JJ Speedball: The Banned.

JJ Speedball & The Horny Italians launch Banned In Brisbane at the Redcliffe Hotel on Wednesday, the Gabba Hotel on Friday and the Palm Beach Hotel on Sunday.

“I managed to get banned in Brisbane for a while,” JJ Speedball quips. Hence the name of the man’s new retrospective disc Banned In Brisbane.

“It’s a different time these days. I don’t think it would happen again,” he explains. “We did a live to air on Triple Zed back in 1992. Our guitarist at the time dedicated a song to ‘black tits’ as a joke and we were sexist and racist just like that.”

“It’s more the myth kind of thing. The word was out,” he laughs. “Don’t book Speedball. It wasn’t all roses and big bar riders. I found out later that a lot of other people have been banned too, so it made me feel a bit better. It’s not that hard.”

“We were just playing rock and roll. That was the thing that really dumbfounded me. We were playing three chord rock and just offending everyone. It was really interesting for an insight on how nazi the indie scene can be. It was only years later I learned not to give a fuck, because I just wanted to rock. Just do what you do with a smile and don’t care. People need a sense of humour; we just give it a massage once in a while… That’s it, you either get it or you don’t.”

Filling a disc with forty tracks of classic material is no mean feat.

“It’s made up of basically tracks from between 1989 and present. Some of the were just demos, some were releases. Back in the day you couldn’t get CDs bands would make demo tapes and sell them eight bucks,” he laughs. “It was crazy. So it’s basically all the mastered onto one disc. It’s a mixed bag. Some interviews, studio tracks, some live ones. The whole roller coaster ride of everything I’ve played in for the last ten years or so from the JJ Speedball stuff, Scrumfeeder and it’s offshoots and a bit of stuff from a band I was in with a couple of guys from Sloppy Seconds in the US. It’s cool for those who were there that want a CD, or those who want to find out what was going on. It’s not to conquer anything, it’s there for those who want it.”

Putting the project together was a surprisingly easy task considering the amount, and recorded quality of the material.

“I had the tapes all collected, and I’ve been meaning to do this for the past four or five years. This year I wasn’t touring or playing, so it was too easy. I remastered it last year. It’s funny to see just how much the quality of production has increased. A lot of the demos didn’t get paid for, you know. There’s a real early nineties Brisbane recording sound,” he laughs. “Got that nice tinny reverb. A lot of Brisbane bands sound like that. We need to do an Brisbane band sound CD for the early nineties. It’s all good.”

This weekend’s shows should herald a return to the days of cherry rock. Satan suits, police uniforms, footy gear, mirror sunglasses…

“It’s just a really good party. It’s just a good time. Once a year you go out and play. It’s more for kicks. They were really nice times. It’s just catching up on what we’ve done.”