Rock music historian Ian McFarlane described the group as "one of the most original and invigorating pop bands to emerge from the Australian new wave movement of the late 1970s.
"[1][2] Native Sons, consisting of John Bliss on drums, Craig Hooper on lead guitar and synthesiser, and Dave Mason on vocals, formed in the regional centre of Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976.
[4] It developed an original repertoire of fast-paced, quirky pop and ska, and its energetic performances gained it a following on the east coast live music scene.
[5] The group's self-titled debut album was produced by Mark Opitz (the Angels, Cold Chisel) and appeared in November, as did a second single, "Prefab Heart".
The group's distinctive image meant it gained increasing attention with music videos featured on the influential national ABC TV pop show Countdown.
The EP included one original, "The Bombs Dropped on Xmas", co-written by band members Mason, Newham and Ansel with Pamela Shalvey.
Here The Reels displayed an impressive maturity in song writing, backed with strong performances, inventive arrangements and top-class production.
Now reduced to a trio (Mason, Hooper and Fidock) The Reels continued performing by augmenting their live sound with taped backing tracks, and used the new Fairlight synthesiser for studio recordings.
The Reels persuaded RCA to allow a Beautiful "Limited Collectors Edition"[8] to be released by K-tel, known for its licensed pop hit compilations and budget 'golden oldies'.
Although the tracks on Beautiful walked a fine line between sincere tribute and gentle parody, it proved to be the biggest success of their career, selling in excess of 40,000 copies and reaching No.
A single taken from it, a cover of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song "This Guy's in Love With You" gave the Reels their biggest hit in Australia, peaking at number 7 around November 1982.
In 1983, the band released a five-track EP of original songs, Pitt Street Farmers (the title is an old Sydney satirical expression referring to wealthy owners of rural land who never leave the city).
The band then signed with Regular Records and released a radically slowed-down, synthesiser-driven version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising".
11 (October 1986); the arrangement featuring prominent use of the Vocoder voice synthesiser, which the band also used extensively on stage to augment Mason's vocals.
During that year, they embarked on the popular "Reels By Request" tour, where the audience was allowed to call out for the songs they wanted to hear, chosen from long printed lists.
This LP contained their idiosyncratic versions of thirteen Australian rock classics,[11] including the singles "Are You Old Enough" (originally a hit for Dragon) and "Forever Now" (by Cold Chisel).
2017 saw the formation of the group Sandy Shores with Mason, Gallagher, Blainey together with Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown from the Go-Betweens playing hits from past bands but mostly new original material.
[19][20] The song "Quasimodo's Dream" is regarded as an Australian rock classic and has been covered by Kate Ceberano, Rob Snarski, Mick Harvey and Jimmy Little.