History
Before forming The Garden Path, Victor Conrad had been a member of Adelaide power pop band Fools Apart. The band comprised Conrad, Jeremy Bruer (guitar, vocals), Rees Hughes (bass) and Craig Rodda (drums). Hughes and Rodda left in 1981 to join Screaming Believers. David Quinn and George Satanovic took their places. Dave Andrews replaced Quinn in 1983.

In early 1984, Colin Gellard replaced Andrews, and John Gazzola became the band's latest drummer. The single `On the Beach'/`Ruins' on Greasy Pop displayed the band's powerful yet melodic style. Fools Apart also shared a split single with Screaming Believers, `Within An Inch'. Fools Apart broke up in late 1984. Conrad, Gellard and Aldridge formulated plans for a new band, and with the arrival of Graeme Burdett and Rohan Belton in March 1985, The Garden Path line-up was complete. The Garden Path sound and style was almost entirely based on 1960s neo-psychedelic pop, with influences drawn from Revolver-period Beatles and `See Emily Play'-era Pink Floyd to more contemporary bands such as The Soft Boys and Green On Red.

The band's earliest recordings appeared on various compilations: `Night and Day' on SA-FM's Brewing album, `This Place' on Greasy Pop's An Oasis in a Desert of Noise, and `What Do You Want to Hear?' and `Times (Out of Mind)' to Double J's Cooking with George, Mark Too. The Garden Path issued one of the classic independent albums of the 1980s in 5 Reasons (June 1986). The album was brimming with finely crafted, ethereal psychedelia, as displayed on tracks like `This Place', `Into the Clouds', `Little Pieces' and `Times (Out of Mind)'. The band maintained the quality with second album Blue (August 1987), although tracks like `In the Dark' and `Statues of a Man' boasted a harder edge.

Conrad and Belton also moonlighted with occasional band The Dust Collection covering obscure 1960s psychedelic and garage-punk songs. The line-up comprised Conrad (keyboards), Belton (bass), Travis Underdog (vocals), Scott Allen (guitar, vocals), Gerry Barrett (guitar) and Andrew Geue (drums). The line-up of Belton, Underdog, Allen, Geue and Barrett recorded the single `10 Til 13 O'clock'/`Green (When She Says)', `The Light' for the Greasy Pop label (December 1986).

Belton and Burdett left The Garden Path in 1987 to join The Psycho Daisies, so the band was down to a four-piece of Conrad, Gellard, Aldridge and newcomer Dave Lokan (guitar) for the 1989 album All the Things. By that stage, The Garden Path had dispensed with the psychedelic pop flavour for a tougher guitar sound, although the album sounded more like a second-rate Church record. The album yielded the single `Just Like You'/`Take It All Back'. Aldridge left in 1990 to be replaced by Craig Rodda (ex-Screaming Believers), but the band broke up soon after.

Meanwhile, Belton had joined The Handmedowns as bass player. Prior to that, the line-up comprised Trevor Comley (guitar, vocals), Tony Dyer (guitar, vocals), Dave Gray (bass) and Jason Kilic (drums). The Handmedowns played a vibrant brand of 1960s-inspired power pop. For the mini-album Back to Yourself on Greasy Pop, the band was down to a three-piece comprising Comley, Kilic and Belton. It was to be the band's only record. Conrad was an auxiliary member of The Spikes (appearing on the band's 1986 album Colour in a Black Forest) and The Acid Birds (1987). Likewise, Gellard and Aldridge were involved in The Acid Birds.