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Sydney in the late seventies and eighties had a wild and happening live music scene before it was killed off by yuppie gentrification of the inner city and legislation.

It was one very anti-establishment movement and the establishment responded with a legislative onslaught which has meant that to this day (2008) live music is still illegal in most public places in Sydney. The hurdles to establishing a venue are, without the minimum of a huge amount of money and good connections, insurmountable.  Gambling, poker machines and big screen sports bars are the encouraged alternative. 

The scene died and the alternative tribes were dispersed as gentrification made the inner city a more boring, expensive and commercial place.  It was no longer possible to escape the hell of the suburbs, and this is probably one of many reasons as to why five percent of Australia’s population now lives overseas. Australia continues to lose its most interesting people.

It was a special era in Sydney’s subcultural life and yet it remains a mostly unrecorded era, similar, say, to the high times to be had in underground squat community post-wall East –Berlin.  It may well be a history that will cease to exist, as is the fate of many, probably most, anti-establishment histories.  There is some material on the web (links follow) however this material only lasts as long as the special people who put this stuff up keep paying the monthly bills to have it online.

A few hints of that time can be gleaned from the following print publications –

Blunt: a biased history of Australian rock (Bob Blunt, 2001)

The Mayor's a Square: Live Music and Law and Order in Sydney (Shane Homan,2003)

Meanjiin, all yesterdays parties (Meanjin volume 65 issue 3)

Inner City sound (Clinton Walker, 1982) (also republished and expanded, date unknown)

Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music, 1977-1991 (Clinton Walker, 1996)

Your Names On the Door, 10 Years of Australian Music, (Tracee Hutchinson, 1992)

The following MP3s are from a limited edition cassette compilation (made from cassette demos) of a number of bands involved in the local punk scene at the time. Bands included Bad Side Effects, Black and Blue, DeControl, Ice Nine, K.G.B. Stooges, Snoyd Int., Splatterheads and Stigmata Party. The compilation was put together by Brian Pauley and included an A3 magazine.  It sold for a few dollars in places such as Waterfront Records.

The mp3s below were taken from a well played 20 year old cassette, which may well be the only one still in existence. Punks couldn’t afford computers back then.

This page will be updated as more information becomes available, more links found and so on.

A copy of fast forward cassette magazine

 The No night sweats site is a good source of 80’s post punk info and downloads. The MP3’s are here.

Severed Heads are a Sydney band...

Antipodean Underground

Some info on Brisbane New Wave.

Divine Rites (Birdman et. al.)

Happy Hate Me Nots

NKVD records Australian site concerning the era

Endzone and Died Pretty

Mp3’s are sometimes available here, for example, the Flowers From the Dustbin compilation.

The Black Eye records Jukebox (Thug, Perkins, Kim Salmon, Lubricated Goat etc.)

Inner City Sound.  Another page from this site lists some essential compilations which are available from this era, as well as additional links. That page is here.

E-zine I94-bar - musical underground 78-84

 Pissant - A link to a music  feed and information on the Australian 80’s underground

A History of Wollongong Bands, 1960-2004