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Funded by the past and surviving Aboriginal peoples of Australia

In September 2023, a series of mysterious posters of No Fixed Address started appearing in locations across London. Featured the iconic Bleddyn Butcher photo of…

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Triple-treat at Her Majesty’s

There was a lot of love in the room at the Adelaide launch of 'No Fixed Address' and the opening of the related exhibition in…

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Addison Road Writers’ Festival 2023

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'…

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Articles and posts

A selection of published and previously unpublished works

‘We Have Survived’—Roadrunner 1980

  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

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‘The Nips Are Getting Bigger’—Roadrunner 1979

  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

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‘One More Boring Night in Adelaide’—Roadrunner 1978

  To view and download issues, click on thumbnails below When I returned to Adelaide in late 1977 after two-and-a-half years in the UK, I came back with 25 singles—Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Elvis Costello, Wreckless Eric, Tom Robinson Band, X-Ray Spex, The Rezillos, Slaughter & the Dogs etc. I moved into a small cottage at 14 Donegal Street, Norwood, owned by my old Adelaide Uni friends Larry

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John James Hackett: more than a passing acquaintance

It was early 1975. I remember warm summer nights and nude swimming in the backyard pool of the house on Nottage Terrace. There were a few Adelaide locals but mainly twenty-somethings evacuated from Darwin after Cyclone Tracy struck on Christmas Day. A mix of English, Americans and Australians, more than a few fresh from India and the Asian hippie trail. They had been part of a little Darwin scene that

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A hundred years ago: great John Maclean comes home to the Clyde—part 1

On the morning of Thursday 28 November 1918, the Imperial War Cabinet met at 10 Downing Street in London.  Outside the weather was wet and windy and the temperature struggled to reach seven degrees Centigrade. It was the American holiday of Thanksgiving; but Americans were definitely not alone in feeling thankful. The armistices signed by the Allies on 30 October (with Turkey), 3 November (Austria-Hungary) and 11 November (Germany) had

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A hundred years ago: great John Maclean comes home to the Clyde—part 2

Continued from A hundred years ago: great John Maclean comes home to the Clyde—part 1 Two days before the Imperial War Cabinet meeting of 28 November 1918, George Barnes drafted a memo suggesting the Cabinet (imagined above in a painting by Scottish artist Sir James Guthrie) authorise John Maclean’s release, ‘along with any others who might be in like plight for similar offences.’ ‘The continued agitation about John Maclean constitutes

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A hundred years ago: great John Maclean comes home to the Clyde—part 3

Continued from A hundred years ago: great John Maclean comes home to the Clyde—part 2 John Maclean was released from Peterhead Prison on Monday 2 December 1918. That evening he addressed a meeting of supporters at the Meatmarket Street Hall in Aberdeen. The following day, accompanied by his wife Agnes, he travelled by train to Glasgow. Despite Maclean’s desire to ‘get right home’, word of his release had quickly spread

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Seven books that had an impact

  It was one of those Facebook memes. My good friend Greg Taylor invited me to nominate ‘seven books that had an impact’.  Seven books in seven days. I accepted and after some thought, (and somewhat predictably) decided to go in chronological order. I enjoyed the exercise and thought it was worth collecting the results here. 1. The Children’s Encyclopedia by Arthur Mee. My parents bought me The Children’s Encyclopedia

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Whisky: ‘Whether or not it is Scotland’s oil, it is mostly not Scotland’s whisky’.

  No account of the Highland county of Moray would be complete without a mention of whisky. There are 49 operating malt whisky distilleries in the Speyside region, the greatest concentration in Scotland. The clean air, the plentiful and pristine water of the Spey coming off the Cairngorm mountains to the south (plus natural springs) and proximity to the main barley growing areas of the country provide ideal conditions for

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