Plunderers: The Last Show

In 1995, after a break of three years the Plunderers reconvened to launch Silver Apples, the cd compilation of their Captain Denim and Hippy Dribble releases (which also included six unreleased songs). During rehearsals it seemed silly not to play any Plunderers songs, since the upcoming show was going to be our first in quite some time, so a ‘greatest hits’ set list was put together.

Before the show, an ex-bass player from another band on the Half A Cow label sold us some cocaine to help celebrate the occasion. What a mistake that was! What this fool had done though, was cut the coke with some sort of industrial powder, which instantly made our throats puff up and Stevie and I weren’t sure if we were going to be able to sing, let alone breath properly!

I know my memory of the night wasn’t that good, thinking we hadn’t been able to sing properly. Stevie’s guitar cut out a couple of times, the most crucial one was when he was just about to do his solo in “End Of Your World”. So the tapes were shelved and forgotten about. Since we were all busy with our other bands, the next plan was to finally record the Plunderers ‘debut’ album some time down the track. This was never to be. This live show was the last thing we ever did.

Listening back to it now, I’m thinking it’s not that bad. You can’t tell our throats had seized up and we were sounding like we’d never had a break at all. Geoff’s on fire the whole set, driving Stevie and I along, and Bernie (at the mixing desk) is riding our ‘hippy dribble’ cassette in the psychedelic songs. There was a good crowd too, 180 payers on a Thursday night at the Annandale. The Plundees were back!

It’s funny to think that the last song we ever played went like this: It’s decided we’d play Prince’s “Kiss” and you can clearly hear us launch into the song but then I start singing the first verse of “Groove Is In The Heart” so into that one we go. At the end we include snatches of the Waitresses’ “I Know What Boys Like” and another song that Stevie sings which I can’t work out what it is.

Maybe it was a fitting way to go out. Singing pop hits over A to D.

Stevie Plunder: guitar and vocals / Nic Dalton: bass and vocals / Geoff Milne: drums

Recorded at the Annandale Hotel, Annandale NSW by Michael Levis and the Troy Horse Mobile Float on Thursday 23rd March 1995. Live sound by Bernie Hayes. Support bands were Whopping Big Naughty and Small Hand Gun. Mastered by Nic at the Nook 2019.