Mike Rudd - Founder of Ariel

In this episode of Vinyl Vibes Jack is joined by founder of Ariel, Mike Rudd.

In 1973, Mike’s band Spectrum came to an end shortly after the recording of their 4th studio album, Testimonial. Soon after this, Mike and Spectrum’s bass player Bill Putt were joined by Tamam Shud band members Tim Gaze and Nigel McAra, forming Ariel in the same year. Over the course of three months, Mike would write the band’s first album, A Strange Fantastic Dream. 

Following the release of the band’s first album in late 1973, Tim Gaze and Nigel Macara left the band. Although this devastated Mike at the time, it allowed him to take on the ambitious creative project that was The Jellabad Mutant Rock opera album. Over the course of 1974, this would be Mike and the band’s main project. During the year, the band had interest from EMI in the UK and was invited to record at Abbey Road Studios. However, once The Jellabad Mutant had been demoed, EMI Australia outright rejected it. This led to the band having to rely on material from the Spectrum days and the few songs Mike could write in the short amount of time leading up to recording in the UK.

The Rock and Roll Scars album would be recorded at Abbey Studios and would feature a re-recording of Spectrum’s number 1 hit I’ll Be Gone. They would return to Australia in early 1975 and play the last Sunbury festival. 

Ariel would continue to make music until their last gig in August 1977 at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne. 

Jack called Mike to talk about the formation of Ariel, the writing of A Strange Fantastic Dream, how the album pushed the boundaries of songwriting, the controversy surrounding some  of the songs on Strange Fantastic Dream, playing a tour with Gary Glitter, the demoing of The Jellabad Mutant, how EMI's rejection of The Jellabad Mutant impact the band when they went to the UK to record, recording at Abbey Road Studios, playing at the '75 Sunbury festival, and the band's last gig in 1977 at the Dallas Brooks Hall. 

"The opportunity to actually demo stuff was pretty remote in those days. I think I had a tape recorder, but that was it. Quite often, they were just dubbed onto a cassette, and the band expanded on that—and whatever we ended up with was Ariel" - Mike Rudd on this episode of Vinyl Vibes talking about finding the Ariel sound

Episode Hosted and Produced by Jack Hodgins.

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