Nothing soft about The Hard-Ons
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Canberra writer and producer Nalini Sequeria was a teenager living in Sydney when she first saw iconic punk band, The Hard-Ons.
More than 20 years later, Nalini and her brother Jonathan have brought a loud and uncensored documentary The Most Australian Band Ever! to the screen through their production company Living Eyes. The film debuted recently at Sydney’s SXSW, has earned critical acclaim from the United States to Korea, and will soon screen in Canberra.
Winning Best Documentary at last Year’s LA Punk Film Festival, The Most Australian Band Ever! explains how the band broke the mould in Australia and why they have earned affection from music legends around the world. This includes Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, who said “The Hard-Ons are the nicest guys”, to Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who said “The Hard-Ons are a great band, a great Australian band. It was an honour to tour with them.”
Comprising a ragtag trio of boys on the fringe, Ray Ahn arrived from Korea as a 10-year-old and found himself in an alien world of meat pies and cricket in Sydney’s western suburbs before a friendly neighbour introduced him to music. At school, he met Peter “Blackie” Black (from a Croatian family) and Keish DeSilva ( from Sri Lanka) and life suddenly got a whole lot louder.
How it started in the 90s
A mutual enthusiasm for punk, “a music that spoke to aliens”, helped Ray find his place. The three school friends chose to embrace their outsider status, and the Hard-Ons name was chosen because it “would be offensive to the right people”. After playing backyard gigs for school friends, The Hard-Ons ventured into the inner-city and then took on the world.
Nalini said her exposure to the band occurred early on, given her older siblings used to go to all of their gigs.
“The Hard-Ons have been part of my consciousness since I was a teenager. In fact, they played at my sister Kamala’s 21st way back in 1991! But I think the earliest song that I can recall is Don’t Wanna See You Cry from the 1989 album Love Is a Battlefield of Wounded Hearts. This was Ramones-style pop-punk energy with a uniquely Australian edge – something I had never heard before. Mind blowing!”
Nalini would go on to forge a career in media under the mentorship of Australian TV legend, Simon Townsend, and is now happily based in Murrumbateman where she is a specialist in music videography and short filmography.
She was drawn to bringing The Hard-Ons documentary to life to help draw attention to their legacy and immortalise their creativity.
Older. But still punk.
“The Hard-Ons are trailblazers -17 consecutive number ones on the Australian independent charts, opening up the US and European / UK touring circuit for other Australian bands to follow, creating iconic (and outrageously hilarious) visual art, performing insanely energetic live shows and of course, making incredible music for more than 40 years.
“All the while, staying relentlessly true to themselves – regardless of the many obstacles thrown in their way. It’s hard to believe just how much these three migrant kids from Western Sydney have achieved.”
She said the project had been rewarding, but “funding and distribution for documentary films in Australia is always a challenge. And when you throw in the band’s name, things get even trickier! It’s no easy task finding someone willing to invest in a film about a band called The Hard-Ons!”
When funding challenges loomed, fellow Canberran and music enthusiast, Angus Vickery, of Play Vintage Australia, stepped in with much-needed financial backing.
Photos at Bankstown Arts Centre for the official cast and crew screening launched by The Hon Tony Burke MP, Nalini far right.
But amid the challenges were joyful moments – “bouncing ideas back and forth with Jonathan, the privilege of having these people trust you to tell their story, seeing the joy (and I think a few tears) on band members’ faces when they watched the film for the first time, having the federal Arts Minister, The Hon Tony Burke MP, introduce “The Most Australian Band Ever!” at our premiere, hearing legendary Aussie musos like Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Diesel and Lindy Morrison (The Go Betweens) tell you they loved your film . . . so many ‘pinch me’ moments!”
The Most Australian Band Ever will screen at Elsie’s Film House in Civic Square (next to the Canberra Museum and Gallery) on Sunday 16 March at 6pm followed by a Q&A and has sold out.
It will also screen at the National Film and Sound Archive on 1 May 2025.
Images supplied.
