Mark The Spot

In the '70s, the Australian music scene – and arguably a lot of the movements overseas – was influenced by Aussie punk bands like The Scientists and The Saints. X found itself in that cadre, and while they may not be held in as high esteem as others, the effect of the band formed by Ian Rilen, Steve Lucas, Ian Krahe and Steve Cafiero is still undeniable. Lucas is the only surviving member, a fact that led him to retire the name in 2010. The band's now called the X-Aspirators, in honour of the band's seminal 1979 album, X-Aspirations, but Lucas' punk charm still keeps the band going.

“I'm just mucking around with a bunch of friends at the moment,” Lucas says. “I've got a new album coming out soon, and I thought I'd better find someone to help me when I release it and eventually play it live. But the X stuff... yeah, we'll work all that out during soundcheck. I've been playing the music for 40 years now, it's not like I have to do much preparation. Three months after I'm dead, I'll still probably be able to get up on stage and play that stuff.”

These words exhibit just a small part of Lucas' passion in keeping the music of X going. In fact, he mentions that he's feeling more energised about it now, thanks to the current state of politics in the country.

“It's like the world's spun on its axis and gone back to 1977,” Lucas says. “We had Malcolm Fraser. Everyone was disillusioned after Whitlam had been sacked. Now we've got the Abbott government instead, bringing back dames and knights and just generally making everything seem like it's the '70s again. It's strange how we're back in that political mindset where social conscience is rapidly becoming a thing of the past and corporate privacy is rapidly becoming the dominant factor.

“When people start making statements like, 'The homeless are homeless because they choose to be' and, 'It's okay to be bigoted' and they start selling Qantas and Medicare... Back in those days, they were just trying to get rid of Medicare full stop. It's weird to see it all happen again, because we were supposed to be over this. But it's like we're saying, 'Okay, we've done all these great things over the last 20, 30 years, let's go back to the past and live like we did when apartheid was a thing.'”

Lucas is obviously animated on the subject of social justice, and it's meant that he's become something of a philanthropist. He recently put together a Child Wise benefit gig, aimed at providing aid and protection for young victims of assault and abuse. “All this stuff – getting people out of the house, off the computers and back into pubs, it's important,” he reckons. “I want people to go out again and be active. It's important to me.”