Skip to content

Excerpt from Stephen Loomes’ unpublished novel

We were just like dreamers
Dreaming, in the sun
Situations ever-changing,
Changing everyone.

We were just like lovers
Lying B everyone
Wait till night time covers
Hiding, everyone.

Ian Rilen
Lyrics from a Sardine song

He took me one day to the place he’d found to live in Cook Road, Centennial Park. At that time there were still grand houses, Federation Houses as they were called in that street. It was a time before the incursion of what Ian Rilen would call, ‘the unit people’.

(more…)

The Daily Truth

Jack Marx

A death that has been very lightly reported in the Australian media is that of Ian Rilen, who lost his life to cancer just 12 days ago. Ian was the original bass player for Rose Tattoo, and author of Bad Boy for Love, a song that tends to get wheeled out whenever some advertising creative wants to show that the product being sold is as tough as nails.  Read the full article on Sydney Morning Herald

Farewell to Ian Rilen

T J Honeysuckle, Last Tram Home, 2nd November, 2006

My older brother was 16 in 1976, and an early fan of punk rock. He would go visit his new friends and bring home cassettes of local alternative radio station 3RRR- their signal wasn’t strong enough to pick up out where we lived- and I’d sneak into his room and borrow them. On one tape, sandwiched between the Boys Next Door doing “A Catholic Skin” and the Little Murders’ “Things Will Be Different” was X doing “Delinquent Cars”. That clanging guitar, the bouncing bass line, the strange lyrics in that deadpan voice…I was intrigued and got hold of more, a whole album’s worth in fact, including “Present”, “Suck Suck”, and the anthemic “ I Don’t Wanna Go Out”. Read the full article at Last Tram Home.

Ian Rilen and The Love Addicts @ The Vanguard, Sydney (09/02/06)

spindoctor, Faster Louder, 15th February, 2006

There was no way in hell I was going to miss the chance to catch Ian Rilen and The Love Addicts on one of their rare forays north to Sydney. This trip saw them out of their familiar surrounds of Surry Hills/Darlinghurst pubs and joining the dinner and show circuit at The Vanguard. Read the full article on Faster Louder.

Ian Rilen – Booze to Blame

Houseboy, Faster Louder, 27th April, 2005

If Gene Vincent were alive today, and not at the birth of rock ‘n roll as we know it, he’d arguably be recording songs like Booze to Blame. Read the full article on Faster Louder.

Rockbrat Remembers: Hell To Pay

The Rockbrat Blog, 20th August, 2010

Hell To Pay were a Melbourne band who existed from around 1991 to 1993. They were, to coin an often over used phrase, ‘the real deal’. Read the full article on Rockbrat

Auto Draft