The Apartments

Based in Sydney, Peter Milton Walsh and his band, The Apartments, are acclaimed by critics and fans alike all over the world. Peter Milton Walsh formed The Apartments in Brisbane, 1978, and left Australia for New York a few years later, and relocated to England when The Apartments were signed by legendary English record label Rough Trade. But before leaving Australia, Walsh made his mark on the Brisbane scene. With a reputation that preceded him, Walsh was sought out by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, members of one of Brisbane’s most critically adored bands, The Go-Betweens. Having been offered an 8-album deal by Beserkley Records (home to Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers), Forster and McLennan asked Walsh to join The Go-Betweens as their fourth member in late 1978. The union was, however, short-lived, as the deal with Beserkley fell through. Grant McLennan famously said of their different personalities, “Walsh is night, we are day. We’re sun, he’s rain.”


« The Return Of The Hypnotist ». That’s what you’d be likely to loudly proclaim on the occasion of the release of « drift », second album of Australia’s legendary The Apartments.

On this first three song EP (released in 1979 by Able Label, a record company founded by the Go Betweens), Peter Walsh revealed his dark and delicate world, with songs like ‘Help’, ‘Nobody Like You’ or ‘Refugee’.

Despite an on and off and nomadic career (from disenchantment and renunciation to the obsession of perfection), despite some behind the curtain chapters, Peter Walsh’s compositions never left us, since « the evening visits…and stays for years » (1985), their first LP composed in Brisbane inside a disused factory.

The Apartments are not back, they’ve actually always been with us. The handful of French concerts Peter Walsh made in 2009, with members of the band 49 Swimming Pools (thanks to journalist Emmanuel Tellier’s passion and right words) can only confirm this impression.

« Drift » was universally praised by the critic when released in 1993. Composed in London where Peter Walsh then lived, it is a collection of unclassified dark pieces, a timeless masterpiece, the remarkable class of a songwritter, the obsessional record of an aching mind. Sold out for many years, it became necessary to release this one again. Three unreleased songs are present on this remastered version (tape recorded demos from 1986: ‘You Wanna Cry, STOP, I’m the Staying Kind’, which were composed as a response to the rumour saying that Dusty Springfield was going back on stage.

Peter wanted her to appropriate this song). When you listen to the songs today, you can hear the very same emotion than eighteen years earlier. The energy and the pride which comes out of the compositions and the ardour present in ‘What’s Left of Your Nerve’ make these songs all the more topical and priceless.