But Little Murders disappeared from view after a few singles and a retrospective lp called Stop! that came out in 1986, while Nick Cave has been on rock magazine covers around the world.  Our job here isn’t to try to understand why Cave was such a success, but to present the case that maybe Little Murders should have been, too.

In a way, Griffiths was the ideal man to front a band that would lead Melbourne’s mod scene. After all, what better credibility for a band than to be fronted by a singer from Great Britain? "I was born in Coventry and we moved to Blackpool when I was two mainly to get away from my Dad who was a prat", says Griffiths.  "Mum met another guy who was even worse who moved the family to Australia to get away from the larger Griffiths family so he could work on his bullying.  It took us 3 years to get away from him. Melbourne was just the place we were in at the time. Mum never went near any other men, thank God!"

"The first record I ever owned was a Monkees single. I remember as a kid arguing that the Monkees were miles better than the Beatles. Later I became a John Lennon fanatic. This somehow led to T-Rex and David Bowie. This caused me many hard times at my school where everyone was into progressive music. Roxy Music live made me want to get on stage but it was The Kinks that made me want to write music. The Kinks led to all things sixties and after that there was no looking back. Well, actually there was a lot of looking back."

"When I first started playing I couldn't play other peoples songs well so I had to write my own. First I wrote songs and got a couple of friends to sing them. For one gig we were Feathers and then we changed the name to Subway. I was still following the scene and reading New Musical Express from England religiously but music had let me down. I put all my chips on Bowie and he was releasing Young Americans. I found myself digging up sixties compilations from import shops. Then I started to read about the new things happening in the UK. I knew of and owned the New York Dolls first album from Bowie’s recommendations but the words being written about these new punk bands conjured all that I loved about rock and roll in the first place. Subway played a couple of times in youth clubs and pizza parlours and it was horrible. Still mostly my songs."

This was around 1976 to 1977. Australia had strong cultural ties to the UK, so it didn’t take long for punk music to filter back (although had the Australians shown more confidence in their own abilities, they could have gotten all they needed from Brisbane and Sydney with the Saints and Radio Birdman). Punk bands of a sort began cropping up straightaway. On returning from one such gig, Griffiths ran into Bruce Milne, who later started Melbourne’s premier indie label, Augogo. Rob recounts the story as follows:

"Half of Subway had been to see a band called the Bleeding Hearts at the Tiger Lounge. On the way home a car with Bruce in it pulled up and on seeing a drum kit in the back of our station wagon he asked us what kind of music our band was into. Never said it before and don't know why I said it then but I screamed out the New York Dolls and the Stooges rather than some of my more pedestrian likes. Turning point, oh yeah ...the next day I sacked our singer who was also my girlfriend, played the rest of the band the Stooges, wrote half dozen new songs ...it was like a religious conversion. In the end the drummer was the only one who stayed. That was Vic Bolgarow who played on the first 2 singles."

"Suddenly information was coming thick and fast. I saw Radio Birdman at the Tiger Lounge. Rob Younger was wild. I remember him wearing mascara and dragging it into spider shapes on his face. We were at the front and at one stage he knocked us all over when he jumped in the crowd. The entire Melbourne punk scene was there. A week later Subway played its first punk gig. The bass player didn't turn up. The new guitarist wouldn't look at the audience and the audience left the room. So I stuck the microphone in the speaker and they all came running back in to see what the fucked up noise was."

"After the fabulous Radio Birdman gigs the Saints came down to play their first gig in Melbourne.  This was after all the vibe with "(I’m) Stranded" and the English press, but there was no one there – maybe 10 people. Chris Bailey refused to show himself and spent his time on stage behind the speakers, but they sounded fantastic. I never could work out why the Melbourne punk scene couldn't stand the Saints."

"The other good band was The Babeez...kind of political Ramones. They changed their name to News. We changed our name to the Fiction, got a new guitarist called Rob Wellington and our former lead guitarist switched to bass. That was Ken Hamilton."

Wellington had been fooling around with Rowland Howard in a proto-type version of the Young Charlatans but jumped ship for the opportunity with Fiction. Vic Bolgarow played drums. The liner notes to Stop! describe Fiction as "barely competent thrash-arama enlivened by the glimmerings of songwriting talent and unusual (for the era) inclusions of the occasional pop cover". The line-up was unstable, and after a few months gigging in punk pubs they split up in September of 1978.

Asked about the difference between Fiction and the Little Murders, Griffiths says: "Fiction was the Little Murders ...the first two Little Murders singles are basically The Fiction. We were described as the Saints playing 60's pop songs with an English singer. We went down a storm at some places. We had songs like "Negative Fun" "Victimless Crime", "Nothing To Do (In The City)" and "Whose Side Are You On". We were angry but god knows about what...then one day we weren't angry...we all wore suits. We got a new guitarist and broke up. Then I asked if they wanted to make a record so we got back together played a few blinding gigs at a place called the Champion. We recorded 3 songs and then Rob went off to form the International Exiles."

"Well, Fiction was finished but I was hanging around Bruce Milne’s house. He had just got his record label going with a release by Two Way Garden. I said I was going to make a record with or without the band. Bruce offered to put it out on his label Au Go Go and put me in touch with Stuart Beatty a producer friend of his. I took the guys from Fiction up into the hills to a friend’s cottage along with a 4 track and we recorded the 3 songs "Things Will Be Different", "Take Me I'm Yours" and "Trouble With Love". We finished it off in Stuart’s living room a few weeks later with Stu adding guitars. With the single ready to go I had to get a band together and a new name. Little Murders was a name on a poster outside the Valhalla Cinema. An American film I hadn't seen yet. The name in my drunken state reminded me of the Small Faces. The next day a girl I knew told me the Le Petit Meutres (Little Murders) in France meant orgasms."

"I did the back cover photo in a photo booth and Stu drew the front. We found a guitarist in Clint Small and a drummer named Rod Flegg and started playing 2 weeks after the record came out. Great reviews and a no.14 placing on the alternative charts put us in a good position live wise right from the off. We went straight back to the Champion playing a gig with the Scientists. It was one of the first really independent singles made in Melbourne on a limited do it yourself way so we got plenty of coverage."

"Things Will Be Different" and "Take Me I’m Yours" formed the third single released by Augogo Records (Clint Small had already appeared under his own name on an Augogo ep), and both appear on the Stop! retrospective. . "Different" starts with a lone guitar and the band singing tight-but-spirited 4 part harmonies for the first verse, and then the full band swoops in with some great guitar for the start of verse two. A killer guitar break ups the ante, and the third verse pushes the song even harder. The song closes with a rush of loud, ringing guitar...a gorgeous first effort. "Take Me I’m Yours" has a strong early Small Faces whiff around it with a choppy guitar style like early Jam records. The single sold out its pressing of 1000 copies in short order and established the band on the local live circuit.

"I saw The Purple Hearts in Edinburgh...great...pinched an idea from that and started taking a soul/mod dj with us on gigs. Bought tons of mod singles...the record shop in Blackpool was getting rid of them at 20c each...magic. I came back with an idea of what I wanted to do."

"When I got back from the England I had more of an idea where I wanted to go with the band visually. The music changed little but I found a way to get it across. The band changed line-ups quite quickly. I wasn't happy with Clint Small's wild guitar and refusal to dress up more. I couldn't get him to stop wearing trainers. Out he goes along with Ken and in came Stuart Beatty our producer and Steve Fuzesi bass player from The Virgins. The Jam were still a big influence but our band developed a bit of soul on the side. As for the mod bands some of the singles were great. Purple Hearts "Millions Like Us", Squire "Walking Down The Kings Road". The Chords "Maybe Tomorrow" was the best of all of them and I really expected them to go further. The Lambrettas "Cortina", Secret Affair "Time For Action": there's a great compilation in there somewhere. We were the first mod band in Melbourne...then came bands like 5-15 and Bleu Scooters who were all right but not much else. The scene was cool and the music wasn't strictly mod...there was room for all music as long as it was tasteful. The mods brought along the art of stage diving which I'd never seen at any gig before. At our gigs the stage would always be invaded for the last few numbers. And the mods would turn up in massive groups. 10pm a handful of people in the club. 10.15 the place is full. For a short time it was big news. Then the Sydney Mods came down with their main band The Sets and then it was on for young and old."

The visuals were what you’d expect for a mod band...sharp dressing, Union Jack flags draped everywhere. But this band had substance in addition to style. In August of 1980 they recorded a second single for Augogo, the pairing of "High School" and "Trouble With Love". For some reason these songs aren’t on the Stop! lp, and I’ve never found the single, so I can’t comment on them. The Stop! liner notes say that the A side has "rockabilly guitar undertones" and describes the flip as having a "brasher" sound.

""High School" was recorded with the Clint Small line-up", says Griffiths. "The b-side was an old Fiction recording. The real b-side "Beat Goes On" turned up on the B-side to "100 Drugs" 5 years later. I was trying to get the sound of "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" (Herman's Hermits) so I put masking tape over the strings. I never liked the single much and that's why I left it off Stop!. It's more likable viewed from this far away."

After a little while to get used to another new lineup, the band was ready for their third single, "She Lets Me Know"/"It’s Over". Unlike the four track studios used for the first two records, this one was done in an expensive 24 track studio, and weeks were spent getting the two songs just right. The net effect clearly shows that more costly production doesn’t necessarily result in a better record...both these songs are good, but not better than the first single.

""She Lets Me Know" was our first Augogo single proper in that they paid for the recording", says Griffiths. "It took too long to record due to Stuart producing and playing guitars. It seemed to go on forever and then he had to do the artwork....so...."

Chafing as the studio bills mounted for "She Lets Me Know", Griffiths and bassist Steve Fusezi recorded a couple tracks with some other friends. Calling themselves the Dance Set, they made another single with the two tracks "Melody" and "She’s Waiting", also on Augogo.

So it was a totally new band when an opportunity presented itself to record some demos for EMI with an eye to a potential signing. The three songs chosen for this session were "Dancing Away", "Original" and "Don’t Let Go". The recording went well...all three songs are on Stop! and they’re all solid, especially the haunting "Original". But nothing else about the situation was working, and in January of 1982, after a couple months of gigging with this lineup, the band split again.

"The EMI thing was basically a nothing trip. EMI had already decided who they were gonna sign but they had brought out some hotshot UK producer for a week and they were gonna use him. He couldn't keep his head up and we basically worked with the engineer. Well, it was close to the big time. That didn't kill the band – where we lost it was deciding not to release any more indie singles and not going back to Sydney. We were playing a lot – great crowds, big supports, but no release."

"The band split because I couldn't work with the other guys any more", says Griffiths, talking about the period after the recording of "She Lets Me Know". "There were two brothers in there...too tense a line up...holes in walls that kind of thing. The original drummer and bass player had left and we had also brought in an extra guitarist....good sound but didn't feel right especially since Stuart also decided to leave. So I spent 4 months doing nothing until I was convinced by a bass player called Adam to get Little Murders back up with new members. And he talked me into it so much that in the end I didn't use him, but I got a really good band together"

By now the Little Murders had been on the scene for 4 years and were at risk of becoming yesterday’s news. With the latest lineup ready to go by mid 1982, Griffiths expanded their gigging base into the suburban pubs. I wondered if there was some change in the band’s approach that now made them suitable for the suburbs.

"No, there was no change" says Rob, "We just got more popular in Melbourne. People danced at our gigs. They danced to original songs. We just got around more and basically the inner city was small and barren. However, we were out there supporting crap big bands – bands that were past it – because we pulled the much needed extra numbers. It got to be a bit of a job and not a well paying one at that. But we had some blinders in there. I recall a real scorcher at the Prospect Hill pub on a Monday night where someone stole a big hunk of hired equipment."

"Well, after that we were in a hole. This was the days when you carried your PA around with you. Now we had to pay hire on the stolen gear and replacement gear and money was disappearing through other sources. Our manager, god love him, was also having problems getting any respect from the agencies or labels. So we sacked him, which was stupid because he was one of us really,...he had built a rehearsal studio in his spare bedroom. And we went with another manager because he was Paul Kelly's manager and had more clout. Paul's career was at an all time low then so we should have seen the warning signs. The new manager wanted to change our name to The Bleeding Hearts (same as the band from 5 years earlier) and we were gonna go along with it...god knows why. Then Rod left, and I organized a last gig at the Venetian Room in the city, which got plenty of coverage in the press so we ended on a high note. Two months later we came back and did about 3 gigs."

"Then Rod really left and Paul Kelly poached Mick from us. Then we got a big time manager whose band was at that moment in the top 5 single charts. Unbelievably our 2 new recruits were from Paul Kelly's band. We did 3 gigs and it was big time horrible. I was a total stranger in my own band...they were all off on a different trip to me. This was not a pop band anymore."

The band did take one last cut at recording in late 1983, when they recorded four songs for a cassette only release. The best of these was the wistful "100 Drugs", which also appeared on a single and then later on the ...And Stuff Like That CD in the 1990s. Most of the story told here is one of a string of traumas, but there were plenty of good times to make it all worthwhile. Certainly the Stop! lp, which didn’t see release until 1986, is a collection to be proud of. It’s stronger than all but a handful of the UK retro-mod records of the era. And Griffiths clearly enjoyed the high points enough to make it worth battling to keep going despite the adversity.

"Some of the great things that happened...stage invasions seemed to be our thing", he recalls. "It was a buzz when the crowd got up there and danced and sang with us. At Moomba in 1981 I recall some fan telling my girlfriend in the crowd to shut up because she wanted to hear what I was saying. The first time I played our first record, it was a double A-side and Vic and I couldn't decide which side to put on first. Supporting the Church at the Chevron...we played a lot with them but I still remember being on stage as this totally massive jam-packed crowd went wild for us from the first moment we started "After The Fire". Supporting the Sunny Boys in Sydney – they were a magnificent band. The first time I met them they were at a party kicking the crap out of one of those old school locker type things. The whole band...later Jeremy Oxley turning up to one of our shows after we had finished and trying to get the band on stage for a jam even though everyone had gone home...every time the Church and the Sunny Boys came to Melbourne we'd be the support band so we got to know them pretty well except for Kilby the lead singer with the Church who I never spoke a word to. Marty and Richard were great guys. The Riptides who worked a similar vein to us – I met them through Bruce Milne and went on to play gigs with them."

But after 1983 the band for the most part ceased to exist. "When did we stop playing?", muses Rob. "Little Murders played a gig in 84, 85 and 86..one gig each year. I started DJ-ing in a friend of mine’s club called "Rubber Soul"....sixties music. I formed a few bands that never played much. One was Blow Up...a cross Little Murders/5-15 hybrid...diabolical. The Dice Men (you can't call yourselves men in a band) horrible...sax player and 3 guitars. Folk Rockers from hell, The Valdoonicans...same band these two and actually we were good and started supporting other bands and we recorded. I was going through a Proclaimers phase so that's what we sounded like, just 3 of us. Rod (he came back) and Adam who played violin and mandolin...old songs new songs and Long Ryders covers."

But in the late 1990s, Griffiths surfaced again with the Little Murders name. He’s released three full length CDs, ...And Stuff Like That, First Light and We Should Be Home By Now, each on his own Swerve label. The profile of these releases could hardly be any lower...they certainly have almost non-existent distribution. But that’s not for lack of quality. The first of the three CDs came out in 1997. It features six cuts taken directly from Stop!, three more re-recorded songs from that record, and another nine tracks, including "100 Drugs". The new recordings are impressive for not succumbing to the flaw of trying to be overly slick...they have the same punch and snap of the early Little Murders material, but benefit from better recording facilities. It’s a first rate CD.

"I write songs", explains Griffiths. "I love playing live but I don’t want to get on the merry go round trying to get gigs so I record. I used some of that money I earned playing records (which almost became a full time job) and put it into recording. I wasn't sure of the worth of my new songs so a lot of the stuff on Stuff is old songs and by Stuff I'm referring to the first 12 songs. The rest are bonus tracks from Stop! Some of those 12 songs were on Stop! but were demos still carrying the tape hiss. It didn't start off Little Murders – the band was going to be called Pretty Green and we played live under that name. Then I decided to keep the Little Murders name going. So what if the line up changed – it changed constantly in the early days."

"The previous lost decade I kept up the writing and popped into the studio now and again with each little project I was involved in – Dice Men, Valdoonicans – but the Stuff album was to be by Pretty Green in 1993. We only used 2 new songs: "I Wanted You" and "Change The World". Nothing came of that, but in 1995 I set off to put together a new record. Well, I had channeled some of the club money into starting a label and it was logical to have me on it, though that wasn't the intention of the label. I bought back the Stop! album from Au Go Go and recorded 5 old Murders songs plus one new one – "Love And Stuff Like That". Basically the recordings we did have of the old songs were demos kept on 15 year old cassette tapes and we couldn't put them out. We used 2 line-ups. In 1994 it was me, Phil Wales on guitar (ex-Harem Scarem), Tony Ennis on bass and a drummer whose name escapes me. In 1996 it was Rod Hayward, our original guitarist, plus Craig Pilkington (bass) and Dave Foley (drums) from the Killjoys. This felt good and it cleared the decks so I could get back into the swing of things. We played live with Paul Thomas (ex Huxton Creepers/WPA) on guitar and Mick Barclay back on drums after playing with Paul Kelly, WPA, Grant McLennan, and numerous others. Craig played bass. We played about 5 gigs and then a year later I set to work on First Light which for me was like making my first real album because I wrote it as an album. Between Stuff and First Light I was married and divorced, which explains the themes involved."

"It was exciting to make because it was a work in progress with a band that had played together at least a few times and I thought my writing was improving", says Griffiths. "I also gave more respect to my older songs which are great to play live."

"It had 2 songs off the First Light album and 2 songs with Kate Stalker taking over lead vocals (from First Light), and 4 songs with just me and an electric guitar like Billy Bragg. Three of those songs got the band treatment and are now on the new album...not enough money to release it though...shame."

But since we exchanged the e-mails that formed the basis of this article, Rob sent me a copy of the new Little Murders CD We Should Be Home By Now. I reviewed this one for The Big Takeover #49, and you can see the results elsewhere on this website, so I won’t bother repeating everything else, except to say that it continues to showcase strong songwriting and takes another step away from the mod sound of the early days towards a more mature pop. But it still has an edge...the drums pop, the guitar slices, and with Griffiths vocals combining real singing ability with a rough edge – a kind of sleepy and laid back feel that contradicts itself by maintaining a rough quality as well – Little Murders are never going to run a risk of becoming schmaltzy as they gain sophistication.