The critics are swooning over ‘No Fixed Address’. Links to print and online articles and reviews are below. ‘The story of this radical group is told in a new book by Donald Robertson. On the back cover Goanna’s Shane Howard describes No Fixed Address as “the tip of the spear” that plunged into the heart of middle Australia. And as a story, it’s got everything – starting with a fiery
Ricky Harrison and Sean Moffatt from No Fixed Address travelled from Gippsland to Sydney in mid-May to do some publicity for the ‘No Fixed Address’ book. On Saturday 20 May, Ricky and Sean joined me on a lunchtime panel at the Addison Road Writers’ Festival in Marrickville. It was a brilliant, memorable, session (superbly marshalled by Mark Mordue) capped off by a stunning two-song performance. The duo played Ricky’s songs
It was Easter 1982. No Fixed Address were on the road, driving back east from Perth, heading to Alice Springs. This is the Prologue to No Fixed Address (Hybrid Publishers, 2023). To purchase a copy, click here Although they’d been impressing audiences and slowly building a live following in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney for a couple of years, the release of the film Wrong Side of the Road the previous
The core of this playlist is a) songs recorded and released by No Fixed Address and b) songs performed live by No Fixed Address but recorded by others (i.e., Joe Geia, Bart Willoughby and Mixed Relations). It also includes songs by people the band played with, people they met along the way, and other significant songs mentioned in the book ‘No Fixed Address’. ‘The Vision’, No Fixed Address, Wrong Side
A playlist of singles reviewed in The Big Beat: rock music in Australia 1978-83, through the pages of Roadrunner magazine. The playlist, first published a year ago on this site—and updated in the past few weeks with new tracks added to Spotify in the past 12 months—contains 583 songs and runs for 35 hours and 17 minutes. The Roadrunner years were a golden age for the single and The Big
Losing Greedy Smith this year was a big shock. A shock that reverberated through the Australian music community. A shock that reminded everyone from the late 70s/early 80s glory years of Australian rock of their own mortality. If Greedy has gone, who’s next? It’s enough to send a shiver down your spine. The massive turnout at the Macquarie Park crematorium on 9 December to celebrate Greedy’s life was testament to
The third of the Q&A and book signings to celebrate the release of The Big Beat took place in the heart of the city at Title Barangaroo on 21 November 2019. Over a hundred movers and groovers gathered to hear moderator Mark Dodshon skilfully guide the panel of Buzz Bidstrup (ex-Angels and GANGgajang), Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys, Shy Impostors and The Aints) and author Donald Robertson through their memories and insights
There was a lot of love in the room for Roadrunner magazine and its anthology The Big Beat at Readings book store in St Kilda last night. A crowd of around fifty gathered to hear Pierre Sutcliffe (ex-Models) lead Phill Calvert (ex-Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party), John Dowler (Young Modern) and myself discuss the Australian post-punk scene and the role that Roadrunner played in it. Among the former contributors in
Print reviews ‘Roadrunner was the Chrysler of the Big 3 R rock magazines in Australia at the turn into the 1980s, trailing the GM and Ford of RAM and Rolling Stone, and like the Hemi-powered Plymouths and Dodges, it was wild and untamed, and it’s a blessing that there’s now a permanent record of it, all 500 pages of it and bound in a beautiful hard cover.’ — Clinton Walker — 12 November 2019
By Nathan Davies SA Weekend magazine, The Advertiser (Adelaide), 4 October 2019 To flick through the pages of The Big Beat – a bound collection of rock magazine Roadrunner – is to be transported to an Adelaide that no longer exists. An Adelaide of smoke-filled, sticky-floored band rooms still a decade or two from being transformed into soulless pokie dens. An Adelaide of photocopied band flyers sticky taped to Stobie
The soundtrack to the book of the magazine. One song from each issue of Roadrunner magazine, as featured in the book, The Big Beat: Rock music in Australia 1978-1983 (Roadrunnertwice, 2019).
To view and download issues, click on thumbnails below The concerted push to increase sales and advertising revenue following the establishment of a Roadrunner Sydney office in mid-1981 was only a qualified success. While ad sales saw a marked increase and newsagency sales nudged six thousand for the first time (with the end-of-year issue), most of the extra revenue was offset by the higher production costs of going full colour
To view and download issues, click on thumbnails below Roadrunner‘s first issue of 1981 (Vol 4 No 1) signalled some changes. First, the cover price went up from 60 cents to 80 cents. We attempted to offset this by a bumper subscription offer—two free albums (Vinyl Virgins, a Virgin Records Australia sampler and Tactics’ My Houdini) plus a year’s subscription (12 issues) for $15. The offer snared 61 new subscribers,
To view and download issues, click on thumbnails below Roadrunner’s ‘End of the ’70s’ double issue in December 1979 made a few people sit up and take notice. One of them was Paul Gardiner, publisher of Rolling Stone. Gardiner used to play the occasional game of squash with Stuart Coupe in Sydney and asked him if I might be willing to sell the magazine. He had just started a
To view and download issues, click on thumbnails below Roadrunner’s first national issue hit the newsstands in February 1979. The cover story on the riots and run-ins of Elvis Costello’s summer tour was by the hard-hitting Ross Stapleton, whose fascination with the behind-the-scenes machinations of the music industry was to yield a series of lengthy features over the following twelve months. As well as being engrossing exposes in their
