Go Betweens

What can we say about The Go-Betweens? They were a true treasure and wrote some of the loveliest pop songs you’ll ever hear. They’ve been called “the quintessential cult band of the 80s”…if you know, you know. They were an Australian band co-founded and led by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, and they released several albums with Beggars Banquet.

The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout its existence.

Growing up in public is a tough gig, but Australian trio the Goon Sax don’t have a lot of choice. They were still at school when their 2016 debut album Up to Anything was released, with prosaic, witty songs about unrequited crushes, Saturday jobs and dates ruined by sweaty hands and bad haircuts. It would probably have been compared to the early, Jonathan Richman-indebted work of the Go-Betweens even if frontman Louis Forster’s dad hadn’t been the Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster. Frankly, if you’re a trio from Brisbane with a female drummer, dealing in smart, twitchy-but-melodic guitar rock with lyrics majoring in affairs of the heart, you’re going to provoke comparison to the Go-Betweens – who were all of those things 40 years ago – regardless of whether your old fella was in them or not.

Grant & I is the story of the friendship and collaboration of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who gave Australia The Go-Betweens, one of our best and most influential bands.