Punk band H-Block 101 was formed in the mid 90s by Karl Mautner out of Melbourne. Mautner decided the only way to find proper bandmates was to put up ads in local indie record stores Missing Link and Au-go-go Records looking for people to start a “Clash/Damned/Anti-Nowhere League sounding band”. Karl found himself with only a couple of applicants. In amongst them was drummer Dave Culliford ”a guy who knew just about everything there was about ‘77 punk”, and guitarist Brent Millhouse. While the initial line-up wouldn’t even last out a few weeks the basis of H-Block 101 was in place.
Despite a few more line-up changes and the occasional blow-up, eventually H-Block’s settled with Karl Mautner on vocals/guitar, Dave Culliford on drums, Rick Munro on guitar and Jason Mahony on bass. The band undertook their first live gig a mere month after forming at an inner-city pub, with only three original tracks and covers of The Clash, The Dammed and The Only Ones thrown in for good measure. A few months later the four-piece recorded their debut album ‘New Inventions’ at Thunderfield Studios, releasing 500 copies in late 1995.
A year later saw independent album number two, ‘No Room For Apathy’ with the lineup of Mautner, Munro, Millhouse returning on bass and Joe Piripitzi on drums (ex-The Living End). The band toured New Zealand with Smut as well as headlining their own gigs here at home. In 1999 they released the ‘Synergy’ EP, and by this time the major labels had realised something was up and came knocking. H-Block 101 signed with Universal Music and, soon after, released the anthemic ”Koka-Kolonisation” single (with new drummer Matt Bodiam)– which immediately became a favourite with Triple J listeners. Heading across the nation as support to Grinspoon and doing shows alongside Groove Terminator, H-Block 101 made their major label debut with the hard-hitting double album ‘Burning With The Times’ with legendary producer Steve James (The Clash, Sex Pistols) at the helm. Disbanding in 2005 H-Block 101 recorded six EP’s, three albums and appeared on numerous compilations. ‘No Room For Apathy’ was re-released in 2019 on the Dirtyflair Record Company label.
Members
Brent Millhouse (guitar/bass), Karl Mautner (vocals/guitar), Matt Bodiam (drums), Rick Munro (guitar), Dave Culliford (drums), Jason Mahony (bass), Joe Piripitzi (drums)
References
H-BLOCK 101 » IMC – International Music Concepts (imcmusic.net)
