The Atlantics
 Rock Historian Glenn A Baker has called The Atlantics "one
of the most extraordinarily talented rock groups Australia has
ever produced".
The band's sound encompassed surf
instrumentals and sneering garage-punk and, as well as issuing 18
singles under its own name, the band also backed Johnny Rebb for a
series of fine singles between 1964 and 1969.
The Atlantics formed in Sydney during 1961, with Jim Skaithitis
replacing Eddy Matzenik on guitar a year later. The band's first
single for CBS, Moon Man, in February 1963, echoed The
Shadows' twanging guitar sound.
Subsequent singles Bombora (Number 1 in Sydney in July
that year) and The Crusher (Number 4 in Sydney in November)
established the band as bona fide leaders of the burgeoning surf
music craze.
CBS issued Bombora (an Australian Aboriginal word for
large waves breaking over a rock shelf) in the USA, UK, Europe,
Japan and New Zealand. Alongside The
Ventures' Walk Don't Run,
The Surfaris' Wipe Out, The
Chantays' Pipeline and
Dick Dale's Miserlou, the song is now considered a classic
of the surf music genre.
The Atlantics recorded seven more singles for CBS (including
one with vocals, called Surfin' Queen - recorded as Kenny
Shane & The Atlantics) before moving to the Sunshine label in
1966.
Reinventing themselves, The Atlantics added a vocalist (Johnny
Rebb) with Theo Penglis switching from guitar to keyboards. During
this time Johnny Rebb continued to release a number of singles
under his own name with The Atlantics backing him.
Over the next year, the band recorded three remarkably tough
rock singles, It's A Hard Life (July 1966), I Put A
Spell On You (January 1967) and Come On (March 1967) -
all of which are highly regarded by aficionados of 1960s
garage-punk. Re-issue specialists Raven Records included Come
On on Ugly Things (1980), the seminal collection of
Australian 1960s punk artefacts.
The Atlantics recorded five singles for the Ramrod label; Waiting
Here For Someone (Sept 67); Sunshine & Roses (Dec
67); A Girl Like You (April 68); What Is Love? (Sept
68); and Light Shades Of Dark (Sept 69).
Their last recording was the Johnny Rebb single Ding Dong
before they called it quits at the end of the decade.
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