Description

An amalgam of memoir and anthology, this collection shines a light onto the life and work of well-respected music writer and editor Donald Robertson.

There’s the experience of emigrating to the steel town where the desert meets the sea; the escape to Adelaide’s nourishing airs; the return to Britain to fathom why the family left; and the realisation there was no future in England’s dreaming.

Then the plunge into publishing. Rock ‘n’ roll stories of course; Springsteen, Split Enz, Sex Pistols, Simple Minds, and more. Slabs of Australian, and South Australian, rock history.

But also comedy capers with the Doug Anthony Allstars and Los Trios Ringbarkus; football fables with the Socceroos; travel tales of Haight-Ashbury and Swinging London; and recent reflections on Scotland as it struggles to be free.

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‘Resigned as I am to the fact that neither Redgum nor I will rate anything more than a passing mention in this book, truth compels me to say this: as a writer, Donald has always been able to find his way from the uppercase to the period with elegance, insight, erudition and what passes for humour among the Scottish.’ —John Schumann

‘The Messi of rock ‘n’ roll writers.’ —Peter Goldsworthy

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CONTENTS

Playlists
Preface

It’s … Personal

Seven Books: # 1 – The Children’s Encyclopedia
1966 and All That
Seven Books: #2 – JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
1968
1970
Fresher
Seven Books: #3 – Richard Neville, Playpower
Seven Books: #4 – Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Coming of Age
John James Hackett
In November 1975, London Was Finally Ready for Bruce Springsteen
Seven Books: #5 – Barry Humphries, with Drawings by Nicholas Garland, The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie
Someone Somewhere in Summertime
Seven Books: #6 – George Melly, Revolt into Style
Seven Books: #7 – William Gallacher, Revolt on the Clyde
The Life of Brian: ‘Right, So That’s What a Real Journalist Is Like’
Roadrunner Goes Digital
A Magical Sixties Birthday Tour

Rock ‘n’ Roll

Walking Down the Road: Split Enz in the UK 1976
Sex Pistols at the Stowaway Club, Newport
Stiffs Greatest Stiffs Live
Epitaph for a Working Class Hero
Magical Mushroom Moments
A Not So Simple Mind
Punky and Western
Wild Child: The Christina Amphlett Interview
U2: A Journey to the Heart of the Soul
Skinny English White Boy in Career Move Shock!!
GANGgajang: A Sense of Place
Laughing Lennie
(When the Sun Sets over) Carlton
Still the Boss
You Can’t Change the Rhythm of My Soul

Song and Dance

The Comic Strip: Comedy for Moderns
Oznost Tickles Edinburgh
Los Trios Ringbarkus: A Tour De Farce
Doug Anthony Allstars: Tick Fucking Tock

Rock History

Australian Rock: The Fifties
Australian Rock: The Early Sixties
Australian Rock: The Late Sixties
Australian Rock: The Early Seventies
Australian Rock: The Late Seventies
Australian Rock: The Early Eighties
Reeling and A-Rocking: The Adelaide Music Scene in The 60s
Seasons of Change: The Adelaide Music Scene in the 70s
Rock Culture
Punk
The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle

Travel

The Owls and the Blades
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
If You’re Going to San Francisco …
A Kangaroo Cousin Looks at the Saltire

Whisky

The Malt Whisky Trail: Part I – Speyside
The Malt Whisky Trail: Part 2 – Islay
Whether or Not It Is Scotland’s Oil, It Is Mostly Not Scotland’s Whisky

Football

Goosebumps – Australia v Croatia, World Cup 2006
‘I Am a Champion’
Shenanigans in the Shires

Socialism

Peterloo
In Search of John Maclean
John Maclean’s Glasgow
My Scotland

Acknowledgements
Sources
Songs
Albums
Bibliography
Index