| Author | Message | ||
     andrew stafford Unregistered guest |
Hi all - Sorry for the blatant self-promotion, but just a quick note: for those of you in Brisbane, Pig City: From The Saints to Savage Garden will be officially launched at the Spark Bar of the Powerhouse, New Farm on Saturday week (October 2). The event kicks off at 6 pm. Doing the launch honours will be Clinton Walker (author of Stranded, Highway to Hell, Inner City Sound etc). Following the launch, I'll be joining Clinton, Peter Walsh - that's the Livid Festival producer, not Peter Milton Walsh! - and Nick Earls in a panel discussion about Brisbane's music history. All of the above is taking place as part of the Brisbane Writer's Festival which begins next Thursday (September 30). Pig City is a social history of Brisbane pre- and post-Bjelke Petersen/Fitzgerald Inquiry, with music at the front and centre of the story. Go-Betweens fans will of course find much to interest them! The book will be published nationally by University of Queensland Press on Monday, October 4. Copies will of course be available at the launch. If anyone wants to party afterwards, I'll be doing a guest DJ spot at the Depot nightclub on Brunswick Street Mall, spinning songs by Brisbane bands new and old (but mostly old). Feel free to come up and say hi. I'll try to keep further trumpet-blowing to a minimum. Cheers, Andrew | ||
| Peter Azzopardi Member Username: Pete Post Number: 9 Registered: 09-2004 |
Bought this last Friday. So far a great read. For Go-Bs fans, the anecdote Lindy tells about borrowing one of Grant's books is hilarious. I also recently got the Saints box-set with my birthday money which is the perfect soundtrack for the book, though I'd love to hear the Numbers and Razar and several other of these Brisbane bands I've read of but never heard. I seem to recall Tim Winton's "Dirt Music" and Clinton Walker's "Buried Country" came with a CD. Any plans, Andrew? | ||
| Paul B Unregistered guest |
I agree with Peter, a great read. A wonderful companion piece to David’s book. Andrew, any word on the triple Z biopic? | ||
| david nichols Member Username: David Post Number: 18 Registered: 09-2004 |
I agree too. I found it a very interesting book and as importantly, extremely well-written. I take my hat off to Andrew Stafford. I have my minor gripes with the concept of 'progress' within - as per the subtitle, From the Saints to Savage Garden - and the omission of people I think are important to the Brisbane story (what! No Pat Ridgewell!) but these are, as I said, minor gripes. Everyone should read it. | ||
| todd slater Unregistered guest |
Here here a great read and not before time either. There was/are many interesting aspects to it all but the book as a whole was incredibly well researched and well written. Thank you Andrew Stafford. One thing as an ex resident that I found very interesting was the demise of Triple Z as a force in local issues journalism. The other side of that was how many people went on from that period to really cover big stories (I'm thinking here of Marian Wilkinson amongst others) Triple Z really was a lone voice for so long and it's a interesting comparison when you look at the state of community radio today in Australia. As a resident of Sydney for many years I've always been jealous of Melbourne and the fantastic culture that they have generated through Triple R, 3PBS and others. FBI has only been going now for 12 mths here in Sydney, but has had a very positive impact in that period. I would love to see a book on Triple Z in time for the 30th anniversary next year. How about it Andrew ? | ||
| Greg Baker Member Username: Greg Post Number: 3 Registered: 10-2004 |
I remember hearing of 2-FBI doing test broadcasts about 8~10 years ago. What took them so long to get up and going? Money, I guess. I heard Andrew's interview on 2-JJJ. Pass. | ||
| Paul B. Member Username: Paul_b Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2004 |
Why can't I get cab drivers like Mr Stafford? I'd rather take the long way home and get a history of Brisbane music. Greg, I think the public are yelling for 'Behind the banana curtain 2' before the ZZZ book (according to Andrews ABC local interview), although (as mentioned previously) the ZZZ telemovie is still in the offing. | ||
| andrew stafford Unregistered guest |
Hi again, and thanks. I had high hopes of doing a CD for the book, but the book in the end was a big enough undertaking - the demands of production deadlines and budgets meant I couldn't make it happen in time. But it's something I would love to see happen and certainly there's scope for a lot more stuff than was on Banana Curtain, even. Unfortunately Behind the Banana Curtain itself is out of print now, and getting harder to find, so if you find one, grab it with both hands. It's really the soundtrack to Pig City in so many ways (and includes the title song). The album came out only a couple of months after I hatched the idea for Pig City, and it went a fair way to convincing me I was on the right track. I know some people that have experience with these things and it's on the agenda for 2005 - that doesn't mean to say it will happen in that timeframe; just something I want to hopefully get off the ground. As far as the potential Triple Zed series goes: I was employed as a researcher by Judi McCrossin, best known as the creator of The Secret Life of Us. Judi was commissioned by SBS to write a series of six half-hour episodes. As that concept suggests, somewhere along the way there was a misunderstanding: when Judi delivered them a script, SBS were baffled, because they thought they were getting a comedy! Oh well. Personally I would not be likely to do a book on Zed for the 30th anniversary. Although the chapters on the station were among the most difficult to write, they were also very rewarding. Part of the reward was in puncturing some of the Triple Zed mythology. Their own publications have tended towards hagiography and I'm not interested in that. David, just a note on the subtitle: from the Saints to Savage Garden doesn't necessarily have to imply progress, although I can of course see how it would be read that way. It certainly doesn't imply one band is better (or worse) than the other. Apart from the obvious alliterative appeal (trainspotters will note the connection to Clinton Heylin's great From the Velvets to the Voidoids!), if anything it's meant to symbolise some of the changes that have taken place in Brisbane, from insular and paranoid small town to outward-looking modern city. I guess that is some kind of progress, but that in essence is really the story of the book. It's Brisbane's story as much as the bands. And yep, I'm still driving a cab on the weekends, so there's no danger of getting too carried away with the book's success! The launch WAS great though, nearly 300 people there, and I can boast that Pig City was officially the biggest seller of the Brisbane Writer's Festival - bigger than Matthew Reilly and Amitav Ghosh, so them's bragging rights I don't expect to have again in my lifetime! Thanks for the good wishes and keep the feedback coming... AS | ||
| Anthea Pitt Member Username: Anthea Post Number: 2 Registered: 09-2004 |
There are copies of Behind the Banana Curtain in Rocking Horse - I was in there this afternoon and saw at least 3 copies in the rack. They've got an online ordering service at www.rockinghorse.net. I read Pig City over the weekend - bloody good read, but yes, missing out Pat Ridgewell/SWE is a shame. Incidentally - and I was reminded of this by the brief reference in Pig City to Brisbane's Goth subculture (swampies, surely) - Morticia's is making a comeback on Saturday night. Now, if only Hades and White Chairs could be resurrected ... | ||
| Michael Member Username: Michael Post Number: 9 Registered: 08-2004 |
Andrew - picked up a copy of Pig City at Mary Ryan's in Brisbane last week and must congratulate you on the book. Nice work on the Peter Beatie at the Springbok demos. It brought back some fading memories, the GoBs were good at Livid in 89 and the Victoria Brazil fiasco I remember well. The ZZZ market day in 1996 powered up this anecdote - I went with a friend and my brother and a friend of his from Sweden. We saw the police, the horses, the mud, and remember the doof tent as a haven from the storm, I remember Screamfeeder playing and that band who sang "I've got a V8 and it goes fuckin fast". I was unaware of the 72 arrests that were made that day, for vagaries such as urinating on the dirt or the MB fig trees right through to more serious altercations. We took off when people started running out of the park. Me and the Swedish guy ended up at the Wickham. Such was the effect of the National Party's re-emergence at that point in Queensland, that a return to a zero tolerance prescription was being heavily pursued by the police. The Swedish guy and I exchanged shouts at the bar, when he went for a beer, I slipped to the toilet, only to find it clogged with bare chested men (sometimes I like to Pee Alone), so I then slipped out into the back alley, only to be arrested by some plain clothes. I was head locked and cuffed for some reason and put in the watch house for a couple of hours. Unfortunately the Swedish friend did not know where I lived and obviously wouldn't have thought that in the time it took to buy me a beer I could have been so careless to get myself arrested. To the cops I explained the toilet congestion situation at the Wickham, attempted a treatise on bladder volume limits and the need to show Swedish tourists a hospitable time in Brisbane but as you would expect they had none of it. I got away from the watch house a few hours after and went back to the Valley. Fortunately the Swedish guy somehow found my house. | ||
| button down Member Username: Buttondown Post Number: 6 Registered: 09-2004 |
"I've got a V8 and it goes fuckin fast" Blowhard, featuring longtime brisband and 4ZZZ identity Rollo. They played their last ever gig a few weekends ago. | ||
| button down Member Username: Buttondown Post Number: 7 Registered: 09-2004 |
btw I'm not yet halfway through the book Andrew - like it so far though. Found those singles yet? ? | ||
| Michael Member Username: Michael Post Number: 10 Registered: 08-2004 |
Blowhard - of course. Back to Peehard. Forgot to mention the charges I recieved- resisting arrest, indecent language and vagrancy (yes I suppose releasing a bit of urine onto balmy rain soaked streets in a dark alley counts). Pig City. |