This book is a celebration of 50 years of Rock in Australia, the music that has become the soundtrack to our lives. Molly has been perfectly placed to watch it all unfold. This book is filed with his anecdotes & insights into all the stars that have come & gone (& come again) over the last fifty years. Starting with Johnny O'Keefe & the Beatles, via the Bees Gees, AC/DC & INXS through to Missy Higgins & Wolfmother this book covers all the greats.
Tells the stories of Australia's best known pop and rock songs. Aussie Rock Anthems names the top 40 classic Australian songs and tells the stories behind them – many unknown. From Hunters & Collectors' 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' to INXS's 'Don't Change' and Redgum's 'I Was Only 19', author Glen Humphries unearths hidden gems and surprising back stories about the bands. It's a celebration of great Australian music that will have you reaching for old vinyl or phone apps to give some of these classics another listen. Chances are, each song is not what you had assumed..
The real story of the man behind the bands - and a backstage pass to forty years of Australian rock music.Known to many as GODinski, Michael Gudinski is unquestionably the most powerful and influential figure in the Australian rock'n'roll music business - and has been for the last four decades.Often referred to as 'the father of the Australian music industry', he has nurtured the careers of many artists - Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Skyhooks, Split Enz, Yothu Yindi, to name just a few. But his reach isn't limited to Australian artists. With his Frontier Touring Company, Gudinski has toured The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Sting ... pretty much a who's who of the arena level international music scene.A self-made multi-millionaire, Gudinski is the Australian equivalent of Richard Branson or David Geffen, but who is this tough, inspired, flamboyant and impassioned businessman who has shaped Australian popular culture? Where did he come from, and how has he stayed relevant for so long in an industry notorious for its fickleness? Rock journalist Stuart Coupe delves into Gudinski's life to find the answers - and in doing so gives us a backstage pass to forty years of Australian rock.
What is it about the Australian outback? For nearly two centuries, narratives of outback journeys have been suffused with the aura of death. Why? It is not just that the desert is big, dry, hot and apparently empty. The outback is Australia’s “mythological crucible,” and journeys there have become rites of passage. It is where settler Australians go to die and perhaps be reborn. This book explores the landscape of this evolving national mythology. It argues that a more conscious engagement with the process of symbolic death and rebirth is needed for Australians to enter into a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationship to the land and its Indigenous people.
In a bar called The Bucket of Blood, a man shoots the bartender four times in the head. In the small town of Millhaven, a teenage girl secretly and gleefully murders her neighbors. A serial killer travels from home to home, quoting John Milton in his victims' blood. Murder Ballads, the ninth studio album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is a gruesome, blood-splattered reimagining of English ballads, American folk and blues music, and classic literature. Most of the stories told on Murder Ballads have been interpreted many times, but never before had they been so graphic or profane. Though earning the band their first Parental Advisory warning label, Murder Ballads, released in 1996, brought Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds their biggest critical and commercial success, thanks in part to the award-winning single, “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” an unlikely duet with Australian pop singer, Kylie Minogue. Closely examining each of the ten songs on the album, Santi Elijah Holley investigates the stories behind the songs, and the numerous ways these ballads have been interpreted through the years. Murder Ballads is a tour through the evolution of folk music, and a journey into the dark secrets of American history.
Australian music has a proud, colourful and successful history. In 2008, Australian rock and roll turned 50. This book names the best Australian albums of the last 50 years. It places each album in order (from 1 u 100) and discusses why each album deserves its place. It tells the story behind the making of the album, where the album fits in the artist's career and the album's impact on the local and world stage etc. The entries will feature new interviews with the artists and the producers/managers involved in the recording and the release of the album. It wouldn't be a good list if it didn't polarise people and we hope that this list will. We also hope that it will get people sitting around comparing their favourites and discovering or re-discovering these great albums and others. With 70 years of loving and writing about Australian music between us, we shamelessly believe we've earned the right to write this book. And we think we've got it right. Let the debate begin.o u John O'Donnell, April 2010 Finally, here is a much-needed list of argument-starting top 100 seminal/ influential/essential Australian albums of all time. Let the fight begin!
Molly: 'Who the f**k is Madonna?' Madonna: ''What the f**k is a Molly?' More than thirty-five years in the making, this is the story of Ian 'Molly' Meldrum and the television show that stopped the nation. In 1974 Molly was working as a record producer and music journalist when he was offered the chance to be the talent co-ordinator of a new music show called Countdown. It would run for the next thirteen years and become one of the most-loved and most-watched programs on Australian television. It also turned Molly into a national institution (or 'mental institution' as one of his friends put it). During that period he not only became the most influential voice in Australian music, he endeared himself to millions of viewers with a uniquely unpolished interviewing style and a tangible on-screen passion. For better or for worse, whether interviewing Prince Charles or Sid Vicious, Molly was always Molly. Along the way he talked, partied, argued, exchanged blows and became firm friends with a roll-call of the world's greatest musical names. Sir Elton John famously described him as 'the best thing that ever happened to Australian music.' Filled with outrageous anecdotes and a kaleidoscopic cast of musos, colourful characters and international superstars, The Never, Um, Ever Ending Story is Molly's hilarious, vivid, warm and always compelling memoir of his chaotic, incredible life and the show that made him famous.
Australia is the sum total of its people, with a story behind every person. This tells 1001 of those stories. It includes the factual, concise account of the lives of people from all walks of life, from polititians, pop stars, Nobel Laureates, thinkers, singers, sporting identities, criminals and clergy to name just a few.
Angus Young, the co-founder and the last surviving original member of AC/DC, has for more than 40 years been the face, sound and sometimes the exposed backside of the trailblazing rock band. In his trademark schoolboy outfit, guitar in hand, Angus has given his signature sound to songs such as ‘A Long Way to the Top’, ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Back in Black’, helping AC/DC become the biggest rock band on the planet. High Voltage is the first biography to focus exclusively on Angus. It tells of his remarkable rise from working-class Glasgow and Sydney to the biggest stages in the world. The youngest of eight kids, Angus always seemed destined for a life in music, and it was his passion and determination that saw AC/DC become hard rock’s greatest act. Over the years, Angus has endured the devastating death of iconic vocalist Bon Scott, the forced retirement of his brother in arms, Malcolm Young, and more recently the loss from the band of singer Brian Johnson and drummer Phil Rudd. Yet somehow the little guitar maestro has kept AC/DC not just on the rails, but at the top of the rock pile. ‘High Voltage is a great read, easy to whip through and take in, but it doesn’t leave you feeling short-changed, it simply opens your thoughts up to: what if there were more?’ —Shane Murphy, Daily Review ‘Apter’s lively and highly readable biography . . . is an inspiring story. Angus was the son of Scottish migrants, brother of one of the Easybeats, who gave up a printing apprenticeship to pursue his dream of being a rock star.’ —Daily Telegraph ‘A GRIPPING new book about AC/DC schoolboy guitarist Angus Young charts the carnage around the supergroup from wild groupies, violent fist-fights, tragic fans’ deaths – and even being linked to a serial killer.’ —Scottish Sun
Lola Bensky is a nineteen-year-old rock journalist who irons her hair straight and asks a lot of questions. A high-school dropout, she's not sure how she got the job – but she's been sent by her Australian newspaper right to the heart of the London music scene at the most exciting time in music history: 1967. Lola spends her days planning diets and interviewing rock stars. In London, Mick Jagger makes her a cup of tea, Jimi Hendrix (possibly) propositions her and Cher borrows her false eyelashes. At the Monterey International Pop Festival, Lola props up Brian Jones and talks to Janis Joplin about sex. In Los Angeles, she discusses being overweight with Mama Cass and tries to pluck up the courage to ask Cher to return those false eyelashes. Lola has an irrepressible curiosity, but she begins to wonder whether the questions she asks these extraordinary young musicians are really a substitute for questions about her parents' calamitous past that can't be asked or answered. As Lola moves on through marriage, motherhood, psychoanalysis and a close relationship with an unexpected pair of detectives, she discovers the question of what it means to be human is the hardest one for anyone – including herself – to answer. Drawing on her own experiences as a young journalist, the bestselling author of Too Many Men has created an unforgettable character in the unconventional and courageous Lola. Genuinely funny and deeply moving, Lola Bensky shows why Lily Brett is one of our most distinctive and internationally acclaimed authors. 'Brett delivers an entertaining story that is also full of heart.' Australian Bookseller and Publisher 'A touching look at a woman's quest for self-understanding.' Who Weekly 'Funny, warm and insightful.' Herald Sun 'For Brett, resolution has come through creative remembering and retelling, and by constructing a fine comic novel from an unspeakable tragedy.' Australian Book Review 'A witty novel you'll struggle to put down.' Grazia 'A book that will entertain legions of readers.' Courier Mail 'An entertaining story that is also full of heart.' Bookseller+Publisher 'Lily Brett's heroines exude curiosity and Lola Bensky is no exception.' Sun-Herald 'Brett's sixth book hooks you in, not just because of her characteristic wit, but because she was a rock journalist herself back in the day.' Melbourne Times Weekly 'Lola Bensky will thrill [Brett's] fans: finally a book based on her extraordinary experiences as a reporter for Australia's first music magazine, Go-Set, during the most exciting era in pop music history.' Australian Jewish News
