🎸 Remixes from the Canberra Irish Club gig
Featuring the improbable origins of “Hypoid Boy” and “Road to Hell”
The Chancres have once again displayed perfect retrovision, specifically back to July 2022, when they performed at the Canberra Irish Club. It was a typical mid‑winter evening: heaters humming, glasses clinking, and the band playing with the sort of unshowy competence that tends to confuse people expecting theatrics.
The latest two tracks from that night have now been remixed in London at SonicaX Studios, Stoke Newington, by punk busker, guitar thrasher and habitual audio fiddler Little John Guelfi. His approach was restrained. No reinvention, no grand air guitar gestures. He simply removed some of the accumulated pub haze and allowed the original performance to be heard without the interference of nearby conversations about raffle tickets.
“Hypoid Boy”
This song owes its existence to a long‑standing Chancres supporter who reacted to chocolate and cheese with a level of agitation normally associated with malfunctioning machinery. The band coined the term Hypoid—a portmanteau of hyperactive and paranoid—to describe his condition. His catchphrases, delivered with great urgency, were “the cops aren’t coming” and “your wheels aren’t turning.” He later became a Flight Sergeant in the RAAF, which suggests that career pathways remain open to all.
“Road to Hell”
This track emerged from a domestic paving incident. Vocalist Clive once laid a substantial number of paving stones at the ancestral Smith residence on Loftus Street, Yarralumla. After announcing to his father Rodney that he would “finish the job tomorrow,” Rodney—devout and not inclined toward leniency—responded with the well‑known admonition:
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
The Chancres converted this feedback into a song, demonstrating that artistic output can indeed arise from mild parental disappointment. The image makes Clive resemble Keanu Reeves, although at the time his ‘do had a closer resemblance to Prince Valiant.
The mixes
Guelfi’s London mixes maintain the unique character of the original single take live recordings, now available on The Chancres’ SoundCloud. Watch this Chancres Wide Wide World of Web site for more developments, unto Triple J Unearthed, or Exhumed, and the long-awaited Antipodean tour of LJG (just joshing, busking does not pay that well).