Between the two of them, Steve Pinkerton and Andrew Pendlebury (Pinkerton/Pendlebury) have produced enough blistering power pop wattage over the decades to power a major city or two. We are honoured to premiere the video for their pognant track ‘Molly Dean’ from their recent self-titled album Pinkerton/Pendlebury, which sparkles with a burning intensity
The song ‘Molly Dean’ has a powerful history behind it. Pinkerton lives in the bayside inner-city Melbourne suburb of Elwood and he wrote the lyrics for the track after discovering Molly was a past Elwood resident, who in the 1930’s was brutally murdered in Addison Street. Molly was an aspiring writer – and Elwood was home to many artists and bohemians. Molly was returning from having drinks at the Victorian Artists Society (VAS) one night when she was brutally murdered not far from where she lived with her mother. Molly was an artist’s model and was rumoured to be having an affair with Colin Colahan who was one of the painters from VAS who had painted her. Coincidentally, and unbeknown to Pinkerton, Pendlebury’s father Laurence, an award-winning painter, was a President of the Victorian Artists Society in the 60’s. Pendlebury is still involved with the VAS and earlier this year they held an exhibition of his father’s art.
The song is suitably poignant with a yearning melancholy running through it, augmented by the expressive guitar riff that soars over the top and the haunting backing vocals.The aching chorus and searing melodies are proof positive of the incredible reservoir of songwriting experience these two bring to the turntable.
The video, which we exclusively bring you today, was made from archival footage of Melbourne CBD in the 1930’s. The footage was provided by the National Film & Sound Archive. The result is something that perfectly captures the mood and tone of the song – a heart-rending haunting sadness that oscillates deep within:
The album ‘Pinkerton/Pendlebury’ is out now and can be downloaded and streamed via all the usual sites and through the link below:
You can catch them launching the album at the bohemian George Lane venue in Melbourne on 4 May 2024 – details and tickets here. The Pinkerton Pendlebury band includes bass player Steve Hadley (Paul Kelly, Tex Perkins & The Rubber Band, Black Sorrows, Vince Jones) and guitarist Jason Kain (Jackson Code, Louis Tillet’s Wet Taxis).
Pinkerton Pendlebury is a musical partnership bringing together more than five decades of live and studio experience and is something of a mutual admiration society between two Melbourne figures who are known as musician’s musicians. Andrew Pendlebury is best known for his work with seminal Stephen Cummings-fronted ’70s/80s Melbourne band The Sports and for a number of acclaimed solo records – including an ARIA Award winner – in the ’80s and ’90s; Steve Pinkerton came to prominence in the 2000’s with The Anyones who had both US and Aussie record deals, and these days plays drums for Dallas Crane and sings and plays guitar in The Ronson Hangup.
Andrew Pendlebury and Steve Pinkerton first met when Pinkerton was enlisted to play drums for The Sports’ last run of shows back in 2017, before the sad passing of Pendlebury’s guitar playing partner in the band, Martin Armiger. Pendlebury says they planned on playing a few of Armiger’s Sports tunes at their album launch in tribute to their late friend:
We’re planning on doing a couple of songs in our next live get-together. We’ve sung ‘Strangers on a Train’, we do ‘How come’ and we’re going to do ‘Suspicious minds’, a few of The Sports’ songs just as a tip of the hat to Martin. He couldn’t deserve it more.
