Dogs in Space
Encyclopedia
Dogs in Space is a 1986 Australian film set in the "little band scene
" in Melbourne
in 1978. It was directed by Richard Lowenstein
and starred Michael Hutchence
as Sam, the drug-addled frontman of the fictitious band from which the film takes its name.
The film's tagline is "Before Trainspotting
, before Go
, before 24 Hour Party People
there was...Dogs in Space."
. The plotless and artistic style of the film is a legacy of Lowenstein's background in advertising and music video
production; before Dogs in Space he had served as director for a series of promotional clips for songs from the INXS
album The Swing
.
The script was developed from Lowenstein's own experiences and the central character Sam is based on Sam Sejavka
from the band The Ears, with whom Lowenstein lived in the 1970s. Chuck Meo, who plays a drummer in the movie, also lived with the pair. The house, in Berry Street, was the same house Lowenstein and Sejavka shared and was rented from its new owners and modified at considerable expense for the film. Lowenstein wrote himself out of the film and several of his exploits were attributed to the character Tim (Nique Needles). Sejavka has a brief cameo in a party scene as a character called Michael. In the film, Sam and Tim are the key members of a band called Dogs in Space and share their house with various social misfits including Sam's girlfriend Anna (Saskia Post), a university student called Luchio (Tony Helou) and a transient and apparently nameless teenager known only as The Girl (Deanna Bond), a character based extremely closely on Sara, who for a period lived with Lowenstein at Berry Street.
The film's minimalist plot traces the day-to-day existence of the chief characters, particularly the relationship between Sam and Anna, and is virtually an endless sequence of intense party scenes involving heavy substance-abuse. In between, there are trips to Ballarat (at the time, the closest town to Melbourne with a 24-hour convenience store
) and humorous encounters with an aggressive neighbour (Joe Camilleri
) and one character's fast-talking, chainsaw-wielding uncle (Chris Haywood
), who simply turns up one afternoon with his family (the baby in this scene is Lowenstein's niece Robyn). There is also a minor sub-plot in which the characters try unsuccessfully to pass off some rubbish burned in an oven as a piece of Skylab
to a local radio station. In the end, the group's dysfunctional and hedonistic lifestyle claims a victim when Anna dies from a heroin overdose.
The album came in two versions: a censored version in a white sleeve with the band name "Thrush & the Cunts" bowdlerised to "Thrush and the C**ts" and possibly-offensive song vocal tracks removed, and an "R"-rated version in a black sleeve with all band names in full, movie dialogue between the songs and all vocal tracks in full.
Chase Records went out of business soon after and, despite much effort, the record has never been reissued and has remained unavailable since. It is now a collector's item, commanding high prices. It was only available on LP and cassette and was issued on CD - at least the censored version appeared on discount bins in shopping malls in Lisbon, Portugal, somewhere around 1996-1997.
The Hutchence tracks were his first official solo recordings and his first with Ollie Olsen
. They would later collaborate on the Max Q recordings.
Side One:
Side Two:
Little band scene
The Little Band scene is the name given to an experimental post-punk scene which flourished in Melbourne from 1978 until early 1981. This scene was concentrated around the inner suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda, and was characterised by large numbers of small bands, more concerned with artistic...
" in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in 1978. It was directed by Richard Lowenstein
Richard Lowenstein
Richard Lowenstein is an Australian film director. He has written, produced and directed the feature films He Died With A Felafel In His Hand, Dogs In Space, Say a Little Prayer, Strikebound and Ghost Story, as well as numerous ground-breaking and award-winning music videos for bands such as INXS...
and starred Michael Hutchence
Michael Hutchence
Michael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian musician and actor. He was the founding lead singer-songwriter of rock band :INXS from 1977 to his death in 1997, a period of twenty years. Hutchence was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released...
as Sam, the drug-addled frontman of the fictitious band from which the film takes its name.
The film's tagline is "Before Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
, before Go
Go (1999 film)
Go is a 1999 comedy thriller film written by John August and directed by Doug Liman, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal. The film stars William Fichtner, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Sarah Polley and Scott Wolf and features Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer, Timothy Olyphant,...
, before 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
there was...Dogs in Space."
Plot
With virtually no plot, Dogs in Space is a stylish and chaotic film about a group of alternative music fans sharing a house in the inner Melbourne suburb of RichmondRichmond, Victoria
Richmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...
. The plotless and artistic style of the film is a legacy of Lowenstein's background in advertising and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
production; before Dogs in Space he had served as director for a series of promotional clips for songs from the INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
album The Swing
The Swing
The Swing is Australian rock band INXS's fourth studio album, released in 1984. The lead single "Original Sin" was recorded in New York City with Nile Rodgers and featured Daryl Hall on backing vocals...
.
The script was developed from Lowenstein's own experiences and the central character Sam is based on Sam Sejavka
Sam Sejavka
Samuel Marcus Sejavka Samuel Marcus Sejavka Samuel Marcus Sejavka (born 2 April 1960 in Melbourne, Australia, is a writer, actor and musician.Sejavka grew up in Mt Waverley and attended Holy Family Primary School, a Catholic school in Mt Waverley....
from the band The Ears, with whom Lowenstein lived in the 1970s. Chuck Meo, who plays a drummer in the movie, also lived with the pair. The house, in Berry Street, was the same house Lowenstein and Sejavka shared and was rented from its new owners and modified at considerable expense for the film. Lowenstein wrote himself out of the film and several of his exploits were attributed to the character Tim (Nique Needles). Sejavka has a brief cameo in a party scene as a character called Michael. In the film, Sam and Tim are the key members of a band called Dogs in Space and share their house with various social misfits including Sam's girlfriend Anna (Saskia Post), a university student called Luchio (Tony Helou) and a transient and apparently nameless teenager known only as The Girl (Deanna Bond), a character based extremely closely on Sara, who for a period lived with Lowenstein at Berry Street.
The film's minimalist plot traces the day-to-day existence of the chief characters, particularly the relationship between Sam and Anna, and is virtually an endless sequence of intense party scenes involving heavy substance-abuse. In between, there are trips to Ballarat (at the time, the closest town to Melbourne with a 24-hour convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
) and humorous encounters with an aggressive neighbour (Joe Camilleri
Joe Camilleri
Joseph Vincent "Joe" Camilleri, aka Jo Jo Zep or Joey Vincent, is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and saxophonist. Camilleri has recorded as a solo artist and as a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Black Sorrows...
) and one character's fast-talking, chainsaw-wielding uncle (Chris Haywood
Chris Haywood
Chris Haywood is an English-born, Australian-based film and television actor/producer.-Early life:Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from...
), who simply turns up one afternoon with his family (the baby in this scene is Lowenstein's niece Robyn). There is also a minor sub-plot in which the characters try unsuccessfully to pass off some rubbish burned in an oven as a piece of Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
to a local radio station. In the end, the group's dysfunctional and hedonistic lifestyle claims a victim when Anna dies from a heroin overdose.
Soundtrack album
The soundtrack album was released on Chase Records in February 1987 (CLPX14), featuring several tracks from reformed "little bands" and other contemporary tracks of the time.The album came in two versions: a censored version in a white sleeve with the band name "Thrush & the Cunts" bowdlerised to "Thrush and the C**ts" and possibly-offensive song vocal tracks removed, and an "R"-rated version in a black sleeve with all band names in full, movie dialogue between the songs and all vocal tracks in full.
Chase Records went out of business soon after and, despite much effort, the record has never been reissued and has remained unavailable since. It is now a collector's item, commanding high prices. It was only available on LP and cassette and was issued on CD - at least the censored version appeared on discount bins in shopping malls in Lisbon, Portugal, somewhere around 1996-1997.
The Hutchence tracks were his first official solo recordings and his first with Ollie Olsen
Ollie Olsen
Ollie Olsen 1958, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian composer, synthesist and sound designer who has been producing and performing rock, electronic and experimental music for the past thirty years...
. They would later collaborate on the Max Q recordings.
Side One:
- "Dog Food" (Iggy PopIggy PopIggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
) - "Dogs In Space" (Michael HutchenceMichael HutchenceMichael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian musician and actor. He was the founding lead singer-songwriter of rock band :INXS from 1977 to his death in 1997, a period of twenty years. Hutchence was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released...
) - "Win/Lose" (Ollie OlsenOllie OlsenOllie Olsen 1958, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian composer, synthesist and sound designer who has been producing and performing rock, electronic and experimental music for the past thirty years...
) - "Anthrax" (Gang of FourGang of Four (band)Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill...
) - "Skysaw" (Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
) - "True Love" (Marching Girls)
- "Shivers" (Boys Next Door)
Side Two:
- "Diseases" (Thrush & the Cunts)
- "Pumping Ugly Muscle" (The Primitive CalculatorsPrimitive CalculatorsThe Primitive Calculators are an Australian post punk band formed in the late 1970s, known for their use of a screeching Mosrite Ventures model guitar, primitive synthesizers along with an electronic organ played through effects pedals, and an extra fast drum machine keeping time...
) - "Golf Course" (Michael HutchenceMichael HutchenceMichael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian musician and actor. He was the founding lead singer-songwriter of rock band :INXS from 1977 to his death in 1997, a period of twenty years. Hutchence was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released...
) - "The Green Dragon" (Michael HutchenceMichael HutchenceMichael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian musician and actor. He was the founding lead singer-songwriter of rock band :INXS from 1977 to his death in 1997, a period of twenty years. Hutchence was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released...
) - "Shivers" (Marie Hoy and friends)
- "Endless Sea" (Iggy PopIggy PopIggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
) - "Rooms For The Memory" (Michael HutchenceMichael HutchenceMichael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian musician and actor. He was the founding lead singer-songwriter of rock band :INXS from 1977 to his death in 1997, a period of twenty years. Hutchence was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released...
)
External links
- The Dogs in Space house (MichaelHutchence.com)
- Dogs In Space at the National Film and Sound Archive
- Michael Hutchence (Rarebird)
- Dogs in Space Soundtrack? (Icebox Chat)
- Googlemap view of the Pelaco sign, from 18 Berry Street, Richmond, the Dogs in Space house