well as locally produced...
. The first band ever to play Australia’s Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
festival, The Welcome Mat toured extensively around Australia with the likes of the Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band, formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner and later joined by Richard Grossman , Mark Kingsmill , and Brad Shepherd...
, Died Pretty
Died Pretty
Died Pretty, sometimes The Died Pretty, were an Australian alternative rock band founded by mainstays, Ron Peno as lead singer and Brett Myers as lead guitarist and backing vocalist, in Sydney in 1983 – briefly as Final Solution. Their music started from a base of early electric Bob Dylan with...
, Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom is an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Springfield and the first name of the drummer.-Career:Dinosaur Jr...
, The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band first formed in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member....
, The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff are a British alternative rock band, originally based in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in the Black Country, England.-Origins:...
, You Am I
You Am I
You Am I are an Australian alternative rock band, fronted by vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Tim Rogers. They were the first Australian band to have three albums successively debut at #1 on the ARIA Charts, and are renowned for their live performances.-History:Tim Rogers formed the first...
, Smudge
Smudge
Smudge is an Australian rock band. Its frontman Tom Morgan is better known outside Australia as a songwriting collaborator of Evan Dando and his band The Lemonheads.-History:...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
.
Biography
The Welcome Mat was formed in Sydney, Australia in 1989 by songwriters Wayne Connolly and Cory Messenger, who had played together in John Kennedy's Love Gone WrongJohn Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong
John Kennedy is an Australian musician, a singer-songwriter with a penchant for strong melodies and "heart on your sleeve" pop songs often with country and western influences.-Early life:...
in the late 1980s. Drummer Peter Bennett and bassist David Moss worked with Connolly at Fairlight
Fairlight
Fairlight is a digital audio company based in Sydney, Australia. In 1979 they created the Fairlight CMI, the first digital audio sampler, quickly used by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Jean Michel Jarre. They are now a manufacturer of media solutions tools such as digital audio...
digital audio company, and were asked to help work on songs demoed on a Tascam four-track recorder. The guitar-based songs were heavily influenced by New Zealand's Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records is an independent record label formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 by music-store proprietor Roger Shepherd.-History:The label was formed in the flurry of new punk rock-inspired labels forming in the early 1980s...
label, as well as US Indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
performers R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, Husker Dü
Husker Du
Husker Du means "Do you remember" in Danish and Norwegian, and may refer to:*Hüsker Dü, American punk band*Hūsker Dū?, a Danish board game*Husker Du, a Danish documentary series about the 1970s...
, the Replacements, Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr. is an American alternative rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984. Originally called Dinosaur, prior to legal issues that forced the group to change their name, the band disbanded in 1997 until reuniting in 2005...
, The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band first formed in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member....
, Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom is an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Springfield and the first name of the drummer.-Career:Dinosaur Jr...
, and UK bands The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
, The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
and The Wonderstuff.
Inspired by the unexpected commercial success of their friends The Hummingbirds
The Hummingbirds
The Hummingbirds were an indie pop or jangle pop band from Sydney, Australia formed in 1986 from Bug Eyed Monsters. They were one of the most highly touted outfits to emerge from Sydney's inner-city scene during the late 1980s and were an early signing to the rooArt label. The Hummingbirds' single...
, Connolly and Messenger approached local promoter Steve Pavlovic
Steve Pavlovic
Steve Pavlovic is an Australian music promoter who founded and runs the successful international record label Modular Recordings. Widely known as "Pav", some of his pre-Modular history was documented in The Sell-in, a book about the Australian independent music industry...
, who booked the band's live debut, a mid-week gig at the Landsdowne Hotel in inner-city Chippendale in January 1990. The name The Welcome Mat was chosen at the last minute by Connolly, in the belief that it was reminiscent of the name of another musical influence, The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present are a British indie rock group based in Leeds, England, formed in 1985 from the ashes of the Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four to more varied forms...
.
In 1990 Waterfront Records
Waterfront Records
Waterfront Records was an independent record label based in Sydney, that released recordings by some of Australia's most influential bands of the 1980s and 1990s.-History:...
founder Chris Dunn agreed to distribute a vinyl 7-inch single, "Last of the Great Letdowns", recorded at Sunshine 16-track recording studios in Surrey Hills in May 1990. The record appeared on the band's own Plenny O'Hooks label in late 1990. It garnered a small amount of airplay on local community radio stations such as Sydney's 2SER
2SER
2SER is a community radio station in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, broadcasting on the frequency 107.3 FM and is a member of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. The station operates as a company limited by guarantee and is jointly owned by Macquarie University and the...
, Melbourne's 3RRR
3RRR
3RRR is a popular Australian community radio station, based in Melbourne. It is the largest per capita subscribed radio station in the world....
and 3PBS, and Brisbane's 4ZzZ
4ZZZ
4ZZZ is an independent community radio station operating in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, at the frequency 102.1 FM. As a community radio station, 4ZZZ is a member of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia...
, allowing the band to tour the East Coast of Australia.
In 1991 The Welcome Mat released their second single, "Cake", and the E.P. Fairydust (a reference to the "Troggs Tapes"), which featured "10,000 People". Both "Cake" and "10,000 People" received airplay on the newly-national triple j
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
radio network, boosting the band's audience significantly. Around that time, Moss left the group and was replaced by ex-Benedicts member Leo Mullens, adding another songwriter to the line-up.
After appearing as the opening act at the first Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
, the band was signed to Martin Fabinyi
Martin Fabinyi
Martin Fabinyi is an Australian film and television producer and director, songwriter and screenwriter and has written books on the local rock music scene. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Mushroom Pictures from its formation in 1995 to 2009. His film projects include the features Chopper ,...
's Regular Records in 1992. They released the E.P. Spare and recording their debut album, Gram, at Paradise Studios in Darlinghurst, Sydney, with US production team Sean Slade
Sean Slade
Sean Slade is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with artists including Hole, Radiohead, Warren Zevon, Juliana Hatfield, Dinosaur Jr., Uncle Tupelo, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Boo Radleys, Sebadoh, Lush, the Go-Go's, and The Dictators among others. In 2005 he produced The...
and Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Abandoned Pools, and The Go-Go's...
(Dinosaur Jr., Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
, Sebadoh
Sebadoh
Sebadoh is an American indie rock band, formed in 1986 in Westfield, Massachusetts by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr bass player Lou Barlow. Along with such bands as Pavement and Guided by Voices, Sebadoh helped pioneer lo-fi music, a style of indie rock characterized by low-fidelity recording...
). National tours with Hunters and Collectors and Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom is an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Springfield and the first name of the drummer.-Career:Dinosaur Jr...
followed in late 1992.
Although most of their previous singles and E.P.s had topped the ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
Australian alternative charts, Gram and its singles "Hell Hoping" and "Play Me" failed to achieve mainstream commercial success. The band left Regular Records in 1994, releasing a single, "All or Nothing More," and the self-funded Headset E.P. on Melbourne independent label Summershine. Signing to id/Mercury in 1996, they released a second album, Lap of Honour, produced by Brad Shepherd of the Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band, formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner and later joined by Richard Grossman , Mark Kingsmill , and Brad Shepherd...
.
After Lap of Honour and its singles "Hey! Illusion" and "Can't Wait to Remind You" failed to chart, and following many months of record company difficulties, management problems and band in-fighting, The Welcome Mat played their final show at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney in 1997. Connolly has since played with Knievel, Mullens with 2 Litre Dolby and The Small Knives
The Small Knives
The Small Knives are an acoustic duo from Melbourne, Australia.-History:The Small Knives are an acoustic duo composed of Leo Mullins and Philip Romeril, both formerly of the group 2 Litre Dolby. After relocating from Sydney to Melbourne , 2 Litre Dolby gained a strong following through their three...
, and Messenger with Auto Circus Cop.
Discography
LPs- Gram (Regular/Festival, 1993)
- Lap Of Honour (id/Mercury, 1996)
EPs
- Fairydust (Plenny O'Hooks, 1991)
- Spare (Regular/Festival, 1992)
- Headset (Summershine, 1994)
Singles
- "Last of the Great Letdowns" (Plenny O'Hooks/Waterfront, 1990)
- "Cake"/"Coming to the Worst" (Plenny O'Hooks/MDS, 1991)
- "Hell Hoping" (Regular/Festival, 1993)
- "Play Me" (Regular/Festival, 1993)
- "All or Nothing More" (Summershine, 1994)
- "Hey! Illusion" (id/Mercury, 1996)
- "Can't Wait to Remind You" (id/Mercury, 1996)