The Cruel Sea

By bringing together two very different influences, almost like adding oil to water, The Cruel Sea created a style of rock which extended Australian rock and roll culture, and at the same time made them one of the most successful Australian group of the Nineties.

It started as an idea guitarist Danny Rumour had carried with him since his days in punk rock in bands like Urban Guerillas. As a regular at a Sydney pub called The Grand, whenever a band cancelled or there was no gig on, Danny would jump on stage with a few local musicians and play an instrumental set using equipment the hotel kept in a back room. People always loved it whenever it happened, and when Danny's group Sekret Sekret split up after seven years he decided to explore the idea with a permanent group. The new group The Cruel Sea took its name from a Ventures instrumental from the 60s. In the late fifties and early sixties there were a lot of instrumental artists and records.

The Cruel Sea's original line-up was Danny Rumour, the Gorben brothers, Ged and Dee and a longtime fan of Danny's, Jim Elliott on drums. Danny's guitar and Urban Guerillas' wild girl singer had made Jim want to join a band in the first place. When Dee Gorben decided to leave the group approached another old Sekret Sekret cohort, Ken Gormly, like Jim Elliott, a fan and a surfie from Cronulla.

The instrumentals-only Cruel Sea played its first gigs in 1988 setting up behind the pool table at the Harold Park hotel in Sydney. There was so little room the guitarists would have to move so pool players could play their shots. But within weeks of starting this residency the instrumental Cruel Sea was drawing regular crowds of up to 300 people. During another residency, at the Landsdowe hotel, James Cruckshank started getting up with the band, only to lend the occasional hand on keyboards. His position soon became permanent. Operating the lighting at some of those performances was moonlighting Beasts Of Bourbon singer Tex Perkins.

It wasn't until a party in Darlinghurst a few months later that The Cruel Sea and Tex were formally introduced. The Cruel Sea were playing and Tex came up and said he'd like to have a go at putting lyrics to some of their instrumentals. That was something else Danny had had in the back of his mind, to attract the right singer one day. Already an Australian music legend for his rock and roll swagger, The Cruel Sea couldn't have wished for anyone more qualified or interesting than Tex.

At first the union was only a casual one. Tex would only contribute to some songs, and because of his commitments to the Beasts Of Bourbon he could only play at some gigs. An initial 12 inch 'Down Below' EP was expanded into the full-length debut Cruel Sea album, also called 'Down Below'. More comfortable with the bringing together of their two halves, clean instrumentals and rough-edged rock vocals, with the second album 'This Is Not The Way Home' the band expanded their musical influences. A tour with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds through Europe helped the band work its style into place.

With the temporary suspension of activities by the Beasts in early 1993 Tex was able to devote himself to being a permanent member of The Cruel Sea. The result of that concerted effort was the album, 'The Honeymoon Is Over'. It reached Number Four nationally and was awarded with four ARIA Awards. More international sojourns followed.

With each subsequent tour and album, The Cruel Sea continued to explore the two sides of their personality and draw them together. On stage and record there are less instrumentals. Tex Perkins contributes to the sounds during the instrumental parts. Occasionally the band still performs without Tex, and Tex has kept up an occasional involvement with the Beasts Of Bourbon and has recorded albums in his own name.

With each subsequent tour and album, The Cruel Sea continued to explore the two sides of their personality and draw them together. On stage and record there were are less instrumentals. Tex Perkins contributed to the sounds during the instrumental parts. Occasionally the band performed without Tex, and Tex has kept up an occasional involvement with the Beasts Of Bourbon and recorded three albums 'Far Be It For Me,' 'Dark Horses'. And 'Sweet Nothings', gradually replacing Cruel Sea in his overcrowded career with Tex Don and Charlie - Cold Chisel's piano-playing songwriter Don Walker and Beasts guitarist Charlie Owens. Dan Rumour continued has passion for instrumentals performing with the Dan Rumour Band.

Although in a 2006 interview Tex had stated that the Cruel Sea was no more, in February the band regrouped for their first perfomances in five years.