The Chevelles

The Chevelles
Background information
Origin	Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Genres	Pop punk Alternative rock
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Zero Hour Records Survival Records Running Circle Records Bittersweet Records Zip Records Wicked Cool Records
Associated acts	The Freuds The Stems The Kryptonics The Diehards The Marigolds The Neptunes
Website	Official Website
Members	Duane Smith Jeff Halley Adrian Allen Ian Tubbs
Past members	Gary Chambers Guy Douglas Richard Lane Mario Calhoon Martin Moon Julian Buckland Dave Shaw Paul Di Renzo

The Chevelles are a power pop band from Perth, Western Australia. They formed in 1989 and have toured Australia, Europe, the United States and South America.

Duane Smith's first band was The Freuds, which he formed with schoolfriend Bruce Abbot and Jeff Halley (of The Kryptonics) in Perth in 1987. Ian Tubbs, the Chevelles drummer and formerly of The Lincolns, also played drums in the Freuds. The band was short-lived, breaking up in 1989 despite having a recording contract on Revolution Records.

At the same time Richard Lane was looking for a new project following the break-up of The Stems. For a period Lane moved to Sydney and tried to put together another Stems-style band, without success. Smith and Halley had befriended Lane during the Freuds' and Stems' concurrent careers. When Lane returned to Perth in 1989 they approached him with the idea of forming a new band. Stems drummer Gary Chambers was included and jamming began late in 1989. However, Chambers lived too far away from Perth and could not sustain his involvement in the new band. His replacement was former Freuds and Rackett drummer Guy Douglas.

The band took its name from the Chevrolet Chevelle. They played their first headline show at the Coronado Hotel on 15 December 1989. They soon came to the attention of independent labels across the country, including the Sydney-based Zero Hour Records (named after the Plimsouls' tune) operated by former Stems roadie George Matzkov.

In April 1990 the band took a break from playing live and quickly recorded six demos at Poons Head Studios in Perth. Zero Hour chose Lane's punk pop rocker "Be My Friend" and Smith's "She Don't Come Around" for the band's first single. At the time Matzkov thought there were better songs in the six tracks recorded, but felt those two captured the energy he was looking for from the band. The single, released in late 1990 was praised in pop zines such as Bucketfull of Brains ("'Be My Friend' is a non stop rocker in prime Hoodoo Gurus/Screaming Tribesman heyday fashion with hooks a plenty and loads of blazing guitars"). Steve Gardener of Noise for Heroes wrote ("Be My Friend is harder and nastier than any Stems song").

Outside Australia the record was promoted in Spain, Germany and France, where Matzkov had contacts in the power pop scenes. The band's connection to The Stems was also an attention-getter. Requests for tribute compilations followed and the band recorded "Zero Hour" for a Plimsouls tribute and "Back Of My Car" for an Alex Chilton tribute on Spanish label Munster Records.

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