Taste

The opening lines say it all: “Hello, can you hear me/Hello, can you see me/ You want love, you got it/ You want sex/You got it/You want blood/You want it all.” 30 years after they split, Melbourne glam kings TASTE are back, and it’s 1977 all over again.

The sound is Queen meets Zeppelin, with just the right amount of Spinal Tap. Thundering riffs, grandiose production, and dramatic vocals. Close your eyes and you can see the pyrotechnics and props. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Rock is Dead – long live the rock. Goset/MGM
- MAG

MORE than 30 years ago, the glam band Taste were doing concerts on the banks of the Yarra for thousands of people and backing names such as Queen, AC/DC, Midnight Oil and Suzy Quatro. They toured with Ted Mulry, Skyhooks, Hush and Sherbert.
The band were regulars on Countdown and released three albums, producing four top-10 hits including Boys will be Boys, the song adopted by Queen.
On the edge of success, Taste were negotiating a US record deal with Seymour Stein, the co-founder and chairman of Sire Records, the label that brought us the Ramones and Madonna, not to mention such synth-pop classics as M’s Pop Muzik, and Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi.
There was just one problem. They were the youngest recording artists for Warner Music and their average age was 15. To get to gigs with all their equipment, they had a driver.
Now, success might have many parents but when there are too many, it becomes a problem. The folks were concerned that their boys were not making enough money, particularly after they had left school to go full-time and work five or six nights a week.
They brought in a new manager who fell out with Stein. Meanwhile, the boys were pushing in different directions. So as happens with every band, Taste folded.
But they had been on the brink of something big.
Now Taste are back together.
The band members, now in their late 40s and early 50s, have decided they want to continue where they left off. It has just been too painful to let the dream die.
Bassist Michael Tortoni, 53, sums it up thus: "To me, Taste was just unfi nished business. From that day that we walked out, it was careless, it was immature and it was inexperienced.
We were young so we didn’t appreciate the value of management. We were too young to appreciate the subtleties.
"So I just wanted to go back and tie up all the loose ends. Bill Clinton said that at 50, it’s a good idea to sit down and write a book. For me, this has been much better than writing a book."
Songwriter and vocalist Ken Murdoch says the reunion was inevitable. "I always felt we had another great album in us. I just knew one day we would do it, we were just too young. And we are older now so we don’t have so many emotional blockages in us."
Murdoch and Tortoni go back a long way. Both grew up in Brunswick and started gigging together in their early teens, playing in the band Cloud Nine that backed John Farnham.
The revamped band has three of the original members — singer Tortoni, Murdoch, 50, on keyboards and vocals, and lead guitarist Joey Amenta, 47. Add the "kid" drummer, Joel Witenberg. At 22, Witenberg brings the average age of the band down to 43.
Over the past 30 years, Murdoch and Amenta have stayed in the music scene. Amenta has worked as guitar for hire and teaching guitar. Murdoch plays piano in bars, writes jingles for commercials such as the Yakka ad and teaches vocals.
Tortoni spent years living a double life. After Taste, he studied classical bass at the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in music. He then went to Rome to continue his education, but returned to Melbourne in the mid-’80s, convinced that he was not cut out for a musical career.
He landed a job with a criminal lawyer and started dabbling in the stockmarket and became a stockbroker.
But his passion for music continued. When the property market collapsed in 1991, Tortoni bought the building that is now Bennetts Lane jazz club. He no longer works as a stockbroker. Instead, he has devoted himself to his club.
"Stockbroking was just a means to an end. I had this plan to make lots of money to secure myself. Eventually, Bennetts Lane won out," he says.
Tortoni has also been appointed artistic director of Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Not that there is any conflict between jazz and rock music. "I love classical, I love chamber music," Tortoni says.
"Unless it swings and moves, it’s just not happening. To me, playing music is all about communication."
Both Murdoch and Tortoni say Taste is stronger now as they are more confident in their music. And in an echo of 30 years ago, the band have signed a publishing deal with the United States and Japan, and are in the middle of negotiations for the album’s release in Japan.
Still, they concede it might not be as easy. The music scene now is a lot tougher. Venues have stopped hiring bands. And there are so many choices now that people are not buying CDs and they are less likely to turn up at gigs.
"We could play to 1000 people every night without even thinking about it," Murdoch says. "Now, you would be lucky to play for 20 people.
"You don’t even have a cover to look at any more if you download the music, which means you don’t really get the feel for it that you used to get."
But he says music has its own momentum that makes it a powerful force, impossible to resist. And they just wanted to be part of that again.
Tortoni adds: "Bands will still succeed. We want to throw our hat - Leon Gettler, THE AGE 23/6/08

What do you get when to take industry powerhouses and tee t hem up with new rock royalty? A newly invigorated supergroup - that's what. TASTE is back and so is directional solid pop rock that you will just get down to. A solid production melds the four members of the group, including Ken Murdoch (writer/producer); Joey Amenta (guitar hero), Michael Tortoni - who if you don't know - plays a killer bass but is also responsible for your favourite Melbourne Venue Bennett's Lane! & last but not least, Joel Witenberg - the new drummer...all these guys kick ass when it comes to rock and TASTE is a breath of fresh air in a stale and somewhat contrived rock market. - Joel Manser, Poprepublic.tv