The Crystal Set
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The Crystal Set was a Sydney-based Australian indie rock band formed in the early 1980s featuring Russell Kilbey (bass and lead vocals), Phillip Maher(guitar & vocals), Davey Ray Moor (keyboards & vocals) and Tim Seckhold (drums).
The Crystal Set were influenced by Sydney band Honky and the Cats members Phil Limon and HJ Watson and often played gigs around Sydney together as adouble act.The band released its first single, "A Drop In The Ocean", independently. It was signed to Red Eye Records owned by John Foy and the first single was re-issued through Red Eye. Their next two singles, "Wholly Holy" and "Benefit Of The Doubt", were moderate indie hits on the small but enthusiastic east coast Australian scene.
With the departure of Davey Ray Moor, Craig Hooper (formerly of The Reels) stepped in and the band released "Cluster". One side of the Red Eye released ep featured songs recorded with Moor while the other side featured compositions with Hooper. Upon Hooper's departure, Russell Kilbey was then left to take up duties on guitar and vocals and Luke Blackburn, a Melbourne musician, joined as bassist and vocalist.
Red Eye Records signed a distribution deal with Polydor Australia in 1990. The Crystal Set released their next album Almost Pure under this label and had moderate success with the singles, "Thrive" and "She Spits Out Stars" in 1991. Their Red Eye/Polydor labelmates were The Cruel Sea, The Clouds, Steve Kilbey (Russell's brother and lead singer and bassist from successful 1980s Australian band The Church), Jack Frost aka Steve Kilbey and Grant McLennan (The Go-Betweens), The Bhagavad Guitars, Curious (Yellow) and The Beasts of Bourbon.
The Crystal Set disbanded at the end of 1991. Russell Kilbey went on to collaborate with David Thrussell from techno-industrial outfit Snog in a band called Sex Industrie, doing a cover version of the classic AC/DC song "Jailbreak".
Along with other Kilbey related recordings from the eighties, The Crystal Set's recordings will soon be available from Karmic Hit.
