Vale Lobby Loyde

It was scarcely over two months ago that I wrote an obituary for another giant of the Australian music industry - Billy Thorpe.

A name that will forever be linked to Thorpe is that of Lobby Loyde.

Loyde was at one stage a member of Thorpe's band, The Aztecs, and is the guitarist who is credited with having taught Thorpe how to beef up his playing.

Thorpe learned the guitar relatively late in his career, being merely the vocalist for the first few incarnations of The Aztecs. Thorpe wrote in one of his books that he was forced to learn the guitar when a guitarist dropped out, leaving him to carry on as guitarist and vocalist in the band at relatively short notice. Not long after this, Loyde joined the Aztecs, and is widely credited with having encouraged Thorpe to adopt the loud playing style that he was known for.

Loyde left soon after, but Thorpe and The Aztecs rocketed into their "purple patch" as it were, culminating with their now legendary set at the Sunbury music festival.

Loyde went his own way and formed a band called The Coloured Balls, which churned a psychedelic classic in the album, Ball Power, issued in 1973. This was a harder edged version of psychedelia than that which had done the rounds of Europe and North America, and is said to have pre-empted punk in it's intensity a good 3 years prior.

Sadly, however, they soon became the band of choice for Melbourne's then-burgeoning skinhead scene which, themselves, sprang out of the sharps scene. Loyde was not comfortable with this and fled to the UK where he developed a cult following, wrote a science fiction novel (since lost) and recorded a soundtrack album for the novel.

The master tapes of this album were released in Australia in 2007.

Loyde returned to Australia and briefly played bass with Rose Tattoo. He rejoined the band on guitar in 2006 after the death of the late Pete Wells. He was near terminal with cancer at this stage.

Tattoo vocalist Angry Anderson said this about Loyde, when he was inducted into the ARIA hall of fame:

More than anyone else, Lobby helped create the Australian guitar sound. Long before Angus (Young) or Billy Thorpe or the Angels or Rose Tattoo. Lobby inspired Australian bands to step forward and play as loud and aggressively as they could. People are still trying to copy it today.

Incidentally, Rose Tattoo have not had a good time of late. Wells himself died in 2006, and so did original bass player, Ian Rilen.

But anyway, it's a sad day for Australian rock and roll.

RIP.

All on for young and old

Honestly, the excitement never ends over at Action Skeptics.

If it's not one of Akusai's rivetting stories, it's something else.

Here is an absolute ripper of a yarn about Warriorschool - a cult within the Bunjinkan Budo Taijutsu school of martial arts. Magus even makes one of his rare appearances to regale us with the unsavoury part of the story - the bit where he was nearly indoctrinated.

The funny thing is that all of us know a story of people who've gotten a little "too into" their martial art of choice. Whether it's the meat heads at school who wanted new and more efficient ways of beating up the nerds, or the nerds themselves who end up forsaking their old buddies and spending too much time swotting up on the Tzus, Lao and Sun.

Anyway, Warriorschool appears to be as wacko as you get - a bunch of survivalists out to ensure that there is still a segment of society paranoid that we'll all turn to the person next to us, eventually, and crack their heads open like eggs.

In the middle of the story, a couple of bloggers purporting to be family lawyers representing the head of Warriorschool's wife make an appearance in the comments section asking for more information from Akusai and Magus. The timing is impeccable, although I worry that these guys are looking to serve some sort of defo suit on the Action Skeptics boys.

I found it a bit like how corporate cults like Landmark ingratiate themselves upon organisations in order to squeeze bucks out of the employees.

Anyway, this is their index page.

Part 5 promises to be incredible.

Dikkii's financial tips #2: Why are there so many different bank accounts?

Welcome to Dikkii's financial tips.

This is a series where I attempt to provide some sort of guidance to financial matters without breaching the Corporations Act by actually providing advice.

Today, we were going to look at bank fees, but they're going to make more sense if, before we do, we look briefly at bank accounts first. It is vitally important, that in this day and age, if you want to cut your bank fees, you must know what bank accounts you need, and what fee structure they're on. Only then should you be addressing the issue of what level of interest you'd like to generate.

Part of most people's misconceptions about bank fees come from the fact that they have entirely the wrong set-up for their accounts in the first place. This blogger has a weird and wonderful bank account set-up - if truth be told, I have a couple more bank accounts than I need, but then again, I don't pay any account keeping or transaction fees, so there's no loss there.

This post aims to have a look at why different bank accounts evolved, and what their purposes are.

We're going to look at deposit accounts, first. These are a bit more straightforward than lending accounts, and are what most people start their lives off with first. And we'll try to cover off on the main types:

• Transaction and cheque accounts
• Term deposits
• High interest savings accounts
• Cash management accounts
• Cash management trusts
• 24 hour accounts & 11AM accounts
• Online accounts

There are other types of bank accounts out there, but these are the main ones for personal investors.

1. Transaction and cheque accounts

These evolved from the old savings accounts and the old cheque accounts, which don't really exist anymore except in archaic, inconvenient and costly formats, such as passbook accounts.

Transaction accounts exist to provide day-to-day access to money - a sort of entry and exit point into and out of the banking system. Without one of these, you have very few ways to access your cash as and when you need it.

These days, you're sunk if you don't have ATM and EFTPOS access - which is what these accounts aim to provide. Most of them also provide a cheque facility on the side, should you need one and this is one reason why cheque accounts in their old form have largely disappeared. The cheque accounts of today are merely transaction accounts with a cheque facility.

Also, like most of the accounts in this list, transaction accounts should have phone and internet access.

Most transaction accounts pay minimal interest, if any. They are designed for transacting, nothing more. Keeping large wads of cash in these is usually a transitory thing.

2. Term deposits

These are pretty much the only type of deposit account that still exists intact from the "good old days". Essentially, a term deposit pays a fixed rate of interest for a fixed time frame.

There is pretty much no access to a term deposit until it matures - if you do, expect to pay an interest adjustment, which is normally unfavourable, and an administration fee which could be as high as $50. One should really only consider term deposits if they need to lock away a sum of cash for a short to medium term time frame with no requirement to access any of the funds. What if you need these funds in a hurry?

Another thing to be aware of when using term deposits. You are having a bet that interest rates will not increase over the time frame that your funds are invested. If interest rates increase, you have no one else to blame other than yourself if you start moaning about better rates that might be available in the future. This is a risk that you are taking when locking into one of these products.

3. High interest savings accounts (HISAs)

These appeared in the early nineties as a way of getting depositors to save. Most of these pay a bonus rate of interest should you satisfy some criteria.

It's interesting to note that they evolved from a specialised account which was known by some providers as the "Christmas Club Account". These were highly restrictive, yet effective HISAs.

The most common criteria appears to be a requirement that there be at least one deposit per month and no withdrawals in order to satisfy the eligibility requirements for bonus interest, but some also have account minimums as well. Because there is significant variance on this, be sure to read the fine print.

HISAs appear to have lost a significant degree of popularity in recent years - mainly due to the advent of the online account. For small amounts, the interest earned doesn't appear to reward the onerous bonus interest requirements by comparison with online acounts.

4. Cash management accounts (CMAs)

Cash management accounts evolved as an all-in-one solution designed to take care of large amounts of cash with higher interest but a full range of access, i.e. ATM, EFTPOS, internet, phone and cheque.

Normally, CMAs can have higher fees applying to them if their balances fall below a certain amount. Also, they usually only pay interest above certain balances. But this (interest) is usually quite high compared to transaction accounts.

CMAs have also been losing popularity in recent years as people realise that using a combination of a transaction account and an online account yields similar levels of convenience with minimal extra disruption.

Banks appear to be realising this, and some have started issuing more sophisticated CMAs that are targetting this market - these CMAs are probably more accurately termed online accounts with better access functionality. However, it remains to be seen whether these enhanced CMAs are successful.

5. Cash management trusts (CMTs)

A bit of a red herring - these are not bank accounts at all, but a special kind of managed fund that only invests in cash assets.

But given that most of them these days appear to have enhanced access facilities such as ATM, EFTPOS, internet, phone and cheque, and pay market rates of interest in arrears, quite a lot of CMT users use them in place of CMAs.

Be aware that fees are usually implied rather than explicitly charged, and that significant minimum balances are normally required. Also, like all managed funds, none of them come with a bank guarantee.

6. 24 hour accounts & 11AM accounts

These are extremely sophisticated bank accounts for people who need to have extremely large amounts of cash on hand at short notice.

They normally don't have any access methods, save for credit to and debit from a nominated account, however, they do pay top rates of interest and they generally have multiple storage facilities within the account - for example, you can generally designate a portion of the funds invested to be locked away in several term deposits within the account as well as having cash on call - as well as sweep facilities and consolidated reporting.

Seriously high minimums apply with these, and most retail investors will never require use of these.

7. Online accounts

These were the banking innovation of the 1990s. Basically, these pay a high rate of interest on all funds invested, and normally charge no account keeping or transaction fees.

This blogger regularly used to breathe sighs of sheer amazement as these accounts brazenly fought it out for market share with interest rates that were regularly over and above the official cash rate set by the Reserve Bank.

The catch is that you need to have a nominated account (normally a transaction account) set up for credits into and debits out of the online account, but with the advent of enhanced CMAs, this could be coming to an end.

It's also notable that some online accounts are getting more sophisticated themselves. This blogger saw one offered by a credit union that offered multiple storage facilities, much like in a 24 hour account. Unfortunately, some of the attraction of these accounts is in their simplicity - so it remains to be seen if this kind of innovation is successful.


Banks offer plenty of other types of deposit accounts as well, these are just the main ones. Others that you might come across are childrens' accounts, pensioner (deeming) accounts, Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) and others.

Also, we've really only looked at accounts for personal use - there are plenty for business use as well.

In my next post, I plan to tackle fees, although I might switch order yet again and put my case study in. Or do cheques.

--
Dikkii's financial tips index

Standard but necessary disclaimer: This is not advice. Only a complete idiot would think that any of this constituted advice. It's not even vaguely reasonable to consider this to be advice. If you are in any doubt as to the content of this, see a good, independent financial adviser immediately. They do exist.

Dikkii's financial tips index

Welcome to Dikkii's financial tips.

This is an index post for a new series where I attempt to provide some sort of guidance to financial matters without breaching the Corporations Act by actually providing advice.


1. A brief history of bank fees
2. Why are there so many different types of bank accounts?
3. How do I reduce my bank fees?
4. A case study in banking
5. How the hell do cheques work?
6. Risk and inflation
7. Superannuation. What is it?
8. Shopping around for superannuation
9. Liquidity
10. Managed funds
11. Retirement income streams


This is designed to be a series for the layman, and is really only relevant to Australian readers, although from time to time, I may include stuff of relevance to other users as well. I'll try to keep this index post updated and I'll include a link to it in the sidebar.

I'd also like to point out that none of this is advice, it is merely information only, and certainly may not be appropriate to your personal circumstances. If you need advice, speak to an independent financial adviser on a fee-for-service basis.

This blogger used to be a financial planner and still works in the financial industry. I do not provide advice as part of my job at the moment, and am not authorised to do so. It goes without say that I will not be taking commissions for any recommendations that I make - partially because I have no such arrangements in place, but also because I simply will not be making any recommendations.

Also, if you would like me to look at a particular financial area, please let me know. I'm always open to suggestions.

Enjoy.

Standard but necessary disclaimer: This is not advice. Only a complete idiot would think that any of this constituted advice. It's not even vaguely reasonable to consider this to be advice. If you are in any doubt as to the content of this, see a good, independent financial adviser immediately. They do exist.

A blast from the past: Simple Minds

The Apple iPod stands to revolutionise everyone's personal stereo experience. But not this blogger yet. He's not yet sold on the way that iTunes catalogues tunes on his hard disk, nor with the proprietary format that Apple uses for music files - he's still on mp3 and prefers it that way. aac doesn't really allow for file sharing, which is today's version of lending your CD out to your friends so that they can have a listen.

Also, I think that there is more to follow on the solid state memory front - a hard disk means moving parts, and it is this blogger's view that as flash memory gets better and better, the need to carry round a hard disk drive - for that is what the iPod is, essentially, will get less and less.

In the meantime, however, the fact that CD stackers are now redundant is a plus. This ties in well with my post.

I went and saw Simple Minds, INXS and Arrested Development recently.

Not really my choice of gig, but having said that, I enjoyed myself immensely.

Arrested Development were good, and Speech sings a mean rendition of 'Redemption song', however, without crucial early member, Headliner, I felt a bit cheated.

INXS did quite well, even though it was clear that singer JD Fortune was about to lose his voice. Fortune has a voice that is quite close to the late Michael Hutchence's and they did reasonably well. My complaints from their set mainly centres around the fact that apart from 'Don't change' (off Shabooh Shoobah) and 'Original sin' (off The Swing) they didn't do any more earlier stuff.

But Simple Minds.

You know, I wasn't really a Simple Minds fan back in the day. I remember thinking that 'Love song' was pretty cool, and also 'Someone somewhere in summertime', but I wasn't really prepared for the ripsnorter of a live set that these guys put in.

I told my travelling companions that they would start with 'Love song' and finish with 'Waterfront', and sure enough they did, although, I checked their set list online, which had them doing 'Alive and kicking' last which I'm sure isn't right. Also, I was a bit surprised to find them leaving off 'Promised you a miracle' and 'Someone somewhere in summertime'.

But all that aside, what I remember of Simpler Minds was largely of their earlier New Wave period where they were largely synth heavy. Live they're still a very much ROCK!! proposition.

And even though only Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill remain from the original line-up - although drummer Mel Gaynor pretty much qualifies as he was in the 'classic' line-up - I still thought they were the real deal.

Incidentally, Burchill has aged disgracefully.

So I went back through the bargain bins and picked myself up a copy of The Best of Simple Minds together with Early Gold - a compilation from their first 6 albums.

It's really quite revealing the change that happened to this band.

Early Gold starts with two songs from their first album - Life in a Day, and these songs suggest both a punk and glam rock influence as well as an underlying suspicion that this band should not have been in the studio at this point in their careers.

Reel to Real Cacophony is represented by three tracks - and these show a darker edge, most notably a heavy Joy Division influence in the tracks 'Changeling' and 'Premonition'.

Empires and Dance appears to have a huge almost industrial feel - and given that this was the heyday for bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, this is hardly so very surprising. the 3 tracks represented give a great idea of what this album must sound like.

Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call were recorded and released at the same time, and are well represented by 3 tracks on Early Gold. The Best of includes a fourth track - 'Theme for great cities' (from Sister Feelings Call) which is an instrumental. There appears to still be a proto-industrial influence here, although it's waning. The overall feel is terribly typical New Wave, which is really where audiences started noticing this band. 'Love song' and the almost funky 'Sweat in bullet' are off Sons and Fascination and are pretty good examples of the work of this period.

The last album represented by the early compilation is New Gold Dream - which appears to be pretty much pure New Romantic. There is a fairly obvious Cure influence showing itself here, as well as an overt Roxy Music one, and the more polished stadium rock sound that they ended up with over the late 80s is starting to exert itself - notably on 'New gold dream (81-82-83-84)' and 'Glittering prize'.

The Best of is divided into two disks. The second one is pretty much the nineties onwards, which is kinda interesting, as it shows quite well how the band managed to completely lose their way.

The first disk has some overlap with Early Gold, but given that Early Gold includes album cuts, and not the hated single edits of The Best of, this is not too bad. It isn't in chronological order, though.

Sparkle in the Rain is the next album represented by these compilations. The tracks chosen for The Best of - 'Waterfront', 'Up on the catwalk' and 'Speed your love to me' - show a very much rock edge where the stadium rock feel is starting to gain traction. It appears that this was the last album where Kerr sounded like a strangled cat, as by the next album, his voice had been cleaned up immeasurably.

It's probably Keith Forsey's fault that the band went into free- fall, quality wise from about this point. On the soundtrack to the movie, The Breakfast Club, their contribution, produced and co-written by Forsey, 'Don't you (forget about me)' changed their sound to production line stadium rock and led to the first of many unfavourable U2 comparisons.

Their next album, Once Upon A Time was really them milking this teat and probably the only redeeming tracks, 'Sanctify yourself' and 'Ghostdancing' really give an idea of what the band were really capable of during this period.

After this, the band's stuff is a mixed hotchpotch of ideas half-baked and not really properly realised. Although, I am reliably informed that their two most recent albums are a return to form of some sort.

The good thing about all of this, is that you can take Early Gold and The Best Of and create a bitching playlist for your iPod.

Blogger and comment emails

Not sure if anyone else is copping this, but over the last 48 hours, Blogger hasn't been good about emailing me whenever I get a comment.

I estimate that about half a dozen comments didn't make it into my inbox.

Is this happening to anyone else?

Edit: 22 April 2007 - Something I didn't notice when I published this is that it's Dikkii's Diatribe's 100th post. Somewhat fitting that this blog's 100th post would be Blogger glitch.

Frustration

Here's the story.

Late last week, my online stockbroker sends me an email to say that they would be handling the upcoming float (IPO) of a particular company whose business model I respect greatly and would very much like to own shares in.

I immediately rang my margin lender and asked if they could approve me investing in the float. They said that they would pass on the pdf copy of the float prospectus to their risk area and let me know in the next working day or so if this would be OK.

On Tuesday of this week, the company in question started getting applications via an electronic form online at my stockbroker's website.

Still no word from the margin lender.

I learned today that the electronic application facility for this float had closed - a mere 48 hours after being opened - and the company has indicated that the float has been, from what I can tell, massively oversubscribed.

And still no word from the margin lender.

So I've missed out on what I think might have been the float of the year due to my margin lender's tardiness.

Now I'll have to invest the hard way when the company lists in May.

I am so totally not happy.

Disclosure: This blogger wishes!

Standard but necessary disclaimer: This is not advice. Only a complete idiot would think that any of this constituted advice. It's not even vaguely reasonable to consider this to be advice. If you are in any doubt as to the content of this, see a good, independent financial adviser immediately. They do exist.

Rock Paper Scissors for the Truly Hardcore

Love Jack Marx' The Daily Truth.

I had to post a link to this for my own benefit - it's Rock Paper Scissors for those who are bored of playing this the normal way.

Do I have my favourites?

Well, Alien and Devil would have to be they, but you can make your mind up for yourself.

Click here.

Why did you end up agnostic?

Well, I've come to the end of the line on this one, so here's the obligatory index post.

If you'd like to read them from beginning to end, here they are again:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Please enjoy, and feel free to comment.

Cocksnack gone? WTF?

(Via 95% Of You Are Morons, and Pooflinger's Anonymous)

For those of you who enjoy reading this blogger's favourite skeptical blogs, it is sad to note that a blogger known as Weapon Of Mass Information (we call him Cocksnack) has disappeared off the face of the blogosphere.

For those who weren't aware, Cocksnack was a creationist who had a blog committed to "debunking" "Darwinism" and "Evolutionists".

A bit sad, but nonetheless, to see what IDiocy creationists are capable of, check out the exchange that Rockstar Ryan has reproduced at his blog. This is but the tip of the iceberg with this guy. He was (and probably still is) one insane dude.

And then check out Matt Pooflinger's assessment of Cocksnack's disappearance.

Infophile has commented that Cocksnack may have re-located to another blog - is this Cocksnack?

Only time (pause, Kent Brockman style) will tell.