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1970: Goodbye Beatles. And so long Janis, Jimi and Jim.

1970 saw the end of many things. The sixties of course. But also The Beatles, who announced their split in April. And Jim Morrison of…

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1969: Armstrong, Biafra, ‘Hair’, Stonewall, ‘Tommy’ and Woodstock

I've been having fun pottering around in 1969 to put together the Spotify playlist below. It's the fourth in my 'Back to Schooldays' series and…

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1968: From ‘Voodoo Chile’ to ‘Goody Goody Gumdrops’

I think the Spotify playlist below does a pretty good job of capturing the swirling crosscurrents of the Australian airwaves in 1968. From the psychedelic…

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Articles and posts

A selection of published and previously unpublished works

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

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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

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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

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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.

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