![\"\"](\"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 has since been announced as a headline act at the Mullum Roots Festival in Mullumbimby on July 11 and 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THIS interview was conducted in February ahead of Bluesfest, before the festival was cancelled, and is published here as part of our Easter long weekend coverage, with the band now set to headline the Mullum Roots Festival in July. A fill-in role that was meant to last two weeks turned into a 22-year career for […]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/LIU_Quad_poster_HR_96383.jpg\")