In March 2003, Ill Starred Captain hooked up again with engineer Dave Lokan at Big Sound studio in Adelaide, to record the band’s first full –length cd “Yeh Nah”. The” Life situation” the band was in at the time, with Justin Francis living mostly in Ireland while Scott Bassham was based in Port Lincoln, South Australia.

This meant that a lot of work had to happen in short bursts of time. Despite this, Ill Starred Captain had been maintaining a very full touring schedule around Australia, and fitted in three tours of Ireland and the U.K., playing a mix of venues and beer barns as a pretty much, totally unknown band.

All this “cross hemispherical” journeying certainly found it’s way into the fabric of “Yeh Nah” with a definite Irish Feel in the music and subject matter of some songs, while other tracks were definitely born out of the immense, powerful landscapes of Australia, across which the band had spent the last few years traveling.

The song on which the Australian sound collided with the Irish most is without a doubt the instrumental track “Devil Jumped Up” which was equally inspired by Irish trad innovators Planxty and Australian punk rock legends The Saints. Other songs, like Whistling down the wind and Silver Top Cane Blues occupy a sparser and more desert like space.

For the first time, the record really reflected the sound of Ill Starred Captain live, with the songs captured mostly live in the studio. Despite sharing a two piece set up with bands like the White Stripes and the Black Keys, Ill Starred Captain’s sound began to take on a form of it’s own that is very different from those bands.

The musical influences on display on Yeh Nah range from the moody spaciousness of the Triffids, the trash punk of the New York Dolls and the edge of feedback guitar scapes of Texan band Lift to Experience. The Celtic spirit is reflected on ballads like One Day in the summertime and the nostalgic roll of Irish Hitch – Hiking, both songs reflecting the emotional and musical connection to Ireland shared by both band members.

After scrapping the first attempt at recording Yeh Nah, due to extreme poverty and drunken – ness at the sessions, the band put in a focused effort, locking themselves in the studio for a couple of 3-5 day sessions, and just tried their best to capture all the music and madness of their first three years of existence.

The band signed a product and development deal with Adelaide’s legendary Greasy Pop records and released “Yeh Nah” in 2005. Unfortunately the release turned out to be difficult, with band / record company disputes aplenty and many lessons learned. Yeh Nah however is an album that the band is proud of, despite all the trauma of its birth, and is becoming a much loved addition to music collections all over the world.

"Yeh-Nah" found it's way to be released in Australia on the bands Seawitch Music label in 2005 after returning home from living and touring throughout Ireland & The United Kingdom. The video clip for Irish Hitch-Hiking has been viewed on Rage, Noise T.V, Underground Sounds and is still a firm favourite among fans today along with the reviews.


‘Ill Starred Captain crank things up with Yeh nah track Trouble. For fans off all things Sub – Pop, nicotine stained vocals (think Mark Lanegan) and bar room style, off kilter country grunge rock or something like that’.

Southscene review Southampton , United Kingdom 2004

‘Yeh – nah is rhythm rich but also has a pastoral sound with spacious moments, as well as funky morsels and cool lyrics’.

Album review – Port Lincoln Times, South Australia by Natasha Ewendt

“Yeh -Nah” was one of a select few Australian albums to be archived by A.R.I.A. in 2005 And was voted one of the top five releases of that year in the Adelaide Advertiser’s Critics Awards. One of the albums tracks, ‘Trouble’ was also included on U.K. label, Ejector Seat Music’s, 2005 artist’s compilation C.D. and was a highlight of that otherwise all - British collection.

Recently This album was remastered By Dave Lokan & Justin Francis in November 2011 at Big Sound Studio's, Adelaide, South Australia. We had a lucky find among hundreds of cd's, the final mix & unmastered version of Yeh-Nah. With a clean slate available to work on we thought to ourselves, "Lets have some fun, shall we".

The Spoken word piece at the start of "the Devil Jumped Up' is courtesy of Mr. Connor Casby, himself in Co Mayo, Ireland 2002