Mental As Anything (or Mentals to fans) are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza (real name Martin Murphy) on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa (real name Chris O'Doherty) on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird" Delisle (real name David Twohill) on drums; and Andrew "Greedy" Smith on vocals, keyboards and harmonica. Their hit songs were generated by Mombassa, O'Doherty, Plaza and Smith, either individually or collectively.
The sentence "mental as anything" is late 1970s Australian slang for being crazy, outlandish, having extreme fun, or 'going off'.
Their top ten Australian singles are, "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?" and "Too Many Times" in 1981, "Live it Up" in 1985 and "Rock and Roll Music" in 1988. While their top ten albums are, Cats & Dogs in 1981, Creatures of Leisure in 1983, Fundamental in 1985 and Greatest Hits Vol. 1 in 1986. They had top 50 chart success with "Too Many Times" and its album, Cats & Dogs in Canada, which followed touring North America in support of Men At Work. "Live it Up" reached the top 50 in European charts including peaking at #3 in UK, #4 in Norway, and #6 in Germany, after it featured in the 1986 Australian film "Crocodile" Dundee.
All of the early members are visual artists and have had combined studio displays, some have had solo studio displays with Mombassa's artwork also used as designs by the Mambo clothing company. The majority of the group's record covers, posters and video clips have been designed and created by themselves or their art school contemporaries. On 27 August 2009, Mental As Anything was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame alongside Kev Carmody, The Dingoes, Little Pattie and John Paul Young.
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