UPON the death of Michael Gudiniski earlier this year Screaming Jets co-founder Grant Walmsley told of how the Mushroom boss was irate at news the band had signed with INXS manager Chris Murphy's rooArt label in 1990.
"He grabbed our producer Steve James, who did our first two albums," Walmsley told the Newcastle Herald. "Steve was horrified.
"Gudinksi told Steve: 'How dare you f--king let them [the Jets] sign with Murphy? I was gonna f--king sign them."
It proved a masterstroke for Murphy and his fledgling rooArt label. The Screaming Jets debut album All For One, released in 1991, would peak at No.2 on the ARIA charts and spawn their most iconic song Better.
But in the long run signing with rooArt proved problematic for Newcastle's hard-rock legends. By 1996 rooArt had been bought out by BMG, which was later consumed by Sony.
To this day The Screaming Jets earn nothing from the sales of All For One and Sony showed no interest in reissuing the album to celebrate 30 years.
Therefore surviving original members Dave Gleeson (vocals) and Paul Woseen (bass) decided to re-record the album with current members Jimi Hocking (guitar), Scott Kingman (guitar) and Cam McGlinchey (drums).
"We went to Sony to see if they'd be involved in helping us promote the whole thing, but I don't know if anyone knows where the masters are anymore after 30 years and different record companies," Gleeson says.
"That was the culture through the '80s and '90s. The young bands went in and got shafted.
"At 23 years old I didn't even know what 'in perpetuity' meant. Now I know it means forever."
While songs like C'mon, Better and Stop The World have nestled their way into the collective muscle memory of The Jets after three decades of live performances, re-recording songs wasn't simple.
The pandemic and state border restrictions meant the band was split between Adelaide, Victoria and Byron Bay. Gleeson says that meant The Jets had to follow "the kids" by recording their individual parts separately.
"We found out we probably f--ked around a lot in the studio over the years," he says.
"It only took me three and a half hours to do the vocals, while it took me three days last time when we first did it.
"It was something we could do without having to create stuff, in terms of creating new songs. That really relies on a bunch of us being in the same room."
The new version of All For One sticks close to the original, barring less reverb on the drums and an added lead guitar break on C'mon.
"We've played pretty faithful to the original album because people get pissed off if you start messing around with their favourite songs," he says.
However, the re-recording process led to Gleeson changing his opinion of the closing song The Only One, which he once described as "a throwaway track."
"I was in my early 20s and the first line is, 'is there such a thing as senility?'," he says. "I didn't think I'd reach anywhere near senility, but as you get older you think, 'well I guess there is.'
"So you've just got to keep your mind working as much as you can."
The original All For One was recorded in Paradise Studios in Woolloomooloo just down the road from where The Jets played notorious residencies at King Cross' Kardomah Cafe.
Coogee's iconic Selina's is another important venue in The Screaming Jets story. It was there that the proudly working-class lads won a band competition, cheered on by four busloads of Novocastrian fans who made the trip south.
At 23 years old I didn't even know what 'in perpetuity' meant. Now I know it means forever.
Dave Gleeson
"We were a gang," Gleeson says. "We loved meeting people like record company people who'd ask where we're from, and we'd say 'we're from Newy' and they would all take a step back.
"We played that up to the hilt. We had our own language.
"There was one particular time when we were supporting a band called Kings Of The Sun and they wouldn't move their drum kit for us at the Kardomah Cafe, which was a really small venue.
"I fully remember Grant [Walmsley] almost got into a fight with their drummer. It was like 'you don't mess with the Jets'."
The Screaming Jets new version of All For One is released on Friday.
