Lobby Loyde - Coloured Balls

Coloured Balls

Lobby Loyde formed the psychedelic/hard/blues-rock group Coloured Balls in March 1972 with Andrew Fordham on guitar and vocals, Janis Miglans on bass guitar and Trevor Young on drums. Their first single, "Liberate Rock", had been recorded by Loyde with Aztecs' members, Gil Mathews (on drums), Morgan and Wheeler as studio musicians – it was issued in August. During late 1972, the original line-up of Coloured Balls recorded material for an album, Rock Your Arse Off, but it was not released until May 1976 as The First Supper Last (Or Scenes We Didn't Get to See) by independent label, Rainbird.

In January 1973, Coloured Balls teamed with guest vocalists Thorpe and Leo de Castro at the Sunbury Pop Festival, their performance was released in November as the "Help Me" / "Rock Me Baby" track on the live album, Summer Jam. The album included Coloured Balls' 16-minute version of "G.O.D.". Fordham had been replaced on guitar by Ian Millar early in the year. Coloured Balls released three singles including "Mess of the Blues" which reached the Top 40 in October. They supported Marc Bolan & T. Rex on their Australian tour. Coloured Balls released their debut studio album, Ball Power, in December on EMI, which peaked at No. 13 on the Go-Set National Top 20 albums chart in February 1974. In January, Coloured Balls played at the Sunbury Pop Festival alongside hard rockers, Buster Brown, which included Angry Anderson on vocals and Phil Rudd on drums.

Coloured Balls' second album, Heavy Metal Kid spawned the Top 40 hit, "Love You Babe" in June 1974. Along with Thorpe, Madder Lake, Buster Brown and Chain, they were supported by suburban-based sharpie gangs. Coloured Balls had fully adopted the Melbourne 1970s sharpies' culture which included wearing chisel toed shoes, jeans, tight-fitting cardigans (expensive hand-made designs by Conti or Stag), crew-cut hair style with 'rats' tails' and most sported tattoos with a spider's web on the neck being popular. Their music was influenced by U.S. bands, MC5 and The Flamin' Groovies. Pubs and town halls became battlegrounds between rival sharpie gangs. Available venues became rare and media reports accused Loyde of encouraging the violence of some sharpies. Nick Ellenford, a member of the Heidelberg sharps, recalled " played with a cigarette stuck permanently to his bottom lip and always appeared to be drunk or stoned ... he casually walked behind a speaker midsong, threw up, then returned to the front of the stage without missing a beat". Coloured Balls disbanded at the end of 1974 and Loyde returned to solo work.