About Me
This is the offical X website. The Australian X, not that other mob from L.A.
This site is dedicated to X and is managed by myself, Steve Lucas.
I am the only survivor of the original 4 piece line up. Though Cathy Green and Geoff Holmes are still with us.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of "X".
Gongratulations to Cathy Geen, and Kim Volkman and John Hall for helping me keep the flag waving... And to Nino, Geoff Holmes, Simon Smith, Ed Fischer, Stefan Burgh, Greg Sawyer and Herbie Mayhem for being there when needed most.
R.I.P. Ian Krahe, Bob Nimmo, Steve Caferio, Peter Cataunche, Cath Synnerdahl and most recently Ian Rilen.
"There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love."
Thorton Wilder 1897 - 1975
"I support that bridge"
Steve Lucas 1957.....
The mortality rate for X has been staggering, but as long as there is life in me I will do my best to keep the spirit and the music of X alive.
I miss my friends incredibly and still mourn the loss of Ian Rilen who lost his battle with cancer just last year.
Kim Volkman (former Love Addict) has taken up playing bass for X.
When available Cathy Green will sit in the drivers seat behind the drum kit, otherwise it will be left to John Hall to power it home.
There will be at least 2 X re-releases this year. Both At Home With You and Xaspirations will be available for the first time in Australia for many years.
I am also considering a limited edition E.P. of the two X singles - I dont Wanna Go Out / Waiting and Mother / Halfway Round The World.
Thank you to all that have given there love and support over the years.
Steve Lucas
This is a review from 1985 about At Home With You.
X is romance with a capital X.
This trio believes in nothing less than everything
Whether that be love, or disgust or self abuse.
There are no shades of grey or second thoughts
This is the sound of gut reactions X greatness
and they are truly a band that was born great is their capacity to present
the most prosaic of circumstances in the guise of high drama.
Much credit of course must go to the music and more especially
the way that X interacts. This is a power true the like
of which hasn’t been seen since The Who began.
There’s bass, drums and guitar, and nothing else is necessary
If only because the rawness and the intensity of the performance is so total
that there is no room for anything else.
Some people form groups to play music and some people form groups to make art
But X exists tovent the screaming noise of their collective personalities.
There is no other grroup like X, we can thank Christ for that…..
But ignore this record at your own folly!
Toby Creswell, Rolling Stone review of “At Home With You†1985
X as we are now... Cathy, Kim and Steve.
Review of X Live at The DING DONG LOUNGE Thurs 3rd of May
Perhaps it’s the light, (or lack thereof), perhaps it’s the booze, (plenty of), or perhaps it’s just wishful thinking, but everyone in the ultra packed Ding Dong Lounge looks just as good as they did in the eighties for the re-release of At Home With You. This goes double for X frontman Steve Lucas, as he mounts the stage dressed, to his eternal credit, in skin tight pants that appear to be made of plastic, and Johnny Reb motorcycle boots. He sports his tatts proudly, as he does his dyed red hair, and he carries a tray of twenty or so tequila shots, all of which he and drummer, the divine Cathy Green, will get through before the first encore.
“We’re a band called X. We’ve been around for a few decades. This is a song about punk rock,†says Lucas, just before the band launches into opening number Degenerate Boy, one of the wildest, most fun filled songs in the band’s catalogue, and, to a person, the entire audience is deviously, deliciously hooked from note one.
New bass man Kim Volkman is the perfect replacement for the sadly departed Ian Rilen, whose ghost, looking on from above, or perhaps below, would have liked what he saw. Volkman, like the rest of the band, is all age wearied integrity, intensity and backbone. He plays his bass from the bottom of his gut, with an expression somewhere between pain and pleasure telling us this means more than the world to him.
The fire is still burning brightly with X. This is no cynical money making exercise, and it’s apparent in everything about the night: from the ardour of the audience to the fact that the band played for nearly two and a half hours, from the passion and honesty of the music itself to the way Cathy Green sings along to all the songs, even though she doesn’t have to, (there’s not a mic anywhere near her).
When management turns the house lights on, Lucas is still on stage, a full five minutes after the band has stopped playing, the crowd still chanting as one for more, more, more. And I get the feeling they would have played all night if they could, or at least as long as the tequila and the fervour kept flowing. This is life affirming, beautiful stuff for an old punk like me, and I leave the venue with ears ringing and something very much like love flowing, aware that I have just had the privilege of experiencing something truly remarkable.
My oldest male friend, who is unswervingly gay, came to the show with me that night. “Even I’m in love with that drummer,†he told me.
Viva X.
XXX.
Tony McMahon
MyGen
Profile Generator