page_title: Mental As Anything
section_title: Line-up changes: 2000–present
hierarchical_section_title: Mental As Anything / Line-up changes: 2000–present
caption_attribution_description: English: Mental As Anything performing at Gore Hill, Sydney, Australia on 20 December 2007.
context_page_description: Mental As Anything are an Australian new wave/pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne de Lisle on drums; and Andrew "Greedy" Smith on vocals, keyboards and harmonica. Their original hit songs were generated by Mombassa, O'Doherty, Plaza and Smith, either individually or collectively; they also hit the Australian charts with covers of songs by Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry.
  Their top ten Australian singles are "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?" and "Too Many Times", "Live It Up" and "Rock and Roll Music". Internationally, "Too Many Times" made the Canadian top 40 in 1982, and "Live It Up" peaked at No. 3 in the UK, No. 4 in Norway, and No. 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.
context_section_description: In April 2000, Mental As Anything announced the first official change to their line-up since 1977. Brothers Peter O'Doherty and Reg Mombassa left to pursue their own musical projects, including their band Dog Trumpet, and their art careers. The last tour by this line-up was a short trip to Vietnam organised by the Australian Government. They were replaced by David 'Duck' Barraclough (ex-The Exponents) and Murray Cook (ex-Leah Purcell, Mixed Relations). Cook (no relation to Murray Cook of The Wiggles) left the band after the Beetroot Stains album (2000) and was replaced by New Zealand born Mike Caen, who had worked with Jenny Morris, Margaret Urlich, Rick Price, Daryl Braithwaite and Tina Arena. The Road Case album by this line-up appeared late in 2002.
  In 2003 the band started recording favourite covers that had inspired the band in its early days, including songs such as "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", "Lonesome Train", "Hangin Five", with a view to releasing an album under the title Songs the Lord Tortoise. Although the album was completed in 2004 it has not been released.
  The next line-up change occurred in September 2004 when Twohill was sacked from the band by Plaza and Smith.  Upon return to Sydney following a tour of Western Australia by the band Twohill was told at the airport that he had played his last show for the band. Twohill lodged a wrongful dismissal case against his former bandmates with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission in 2007. At the hearing, he said he had "no inkling" that his bandmates were dissatisfied with his performances and his attitude, whereas Plaza advised that the band had been discussing Twohill's future for some time and had issued the drummer with a warning after alleged unprofessional behaviour during a gig at Ettalong, north of Sydney, in December 2003.
  It was because I asked him to not smoke in the dressing room he took it out on us on stage … played like a chimpanzee on speed, it was terrible.
  — Martin Plaza
  This was not an undisputed claim; in evidence given earlier, the band's stage technician
  Darren Brain, said Twohill "played quite well". Twohill was ultimately successful in his claim, with Justice Frank Marks stating that the band gave "no basis" for the expulsion.
  Twohill was replaced by Robbie Souter, a veteran of Dynamic Hepnotics, Slim Dusty band and other country and roots music combos. This line-up recorded the acoustic Plucked, released in November 2005. In 2007 they toured Papua New Guinea for the first time to play three gigs in the capital Port Moresby as part of "Australia Week".
  In May 2009 the band released the compilation album Essential as Anything, celebrating thirty years since the release of their first EP and national tour of their debut album.  The album also included a DVD of all the video clips released by the band. Additionally Mental As Anything re-issued all ten of the band's albums as digital downloads. The band also released a new studio album, Tents Up, in June and toured nationally in support of both releases. 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. Mombassa said that it was an honour to be inducted and thanked fans and industry supporters. At the ceremony they were inducted by Roy Slaven and they performed "Live It Up", "The Nips are Getting Bigger" and "If You Leave Me Can I Come Too" with Mombassa and O'Doherty rejoining them onstage.
  On 18 September 2009 the band appeared live in Sydney's Apple Store with a digital download EP in the "iTunes Live from Sydney: Aussie Legends" series appearing the next day. An extensive pictorial biography of Mombassa, titled the "Mind Of Times of Reg Mombassa" appeared in November, and by virtue of the subject served as a de facto biography of Mental As Anything up to Mombassa's departure in 2000. The Summer of 2009/2010 saw a national tour for the current line-up supporting the B-52s and Proclaimers. In mid-2010 children's entertainers, The Wiggles, 
caption: The band performing at Gore Hill, Sydney on 20 December 2007.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:20 12:56:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "212", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5968", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7139", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/13", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:12:20 12:56:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:12:20 12:56:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "15157/4096", "EXIF ApertureValue": "162885/32768", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "21", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3888", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5844", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3888000/877", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "432000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "683b8a3e8600f5c44c95e3dff590a357"}