Australasian Music
249 articles
Frank Ifield: Aussies? Squares?
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 30 January 1960
The fans get a better deal down under says FRANK IFIELD, Australia's Tommy Steele, now making a name for himself over here ...
Rolf Harris: Rolf-Of-Every-Trade
Interview by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 21 February 1962
ROLF HARRIS, the man who currently makes with 'Sun Arise' one of the most interesting noises in the hit parade, was tired. He had been ...
The Easybeats: Easybeats for long stay?
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 12 November 1966
WHEN 'FRIDAY On My Mind' initially imposed itself upon my auditory passages I think it's only true to say I was knocked out. Verdict: a ...
The Easybeats: Easybeats Didn't Copy The Beatles
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 3 December 1966
THE EASYBEATS are new and young — all teenagers — and so are vital in a slightly sagging pop scene that was given a shot ...
Python Lee Jackson, Rod Stewart: Python Lee Jackson: In A Broken Dream (GNP-Crescendo)
Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 28 October 1972
THERE'S OBVIOUSLY more of a story behind Python Lee Jackson than GNP Crescendo would care to tell, probably because they're just as caught up in ...
The GTOs, Helen Reddy: A Requiem For Miss Christine
Comment by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 26 November 1972
THE DEATH OF Christine Frka has depressed me deeply. Miss Christine (she never used that troublesome last name) had her shining face on this page ...
AC/DC: Australia has Punk Rock bands too, y'know
Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 19 April 1975
LADEES AND GENTLEMEN, introducing one of the few bands in Australia that deserves the tag of a real street punk band...putcha fists together in ominous ...
Radio Birdman: Balmain Town Hall, Sydney
Live Review by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 3 January 1976
GOD I WISH the Top 40 sounded like the Radio's 'Smith and Wesson' or 'There's Gonna Be A New Race...' or 'Maelstrom'. But it doesn't. ...
Profile and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 27 February 1976
RON KEELEY, Radio Birdman's drummer, is sitting on a steel framed chair listening to a just competent group pound out hard rock as best it ...
AC/DC: Gonna be a Rock'n'Roll Singer...
Profile and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 23 April 1976
Au Revoir to Angus, Bon, Malcolm, Mark & Phil, otherwise known as AC/DC, leaving for England to crack The Big Time. ...
AC/DC: The Dirtiest Story Ever Told
Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 28 August 1976
An everyday story of rape, pillage, runny noses, drunken orgies, broken wind, assaults on and by police, sweat-soaked Luncheon Vouchers, and the 279-pound lady who ...
Sherbet: Around Australia In 350,000 Girls
Report by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 24 September 1976
2011 introduction: From 1974-79 there was an Australia-wide rock 'n' roll touring circuit, headed by Sherbet. The peak was Sherbet's 1976 'Around Australia in 80 ...
AC/DC: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 20 November 1976
THE EMCEE only just ducks into the wings and out of the firing range when the Odeon stage explodes deafeningly. Bruised about the head, their ...
AC/DC, Little River Band, Sherbet: Little River Band, Sherbet, AC/DC: Up Starts
Profile and Interview by Toby Goldstein, Jim Green, Circus, 14 February 1977
Three Australian Bands Hit The U.S. ...
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 5 March 1977
Harry Doherty travels to Cardiff to see how AC/DC are steadily working their way to the top ...
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, May 1977
HEY! THIS IS a nice surprise! Almost out of nowhere comes this rip-snorter of an album when all we'd had from The Saints before was ...
The Saints: Would You Let These Men Tie Your Kangaroo Down?
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 14 May 1977
Watch out, sport, the Saints are coming. PETE SILVERTON gets a buzz from 'em. ...
The Saints: Saints or sinners?
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 25 June 1977
THINK OF Australia. Think of Bondai Beach. Think of Fosters lager. Think of big butch lifeguards sunbathing on their surf boards. Ned Kelly. Botany Bay, ...
999, The Saints: The Saints, 999: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 2 July 1977
THERE IS A TEMPTATION to regard The Saints as comic. This stems from a number of idiosyncratic things about them, not least of which is ...
Profile and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, The Pig Paper, August 1977
DID YOU know that there's a punk band in Australia? Well, there are punk bands in Toronto, so nothing should surprise you. ...
The Saints: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 15 October 1977
THE SAINTS opened their new British tour at the Camden Music Machine — that was their first and I hope only mistake. It's fine booking ...
The Bee Gees, Andy Gibb: How the Bee Gees captured America
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 21 January 1978
"ONE OF the reasons for the Bee Gees' success," explains Robin Gibb at their rented Benedict Canyon home, "is that we've never used music as ...
Radio Birdman: Radios Appear (Sire SRK 6050)
Review by Wesley Strick, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978
THE SAINTS' recent emigration to England reopens the question: is there punk after Perth? In Sydney, which some describe as Canoga Park on the far ...
AC/DC: More Songs About Humping And Booze
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 28 July 1979
HAVE AC/DC GONE DISCO? 'NAH' SNARLS PHILTHY PHIL SUTCLIFFE ...
Profile and Interview by Clinton Walker, Roadrunner, December 1979
IT WAS ABOUT two years ago. In Brisbane, at Baroona Hall, the Survivors and the Leftovers were playing... ...
The Boys Next Door: Last Hee-Haw from the Boys Next Door
Profile and Interview by Clinton Walker, RAM, February 1980
THE BOYS NEXT DOOR'S career has been a turbulent one. In just two short years, they've recorded for three different labels: Suicide, Mushroom and now ...
The Sports: The Whisky, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 9 February 1980
LITTLE RIVER Band, Livvy Newton-John, Sherbet. Is it really any wonder people think that Australian rock is something kangaroos jump over (or in the case ...
Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons: Return of the Maltese Falcon
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 6 September 1980
THE OTHER WEEK top Oz band Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons broke the house record at Hammersmith's Clarendon Hotel when they played their first ...
Review by Deborah Frost, The Boston Phoenix, 21 October 1980
ALL A friend remembers about the Split Enz gig at Paul's Mall a couple of years back was the sign announcing the coming attraction: Tom ...
The Birthday Party: Mick Harvey speaks
Interview by Clinton Walker, RAM, November 1980
Nine months ago, the Boys Next Door packed their ambition and what little equipment they possessed and beaded for London. They left Australia simply because ...
Laughing Clowns: Intensely original
Preview by Clinton Walker, The Adelaide Advertiser, 1981
One of Australia's most innovative and exciting new progressive bands, Laughing Clowns, arrives in Adelaide today for the first of four gigs, at the Tivoli ...
Radio Birdman: Divine Rites: Radio Birdman Flies Again
Essay by Nicholas Rothwell, The Australian, 21 April 1981
The rock group Radio Birdman, whose followers almost became a secret society, is soon to rise again as the New Race, a controversial name with ...
The Birthday Party: Abbo — The Album
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 13 June 1981
WHEN THE Birthday Party were recording their Prayers On Fire LP back "home" in Melbourne, Split Enz were recording Waiata in the studio next door. ...
AC/DC: For Those About To Yawn: AC/DC: For Those About To Rock (Atlantic K50851) ***
Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 5 December 1981
WHEN I humbly volunteered to undertake this venture, I knew full well what a pasting I'd be letting myself in for. Pitting my feeble opinion ...
The Church: The Blurred Crusade
Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 17 July 1982
THE CHURCH, by christening their second album The Blurred Crusade, provide us with an emblematic image of their music which, like so many churches throughout ...
The Scientists: Grunge Going Global
Report and Interview by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), 1983
THE NEWS THAT the Scientists are about to leave Australia — as permanently as is possible — will doubtless barely cause a ripple in Oz-rocks ...
Men at Work: La Vie En Mung: Men At Work Do Just That
Report and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, January 1983
MINNEAPOLIS — One day in the (work) life of Colin Hay: ...
Live Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 19 March 1983
Oz is forgiven ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 28 April 1983
A celebration of lunacy and loud noise imported from Australia. Peter Silverton finds it quite inviting. ...
The Go-Betweens: King's College, London
Live Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 4 June 1983
DON WATSON SEES THE GLINT ON THE EDGE OF THE GO-BEES' POP KNIFE ...
Interview by Deborah Frost, Record, August 1983
NEW YORK — In their native Australia, where their first album (Desperate)has gone platinum and their notoriety landed them a part in the film Monkey ...
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1983
SURE, I LIKE Men At Work too. Doesn't everybody? They seem able to please all the people all the time, even though that's not their ...
Divinyls: How Ya Gonna Keep Em Down On The Lip Farm?
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, September 1983
THERE'S A new entry in the Battle of the Australian bands; they're called the Divinyls and they stand some chance of winning the war. There's ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 3 September 1983
FOR THOSE about to cry "Oh No Not AC/DC", I refute you. I'm really sorry about this, but they've made some fine records and remain ...
The Go-Betweens: Mysteries of Exile
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 1 October 1983
The GO-BETWEENS come from Australia, but you don't need a visa to love them. Lynden Barber suggests we drop our passport control mentalities and tune ...
Chris Bailey, The Saints: Chris Bailey: Saint in Search of Earthiness
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Age, 25 November 1983
CHRIS BAILEY — troubador. That may be a new tag to stick on the Saints' front-man, but it's a reasonably accurate one, at least at ...
Laughing Clowns: Neo-Realism and the Zeitgeist
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Age, 1984
IT'S AN OLD ADAGE that worthwhile art only arises out of conflict. Friction, after all, is what generates the sparks that light the fire. ...
Sunnyboys: Get Some Fun (Mushroom)
Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone, 1984
THE SUNNYBOYS are a group who had success — or near-success, at least — thrust upon them at an early age, and although it's to ...
The Triffids: Irony and Distance
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Next Thing, 1984
THE TRIFFIDS fairly well defy convention; their seeming contradictions only make them stronger. They come from Perth, capital of raunch'n'roll and birthplace of the Scientists ...
Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), January 1984
AND SO THE Birthday Party finally — well what? ... "break up" seems an inadequate term. Implode? OD? Burn-out? It's a difficult task to do ...
The Triffids: Self-Sufficient and Surviving
Profile and Interview by Clinton Walker, The Age, 6 January 1984
THE TITLE of the Triffids' debut album, Treeless Plain, refers, of course, to the Nullarbor. That it also suggests the mood of the album itself, ...
INXS — a Group in Search of Identity
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Age, 13 January 1984
IF AUSTRALIAN pop music really equals that anywhere in the world, it must follow that that it can be equally as bad. ...
The Birthday Party, Nick Cave: Nick Cave: Sad Nick
Profile and Interview by Clinton Walker, Stiletto, February 1984
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY are probably the most important rock band Australia has ever produced. They made music that was blatantly rock at a time when ...
The Celibate Rifles: The Celibate Rifles
Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), May 1984
IF NOTHING ELSE, the Celibate Rifles' eponymously-titled second album makes it quite plain that it is no longer possible to dismiss this Sydney group as ...
The Hoodoo Gurus: Hoodoo Gurus, Beating the Trodden Path
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Age, 8 June 1984
THE HOODOO Gurus don't beat around the bush. Right from the very outset, with the first track on their debut album, Stoneage Romeos, they stake ...
The Go-Betweens: Go-Betweens: Spring Hill Fair (Sire K925179)
Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984
TO SUMMARISE the Go-Betweens' appeal would be a destructive exercise, because the core of their charm is a moveable feast. From the lush beauty of ...
Split Enz: Conflicting Emotions (A&M)
Review by Jon Young, Creem, October 1984
GENERALLY SPEAKING, growing up is boring. There's no way the exercising of common sense can be as much fun as letting it all hang out. ...
The Go-Betweens: Fencing Lessons
Interview by Mick Sinclair, ZigZag, November 1984
AS THEIR man Robert Foster notes: "There are a small group of people who like the Go‑Betweens intensely. I see the band as having good ...
The Triffids: Kangaroo Courting
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 18 May 1985
LATE AFTERNOON, the wind’s beginning to whip up a little. Two Triffids sit on the balcony of an Italian cappuccino bar taking in the passing ...
Midnight Oil: Red Sails In The Sunset (Columbia)
Review by Jon Young, Musician, June 1985
IN A SITUATION reminiscent of the celebrated "breath mint/candy mint" controversy, Australia's Midnight Oil is two bands in one. Listen once to Red Sails In ...
The Hoodoo Gurus: Hoodoo Gurus: Surprise For The Gurus
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Age, 19 July 1985
SURELY THE most surprising result at the recent "Countdown" awards was for the best debut album of last year, which went to the Hoodoo Gurus, ...
Midnight Oil: The Only Band That Really Matters
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985
THERE'S A TV commercial running on television stations in Sydney that explains a lot about modern-day Australia. The ad is for McDonald's, and seeks to ...
The Hoodoo Gurus: Hoodoo Gurus: Coogee Bay Hotel, Sydney
Live Review by Lynden Barber, New Musical Express, 7 September 1985
GURUS MISSILES ...
The Scientists: Atom Bomb Baby (Au Go Go)
Review by Byron Coley, Forced Exposure, 1986
...h'ok, h.ok. So it seems that w/ their hemispheric relocation they have regressed a bit in terms o' the structural development, but — Woe There, ...
The Scientists: Heading For A Trauma (Au Go Go)
Review by Byron Coley, Forced Exposure, 1986
...a scuzzy compendium from the Scientists' third & fourth phases. This has their first classic "back from the dead" singles sides ('Swampland' & 'We Had ...
The Triffids: Born Sandy Devotional
Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 21 June 1986
THE MID-'80s motto is that irony has gone mainstream. Self-confidence and hope for the future have evaporated in glittering, actressy despair, to be replaced by ...
The Triffids: The Outer Limits
Interview by Jon Wilde, Sounds, 20 September 1986
Something strange has been growing in the cracked plains of Australia's badlands. JONH WILDE prunes back the weeds and uncovers THE TRIFFIDS, still fertile after ...
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 October 1986
GUITAR HEROES have been a part of rock 'n' roll since the late 1960s. but the punk rock revolution of the late '70s redefined the ...
Severed Heads, Skinny Puppy: Skinny Puppy, Severed Heads: Roxy Theatre, Hollywood CA
Live Review by Dave DiMartino, Billboard, 17 January 1987
CHAOS, NOISE, and general disarray marked a fascinating double bill that brought together two different countries' versions of the future of rock on one stage. ...
The Go-Betweens: Tallulah (Beggars Banquet)
Review by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, May 1987
AS THE chief dreamboat Forster sighs at yet another of life's improbabilities, as the waggish McLennan makes some more compelling assumptions, as these roguish Go-Betweens ...
Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 2 May 1987
OF THE trio of bands lumped together in the ICA's Desert Island Risks series, Australia's Triffids, casters of many a desert bound, flat horizoned vignette, ...
These Immortal Souls: Lost Souls
Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 12 December 1987
Rowland S. Howard turns singer and leads his cohorts from crime and the city to become These Immortal Souls. Then he meets... Ralph Traitor ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988
THEY'VE CONQUERED THE WORLD BUT STILL CAN'T WOO THE CRITICS. INXS ARE AN ENIGMA. CAROLINE SULLIVAN PONDERS THE RIDDLE WITH MICHAEL HUTCHENCE,'THE SEXIEST MAN IN ...
Report and Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 9 January 1988
THE TRIFFIDS HAVE GRABBED CRITICAL ATTENTION WITH THEIR CALENTURE ALBUM AND A REPUTATION FOR REINVENTING ROCK IN ALL SORTS OF WIGGLY WAYS. PAUL MATHUR GRABS ...
INXS: The Most Fanciable Creation In The History Of The Universe...?
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 27 January 1988
That's what "millions" of people round the rest of the world think of INXS's Michael Hutchence. Now that he's incredibly famous for the first time ...
The Go-Betweens' Robert Forster (1988)
Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1988
The Go-Betweens' co-frontman talks about the band's return to their native Australia: the contrasts between London and Sydney or Brisbane; the lack of a particularly Australian music; his dislike of the London Soho/The Face mafia, and having had enough "edge"; the new album 16 Lovers Lane; the Australian fear of indulgence and artiness, and thinking of hemispheres rather than nations.
File format: mp3; file size: 67.7mb, interview length: 1h 10' 29" sound quality: ***
The Triffids: Dominion, London
Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988
THE NEW VENERATION ...
Crowded House: Whisky, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bud Scoppa, L.A. Weekly, 22 September 1988
GOOD TUNES, good singin', good playin'. These are the seemingly modest virtues presented by Crowded House. But, as they amply demonstrated throughout their superb 16-song ...
Midnight Oil Burns With Activist Fervor
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 6 October 1988
PETER GARRETT, outspoken singer of Midnight Oil, is on the phone, ticking off things the Australian rock 'n' roll group is not. ...
The Go-Betweens: The Knitting Factory, New York NY
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Billboard, 10 December 1988
A FULL decade after they released their first single, Australia's Go-Betweens have finally found a home on a major U.S. label. Presumably, with the beautiful ...
The Go-Betweens: 16 Lovers Lane (Capitol)
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989
AUSTRALIA'S GO-Betweens have been quietly recording wonderful albums of engaging pop for almost ten years. Previous records featured cleverly structured tunes with even cleverer lyrics, ...
The Triffids: Shaw Theatre, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 April 1989
The way of the Triffids ...
The Go-Betweens: Warehouse, Leeds
Live Review by Dave Simpson, Record Mirror, 17 June 1989
THIS IS getting a bit ridiculous y'know! For years now virtually every pop scribe in the country has been telling you, the public, how wonderful ...
Kylie Minogue: Kylie Speaks Out... On Love, Money, Marriage And Three Foot Grandmothers!!!
Interview by Tom Doyle, Smash Hits, 9 August 1989
And that's not all. For she has a thing or two to say about brown paper bags, plumbing and lime-green sequinned bras too!! And why ...
Kylie Minogue: Kylie: Taking Charge
Interview by Clinton Walker, The Edge, January 1990
It was always easy to make fun of Kylie Minogue. But now, having turned 21, she's started to take more control of her career and ...
The Chills: Submarine Bells (Slash/Warner Bros.)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, April 1990
MARTIN PHILLIPPS has a way with words. During his 10 years as singer/songwriter/guitarist for the Chills, New Zealand's leading folk-punk band, Phillipps has written more ...
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, New York Review Of Records, June 1990
"WE SET out to write spirited music that will move people," says Ronald Peno, lead singer and lyricist of Died Pretty, Australia's most original export ...
Angry Anderson, Rose Tattoo: Angry Anderson
Interview by Steve Mascord, Hot Metal, July 1990
ANGRY ANDERSON is intently thumbing through an English heavy metal magazine. It's the one which described him, following the release of soppy 1988 Neighbours hit ...
Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages Audio, September 1990
The axe-wielding overgrown schoolboy talks about bunking off and missing his education; the music that got to him in his youth; rock in Australia, and the Australian audience's attitudes; ignoring the standard metal devil worship; the commercial ups-and-downs of the band; the songs on new album The Razor's Edge; rock as a release; the flashy American metal bands, and his avoidance of politics.
File format: mp3; file size: 49.1mb, interview length: 51' 07" sound quality: ***
AUDIO: AC/DC's Angus Young (1990)
Audio transcript of interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages, October 1990
This is a transcript of Martin's audio interview with Angus. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, December 1990
After a three-year recording hiatus, INXS are back with X. STEVEN DALY corners the Australian band in a London hotel. ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, January 1991
Loud, powerful, seemingly invincible, the INXS Express comes thundering into yet another city. But this particular journey has not been altogether smooth. Stung by accusations ...
The Go-Betweens: The Go-Betweens – 1978-1990 (Beggars Banquet)
Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), January 1991
IT WAS PROPHETIC that the Go-Betweens should have prepared this album, a double compilation of their greatest "hits and misses", or rather "misses and outtakes", ...
Divinyls: The Divinyls: Palladium, Hollywood
Live Review by Steven P. Wheeler, Music Connection, August 1991
THE PALLADIUM was the perfect Southland venue for this Australian outfit whose recent self-titled album has become their biggest American hit. ...
Bryan Adams: Waking Up the Neighbours (A&M)
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 17 October 1991
WAKING UP the Neighbours will, with no sweat, reestablish Bryan Adams as the radio's hoarse purveyor of energy and fun. A scrupulously careful yet adamantly ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1992
Blending cosmopolitan pretension, uptempo dance rock and smart media moves, Michael Hutchence has managed the impossible — to make INXS a world famous, high grossing ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Henry's Dream (Mute)
Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 25 January 1992
HAVING LONG sneered and sped past the 'Buffoon Goth' pigeonhole reserved for him when he first arrived on these shores, the Nick Cave who thrives ...
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992
A GUY WHO can sing a line like "Baby, you're too well-read" and mean it, Lloyd Cole is the intellectual in the black leather jacket ...
Report and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, June 1992
THE CONCERT FOR LIFE: INXS, CROWDED HOUSE, DIESEL, JENNY MORRIS, RATCAT, YOTHU YINDI, DEF FX – CENTENNIAL PARK, SYDNEY, March 28, 1992 ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: The Nick Cave View: It's Dark Inside
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 31 July 1992
NICK CAVE, the lanky singer-songwriter of the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, is not one to mince words, even — or especially — if ...
INXS: Welcome To Wherever You Are
Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1992
NOW 15 years old, INXS have made remarkably little go a long way. ...
The Beasts Of Bourbon: The Ugliest Band On Earth
Book Excerpt by Clinton Walker, Ten Years Behind Bars (Music Sales), 1993
Preface to the Beasts of Bourbon songbook, Ten Years Behind Bars: From The Belly Of The Beasts ...
INXS: Welcome To Our New Direction
Report and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, August 1993
In a fully comprehensive roots-and-reality reacquaintance exercise, INXS are nostalgically experiencing the sights, the sounds, the smells of their earliest days in a series of ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Live Seeds
Review by Mick Houghton, MOJO, November 1993
THE LIVE ALBUM is a tricky beast to handle. More often than not it's a contract filler, a pause for thought when the ideas have ...
Interview by Toby Creswell, Juice, 1994
THE DAVID MCCOMB who left Perth with his band the Triffids was still a very young man. Even at those first gigs in the East, ...
The Triffids: Hell of a Summer
Book Excerpt by David Cavanagh, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994
HAILING FROM Perth, Western Australia, the five (later six)-piece Triffids lived in London for much of 1984-5 and were part of a brief musical wave ...
Review by Bill Wasserzieher, The Bob, November 1994
THE MOST VIOLENT electrical storm documented in this century occurred Oct. 31, 1989, in the vicinity of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, where more than 200 ...
Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue: Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue: The Devil and Miss Bones
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 7 October 1995
Together at last — two great antipodean, pop phenomena who have, in their individual ways, made a unique contribution to the business called show. NICK ...
Paul Kelly (Australia): Paul Kelly: Poet of the Common Man
Report and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 12 January 1996
PAUL KELLY'S back in town. I meet him at a King's Cross hotel where his daughter, Madeleine, is turning her slice of cheese into a ...
Crowded House: My Second Life Has Just Begun – April 1994
Book Excerpt by Chris Bourke, 'Something So Strong' (Pan Macmillan Australia), 1997
NOTE: In this excerpt from Chris Bourke's Crowded House biography Something So Strong (Pan Macmillan Australia, 1997), drummer Paul Hester has been brooding for months ...
Gina G, Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: Spice (Virgin); Gina G: Fresh! (Eternal/Warner Bros.)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 8 May 1997
They Know What They Really Really Want and They Know How To Get It. Spice Girls, Gina G: If they could do it all over ...
The Go-Betweens: The Fleadh, Finsbury Park, London
Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, August 1997
SOME BANDS just seem to outgrow their natural life through sheer influence. Something profound dictates that as their reputation accumulates people remember them as a ...
Review by David Bennun, The Guardian, November 1997
THE LATE '70s and early '80s were bleak years for rock, and most other things besides. One of those moments in history which seem to ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, November 1997
RICHARD DAVIES is cooped up in the Turtle Creek barn, a hallowed old recording studio haunted by ghosts of Woodstock past and present. (A picture ...
Michael Hutchence, INXS: Michael Hutchence 1960-1997
Obituary by Toby Creswell, Rolling Stone (Australia), December 1997
Whether it was an old head injury, the wrong medication or the loneliness that caused his untimely death, Michael Hutchence was an international superstar, an ...
Michael Hutchence, INXS: Michael Hutchence, 1960-1997: Death Of A Rock Star
Obituary by Lucy O'Brien, Q, February 1998
Living life at supersonic speed, broken by the battle between his fiancée and her ex-husband, scarred by childhood neglect and propelled by his urge for ...
Tina Arena: Tickled by the fickle finger of fame
Interview by Paul Sexton, The Times, 25 September 1998
Tina Arena isn't fooled by people being nice to her now that she's a pop star, she tells Paul Sexton ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Roberts, Uncut, December 1998
"THIS NOTION that we make miserable records just seems a bit shallow. They're more complete than that. On a cursory listen, they might be depressing, ...
Report and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 24 December 1998
KENNETH BRANAGH at a You Am I gig?! I had to look twice. It turned out to be an ostrich-like version, but that's New York ...
Profile by Frank Tortorici, MTV.com, 28 June 1999
THE TALENTS of Colin Hay were one of the main reasons for the phenomenal early-'80s success of the Australian pop-rock band Men at Work. The ...
Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 18 August 1999
Madonna loves their parodies; so do Elton, Mick and Boy George. Dave Simpson meets Aussie sensation Supergirl ...
Kasey Chambers: Daughter of a preacher man
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 July 2000
One day you're trapping foxes in the Outback with your devout dad. The next, you're a country singer. Adam Sweeting meets Kasey Chambers. ...
The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 14 September 2000
Sleater-Kinney aid return of '80s post-punk rockers. ...
Interview by Debbie Kruger, Performing Songwriter, December 2000
IT'S A LINE so stark in its humility that it has some American reviewers looking for irony and missing the point altogether. ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Russell Hitchcock, b. 15 June 1949, Melbourne, Australia; Graham Russell, b. 1 June 1950, England; Ralph Cooper, b. 6 April 1951, Coffs Harbour, Australia; Frank ...
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 2001
ANYONE ABSORBING the Australian airwaves back in 1981 will have encountered any number of strange and wonderful things. Few, however, have stood the test ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Beeb Birtles, b. Gerard Bertlekamp, 28 November 1948, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Rick Formosa, b. Italy (replaced by David Briggs, b. 26 January 1951, Melbourne, replaced by ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Greg Ham, b. 27 September 1953, Australia; Colin James Hay, b. 29 June 1953, Scotland; John Rees, b. Australia; Jerry Speiser, b. Australia; Ron Strykert, ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Peter Garrett, b. 1954, Sydney, Australia; Jim Moginie, b. Sydney; Martin Rotsey, b. Sydney; Dwayne Hillman, b. New Zealand; Rob Hirst, b. Sydney ...
Live Review by Paul Elliott, MOJO, February 2001
HOWARD STERN spoke for millions of AC/DC fans when quoting from the band's current album Stiff Upper Lip: "I was born with a stiff! These ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 19 March 2001
YOU DON'T REALLY hear what all the fuss is about until you're well into Odyssey Number Five's third track, 'The Metre'. ...
Powderfinger: Band Of The Year
Interview by Jeff Apter, Rolling Stone (Australia), April 2001
POWDERFINGER ARE THE Rolling Stone 2000 Music Award heroes. The results are in and thousands of you voted for them. Powderfinger are Band Of The ...
Radio Birdman, The Saints: Do The Pop! The Australian Garage Rock Sound 1976-87 (Shock)
Sleeve notes by Dave Laing (Australia), Shock, 2002
Come on baby it's time to moveYou been saying there's nothing to doDon't be afraid of bustin' out of your cageGonna cruise around gonna burn ...
Review by Dan Gennoe, Q, 2002
FIVE YEARS after singer Michael Hutchence's death, INXS are making their much threatened comeback, fronted by Jon Stevens from fellow Aussie rockers Noiseworks. ...
Robert Milliken: Lillian Roxon, Mother Of Rock
Book Review by Clinton Walker, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 2002
ROCK JOURNALISM is, of course, the lowest of the low. Trust me, I know. It has recently enjoyed improved profile with films like High Fidelty ...
The Dirty Three: Metro Theatre, Sydney (5 November, 2001)
Live Review by Mark Mordue, Drum Media, 23 April 2002
SOMETIMES I COULD just run into a river and drown. ...
Essay by Clinton Walker, Meanjin, 1 June 2002
I CAN STILL remember my first joint. All the usual jibes notwithstanding (memory loss, not inhaling, whatever), I remember it vividly: It was at the ...
The Vines: Grape Expectations: The Vines: Highly Evolved (Heavenly Recordings) ***½
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, August 2002
Much-heralded thrashy Australians ...
The Dirty Three: Getting Down & Dirty Three: Live at Lee’s Palace, Toronto
Live Review by Rick McGrath, Ojo, 8 April 2003
WENT OUT TO Lee's Palace on a Sunday nite, of all nites... my buddy Pipes said some wacky auzzie group, called the Dirty Three, were ...
AC/DC: High Voltage and other reissues
Review by Toby Manning, Record Collector, May 2003
"LET ME PUT my love into you babe", "given the dog a bone", "a full house", "sinking the pink", "she liked it done medium rare". ...
Profile and Interview by Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly, 6 July 2003
RARELY HAVE A BAND'S song titles told the story so well: consider 'It's a Long Way There', 'Reminiscing' and 'Help is on its Way'. It's ...
Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, September 2003
No topic is off-limits for Angus Young and crew — not Satanism, School Disco, meddling pigeons or elephantine groupies called Rosie. But what about their ...
Interview by James Medd, The Word, December 2003
After years on the dark side of the street, Nick Cave lightens up. ...
Steriogram: Territorial Pissings
Profile and Interview by Jenny Valentish, Rip It Up (New Zealand), 2004
Having successfully become America's Most Wanted, Steriogram have moved on to the toughest nut to crack: the UK. In an abrupt departure from full-on rock ...
Nick Cave: "I Wasn't Sid Vicious": Nick Cave
Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2004
FOR A HIGH-MINDED musical elder statesman like Nick Cave, cultural credibility comes in many forms. The 47-year-old Australian export has hosted London's Meltdown festival, been ...
Finn Brothers: The Finn Brothers: Everyone Is Here
Review by Pete Paphides, MOJO, September 2004
Woodface II – well, that was the idea. The reality, however, is rather more complicated. ...
The Birthday Party, Nick Cave: The Lyre of Cave: An Interview
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004
RBP: Could you have imagined, all those years ago, that you’d have this amazingly even and consistent career? ...
The Saints: All Times Through Paradise (EMI)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, September 2004
4-CD box set of bolshy Ozpunks' three late '70s albums and unreleased Live in London set from late '77, plus numerous out/alternate takes, B-sides and ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Hastings Pier
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2004
MANY ROCK STARS would recoil at the notion of playing an end-of the-pier ballroom in a shabby South Coast retirement town, but Nick Cave appeared ...
The Saints: It Came From Down Under
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, November 2004
The Saints were punk before punk, four Australian rebels with a paint-peeling sound and the ultimate screw-you attitude. Kieron Tyler charts their short, sharp startling ...
Review by Andria Lisle, Tracks, December 2004
OUTBACK COUNTRY: the Aussie singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers staked her claim to the genre with The Captain (2000), her folksy debut. ...
Overview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 28 December 2004
I'VE STARTED writing this story a hundred different ways and every time I think I might be getting somewhere I end up stumbling across some ...
Report and Interview by Jenny Valentish, Drum Media, 2005
As a rash of homegrown bands start to make waves overseas, Jenny Valentish looks at the long and bloody history of Australian bands and the ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus
Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 2005
"THE WORK," Cave told MOJO, "of a genius." Though his tongue was presumably not too many miles from his cheek, he was spot on. This ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, January 2005
It's been a 25-year trip from hard drugs and punch-ups in the Birthday Party to life as a 9-to-5 songwriter/genius. So, in a world of ...
The Go-Betweens: The Yin and Yang of the Go-Betweens
Live Review by Steven R Rosen, LA CityBeat, 23 June 2005
LIVE, THE GO-BETWEENS may just be the most perfectly balanced rock band around. And it's nice to have a rare chance to witness it. Last ...
Nick Cave: The Songwriter Speaks
Interview by Debbie Kruger, Weekend Australian, 30 July 2005
Writer Debbie Kruger spoke to the biggest names in Australian music for her new book Songwriters Speak. In this exclusive extract, Nick Cave explains why ...
Ed Kuepper: This is the Magic Mile (Hot Records)
Review by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 16 December 2005
...
Iain McIntyre: Tomorrow is Today: Australia in the Psychedelic Era, 1966-1970
Book Review by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), 2006
IAIN MCINTYRE'S first book, 2004's Wild About You!, was unfortunately a very limited edition, published by – of all people – the Community Radio Federation ...
Ian Rilen, Rose Tattoo, X (Australia): Ian Rilen, 1947-2006
Obituary by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), 2006
I play rock'n'roll for a livin', I ain't doin' all that well, I play rock'n'roll for a livin', as if you couldn't tell. I'm a ...
Overview by Clinton Walker, Sunday Mail (Australia), 2006
WHEN ROCK 'N' ROLL exploded by that name in the mid-1950s, it wasn't as if there hadn't been any warning. For the some time [sic ...
Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, A New Tomorrow, 2006
While making their fourth album, 2002's critics' favourite Diorama, Australian trio Silverchair underwent a creative makeover, endured tension with their label Atlantic, cemented a bond ...
Essay by Clinton Walker, Sociology: Place, Time and Division (OUP), 2006
I GREW UP in a house without music. In suburban Melbourne in the 1960s, we had a spindly-legged (black and white) TV whose blonde-wood finish ...
Retrospective by Clinton Walker, Meanjin, 2006
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Extracted from the Meanjin Anthology, edited by Sally Heath and published by Melbourne University Press in 2012, after it was first published in Meanjin magazine in ...
Interview by Jenny Valentish, Australian Guitar, 2006
Convicts is a chewy knuckle of an album, straight out of the bar rooms and into your ears. Jenny Valentish prods the guts, nuts and ...
AC/DC: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Retrospective by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), January 2006
EVERYONE AGREED that Peter Head had chosen his name well. The erstwhile Peter Beagley took his new name around the same time, in the early ...
The Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan: Goodbye Fireboy: Grant McLennan 1958 - 2006
Obituary by Toby Creswell, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
GRANT MCLENNAN, who died in his sleep on MAY 6, 2006, was one of the outstanding songwriters of his generation. He was acknowledged an artist ...
The Birthday Party, Rowland S. Howard: Rowland S Howard: Storm Und Twang – The Prophet Of St Kilda
Interview by Jenny Valentish, Australian Guitar, May 2006
From icy reverb to noirish twang, Jenny Valentish pays tribute to Australia's most influential guitar fiend, Rowland S Howard... ...
The Sleepy Jackson: Divine Intervention: The Sleepy Jackson
Interview by Jenny Valentish, The Australian Times, June 2006
LUKE STEELE LEAPS from the stage and hits the dance floor running, executing some neat Prince slides and spins and grinning at the assembled journos ...
The Church: High Priests Of The Old Order: The Church
Interview by Jenny Valentish, The Australian Times, June 2006
"MY BIGGEST FEAR in the world would be if I lost my Australian citizenship and had to live in England forever," Steve Kilbey shudders. Despite ...
Paul Kelly (singer-songwriter): Paul Kelly: Folklore and Fervour
Report and Interview by Jenny Valentish, The Australian Times, June 2006
Under numerous guises Paul Kelly has been releasing albums for the last three decades, and is now over here for an intimate acoustic set. Jenny ...
Bic Runga: Today New Zealand, tomorrow the world
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 7 June 2006
Is Bic Runga the next great chanteuse? Caroline Sullivan finds out. ...
The Triffids: Still Growing Strong
Interview by Jenny Valentish, Australian Guitar, September 2006
Evil Graham Lee brought a ripe swoon to The Triffids' music with his pedal steel guitar. Now, seventeen years after their split, he's witnessing a ...
Mental as Anything: Murray Waldren: The Mind and Times of Reg Mombassa
Book Review by Clinton Walker, unpublished, 2007
Note: This piece never got published. It was commissioned by Australian Book Review magazine but not run, for reasons never given, and certainly wasn't paid for. I ...
The Hoodoo Gurus: Be My Guru: Back to Bedrock with Stoneage Romeos the Hoodoo Gurus
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, January 2007
THANKSGIVING EVE, 1984: Your future Harp correspondent is front and center at a packed Charlotte, NC, punk club, literally hanging on to the monitor of ...
Nick Cave, Grinderman: Grinderman: Grinderman
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, April 2007
THE NEW NAME – the alter ego, the Bad Seeds doppelganger – sounds like some hideous Saw-style horror flick: Nick Cave recasts The Hitcher in ...
Paul Kelly (singer-songwriter): Paul Kelly's Stolen Apples
Report and Interview by Jeff Apter, Rave (Australia), June 2007
PAUL KELLY obviously likes the look of the road less travelled. Who else would consider fusing the poetry of lower-case American e.e. cummings with an ...
The Go-Betweens, The Saints: Brisbane's Pig City Festival
Report by Clinton Walker, Brisbane Courier-Mail, July 2007
THE QUEENSLAND Music Festival, which is launched next Friday with a dawn concert in Winton and runs for a fortnight till July 29, is an ...
Radio Birdman: Birds of a Feather Rock Together
Retrospective and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 16 July 2007
THERE ARE two general categories of musicians in Halls of Fame – the supremely successful sellers of concerts and records, and those who pave the ...
The Boys Next Door, Radio Birdman, The Saints, The Scientists: Come the Revolution: Oz punk
Retrospective and Interview by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, 20 July 2007
You thought punks in the UK had things to be angry about? Over in Australia, bands had a real fight on their hands, says Keith ...
Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, August 2007
Pure, quiet quality from the reunited Kiwi Beatles ...
Cabaret Voltaire, Kora: Kora: Kora! Kora! Kora! Cabaret Voltaire Mixes
Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 19 December 2008
THIS IS not to diminish the achievements of New Zealand/Maori dub band Kora, but I'm guessing for a lot of people the interesting name on ...
The Birthday Party, Nick Cave: Nick Cave: Back to the Ballroom
Book Excerpt by Clinton Walker, 'Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave', 2009
I FIRST MET Nick Cave in Melbourne in early 1978 when we were both, I daresay, players in a new music underground that was still ...
AC/DC: Verizon Center, Washington DC ****
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Q, February 2009
Their album went Number 1 in 29 countries, so why would the greatest ever Australian band — still performing with a deranged intensity that belies ...
Nick Cave, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman: Nick Cave: King of Pain
Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, March 2009
"TEA? PIECE OF CAKE?" says Nick Cave civilly. After an earlier on-tour interview at the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester, he's invited MOJO to his office, a ...
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, May 2009
Synth-pop queen Ladyhawke, aka New Zealander Pip Brown, talks to John Lewis from the back seat of a New York taxi. ...
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, May 2009
AS ONE CONTRIBUTOR to the episodic documentary that features across the DVDs of these four reissues observes, Nick Cave was well on his way to ...
The Chills, The Clean: Nuns at the Altar of Rock: Flying Nun Records
Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, The Guardian, May 2009
"THERE'S SOMETHING about the antipodes that irritates Britain," reckons Martin Phillipps, on the phone from Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island. Almost 25 years ago, ...
The Chills: The Dream is Over: Martin Phillipps of the disbanded Chills, interviewed in 1992
Profile and Interview by Graham Reid, Elsewhere, 24 May 2009
MARTIN PHILLIPPS looks bad. His skin is pasty, he's unshaven and his eyes look like an owl's in an arc light. He's been up for ...
Rowland S. Howard: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Live Review by Mark Mordue, Rock's Backpages, 26 October 2009
WHAT COST? When the former Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard walks into his song 'Pop Crimes', the title track to his new solo album, ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three, Grinderman: Howl: An interview with Warren Ellis
Interview by Mark Mordue, The Sun-Herald, 10 January 2010
WHEN THE American author Mark Twain visited a Victorian gold mining town back in 1885, he was inspired to write: "It was as if the ...
Guide by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2010
WHEN FRONTMAN David McComb died in 1999, aged 36, from heroin toxicity, it might have been expected that the band's reputation would dwindle. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Graeme Thomson, The Word, October 2011
Crowded House's recording career was becalmed in 1990 until an unplanned injection of sibling rivalry sparked off the masterpiece that was Woodface. It couldn't last ...
Profile and Interview by David Hepworth, The Word, October 2011
The moment their kids left home, Neil and Sharon Finn formed a new band. Pajama Club is their "empty-nest album". ...
Sleeve notes by Richie Unterberger, Real Gone Music, 2012
TO LISTENERS in the United States and most of the world, Rick Springfield's name was not familiar until he rocketed to pop music and television ...
5 Seconds Of Summer: Smells Like Teen Spirit
Interview by Toby Creswell, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 20 July 2012
IT WAS LIKE A Hard Day's Night writ small. Four young men alight from an aeroplane confronted by screaming teenage girls. ...
Review by John Aizlewood, bbc.co.uk, 24 September 2012
For a moment, INXS were peerless. This is that moment. ...
Review by Martin Aston, bbc.co.uk, Fall 2012
Superbly psychedelic second set with a very British-sounding soul. ...
The Bee Gees: Barry Gibb: Three-Minute Genius
Book Excerpt by Clinton Walker, 'Rock Country', ed. Christian Ryan (Hardie Grant), 2013
IN 1961 THE Gibb family – parents Hugh and Barbara and kids Lesley, Barry, twins Robin and Maurice, baby Andy – were living on Queensland's ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away
Review by Mark Mordue, The Monthly, February 2013
WE DON'T OFTEN go on journeys with musicians any more. Not over the length of an album. From iTunes to Spotify, we live in an ...
Interview by Toby Creswell, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 10 March 2013
The songs may change but the story of a hit remains the same. With today's reduced attention spans, it's no small feat that four boys ...
Iggy Azalea: "I haven't got daddy issues!"
Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 10 July 2013
IN 2004, A 14-year-old Australian white girl named Amethyst Kelly heard Tupac Shakur for the first time. Blown away by his poetic intensity, she resolved ...
The Sports: Sports: Reckless (Expanded Edition)
Sleeve notes by Dave Laing (Australia), Festival Records, 2014
THIS EXPANDED edition of Sports' 1978 debut Reckless presents as complete a picture of the band's first couple of years as a fan could want to hear. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 April 2014
AZALEA IS certainly one of the most singular pop success stories of recent years. ...
Profile and Interview by Toby Creswell, Rolling Stone Special: 5 Seconds of Summer, June 2014
LUKE HEMMINGS looks bushed. It's not the bed-hair, which has become a trademark of his band 5 Seconds of Summer. It's not just that the ...
Courtney Barnett: Truth Blurts Out
Interview by Scott McLennan, mX, 31 July 2014
Humble Aussie singer returns from an explosive U.S. tour ...
Review by Jeff Apter, Rolling Stone (Australia), 16 October 2014
Jangly vets change line-up but maintain that certain something quite peculiar. ...
The Church's Steve Kilbey (2015)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages Audio, 2015
The veteran Australian rocker looks right back to the formation of the band; the success of 'The Unguarded Moment'; being forced to tour with Duran Duran; endless struggles with record companies; being a confontational individual; the albums Starfish and Priest=Aura; and the Church today.
File format: mp3; file size: 47.1mb, interview length: 51' 27" sound quality: ** (phoner)
The Go-Betweens: G Stands For Go-Betweens – Volume 1, 1978-1984 (Domino)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2015
DOMINO TAKE a fittingly comprehensive approach to anthologising this rarefied band. The first in a planned three-volume set, it collects the group's first trio of ...
Pond (Australia): Pond: Man It Feels Like Space Again
Review by Everett True, The Guardian, 22 January 2015
A FEW MONTHS AGO, I praised the ongoing psych-pop revival currently happening in Australia — bands in all the major metropolises (and numerous small towns) ...
The Go-Betweens: Robert Forster: I wouldn't be able to make sense of Madonna or Drake
Interview by Everett True, The Guardian, 22 January 2015
As a new Go-Betweens box set is released, Brisbane's great purveyor of awkward pop talks about turning critic and which of his songs Ed Sheeran ...
Nick Cave: The SICK BAG Song (Canongate)
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Guardian, 28 March 2015
WHEN YOU'VE personally witnessed Nick Cave nodding out on heroin and slowly lowering his head into a candle flame – his mass of dyed black ...
Daniel Johns: "Making a big heavy rock record would have been pathetic"
Interview by Everett True, The Guardian, 25 May 2015
The former Silverchair frontman meets his former detractor to talk new album Talk, R&B rebellion and being the Daniel Radcliffe of Australian rock. ...
Tame Impala's Danceable New Album Currents: Track By Track First Listen Review
Review by John Calvert, New Musical Express, 23 June 2015
"I REALISED we'd never seen people dancing to our music," Tame Impala's Kevin Parker told NME earlier this year. ...
Tame Impala: Inside the mind of a psych-pop shaman
Interview by John Calvert, New Musical Express, 14 July 2015
"I THINK five years ago," says Kevin Parker, the man who to all intents and purposes is Tame Impala, "the thought of sitting in a ...
The Apartments: album's birth so traumatic 'it's a miracle it exists at all'
Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 7 August 2015
Peter Milton Walsh had no intention of releasing the songs he wrote after tragedy struck. After 18 years he is ready to share them at ...
Skyhooks: The Glory Days Of RAM Magazine: A Q&A with Anthony O'Grady
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Laing (Australia), I Like Your Old Stuff, 20 July 2016
ONE OF THE most influential figures on the Australian rock scene of the late '70s and early '80s – and the man who wrote liner notes ...
Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 11 August 2016
LIKE THEIR PEERS the Chills, the Moles' gently psychedelic, impassioned indie-rock strayed into the elemental. Now reactivated around Australian founder Richard Davies after interest was ...
The Fall: Totally Wired: The Fall in NZ, 1982
Book Excerpt by Roger Shepherd, 'In Love with These Times' (Harper Collins), October 2016
WE ALL LOVED The Fall. They were one of the original English punk bands inspired by the Sex Pistols' visit to Manchester and quickly grew ...
Nick Cave: One More Time with Nick Cave
Report and Interview by Toby Creswell, Rock's Backpages, January 2017
"NICK IS NAVIGATING a completely new world," says Andrew Dominik of his friend Nick Cave. That world began eighteen months ago when Cave's teenage son ...
Nick Cave: The Love and Terror of Nick Cave
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, GQ, 27 April 2017
For four decades, Nick Cave has been at the edge of music, putting his spin on everything from punk rock to lovesick ballads – much ...
Midnight Oil: "A bloody-minded bunch of bastards": Midnight Oil's The Over Flow Tank
Sleeve notes by Andrew Stafford, (Sony Legacy), May 2017
THE PLACE: 8 Ormiston Avenue, Gordon, a leafy suburb on Sydney's Upper North Shore. The year: sometime in 1972. A teenaged Robert George Hirst hauls ...
Radio Birdman: Brutally honest doco cements legacy of volatile Sydney punk band
Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 9 June 2017
The '70s band battled poverty, depression and infighting. Descent into the Maelstrom shows how they also changed the face of Australian music. ...
Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, The Saints: Saint Ed Kuepper to be honoured with renamed Brisbane park
Report and Interview by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 9 July 2017
Push for Brisbane to further celebrate its second seminal band as Ed Kuepper Park named in city's south-west. ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 28 July 2017
A PIECE OF PAPER stuck to the entrance of the Coburg RSL in Melbourne reads "cash only (dark ages)". It's not much warmer inside than ...
Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 10 August 2017
A slow-burning masterpiece from a first-class songwriter ...
Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 2 September 2017
Piece by piece, Neil Finn's Out of Silence comes together in simplistic beauty. ...
Obituary by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 24 October 2017
The Easybeats guitarist and AC/DC producer wasn't just a star in his own right, but a behind-the-scenes industry giant. ...
Courtney Barnett on coping with fame, homophobia – and thinking she still sucks
Profile and Interview by Jenny Valentish, The Guardian, 17 May 2018
The Australian musician has gone from indie darling to global star, but she's still uneasy in the limelight and wracked with self-doubt – even self-hate. ...
Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel (Marathon Artists / Milk! Records)
Review by Tim Cooper, Louder Than War, 18 May 2018
Courtney Barnett releases her hugely anticipated sophomore solo album Tell Me How You Really Feel. Three years after the Australian's landmark debut attracted plaudits and awards, ...
Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 14 June 2018
TO BE COURTNEY BARNETT and learn that Liz Phair released the Girly-Sound to Guyville set is like being Bryan Ferry and opening your door to ...
Flight of the Conchords: O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Bruce Dessau, The Evening Standard, 21 June 2018
BRET MCKENZIE and Jemaine Clement were supposed to play their first London tour dates in seven years in March but then Bret rather inconsiderately tumbled and ...
Dannii Minogue: Stepping Out of the Shadow
Profile and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, August 2018
Fifteen years ago, Dannii Minogue reinvented herself as a dance icon with Neon Nights, a classic of the genre which bears favourable comparison with big ...
The Beasts of Bourbon: Beasts of Bourbon's Spencer P Jones: hellraiser among Australian rock greats
Obituary by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 23 August 2018
Some were scared off by the guitarist's snarling delivery and reputation, but you'd be hard pressed to name a bad song. ...
The Go-Betweens: "It's a widely misunderstood song": How the Go-Betweens made 'Streets of Your Town'
Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 19 September 2018
Is the winner of Guardian Australia's Songs of Brisbane poll about Brisbane? Even band members aren't sure. ...
Obituary by Clinton Walker, Rock's Backpages, December 2018
ANTHONY O'GRADY, who died on 19 December, was the Godfather here in Australia. He was the writer/editor/publisher who transformed Australian rock journalism and music magazines, ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 2019
On her third LP, the New Zealand singer pivots artfully from folk eccentric to pop eccentric. ...
Aldous Harding: Chasing rainbows with Kiwi cult star Aldous Harding and her many voices
Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 25 April 2019
THE THIRD ALBUM by Aldous Harding, New Zealand's woman of a thousand voices, is called Designer. Its sleeve represents the title vertically – white on ...
Men at Work: Unfinished Business: Men Back At Work
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2019
Fronted by a Scottish native who relocated down under in his teens, Men At Work glimpsed greatness before it all became a bit Spinal Tap. ...
The Chills: Martin Phillipps' triumph and tragedy told with extraordinary candour
Film/DVD/TV Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 14 June 2019
THE INDEPENDENT scene that emerged from Dunedin, New Zealand, in the early 1980s had all the strange qualities musical trainspotters around the world associate with ...
Obituary by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 2 August 2019
The punk rocker, author, raconteur and health guru, who has died from cancer, was a big man with a big voice and a hell of ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Ghosteen
Review by Mark Mordue, The Electrified Journalist, 6 October 2019
NOTE: I wrote these notes upon a first listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Ghosteen. I tried to evolve the words into something ...
Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 14 February 2020
Perth's disco dork returns after a four-year hiatus with an album that finds existential meaning in genre-surfing dance music ...
Retrospective and Interview by Ken Scrudato, BlackBook, 18 February 2020
THE CULTURAL landscape is littered with the faded memories of those who came and went without the honours corresponding to the levels of their actual ...
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 28 March 2021
The pop star turned author on her memoir of the Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison ...
Crowded House: Dreamers Are Waiting
Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 3 June 2021
The band's first album since 2010 is full of beautiful details and deceptive tonal shifts – a slow burn but worth the effort ...
Amyl and the Sniffers: Comfort to Me
Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 10 September 2021
Frontwoman Amy Taylor crackles like a live wire with too much current in Melbourne punk band's electric second album. ...
Courtney Barnett on being forced to stop: "I felt myself opening up in a different way"
Interview by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 5 November 2021
A breakup, a pandemic and a homecoming left the singer with time to sit and think. Her new album radiates the calmness and kindness she ...
Comment by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 11 April 2022
David Malouf said poetry could never occur in Brisbane in the '70s and '80s. The Saints proved otherwise – and revolutionised the music industry. ...
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