Schnell Fenster
Adelaide University Union

It is the sacred duty of university unions to promote bands before their time. In 1975 an unknown band called Split Enz played to thirty-seven people in the Matthew Flinders Theatre and in December 1988 Schnell Fenster, presently the wrong half of the Enz, played to little more than a hundred punters at the Adelaide Uni Union.

None of this would ruffle the confidence of Phil Judd, composer, singer, guitarist, trumpeter and photo- realist painter. He’s seen both ends of the show business and has a habit of leaving bands just when they have a megahit to deal with.

When they first toured their Mental Notes album in 1975, Split Enz were a strange spectacle. At that stage Roxy Music and Bowie were still in full glitter while the Enz were wearing skewwhiff pastel suits and·black toecap shoes. When glam hair fetishism was reaching new heights, Judd and Fenster drummer Noel Crombie (then percussionist and bird whistle soloist) were into tonsorial mutilation not even their mothers could love.

Like Crombie, Judd came through Auckland’s Elam art school and in the early days of Split Enz his was the distinctly Marat/Sade influence. Judd compositions like Mental Notes, Titus and Time for a Change marked the Split Enz sound – layers of Eddie Raynor’s keyboards all glooped through echo with plaintive vocal oyerdubs. It sounded like everyone and no-one and attracted Roxy’s Phil Manzanera enough for him to produce the remixed London release, Second Thoughts.

But when the Finns started to come to the fore with their neo-Beatle melodies and Split Enz finally got the recognition they deserved, Judd headed for the garret and ‘solo projects.’ Never acrimonious, the departure simply marked a pattern which repeated itself after Judd’s early 80’s band, the Swingers, scored one of the biggest singles in Australian pop with Counting the Beat. Again, Judd called it a day, returning to the studio a year or two later for a solo album which vanished without a ripple.

Schnell Fenster consists of original Enz members Crombie and Nigel Griggs and guitarist Michael den Elzen. Opinions vary as to whether the group’s name translates as quick window or fast glass. But either way it’s quirky and the music is certainly nobody’s Krauted House.

In a tight, loud, effortlessly managed set at Adelaide Uni the Fensters played to the first of the faithful from the Sound of Trees debut album. The sound is an amalgam of Squeeze, Rupert Hine, even Robert Palmer when he was looking for clues with Gary Numan, but, as always with Judd, it is entirely idiosyncratic.

Crombie, a proficient drummer these days – no more washboard and tambourine shenanigans for him – counts the beat with Griggs on bass while Michael den Elzen pours on the incendiary guitar. From the funk of Love-Hate Relationship to the spacey Sound of Trees and little-deuce-coupe rhythms of White Flag, Schnell Fenster play great rock.

Judd, no longer shaven, looks dangerously Wildean with his thick side-parted bob haircut. The publicity shots show the band wearing checks without balances but in concert it was all late 60’s retro. Not your Hoodoo Gurus Jughead hippie but something altogether more psychedelicate. Varilights splashed across the heavily textured backcloth while den Elzen extruded plangent guitar riffs to blend with Judd’s eerie vocal.

On the verge of falsetto he scatted through Skin the Cat and Run a Mile. Then after swinging back to Counting the Beat, the Fensters headed home on Never Stop with one foot on the wahwah pedal and Judd’s trumpet heading convincingly into Miles Davis territory before being hauled back by the band’s relentless rock beat.

It would be good to be able to herald Schnell Fenster as next year’s flavour but that might not be what Judd, the reluctant rock star, has in mind. All the more reason to catch them while you can. They are a window worth watching as a hundred lucky people in Adelaide will also tell you.

“Reich and Roll” The Adelaide Review, No.59, January, 1989, p.20.