Sunday, February 9, 2025

The Gays

 
ORIGINS: Northern Beaches, NSW
GENRE: Ska-Punk, Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 2006-2008
 
MEMBERS:
  • Tom Chapman - Vocals, Guitar
  • Laurence 'Loz' Adams - Vocals, Bass
  • Drew Archer - Drums
RELEASES: 
 
  • Will Kick Your Ass (2007) - Download Here.
    • 1. Mic Control
    • 2. Problems Dub
    • 3. Lil Skank
    • 4. Gettin' Thru 2 U
    • 5. No Future
SUMMARY: The Gays were a three-piece punk band that rose out of the ashes of The Lyrical Madmen and Para. They played a handful of shows across 18 months before breaking up. The above EP was recorded in their final days and only released as a demo.
 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
TOM: Drew and I were leftovers after The Lyrical Madmen finished and we started jamming. We knew Loz from Para who had opened for The Lyrical Madmen a few times and were another Northern Beaches band. We bonded over our love for cheesy lyrics and did our first rehearsals in the old Lyrical Madmen shed and then moved to rehearsal studio in Brookvale owned by a dude I just remember as Stu. He was a legend, let us organise an All Ages show in the rehearsal room at the time.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

LAURENCE: My first band Para had played a lot with The Lyrical Madmen... they even got us into the studio to record a cover of one of their songs, which they put as a secret track on their album. Both bands broke up around the same time. Tom and Drew from The Lyrical Madmen wanted to start a punk band and we all live din the same area so they hit me up.
Laurence Adams (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


TOM: Going down from eight members in The Lyrical Madmen to three in The Gays was so good. We could get around in one car! I moved from sax in the Madmen to guitar and vocals. I was playing guitar in the Madmen days, slowly learning, and I sang backups on most of our recordings and live. I always liked songwriting, just noodling on the guitar until you come up with something you like. Loz and I split the writing and singing duties in The Gays and he would just belt it out so I just had to keep up. Loz had done the majority of the writing for Para so it was good to have a partner in crime.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DREW: The Lyrical Madmen was like herding cats, The Gays was like riding a bull - a super short, wild ride. I think I must've hit my head, 'cause I can't remember half of it, haha.
Drew Archer (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

TOM: Loz's band Para was a solid aggressive punk band. At the time a lot of people had gone into their hardcore/screamo/we all wear black T-shirts phase. It was a weird time to start a ska-punk band. When Loz and I told people what we were working on they were like, "Sounds super gay dude." So we were like, fuck it, we're The Gays. There were a couple of venues that were not cool with it and billed us on flyers as The Gaze. In hindsight we were on very shaky ground. Haha, it was fun as hell though. Our lyrics were all over the place - about partying, being the best band ever, one of our mates being a dick, my girlfriend getting hit by a car. I liked The Gays because nothing was off limits subject matter-wise. In comparison, I always felt like The Lyrical Madmen had a lane that put a boundary on things. My girlfriend was okay!
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


LAURENCE: The name was meant to just be a placeholder name while we wrote some songs and did a few practice gigs but we didn't last long enough to change it. We were listening to a lot of ska, punk, and hip-hop. Tom wrote most of the lyrics.
Laurence Adams (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TOM: Our first show as at The Empire, I think, before they renovated it and ruined the band room. We opened and I just remember it being the first time I was singing in front of people and feeling like people might expect better. Now I know that sucking at your first gig as a new band is just something every band needs to get out of the way.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TOM: We played a show in the North West at a showground with a cool little crowd and the gig was broadcast live on local radio. After each set the radio station would give each band a CD of the live mix. While we were driving home in Drew's car we had the windows down and for some reason I was twirling the CD on my finger. The wind picked it up and sent the CD flying out the window and onto the Hills Motorway where it smashed into a million pieces. In my mind it was the best we ever played, but I'll never really know.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


LAURENCE: We only played a handful of shows. I remember I planned a Thursday gig with Batfoot at the Sando but Drew couldn't make it so Dave Bate filled in.
Laurence Adams (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TOM: One of my favourite shows was the All Ages I organised in Stu's rehearsal room at Brookvale. It was a bunch of local bands and Lost in Line came up and headlined. I learned a lot from that gig. Towards the end of our run The Porkers would have us open for them at their Sydney shows in the North. We didn't really deserve that, it was super nice of them, those were good gigs.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TOM: While we were in The Lyrical Madmen, Drew was doing his audio engineering course at JMC. The last Lyrical Madmen album was recorded by Drew in the spare room at my parents' house, which they let us convert into a home studio. The recording space was the spare room and the control room was my bedroom next door. Drew built all that with the sound treatment and built a pro-tools rig with some outboards. We pooled Lyrical Madmen gig money to set it up. After that it all sat at my parents' place for a while - mics, computer, sound batons. Drew did it all for the final Lyrical Madmen album and we sent out the audio to be mixed and mastered in professional studios. When it came time for The Gays to record we pulled all that shit back out and Drew pulled triple duty as drummer, engineer, and mastering engineer. He's a talented dude - those recordings still sound great and he DIY'd it. That was way before everyone had a home studio. He nailed it. It was never released properly or for sale because I think we were just a bit lazy. It's a lot of work doing artwork and pressing copies. Both Loz with Para and us with The Lyrical Madmen had been through that and were a bit burnt out. It was more fun just to give out burnt CDs to bands we liked and people who asked. They were literally a burnt CD, a hand-drawn cover, and 'DEMO BITCH' written in marker on top of the CD.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


DREW: I had a sweet new recording rig and recording The Gays was a good chance to put it through its paces. I think by the time we finished it the band had dissolved though.
Drew Archer (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

TOM: Loz went backpacking in the UK and Europe for a sting and that broke the rhythm of the band. When he got back he moved to a spot in the Inner West and, as the laziest band in all of history, that was enough distance to kill regular rehearsal. We'd just get together for beers instead. So our final show hadn't been a planned one. The plan was to keep going when Loz got back but one day he went out the door and never came back. Well, he did come back, not much later, and it would have been easy to re-start, but we didn't. And that's our story, haha.
Tom Chapman (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

LAURENCE: I think the main reason we split was that Drew was too busy with work commitments and we kinda just fizzled out. After we split I ended up DJing and organising warehouse raves and experimental bass music clubs until 2017 when I joined COFFIN on bass.
Laurence Adams (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: The Lyrical Madmen, C.O.F.F.I.N., Para, Bird Murder, We Need Stickers 





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