Hard-OnsBack in May this year, just as Hard-Ons were preparing to launch the expanded reissues of two of their earliest albums – their 1986 debut Smell My Finger and 1988's Dickcheese – guitarist Peter “Blackie” Black, in his other guise as a cabbie, was assaulted after refusing to accept what he felt was a dubious fare. He was later found on the ground beside his cab in Crows Nest with injuries to his head and face.
“It's going good now,” an obviously relieved, but still a little disoriented, Blackie admits. “It was unbelievable how long it took, and is taking – I'm still not 100% – but the amount of dizziness now is really minimal. I did have a relapse a few weeks back, but I think it was a combination of the flight home – flying is going to be pretty tough for your noggin – and also I got a flu, which causing swelling of the inner ear and stuff, and unfortunately gives you a relapse. But for the most part, I'm keeping fit and able to play shows.”
The flying home part of that conversation refers to tours of Japan and Europe Hard-Ons have undertaken since Blackie got out of hospital. “The fact that people still want to hear us in these other parts of the world is just sensational,” he says. “In Japan, it was a pretty extensive tour, even some pretty remote cities like Miyazake, which is on one of the bottom islands [Kyushu]. It was massively tropical and fantastic people… fuck, well wild actually. [It was] so cool. Sometimes an added bonus to a band is just the joy of going someplace you've never been to before, and that was one of them. And I just love the Japanese people; they're just so into their rock'n'roll.
“And, you know, Europe is never not awesome,” Blackie adds. “It's so familiar to us now, it's killer, and you have certain cities where you know all your mates are gonna show up; it's unreal. We did Germany, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium… basically the more western part of Europe. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, we didn't get to do the UK or Scandinavia or some of the central European places that I particularly love like Yugoslavia and stuff, but maybe next time. Ray [Ahn, bass player and other founding member] is expecting a child, so it's gonna be a little harder to just take off whenever we feel like.”
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The Japanese and European trips were also on the back of the reissues of those early albums, and five reissue releases are planned all-up. “It was a long time coming,” is Blackie's feeling about those reissues. “Me and Ray have this saying about the Hard-Ons, and it's VFM, which is fuckin' 'Value For Money', and we didn't think it was cool that our stuff was unavailable and went for quite a bit of bucks. So we've tried to do something about it for a while, but didn't have the money. Luckily, Citadel put up its hand and helped us put it out. So it's good; all those albums that haven't been available in ages can now be officially out, and be deluxe versions as well, so people don't have to go on eBay and shit. The response has been really good, really positive. But I'm always working on what's next, so you know, I'm Mister What Comes Next, not Mister What Happened Before.”
To that end, as Peter Black, he's just released his second solo album, the acoustic singer-songwriterly No Dangerous Gods In Tunnel, and has already started work on the next Hard-Ons album.
The Hard Ons will be playing the following shows:
Friday 30 November - Sandringham Hotel, Newtown NSW
Friday 14 December, Northcote Social Club
