![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/LIU_BW_MentalsOnaHi_86667.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very even spread across all nine albums. Once the snowball started, it just kept rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
That balance became a defining feature of the band\u2019s catalogue.<\/p>\n
The band released 22 Top 40 hits across their career.<\/p>\n
It now stretches across decades and includes around 25 singles.<\/p>\n
Fifty years on, pulling a setlist together means working through that history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cherry-pick from those, plus some album tracks and obscure ones we haven\u2019t played for 45 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will recognise almost every song we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are still certain songs that come with an expectation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t help but play the obvious ones like \u2018Nips Are Getting Bigger,\u2019 \u2018Too Many Times,\u2019 and \u2018Live It Up\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Doherty is hearing those songs differently now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those good pop songs,\u201d he said of Live It Up.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I\u2019m playing them again, I\u2019m appreciating how well-constructed they were.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, those recordings reflected a changing industry.<\/p>\n
The band began with a stripped-back sound before moving into a more polished style in the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the mid-80s, big record companies were spending a lot of money on making records and film clips,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got weighed down by the commercial part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The difference is most obvious on stage.<\/p>\n
Early shows were unpredictable and often chaotic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany times,\u201d he said, when asked if he had ever had to dodge a beer bottle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember dodging full bottles of beer smashing on the back wall.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On one occasion, the band found itself playing to a hostile crowd at a bikey festival in Victoria.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d had an AC\/DC cover band playing for three hours before us, and they didn\u2019t want to tolerate our pop songs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were getting beer cans thrown at us.\u201d<\/p>\n Adapting on the fly was the only way through.<\/p>\n \u201cWe redirected the playlist to more blues-oriented stuff and we got away with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In contrast, recent performances have been far more controlled, playing large festival stages with consistent sound systems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s chalk and cheese,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done shows like St Kilda Festival in front of a huge crowd, and a lot of young people were singing our songs back at us.\u201d<\/p>\n That shift is coming from audiences who were not around when the songs were first released.<\/p>\n The O\u2019Doherty brothers left the band at the end of 1999, though the group continued in different forms over the years.<\/p>\n Coming back to the songs now, O\u2019Doherty is hearing them differently.<\/p>\n Some of the strongest memories remain tied to specific places.<\/p>\n The Northern Rivers has long been one of them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been playing up there since the early days \u2014 Ballina, Bangalow, Byron, Lismore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt always felt like you were on holiday even though we were working.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we probably smoked too much pot while we were doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Mental As Anything will plat at the Mullum Roots Festival in Mullumbimby on July 11 and 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A fill-in role that was meant to last two weeks turned into a 22-year career for Pete O\u2019Doherty, who is now back playing the songs that helped define Mental As Anything as the band marks 50 years. The band\u2019s 50-year milestone is also being marked with the release of a feature documentary, Live It Up: […]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/LIU_Quad_poster_HR_96383.jpg\")