He cautions against interpreting this as nostalgia for a halcyon past - because it wasn't, he says - but admits to a 'golden patch' where bandrooms almost seemed to work in symbiosis to provide a music culture continuously.

"I felt the venues were in relationships with each other and in sync with each other," Hayward says.

"And of course, that wasn't always the case, there would be arguments: 'Why did you guys get this act when we had planned to get them' or whatever, but I remember when The Fat Thing were playing at the Bridge Mall Inn, The Dead Salesmen would finish at the Camp Hotel in time for everyone just to basically walk over and see them start, and it seemed like a kind of naive, hippie, hippie-ish kind of ideal time."

The Dead Salesmen - 'Ballarat's Beatles' as the late, great Spencer P. Jones called them - were the shining light of so many musical directions in the city for over a decade.

Formed out of the songwriting partnership between Hayward and Justin (Ryda) Charleson, the band existed in different incarnations until 2000, with performers including Julitha Ryan, Pat Bath and Len Hyatt. They recorded three albums, released through Ballarat's Heart of the Rat Records: Jealousy (1993), Bluestoned (1995) and Amen (1998). The Dead Salesmen opened the first Meredith Music Festival in 1991, returning in 1992 as it blossomed, and have played with the likes of Ed Kuepper, Kim Salmon and countless others.

Now, after 21 years, Hayward and Charleson have made music again across the divide of pandemic lockdowns, sending music and vocals back and forth between winter 2020 and spring 2021. The tracks were recorded using mobile phones, furniture was used for drums and guitars were tuned low for bass lines.

Produced by Heath McCurdy, formerly of the bands Epicure and Mark With The Sea and who also played keyboards, the trio have called themselves The Blue Lighters - a name which instantly conjures the memory of police-run discos of long ago.

"Heart of the Rat records have been really terrific with us," Hayward says.

"They released some of The Dead Salesmen albums on vinyl a few years back. Aaron Matthews at Heart of the Rat suggested I get in touch with Heath. And he was perfect; he took our ideas and he added keyboards, he added percussion loops and all sorts of things, producing it then sending it back to us.

"So there was this three-way thing going on, and we still haven't been in same room together, still haven't managed to all be in the same room for a photograph or say congratulations. But we've got 12 songs done when we thought maybe we're aiming for four."

Watching the hot music documentary of the moment, Get Back, and speaking of The Beatles, whose ability to slide into each other's rhythms was famous, and who also recorded a dozen songs for Let It Be when they thought they had done four, was it easy for Hayward and Charleson to work together again quickly, or did they think the connection might be gone?

"Well, I wasn't sure," Hayward says.

"It was bizarre, because after that amount of time - 21 years - and the last few songs we wrote around 2000 being really quite strong, I felt as the years progressed it was probably a good idea not to tempt fate or ruin what we had, that nice relationship.

"We'd get together a few times a year and play. We had enough of the old songs to do that with. But I felt these were strange new times, and they called for a kind of a new way of thinking."

Hayward says he didn't seek a reunion at first, but more a lockdown diversion.

"It wasn't so much like, 'Can we write songs again together?' It was more like, 'Do you mind sending me something; I need to sort of occupy myself and work on something, if you don't mind?'

"And Ryda obviously thought, 'Why not? That'd be fun.' So we weren't even talking about as a project or even songwriting. And then that night, something came from that, and then we said let's keep going."

Hayward says the raw recordings were harvested in the 'isolation and introspection of lockdown' were partnered with 'lavish quantities of spit and polish' - until eventually the pair had the album and a new band into the bargain.

Hap Hayward says it's really the right time of year to be releasing the work.

"Christmas is coming up and we really want this music out, because it's a product of its time," he says.

"I feel like I'm unsure about what I'm saying in some of it, but that's probably why it should just go out there, because it's a product of these really nasty times.

"So we thought, 'Well, what about 12 days before Christmas we release the first track, and then Christmas Eve (release) the last track and our friends can listen to it on Christmas Day? Which initially sounded a bit arrogant; I thought, 'Why are we hassling people's Christmases?'

"But I remembered, I said to Ryda on the phone, getting music for Christmas meant everything to me. Getting Kiss Alive II when I was 10, getting some Beatles records from my older brother in the 70s for Christmas. Stings first solo album when I was a teenager. We sit around and people want to put on music. So I thought our friends might play it... this is a bit cynical... our friends might play it to their family over Christmas lunch in the background."

The Blue Lighters will release their new album "Come To Flight" one song each day between December 14 and December 25. You can watch it on YouTube or listen and download on Bandcamp.

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