Sympathy Orchesta
Union Hotel Adelaide
2003-09-25

01 IF
02 Coral Sea
03 Chomolunga
04.WW2
05 Boating ( In my sleep)
06 Danger
07 May in the Middle
08 SS2/Human Pinball
09 wire
10 13
11 Me Thing
12 You thing
13 Mystic Peanut
14 Dr Rhythm and his Def Cat Whitey
15 Upstart
16 Flex Em
17.encore
Famous Five/rumble /Air is Diffd ? /Chairman Mode /india.

Back in 1999 in Adelaide, the best band playing 100% original instrumental fusion/ rock material was the Sympathy Orchestra. Led by Julian Barnett, composer and guitarist, they played to tiny audiences at local pubs for around 25 years or so.

Julian was incredibly unambitious. He was originally in a band called Billy and the Redfins , who did actually tour in Europe and even opened triple j radio in Adelaide with a live set,but it appears that he didn't like the experience. He was seemingly content to stay in Adelaide, doing a lot of bushwalking in very remote places ( he once displayed his legs to us and they had been cut to pieces by vegetation ) , drinking of scotch around bits fires and getting ripped on Coopers ales and reefer during gigs..

The band had huge potential , but due to various factors, they never did any touring and they often seemed to slip off the radar for years. They had two notable residencies , firstly at the Union Hotel, where they attracted a very strange combination of derelicts, street people, artists and teachers , but never more then about 30 - tops !.

They then moved to the Territorian, which was hard to get to and nowhere near as nice a venue . They attracted an even smaller audience there ( probably it was too hard for their local audience to travel to the venue ) and were let go after about a year. I saw them a few times after that, but Juliian often did not play with the same drive and they largely ceased to feature the extended electric jamming that they practiced in the old days.

They released 3 albums over the years, but for me their best years were from 2000 to 2005. I did see them once at the Governor Hindmarsh where Julian was joined by two of their original players and they turned out to be musicians that pushed the music into the stratosphere, but of course, muggins didn't bring his recording setup that night !.

After the Territorian residency was finished, they ditched keyboard player Ray Smith and replaced him was a second guitarist, the music took a more acoustic direction and lost much of its appeal to me. The band soldiered on and off for another 20 years , with occasional shows, but they were somewhat hit and miss affairs .
I bumped into Julian a few months before his death and he told me he had been having some health issues , a few months later he was dead.

I've been sitting on these recordings for many years , not wanting to release then as they might have cause offence, but now the band would appear to be no more, its time a few more people heard Julians guitar work live. Some of these tracks are 10-12 minutes long, really nice stuff, with soaring solos , when he was on song, he was up there with some of the best.
RIP Julian Barnett, It was a privilege to know you.


Julian Barnett (lead guitar), John Appleby (drums), Istvan Nemeth (bass), Ray Smith (keyboards).
Sony D6 - Sony ECM 150 MIC > maxell XL11 tape> mac pro edit sound edit 16 > cd> extract to hd> adobe audition minor adjustments 2026> xact flac
GGB production

you can still buy the music from the last two albums here
https://sympathyorchestra1.bandcamp.com/

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