Drink To The Memories

Melbourne folk-rockers Things Of Stone & Wood burst onto the Australian scene in 1992 with their excellent debut long-player The Yearning, and in particular its memorable second single Happy Birthday Helen. While far from the band's only musical highlight – The Yearning's first single Share This Wine scored them an ARIA in 1993 for Best New Talent – it's Happy Birthday Helen which is bound to have lighters in the air when the original line-up reforms this month for their first shows in years.
“Not since 1997 have we actually done a gig,” smiles frontman/songwriter Greg Arnold, “but it's actually amazing, there's just a chemistry with those four people that's really exciting to be a part of. It's one of those weird things with bands that you can't really explain – if you just ask a band to play a G-chord and it sounds good in that combination, it's just one of those bands and it fires up.”
Arnold reflects happily on that initial burst of fervour. “It was a weird time for us; we were a sort of 'corner of a pub' band really for those first few years from 1989 to 1992, and I remember when Share This Wine came out and got a lot of radio play around the whole country and that really surprised us that anyone would play us without having seen us live. Then Happy Birthday Helen came out and just hit this bigger nerve out there and that really did change everything for the band.
“I actually lecture in songwriting nowadays, and I suppose in a good way I have to look at my experiences with that song, because it honestly is a two-person memory catalogue – only two people know what that's all about really – but when I'm speaking to songwriters I say, 'I think people like to hear sincerity and the truth.' It had a bit of a vibe and was very much of its time, in a nice way. It's just a beautiful thing to have in your life really.”
While that initial success proved difficult to replicate, Arnold harbours no regrets.
“By the late '90s my musical interests were changing pretty radically, and you start going off in a different direction and sometimes the band just doesn't take those journeys all together. I suppose for us it's really lovely for us to have something in the catalogue that stands out as a perfect moment where everything collided – the live band, the songs, the response to the band, the recording production and everything – it just seemed to all really happen on that first album and those early EPs. There was pressure to follow it up, but I suppose we were just stuck in that funny place of not wanting to do the same thing again.”