DESCRIPTION:
An appearance on the Australian ABC program COUNTDOWN of Australian musician MARK GILLESPIE in 1981, with the second single SMALL MERCIES taken from his 1980 debut album ONLY HUMAN.
Unlike all, or almost all singers who mimed on this (and most other) "live" music shows, MARK GILLESPIE insisted on singing live to the band-track, so the somewhat strange-looking flat-plated PZM microphone (which was used on all the lead vocals on ONLY HUMAN) is here actually being used for the lead vocal, and is not just a convenient device for MARK GILLESPIE to hide from the camera......although admittedly effective.
With him are ROSS HANNAFORD and MARK MEYER, with JOE CREIGHTON (on disco-bass) absent, but present in spirit.
(Incidentally, the small round badge worn by MARK GILLESPIE on his jumper (which the ABC producer stipulated at the sound-check MUST be removed) reads "SUCK".......perhaps a reference to the overtly commercial nature of that particular TV program)......the conscience however clear due to the reality of the vocal performance.)
The song lyric commences with a quote remembered from Frenchman J.J. ROUSSEAU's treatise "THE SOCIAL CONTRACT" (1762), from the days of the Age of Enlightenment........modern European history.
Thanks to the ABC for supplying this 32 year-old video from the COUNTDOWN archives.