In 1989 the world was a different place. Bob Hawke was half-way through his third term in office, confident of his ability to fend off the rising caucus popularity of Paul Keating; in Victoria, the Cain government were yet to feel the political brunt of the failure of the Tri-Continental Bank. The Australian musical landscape r

n a sunny Tuesday afternoon I head down to The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda to speak to Lincoln McLennon and Roderick Kempton – aka Link and Wally Meanie – to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of The Meanies’ twenty year tenure in the Australian independent music scene.