War & Peace Nightclub Parramatta
War & Peace Nightclub Parramatta was an iconic live music venue of the seventies and eighties and was probably the first real nightclub that I ever went to as a fresh-faced 17 year old in 1979. I’d been to a pub or two & seen some bands but this was like, at least in my…
Read MoreAustralian Singles Chart for 1990
These are the songs that Australians were listening to in 1990. Here is the Australian Singles Chart for 1990 based on sales. Top Australian Singles “Mona” – Craig McLachlan & Check 1-2 “I Need Your Body” – Tina Arena “Crying in the Chapel” – Peter Blakeley “Lay Down Your Guns” – Jimmy Barnes “Show No…
Read MoreCold Chisel – The Early Years
Cold Chisel are one of the most important bands of the seventies and eighties pub rock scene. They dominated the charts and venues all over the Country from the time they hit the charts in 1978 till their triumphant finale, the Last Stand Tour. I had the absolute pleasure of seeing them multiple times in…
Read MoreChris Bailey has passed away
News has come through this morning that Chris Bailey has lost his battle with cancer and passed away peacefully last night. I first met Chris in the early 1990’s when I had the pleasure of doing a couple of short tours with GANGgajang. Not only was he a brilliant musician but he was regarded as…
Read MoreThe Lost Husky
The Lost Husky began in 1998 as a solo acoustic side-project for Chris Newton, the bass player for 1990s Sydney alternative rock bands Psyclone Smyle, Tooth and User. It started out as a country-infused folk act, honed at open mic nights, pubs and local cafes in his hometown of Balmain, and Sydney’s inner west, as…
Read MoreAussie Music Trivia Is Back!
The Trivia section of this site was one of the most popular by far but after some issues with the software we had to abandon it. Over the past few weeks it has been reconstructed at the Australian Music Database site and it’s back bigger and better. How is it bigger and better? Now that…
Read MoreRick Doolan – twenty years passed.
Editors note: This article was first published in Connections magazine in 1993. As the 20th anniversary of Rick’s death approached I contacted Julius Grafton, the author and publisher of Connections (now CX), and he graciously allowed me to reproduce it again here. Rick was a close friend of mine and I’d like to personally thank…
Read MoreThe Balmain Sound – Indie Rock from the Balmain Peninsula
Here’s a little piece about the Balmain indie-rock scene I grew up in. Originally published, in part, in a small article in the local Balmain paper Village Voice in 2006/2007. By the late 1970s, Balmain (in Sydney’s inner west) had already been through a sea-change of sorts with the influx of a younger, politically left-leaning…
Read Morelittle BIG Rigs PA & Lighting Hire
A short history on Mark Laidler and little BIG Rigs PA & Lighting Hire. After leaving The Undecided? in late 1984 where he had already built his first PA that the band was using, a friend asked if he still had the PA and would he hire it to his band. Mark’s first gig was on the 12th January 1985…
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