The Apartments

The Apartments
The Apartments December 2013 in Paris
Background information
Origin	Brisbane, Australia
Genres	Indie rock, jangle pop, chamber pop
Years active	1978–1979, 1984–present (with several periods of inactivity)
Labels	Riley Records, Microcultures, Talitres, Able Label, Hot, Rough Trade, Glass, New Rose
Associated acts	The Go-Betweens, Out Of Nowhere, Laughing Clowns, The Colors Piano Magic
Website	http://www.theapartments-music.com/ https://www.facebook.com/theapartments
Members	Peter Milton Walsh
Past members	Current and past players, live and on record (alphabetical): Nick Allum, Greg Atkinson, George Bibicos, Amanda Brown, Miroslav Bukovsky, Antoine Chaperon, Wayne Connolly, Jeff Crawley, Eliot Fish, Ken Gormley, Gene Maynard, Natasha Penot, John Willsteed. Guest member: Ed Kuepper

The Apartments, an Australian indie band created in 1978 in Brisbane by Peter Milton Walsh. Based in Sydney, Australia, the band has continues to perform and record, with the eighth album and most recent release, No song, No Spell, No Madrigal released in 2015. With Peter Milton Walsh as singer-songwriter, The Apartments continue as a core group of players from the UK, Australia and France for recording and touring.

The band's name derives from Billy Wilder's 1960 film The Apartment. The Apartments have had a strong following in Europe since being based in London in the mid-1980s. Since returning to live in Australia in the late 1980s Walsh has continued to tour The Apartments in France and occasionally in Australia.

The Apartments first came together in Brisbane in 1978 with Walsh (guitar, vocals), Michael O'Connell (guitar, vocals), Peter Whitby (bass, vocals) and Peter Martin (drums). The Apartments played regularly during a period of flourishing creative activity in Brisbane in the late 70s

While in The Apartments, Walsh briefly joined The Go-Betweens as guitarist when they were offered an 8-album contract by Beserkley Records. During an interview at the time, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan spoke about Walsh and the "variety of personalities and image" in the Go-Betweens. McLennan said "Walsh is night" and Forster "We are day" with McLennan adding "We’re sun, he’s rain." Four years after Grant McLennan’s death, in a piece entitled "Who will remember your tunes?", Walsh wrote about this period and his friendship with The Go-Betweens.

When the Beserkley deal fell through, Walsh returned to The Apartments and The Go-Betweens resumed as a three-piece. The Go-Betweens affectionately commemorated Walsh's style and his time with them on the B side of their next single, "Don't Let Him Come Back" “Here he comes, with his twelve o’clock junk…who’s that dressed in black? Who’s that in his apartment?”.'. "Don't Let Him Come Back" was later covered by Jay Reatard.

The Apartments' first EP Return of the Hypnotist was recorded for The Go-Betweens' Able Label in May, 1979. The Apartments broke up in October 1979, when Walsh left Brisbane. Some months later, the Return of the Hypnotist EP was released.