Peter Rechter – Tol-Puddle Martyrs

Peter Rechter takes us back to the garage rock scene of 1960s Australia from his early days with Peter & the Silhouettes to their evolution into the Tol-Puddle Martyrs. Peter shares insights into the creation of “Claudette Jones” and “Time Will Come” and his growing musical legacy:

Peter Rechter – Tol-Puddle Martyrs interview

At that particular time the Vietnam War was well and truly on. Australia was involved and there was national service. The way it worked was, if my birth date was drawn out of the barrel, I would have to go to serve in Vietnam. I didn’t want to do that and my birthday didn’t come out thank goodness. But my way of saying I didn’t want to be involved was by writing the song ‘Time Will Come’. It was possibly my first protest song and I know that there was a huge change from Peter & The Silhouettes from girls and cars to death and destruction and wanting to get away from all of that. But that’s how I felt. I guess, yeah, I was frightened. I really didn’t want to be involved. To write ‘Time Will Come’, I sat at home at the piano and wrote the song, the lyrics, melody and the riff. I wanted the riff to be dark and dissonant, which it was.

Peter Rechter – The Strange Brew interview