Remember the big weekend? Days spent at the beach before heading out to a live venue? Sweating it out on the dancefloor to the liveliest and most danceable electro-funk combo of the 1980s? Machinations are back with their steamy, rhythmic gigs – big music, big beats, big weekend.

It all started in the summer of 1979 when guitarist Tim Doyle and keyboardist Tony Starr started writing songs with a drum machine. They were Joined by vocalist Fred Loneragan fresh home from 12 months in London. The band played their first show at the infamous ‘Garibaldis’ in East Sydney in March 1980, with a sound combining post-punk, modern funk and moody jazz fused with a relentless rhythmic itch. The band soon added bass player Nero Swan and before long were recording in 2JJ’s 221 Studio, and then with Lobby Loyde in Trafalgar Studios. The result of this collaboration was the seminal first single Average Inadequacy and the Machinations of Dance EP, both released on Phantom Records in the summer of 1981.

With the support of 2JJJ both releases received wide airplay and increased the bands following. Machinations quickly built a national reputation and were signed to Mushroom Records’ White Label. In 1983 the film clip for the single Jumping the Gap came second to Michael Jackson’s Thriller at the prestigious US Industrial Film Festival. Their first Album Esteem was recorded and produced with Lobby Loyde in the summer of 1983, with a late addition of Pressure Sway recorded at Alberts Studios, produced by Dunlop & Brown.