In 1976, two Sydney art school students met and started jamming together, unaware they were creating an Australian rock legacy.
Fifty years later, Mental As Anything is essential listening in the encyclopedia of Aussie rock with a catalogue of timeless songs that shaped our national cultural identity.
To celebrate this milestone, original members and brothers Reg Mombassa (Chris O'Doherty) and Peter O'Doherty have reformed Mental As Anything for a national tour. "It's been 25 years since Reg and myself played in the Mentals," Peter says.
"We left the band end of '99, beginning of 2000 and they kept going. They replaced us, then had a bit of a revolving door of musicians through the band for the next 18-19 years until Greedy (Smith, harmonica) passed away in 2019.
"So, for Reg and myself it's really interesting because we're coming back to play songs we haven't touched in 25 years and some of the songs it's been 40, 45 years since we played them. So, it actually feels really fresh and we have this new sense of enthusiasm about playing these old songs."
Throughout their career, Mental As Anything traversed the changing landscape of music through style and genre.
From their origins playing blues and rockabilly covers to becoming progenitors of punk and new wave, Mental As Anything maintain an enduring presence as icons of the pub-rock era.
The upcoming tour features Reg and Peter performing with a new band comprised of Simon Rudston-Brown on guitar-vocals, Shannon Stitt on keyboards, and Peter's son Declan O'Doherty on drums. "We've got a good band playing," Reg says.
"Unfortunately, Martin (Plaza, vocalist) Greedy (Smith, harmonica) and Bird (David Twohill) won't be there, because Greedy is no longer around and Martin and Bird have had health issues, so they didn't want to tour but they gave us their blessing to do it. People can expect to hear quite a few of the familiar Mentals tunes."
Classic hits like 'Live It Up', 'The Nips Are Getting Bigger', 'If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?', and 'Too Many Times' sit comfortably in the great Australian songbook and continue to resonate with younger generations.
"We played in a bar in the Punters Club in Melbourne the day before we did the St Kilda Festival and that was a room full of young, tattooed cool people singing the songs back to us," Reg says.
Peter adds: "It's very gratifying and there's also our demographic coming along to see and relive their experiences from the '70s and '80s, but it's great to have that intergenerational shift. The thing about music too is it's timeless and once it's been put on record it's out there forever.
"When we started out, the origins of rock & roll were only 20 years before us when it was being invented, and we thought that was ancient history at the time. The music just keeps turning over, which is a really positive thing.
"The statements have been made before: 'Fine art painting is dead', well no, it's never going to be dead; 'rock & roll is dead', no it's never going to be dead.
"There's always going to be a new batch of young people going 'that sounds like a cool thing to do, I'm going to have a go at that'. There's a hell of a lot of good stuff out there."
Mental As Anything 2026 Tour Dates
Fri 12 Jun - The Gov (Adelaide)
Sat 13 Jun - Astor Theatre (Perth)
Fri 19 Jun - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 20 Jun - Anita's Theatre (Wollongong)* sold out
Fri 26 Jun - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)
Sat 27 Jun - The Princess Theatre (Brisbane)
