Sunnyboys – Sunnyboys

September 1981. I’m in my last year of high school and supposed to be studying for my final exams, but there’s this hot new band from Sydney whose album I’ve rushed out to buy and I can’t stop thrashing it on the little 3 in 1 stereo in my bedroom. I play the record so much that after a couple of weeks I swear the vinyl is only half as thick as it used to be. Unfortunately I’m still as thick as ever because I didn’t do as well as I should have in my exams. Sorry Mum, blame rock n roll. Blame the Sunnyboys.

As a teenager this record spoke to me in volumes. Not only in terms of the maximum decibels my ears could stand, but also because of its very personal and troubled lyrics. Later the world would discover just how troubled the band’s songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Jeremy Oxley really was after many years of mental health issues and eventually a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The Sunnyboys hailed from Kingscliff on the northern NSW coast. The Oxley brothers Peter and Jeremy were keen surfers (Jeremy was a junior champion) before music took over their lives. They started jamming in their parent’s garage with their mate Bil Bilson (drums) and were later joined by guitarist Richard Burgman. Within months they’d relocated to Sydney and were quickly making a name for themselves as a dynamic live act.

The Sunnyboys, despite the disposition of the band’s name played soulful and sometimes dark, electrified rhythm and blues fused with dynamic surf guitar licks. These guys had everything – the riffs, the melodies, the hooks, the looks… they were one of the most exciting Australian bands to emerge from that era.

Peter Oxley said of his little brother that Jeremy was the kind of kid who could just pick up a guitar and play it. Jeremy Oxley had an extraordinarily dexterous gift for playing and there’s no shortage of intricate lead runs and memorable riffs on Sunnyboys.

Happy Man was the band’s first single, released a couple of months ahead of the album (July 81). This supercharged piece of power pop is an absolute Jaffa with a distinctive power chord riff backed by a fabulous rhythm guitar. Jeremy says that the song was written about his brother Peter and that he was the one who couldn’t communicate, but I do wonder about some of the other lyrics in the song that reflect the themes of isolation and helplessness that run throughout the rest of the album:

Sitting here in my room, the whole damn thing is coming down on me,

Gotta straighten out, find an answer to my prayer…

Jeremy Oxley said that once he started playing the guitar he couldn’t stop – “I practised and practised my guitar so I was ready for the confusion and I wrote about it”. That confusion was all over their debut album – I Can’t Talk To You, Trouble In My Brain, Liar and this lyric from Tunnel Of My Love: 

Well I’m waking up now
Waking up to all the bad in you
I get hurt, I fall down
I need someone to hold me back from the tunnel
From the tunnel of my love

Tunnel of my love or tunnel of my despair? There’s no shortage of clues as to Jeremy’s troubled mind in retrospect but the music was so vibrant and energetic that most people probably just wanted to dance to it. From my perspective the lyrics addressed a lot of the typical teen issues and emotions I was going through at that time, as guitarist Richard Burgman later revealed:

“It’s very much a teenager’s record, I think if you look at that first album in that light, the songs on the record are just stories.”

Stories yes, but stories written by a thoughtful and sensitive teenager in the shape of Jeremy Oxley, who was still in his teens by the time the band broke through in Sydney. Jeremy was a naturally curious kid:

“I had to find answers to everything – I was born that way”. 

But the move to Sydney soon led him to withdraw as he internalised his feelings:

“In the city people were broken, they were just falling into the pit of darkness everywhere”.

The album’s second hit was Alone With You. It became the band’s signature song and while it’s been flogged relentlessly on classic rock playlists ever since it’s one of those songs that people probably think was a bigger hit than it actually was. It only reached #26 on the charts and yet the song has just grown in stature and possibly its own mythology as the years have passed with its classic rock riff and a blistering solo from Jeremy that carries the song through to its conclusion. Alone With You is all about the guitar.

I saw the Sunnyboys live just after their debut album was released – one of the earliest gigs I can recall. It was at the Central Coast Leagues Club, basically a giant shoebox of a room that was packed with a crowd waiting in eager anticipation. The house lights were still up when the band – all dressed in black with Cuban heeled boots, walked casually through the crowd from the back of the room with their guitars in hand. They just sauntered through the throng with a casual nonchalance as we stood there in shocked silence. They stepped up onto the stage, plugged in and blew us away. Whether it was planned that way or they were late for the gig I’ll never know, but that entrance was brilliant, the show was incredible and it left a lasting impression on me.

Sunnyboys is one of those rare albums where every track is a winner. It was an incredibly exciting record when it first came out, a record that still manages to carry its youthful exuberance (and darkness) well into its middle age. It’s simply one of the great Australian rock records.

For Sunnyboys fans the good news is that Jeremy Oxley’s personal misfortunes have taken a turn for the better in recent years having found an amazing partner who has helped him on the road to recovery with the appropriate medication. That turnaround in his life has allowed him to take to the stage with his original band mates for the first time in decades. If you’re not familiar with Jeremy’s story the documentary The Sunnyboy is a must watch film.