Poets’ Pub
In researching my recent biography of John Maclean, it became clear to me that the poets of Scotland played a major role in rescuing Scotland’s…
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Stranglers in strife: the 1979 Australian tour
Brian Johnstone, one of my oldest and dearest friends, passed away in Adelaide in January 2015 after a long battle with cancer. We met in Adelaide in the late 70s, in the early days of Roadrunner, were housemates for awhile and he wrote a few pieces for the mag, including this entertaining account of the media shenanigans surrounding the Stranglers tour which was the cover story in the March 1979
Sex Pistols at the Stowaway Club, Newport
My first published article. From Street Fever, the punk fanzine produced by Stuart Coupe and myself in Adelaide in December 1977. I was on a train from Darlington to Bath in 1976 when I first heard of the Sex Pistols. I had been away from England for six weeks working in Libya for a surveying company. I was on my way home after delivering some maps to head office. I
Stiffs Greatest Stiffs Live
Just before I left the U.K. to return to Australia after two and a half years away, I was fortunate to catch this remarkable concert. The venue was Bath University, the date 7 October 1977 and it was the third date on the Stiffs Greatest Stiffs Live tour. This review was my second ever published article, in the Adelaide punk fanzine Street Fever (December 1977). Nick Lowe bounds on stage and
Street Fever issue #1 – December 1977
Click on cover below to read the one and only issue of this Adelaide punk fanzine, edited and published by Stuart Coupe and Donald Robertson. CONTENTS 4. Moist 5. Radio Birdman/Young Modern/Elvis Costello/Pizza review 6. Sex Pistols – live in Newport, South Wales 8. Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers 9. A Bunch of Stiffs live – Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Larry Wallis, Wreckless Eric and Ian Dury. 11. Psycho
Walking down the Road; Split Enz in the U.K. 1976
The first interview I ever did was with Tim Finn of Split Enz, in Bath, England in October 1976. I sent the piece to Nation Review, but never heard back. Thus it is published here for the first time. ‘Split Enz are on the road becoz travel broadens the mind’ blared the full-page ad in Sounds last week. ‘Surreal Maoris’ Hair Raising Tale’ ran the headline in New Musical Express.