Sad news just in for fans of Australian rock’n’roll from the late 80s and beyond: Dave Thomas, the Epiphone-slinging singer-guitarist of Geelong legends Bored!, and the Friends In Danger-era guitarist for Magic Dirt, has passed away in Melbourne, aged 56.

Dave Thomas and Bored! appeared seemingly out of nowhere in 1988 out with a self-titled mini-album, and the track “Little Suzie”. “Nowhere” was, in fact, Geelong, and Bored! would soon put the town on the rock’n’roll map, inspiring a whole scene of local upstarts, including the Dirty Lovers (who Dave played bass with for a while), Warped and the Poppin’ Mamas. Eventually came Magic Dirt, who Dave would play with in the mid-‘90s, and who would take Bored!’s influence and Dave’s uncompromising vision to the youth of the nation.

Dave had been trying to get the band that became Bored! together for a number of years. He’d originally played in Geelong punk outfit the Bodies, and, with members of early Melbourne punks the Virgins in a short-lived Radio Birdman/Stooges-inspired group named Slaughterhouse. Originally known as White Noise, and featuring school kid drummer Buzz Munday and bass player Grant Gardner (whose kids Billy and Zane play in current Geelong band the Living Eyes; Billy also runs Anti-Fade Records), Bored! became a thing when former Behind the Magnolia Curtain guitarist John Nolan joined, giving Dave the perfect foil.  

“Little Suzie” became a staple on Melbourne community radio immediately upon release, and Bored!, who at that point had barely played a show in Melbourne, started playing out with gusto. Before long they were the support band of choice for any act with guitars and loud amps, including Iggy Pop, the Ramones and Sonic Youth. While the rest of the country was a bit slow to catch on – lack of interest from Triple J didn’t help – Bored! soon had records out in Europe and the US and rabid fans in both. Bored!’s first record preceded by just a few months the first Mudhoney record and thus the advent of grunge, and the band’s music, which mixed various styles of punk with Detroit rock’n’roll and other styles of hard rock (including early ‘70s Australian stuff – that first Bored! EP included the first-ever released Coloured Balls cover) put them squarely in the same ballpark as those early Seattle grunge groups. Indeed they shared a European label with the likes of Mudhoney and Tad, but not being from Seattle meant they weren’t allowed to the party.

Bored! followed that first EP with their first full-length album, Negative Waves, which featured Tim Hemensley from God guesting on a version of Rose Tattoo’s “Remedy”. God, whose smash indie hit “My Pal” came out not long before Bored!’s first record, and who were all still in their mid-teens, became something like Bored!’s little-brother band. (It should be pointed out that the Seminal Rats, who’d been doing the high-energy style for a few years already, also had a close bond with Bored! and God; together the three groups had a profound impact on Melbourne music.)  Hemensley eventually joined Bored! full time in time for their next record, the mini-LP Take It On You. By this point, the band had played out a lot and was a phenomenal live unit, with Dave and John Nolan combining into the sort of electrifying twin guitar attack that really hadn’t been heard since the ‘70s. A successful European tour in 1990 sadly saw the band split, with Hemensley and Nolan eventually forming the Powder Monkeys. Dave and still-teenaged drummer Buzz Monday regrouped, with new bass player Russell Baricevic, new material and a new stripped-back sound that really allowed Dave’s monster riffs to cut through. Around this time Dave – ever the champion of like-minded others - also started working with some younger bands, producing Sydney’s Asteroid B6-12 and releasing them, Brisbane’s Onyas and others on his Destroyer Records label. In 1991 he started managing a nascent Magic Dirt.  

Bored! would continue to release records, including the albums Feed The Dog, Junk (with material produced by Peter Wells of Rose Tattoo and by Kent Steedman of the Celibate Rifles) and Scuzz, while a new generation of Melbourne bands clearly indebted to them in so many ways - including Spiderbait, the Meanies and Magic Dirt – got the Triple J support and took off nationally. Bored! eventually called it quits late in 1993 (although they did reform for a European tour in late 1994). As is so often the case, the front runner missed out on the rewards, but Bored!’s status has, over ensuing decades,  grown to mythical status -  around Melbourne and Geelong and parts of Europe in particular  - and that will never be diminished.

Dave joined Magic Dirt in 1995, just in time to feature on their first proper album, Friends in Danger, which famously followed their signing to Warner internationally. A more sonically extreme album than Warner were expecting,  Friends in Danger failed  to reach expected heights but still reached #25 locally and confirmed the band’s reputation for doing things their way.  Dave parted ways with Magic Dirt after a couple of years and briefly formed a new band, Tiger By The Tail, with members of other young local bands including the Sailors and Red Shift. Tiger By the Tail released two albums before folding, after which Dave would play sporadic shows with the last Bored! line-up. A final European tour took place in 2000 with Ben Watkins from Warped on bass.

Dave passed away overnight after a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Leisa and children Charlie and April. We remember Dave Thomas with some classic material from Bored!, Magic Dirt, and the rarely heard first Tiger By The Tail album in its entirety.

Bored – Little Suzie 

Bored – Back Street Girl 

Bored – CSM (No Way) 

Bored – Iron Man 

Bored – Satisfaction 

Bored – People Say 

Bored – No Fun / Sister Ray 

Magic Dirt – Sparrow 

Magic Dirt – Pristine Christine 

Magic Dirt – I Was Cruel  

Magic Dirt – Shovel 

Magic Dirt – He-man 

Tiger By The Tail – full album