Cold Chisel, one of the most dynamic live acts Australia has ever produced. A band of outsiders driven to succeed at any cost and a band that lived as they played – hard and fast. A band of fractious temperaments that could implode at any moment and often did. If ever an Australian band embodied the sex, drugs and rock and roll ethos it was Cold Chisel and their record company … [Read more...]
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Midnight Oil
It’s the summer holidays and I’m in the heart of Midnight Oil’s turf on Sydney’s northern beaches. The house where I’m staying is just off Powder Works Road, the winding piece of bitumen that paved the way down to the coast and brought the wax heads from the city’s leafy north shore and beyond down to the nirvana of one of Sydney’s best breaks. It’s also the road that gave name … [Read more...]
The Swing – INXS
If ever you needed a reminder of just how good INXS were, one listen to The Swing is all you need. It may not have had as big an impact overseas as its successors Listen Like Thieves or the multi-million selling Kick, but The Swing was the pivotal album where INXS truly defined their sound. The Swing was the first INXS album where all the elements of their musical influences … [Read more...]
Martha Davis – Podcast
In 1979 I remember listening to the radio and being stopped in my tracks as one of the sultriest, sexiest and arresting songs I’d ever heard hit the airwaves. Now being in my mid teens and suddenly having an interest in the opposite sex may have had something to do with it, BUT – almost 40 years later I still think it’s one of the sexiest songs ever committed to vinyl. The … [Read more...]
Sunnyboys – Sunnyboys
September 1981. I’m in my last year of high school and supposed to be studying for my final exams, but there’s this hot new band from Sydney whose album I’ve rushed out to buy and I can’t stop thrashing it on the little 3 in 1 stereo in my bedroom. I play the record so much that after a couple of weeks I swear the vinyl is only half as thick as it used to be. Unfortunately I’m … [Read more...]