Vi-Nil Records

Founder of Vi-Nil Records; Mark Fraser

ORIGINS: Sydney, NSW
GENRE: Indie / Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1981-1988, 2022-Current

BANDS:

• Suspect Device (1981-1983) - Guitar
• Stoneage T-Bones (1982-1983) - Guitar
• The 22s (1984-1985) - Guitar
• Good Guys Wear Black (1985) - Guitar
• Velveteens (1991) - Guitar)
• Kill City (1998) - Guitar
• Dirtstar (2018) - Guitar

ORAL HISTORY - provided by Mark Fraser in conversation with Noise Levels, 2025

Background

I got into music when I heard the first Ramones album and the Sex Pistols debut. I went and bought my first electric guitar and put a band together playing Pistols and Ramones covers. This band was called Suspect Device. Soon after this I started writing for Drum Media music magazine. I love playing and seeing live music. Growing up on the Northern Beaches in Dee Why meant there were a bunch of punk bands around at the time. There wasn't much of a scene though - it was more surf-orientated. Most of our gigs were at local surf clubs or backyard parties. I moved into the city in 1982 or so and that definitely had a big effect on me. Our band, Suspect Device, played The Sussex Hotel, Leichhardt Hotel, the Vulcan, etc. There were so many venues and so many bands. I could walk to gigs and we had a massive old three storey house opposite The Lansdowne. Our band practice room was underground and we could make as much noise as we wanted. We would do poster runs in the city at night. Fun times.

Record Label

I saw so many bands that I wanted to capture on record. Lots of great bands to do releases for back in the day - The Hard-Ons, Psychotic Turnbuckles (who I managed for a while), Labradogs, Stig Can't Clap... The record label was called Suspect Records at first. I released the debut single of The Conspirators on the label and was then approached by a guy who played in The Klerks. I knew him from The Sussex Hotel as we had both played shows there. Anyway, he had some rare Lipstick Killers tracks and was about to release them. He wanted me to merge with him and run a combined label. Thus Vi-Nil Records was born. No idea how the name came about. It's a bit of lazy name really, haha.   

We had a bunch of releases go straight to the top of the indie charts - Lipstick Killers, The Hard-Ons, Psychotic Turnbuckles, Conspirators. The covers for the Conspirators' debut single arrived printed but not folded or glued on the night before the launch. Myself and the band stayed up all night gluing 100 covers and putting them under heavy books and weights until they dried. A friggin' nightmare.

In the 1980s we did minimum runs of 500 because vinyl was massive back then. And singles were the go rather than albums. Nowadays it's completely reversed and singles don't move too well at all. Minimum runs are 100 now, so that reflects the change in record-buying demographics (at least at an independent level). Anyway, we'd cruise around to all the indie stores dropping off records at release time. Chatting with the store owners and managers was always cool - I continue to this today, and make a point of dropping into stores personally whenever I can, delivering records out of the boot of the car. 

The best thing about the '80s was the huge number of awesome live venues around Sydney. There was always a gig each night of the week, and plenty of places to launch a new record. We'd also rock up to the 2JJ studios to talk on radio about new releases with the Saturday morning crew - this was always cool, and a great way to promote new releases. 

Shows and Snowboarding

One day a week at both the Mosman Hotel and Elswick Hotel, I was booking shows there. Plenty of live options for bands. There was pretty much live music every night of the week back then. So many great venues in Sydney. 

In 1986 I went overseas for about a year or so and discovered snowboarding. I was one of the first snowboarders in Australia. I ended up starting the first snowboarding label in the country (Redback Surf And Snow) and basically snowboarded for the next 6 years in Australia, the US, and Europe. 

Today

I re-launched the label in 2022 when I owned The Link and Pin in Woy Woy. The relaunch saw an annual compilation release (Indie Sounds) focused on a different region each year. So far I have released bands from Sydney, The Central Coast, Newcastle, and Wollongong on different volumes of the Indie Sounds comps.    

                                                                                                                                            

Label Releases

• The Conspirators - She's Gone (7" Single) [1984]
• Lipstick Killers - Sockman (7" Single) [1984]
  
• Klerks - I Need as Pardon (7" Single) [1984]
• Gulf Klub - What's Cooking (7" Single) [1984]
• Psychotic Turnbuckles - Creeps (7" Single) [1985]
• Stig Can't Clap - Other Side of Midnight (7" Single) [1985]
• The Hard-Ons - Surfin' On My Face (7" Single) [1985]
• Howling Commandors - Walk On By (7" Single) [1985]
• Psychotic Turnbuckles - Psychotic Reaction (7" Single) [1985]
• The 22s - Cowboys of Soul (Cassette Album) [1985]
• Klerks - The Groove Tapes (7" EP) [1985]
• The Labradogs - Get Lonely (7" Single) [1986]
• The Conspirators - Expressway to Your Brain (7" EP) [1987]
• The Labradogs - Suddenly Last Summer (7" Single) [1987]
• When You Start - Spirits Who Began (Teach Your White Children) (7" Single) [1988]
• Lipstick Killers - Promo [2001]
• Unknown Quantity - x=ex10(ded) (Album) [2015]
• Indie Sounds from the Harbour City  - Compilation [2022]
• Shacked - Monkey Business (Album) [2022]
• Disgraceland - A Beginners Guide To... (Album) [2022]
• Rust - Double Denim and a Bottle of Bleach (Album) [2022]
• The Overtones - Port Girls (Album) [2022]
• The Crisps - Self-Titled (Album) [2023]
• Cousin Betty - Self-Titled (Album) [2023]
• Lion Island - Pilot Termination Kiosk (Album) [2023]
• Indie Sounds from the Cenny Coast - Compilation [2023]
• Shacked - Binate Globality and So Forth... (Album) [2024]
• Indie Sounds from Newy and The Hunter - Compilation [2024]
• Lion Island - Fudge (Album) [2024]
• Forklift Assassins - Ripsnorter (Album) [2025]
• Indie Sounds from the Gong - Compilation [2025]
• Outer Control - Attic Sandwich (Album) [2025]
• Sugar Beats - Self-Titled (Album) [2025]
• Dedway - The World Has Fallen (Album) [2025]

Shows Organised

• Trade Union Club, Sydney - 10th November, 1985 (The Vultees)

Sean Lipsett

Sean Lipsett

• Skrimshank (1989) - Bass
• Toe to Toe (1991-1993) - Bass
• Moral Panic (1994) - Bass
• Boiling Point (1994, 1997-1998) - Bass
• Downtime (1994) - Bass
• Melancholy (1995) - Bass
• AVO (1998-2001) - Bass

OTHER:

Sean was involved with Toe to Toe's original label Punchdrunk and then later also ran his own label No Deal, who put out the following releases:

• Blitz Babiez - Time's Ticking (1993) - 7"
• Various - Circle Storm (1993) - 7" compilation featuring Subversion, Minute Minder, Savage Cabbage, Persecution, and Toe to Toe. 
• Moral Panic - Your Decline (1994) - 7"
• Subversion - Pignation (1994) - 7"
• Downtime - Self-Titled (1994) - 7"
  
• Crank - Cranked (1995) - 7"
• Minute Minder - Self-Titled (1998) - 7"
• Various - Offensive/Defensive (2001) - compilation album featuring Rocks, Creeping Jesus, The Last Hemeroids, Irrelevant, World War XXIV, Within Blood, Sewer Cider, The Blurters, and The Babyshakers.

No Deal also put on the following shows:

• Max's, Petersham - 2nd October, 1993 (Toe to Toe, Anger in Motion, Subversion, Blitz Babiez, Minute Minder, Scapegoat)
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney - 18th February, 1994 (Subversion, Savage Cabbage, Price of Silence, Minute Minder, Persecution)
• Hornsby PCYC, Hornsby - 19th February, 1994 (Subversion, Savage Cabbage, Price of Silence, Minute Minder, Persecution) Organised with Cosmic Snail.
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney - 16th April, 1994 (Beanflipper, Magnacite, Subversion, Madhouse)
• Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham - 20th May, 1994 (Anger in Motion, Subversion, Smut, Omnicide)
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney - 21st May, 1994 (Anger in Motion, Downtime, Stalin's Organ, Minute Minder)
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney /Sean's House - 26th August, 1994 (Propagandhi, All You Can Eat, Blitz Babiez, Downtime, Flycop)
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney /Punx Picnic - 27th August, 1994 (Propagandhi, All You Can Eat, Subversion, Lawnsmell, Minute Minder)
• Hunter on Hunter, Newcastle - 28th August, 1994 (Propagandhi, All You Can Eat, No Reason, Minute Minder) Organised with Spiral Objective
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney - 14th October, 1994 (Downtime, Nation of Hate, Lawnsmell, Flycop, Subversion)
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney - 26th November, 1994 (Beanflipper, Anger in Motion, Savage Cabbage, Subversion, Persecution) Organised with Spiral Objective
• Vulcan Hotel, Sydney - 3rd December, 1994 (Blitz Babiez, Gilgamesh, Mad Circle, Minute Minder, Savage Cabbage) Organised with Spiral Objective
• Journo's Club, Surry Hills - 17th March, 1995 (Pothole, Price of Silence, Gilgamesh, Savage Cabbage)
• Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle - 18th August, 1995 (Fallout, Kiarra, Poison Bruno, Anomie)
• Feedback, Newtown - 19th August, 1995 (Fallout, Kiarra, Drawback, Crank)
• Harbour Cruise, Sydney - 26th November, 1995 (All You Can Eat, Blitz Babiez, Lawnsmell, Crank)
• Feedback, Newtown - 9th March, 1996 (Mindsnare, Drawback, Forward Defence, Anomie, Ceasefire)
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 20th July, 1996 (Mindsnare, One Inch Punch, Forward Defence, Toe to Toe, Drawback, Pitfall, Ceasefire, Straight to a Tomb)
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 26th October, 1996 (Blitz Babiez, Forward Defence, Self Reliance, Noisam, Pitfall, Straight to a Tomb, Rock Spiders, Hate is Enough, Nihilist)
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 4th July, 1997 (Heads Kicked Off, Forward Defence, Drawback, Arms Reach, Pitbull Attack, TBK)
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 11th July, 1998 (Heads Kicked Off, Arms Reach, Grim Reality, Mugshot, Straight to a Tomb, Downfall, Pitbull Attack, Nihilist, AVO)
• Hardcore Superbowl, Iron Duke, Alexandra - 26th February, 2000 (Shank, Rocks, Found My Direction, Frontside, AVO, The Blurters, Murder, The Kill, Damage Control, One Step Ahead)
• Green Square, Zetland - 20th October, 2000 (The Kill, The Blurters, The Rats, Sewer Cider, Three Found Dead)
• Hardcore Superbowl, Green Square, Zetland - 31st March, 2001 (The Last Hemeroids, Within Blood, Rocks, Deadstare, World War XXIV, Irrelevant, The Babyshakers, The Blurters, Creeping Jesus, Sewer Cider)
• Hardcore Superbowl, Green Square, Zetland - 9th March, 2002 (World War XXIV, Deadstare, The Kill, AVO, Frontside, Fuck... I'm Dead, The Blurters, Toe to Toe, Creeping Jesus, Bulldog Spirit, Loyal, Three Found Dead)

REGION: Sydney, NSW

Set Fire To My Home

 

ORIGINS: Pennant Hills, NSW

GENRE: Hardcore, Punk, Emo

YEARS ACTIVE: 1997-2006

 

SUMMARY: Set Fire To My Home was a Sydney-based record label run by Luke Logemann. It's origins can be traced to the Hornsby hardcore scene of the late '90s, with Logemann writing his own hardcore-focused zine (xCounter Attackx) as part of this scene. The label grew to a point where Logemann was able to move to Melbourne and work for the label Boomtown Records, which later transformed into the label UNFD.

 

ORAL HISTORY - provided by Luke Logemann in conversation with Noise Levels, 2024.

 

Background

I grew up all around Sydney - Bonnyrigg, Merrylands, Frenches Forest, Chatswood - we moved a lot and I lived with different family members. When I was about 14 we landed in Pennant Hills and that was when my music taste really started to form. Before that I either listened to cool stuff I found on the radio like Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine, or whatever my parents were into - like The Cure, The Clash, Bob Dylan kinda stuff. But when I got to Pennant Hills I met a bunch of young punk and metal kids who fast-forwarded my interest in proper underground music. 

The first local punk bands I got into were Nancy Vandal (their newsletter [The Vandals Voice] was awesome), Lawnsmell, and Gilgamesh. Then, I recall at this show in Beecroft where my friends' band played, the guys from Ceasefire were selling copies of their zine Meat and 3 Veg, which had much more hardcore content. I read those two issues back to back over and over again. It was almost overnight that we all got into bands like Pitfall, Ceasefire, Mindsnare, and Forward Defense, and it really opened up all this knowledge of the fact that fast hardcore existed in Sydney and Newcastle, which was mental for all of us. 

 

Luke Logemann's zine, Counter Attack

Zines and Shows

In 1997, I started a zine called xCounter Attackx. It was such a cool scene because you'd bring like 20 copies of your zine to a show and swap copies with other people there. Then you'd have a reason to write letters to people in other states and swap zines with them as well. I reckon I did about 5-6 issues and they are all pretty embarrassing to look back on. Just a 15-16 year old kid with a lot of opinions about the world and what was really hardcore (according to my 18 months of experience on the topic, of course). I also would put on shows at Hornsby PCYC (starting in around early 1998; the last one was in 2003). I don't recall putting on my first Hornsby show to be honest. All of them are mostly a blur apart from the last one - which was with Stockholm Syndrome and Staying At Home. I remember that one because it went really well and I decided afterwards: "This is what I want to do for a job in the future."

 

The zine kinda stopped because the world changed, I guess. Thing were more online and I also had a lot less time on my hands. Plus I was getting paid to write for Blunt Magazine and in 2005/2006 I managed a few cover stories as emo was getting massive down here - so that more or less took over my creative writing interests.  

Record Label

I had a fascination with record labels from really early on. I had this compilation called In Flight Program by Revelation Records, and it was this incredible gateway to my favourite hardcore and post-hardcore bands. Then it was Equal Vision and Bridge 9 - I couldn't believe how reliable those brands were for me in discovering music. They just seemed to get every record right. So I wanted to do that for all the cool bands in my life. 

I started Set Fire To My Home Records in 2001. I was a little older and a lot more ansgty and it became more stories, poetry, etc. I named it off a lyric by AFI on their album Black Sails in the Sunset. The first record was Nintendo Police's I Suggest We Don't Fuck Around. For the first 50 copies, we put a little saddie with weed in it saying, "I suggest you smoke this before listening. And then eat a Magnum Ego." Shortly after, it was Whatever by Worse Off, and a compilation CD of Headless Horseman music called The Millennium Rock Saga. Those were all bands from Hornsby that I was friends with. For those records, all I was doing was paying for a CD pressing and then taking CDs to shows to sell at merch desks. Maybe swapping advertisements with other zines around the place. It wasn't as much work as it became later on when I tried to take the label a bit more seriously. 

I was working full time in an office job doing IT. I basically started putting any money I didn't need for life into the label. We 'signed' Sans Chavelle and Staying At Home, which were probably my favourite bands in Sydney at the time. I didn't really know what a record label did, so I ended up booking both bands and touring with them around Australia, selling their merch, etc. Through those tours, I came across Horsell Common, who were a band from Melbourne that took off for a while there. They were the first band in my roster to crack Triple J rotation and to start doing national tours with big artists. There was a time around 2005 where I was working full time, booking all the bands on the label, writing for Blunt Magazine and DJing at alternative nightclubs. It was a really busy time and I was terrible at running it like a business. I was paying for bands recording and hiring publicists but forgetting to even take any money for their CD sales. Even when Grand Fatal blew up in 2005/2006, I was going broke because I just wasn't paying attention. But, I was having a blast and really enjoying following my dream. 

 

From the Set Fire to My Home website, c. 2003

In 2005, I'd met Jaddan from Boomtown Records in Melbourne. For a while, we promoted shows for each others bands from Sydney and Melbourne. He had Behind Crimson Eyes, who were blowing up bigger than any of my bands. I think they sold like 20, 000 EPs in six months or something. In 2006 he asked me to come and work for him. So I shut down Set Fire To My Home and moved to Melbourne. Horsell Common came to Boomtown Records as well. I worked at Boomtown Records until we changed the name to UNFD in 2011, and I stayed running that label until 2023 - 17 years in total. Jaddan was more commercially-minded than I was and I was able to learn how to work in music and making a living/career out of it. 

It was my dream come true - to be able to work full time on punk/heavy music. Took me 8+ years to get that opportunity, so I dove right in.

BAND RELEASES: 

• Nintendo Police - I Suggest We Don't Fuck Around (Album) [2001]
• Worse Off - Whatever (Album) [2001]
  
• Headless Horsemen - Self-Titled (Split EP / 7" with Bjelke-Petersen Youth) [2002] 
• Headless Horsemen - The Millennium Rock Saga (Album) [2003]
• Sans Chavelle - Self-Titled (EP) [2003]
• Grand Fatal - Kick the Star (EP) [2004]
  
• Staying At Home - Reaction Heroes (Album) [2004]
• Grand Fatal - Chaser/Eraser (EP) [2005]
  
• Staying At Home - Never Take Me Alive (EP) [2005]
• Grand Fatal - Allies (Album) [2005]
  
• Horsell Common - Lost a Lot of Blood (EP) [2005]
• Horsell Common - The Birds and the Bees (Split EP with Trial Kennedy) [2006]
• Horsell Common - Satellite Wonderland (EP) [2006]
• Nintendo Police - Artificial Suns (Album) [2011]
  

SHOWS ORGANISED OR CO-ORGANISED: 

• Friday, 15th February, 1999 - PCYC, Hornsby (Ceasefire, The Pact, Nintendo Police, S. Van)
• Saturday, 20th February, 1999 - PCYC, Hornsby (The Pact, Nintendo Police, Fistfull, VBS)
  
• Friday, 3rd December, 1999 - PCYC, Hornsby (Arms Reach, Sense of Purpose, Age of Distrust, One Step Ahead, Fistfull, Three Found Dead)
• Friday 18th July, 2003 - PCYC, Hornsby (Stockholm Syndrome, Headless Horsemen, Staying At Home, Pure Evil, Dime A Dozen, Taking Sides)
  
• Unknown Date, December, 2003 - PCYC, Hornsby (Staying At Home, In The Grey, Sans Chavele, Horsell Common, Bullet the Blue Sky, Two Second Fuse)
  
• Saturday 10th April, 2004 - Vic on the Park, Marrickville (Staying At Home, Stockholm Syndrome, Sans Chavelle, The Reason)
  
• Friday 25th November, 2005 - Annandale Hotel, Annandale, NSW (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Saturday 2rd December, 2005 - Church Bar, Canberra (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Thursday 8th December, 2005 - The Gov, Adelaide, SA (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish, The Scare)
• Friday 9th December, 2005 - Barwon Club, Geelong, VIC (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Saturday 10th December, 2005 - The Evelyn, Melbourne, VIC (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Wednesday 14th December, 2005 - The Rev, Brisbane, QLD (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Thursday 15th December, 2005 - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast, QLD (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Friday 16th December, 2005 - Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
• Saturday 17th December, 2005 - Rev Fest, Berkely Vale, Central Coast (Grand Fatal, Horsell Common, Angela's Dish)
  

ZINES: Here and here.