Australasian Rock

Python Lee Jackson, Rod Stewart: Python Lee Jackson: In A Broken Dream (GNP-Crescendo)

Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 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 ...

AC/DC: Australia has Punk Rock bands too, y'know

Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 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, 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. ...

Radio Birdman

Profile and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 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: The Dirtiest Story Ever Told

Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 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, 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 ...

Saints, The: The Saints: I'm Stranded

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 ...

Saints, The, 999: The Saints, 999: The Nashville, London

Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, 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 ...

Sports, The: The Sports: The Whisky, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 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, NME, 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 ...

Split Enz: True Colours

Review by Deborah Frost, Boston Phoenix, 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 ...

Radio Birdman: Divine Rites: Radio Birdman Flies Again

Essay by Nicholas Rothwell, Australian, The, 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 ...

Birthday Party, The: The Birthday Party: Abbo — The Album

Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, NME, 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. ...

The Church: The Blurred Crusade

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 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 ...

Divinyls: As Big As Vegemite

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 ...

AC/DC: Flick Of The Switch

Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 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 ...

Triffids, The: The Triffids: Born Sandy Devotional

Review by Mat Snow, NME, 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 ...

These Immortal Souls: Lost Souls

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 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 ...

Triffids, The: The Triffids: On The Ice

Report and Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 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 ...

Died Pretty

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 Pino, lead singer and lyricist of Died Pretty, Australia's most original export ...

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. ...

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Henry's Dream (Mute)

Review by Gavin Martin, NME, 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 ...

INXS: Vast

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

Triffids, The: The Triffids' David McComb

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, ...

Frente!: Marvin the Album

Review by Bill Wasserzieher, Bob, The, 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 ...

Icehouse: The Man Who Fell To Surf: Icehouse's Iva Davies

Book Excerpt by Antonella Gambotto, An Instinct For The Kill, 1997

IVA DAVIES not despicable or brutal or awful or poisonous or bizarre, but he is tense. Extremely tense. his laughter rings out like a gunshot ...

Go-Betweens, The: 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 ...

Richard Davies: Mojo Rising

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 ...

INXS, Michael Hutchence: 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 ...

You Am I in NYC

Report and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, 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 ...

Kasey Chambers

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. ...

Johnny Warman

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 ...

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 ...

Saints, The, Radio Birdman: Do The Pop! The Australian Garage Rock Sound 1976-87 (Shock)

Sleevenotes 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 ...

Dirty Three, The: Getting Down & Dirty Three: Live at Lee’s Palace, Toronto

Live Review by Rick McGrath, Ojo, 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 ...

Little River Band

Profile and Interview by Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly (Australia), 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 ...

Nick Cave, Birthday Party, The: 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? ...

Nick Cave: "I Wasn't Sid Vicious": Nick Cave

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 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 ...

Saints, The: 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, Times, The, 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 ...

Rowland S. Howard, Birthday Party, The, You Am I: Want To Rule Britannia? Australian Bands Breaking The UK

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 ...

Go-Betweens, The: The Yin and Yang of the Go-Betweens

Live Review by Steven R Rosen, LA CityBeat, 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, 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 ...

Silverchair

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 ...

Rowland S. Howard, Birthday Party, The: 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... ...

Go-Betweens, The, 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 ...

Paul Kelly (singer-songwriter): Paul Kelly: Folklore and Fervour

Report and Interview by Jenny Valentish, Australian Times, The, 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 ...

Church, The: High Priests Of The Old Order: The Church

Interview by Jenny Valentish, Australian Times, The, 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 ...

Sleepy Jackson, The: Divine Intervention: The Sleepy Jackson

Interview by Jenny Valentish, Australian Times, The, 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 ...

Triffids, The: 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 ...

Hoodoo Gurus, The: 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 ...

Grinderman, Nick Cave: 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 ...

Radio Birdman: Birds of a Feather Rock Together

Retrospective and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, Sydney Morning Herald, 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 ...