Rock`n` Roll Walk of Fame `n` Shame

ME
A
H
S
’
‘N
E
M
A
F
F
ALK O
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL W
T
E
E
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T
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In the late 60s, 7
0s and 80s
OXFORD STREET WAS THE VE
RY HUB OF AN EMERGING RO
CK’N’ROLL SCENE THAT
CHANGED THE FACE OF AR
TISTIC SYDNEY FOREVER.
U UP
AME WE TAKE YO
SH
D
N
A
E
M
FA
F
TON
ND ROLL WALK O URST ALL THE WAY TO PADDING
A
K
C
O
R
IS
TH
N
O
GH
A
- FROM DARLIN
DECADES, WITH
OXFORD STREET UES AND SOUNDS OF THE PAST
EN
ANYTHING,
- TO VISIT THE V G RADIO BIRDMAN, MENTAL AS
RIN
PODCAST FEATU AND MANY MORE
KS
shame
N
LI
THE MISSING
‘cause the
the fame,
r
e
b
m
e
m
e
“r
VER!”TE 6
E
R
O
F
S
T
S
A
L
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WALK OF FAME ‘N’ SHAME
OXFORD STREET
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
9
Square begin
nings to
hip street…
10
Oxford St Darlin
gh
Whitlam Square urst really begins at
, itself a name re
do
memories of ha
ppy, often excess lent with
ive times.
11
12
13
3
2
on
Art + music meet
Oxford…
e
t hand or northern sid
Travelling up the lef
d,
an
tel
Ho
in
the Burdek
of Oxford St, we pass
me
so
find
opposite Pelican St, we aces including
sp
sic
mu
ry
ra
po
contem
t
34 and the Oxford Ar
Spectrum at number
t,
as
dc
po
r
ou
-46. On
Factory at number 38 Mark Gerber
tro
es
ma
sic
mu
d
arts an
es.
explores these venu
The Haunt of Hippies
and Hipsters…
As we walk up past clubs like the
Q Bar, across
the road on the south side, on
the corner of
Oxford and Riley St, sits the mu
sic store called
Hum. It was above that store tha
t some of
Australia’s most imaginative mu
sicians used to
gather and play. The venue was
Adam’s Apple, a
so-called disco that became the
haunt of hippies,
hipsters, jazz crossovers and folk
leftovers.
More about that particular sce
ne later when
we get to Whitty’s Wine bar. Alth
ough there’s
nothing left of the Adam’s App
le venue, one of
the key bands to listen to from
the era was Tully:
a progressive and psychedelic
gathering of
musicians featuring Michael Car
los, who went
on to become one of Australia’s
great musical
directors and arrangers.
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WALK OF FAME ‘N’ SHAME
OXFORD STREET
4
er
Rob Young
n
a
m
d
ir
B
io
from Rad
Moving up Oxfo
rd
and crossing Cr St towards Taylor Square,
own St, we com
e to Betty’s Soup
Kitchen at num
be
French’s Tavern r 84, a building that housed
, a wine bar that
bands a paying
gave so many
gig early on. Mid
night Oil, Cold
Chisel and The
Reels were ther
e ea
careers, even Ol
’55 played their rly in their
A dark, sweaty
first gig there.
ve
influence it boas nue with a strong blues
te
Foreday Riders d resident bands such as the
and the Mangrov
Boogie Kings.
e
5
6
Blitz Blitz
Birdman Blit
z…
As we near Tayl
or
be exact, we fin Square, at number 134 to
d The Oxford H
otel, a venue
devoted for man
y
sometimes exal years to the often sordid,
ted rock’n’roll ex
periences that
have entertaine
d Sydney for de
cades. Today
it’s the more so
ph
sometimes calle isticated Supper Club or
d Will and Toby
’s.
But back in late
1976 members
of one of
Australia’s mos
t extreme, and
now most
legendary band
s,
the Oxford Tave approached the owners of
rn as it was know
n then.
They wanted to
take over the ve
nue on
weekends on th
e basis that the
hotel keep the
bar takings and
the bands keep
the proceeds of
the door entry.
Radio Birdman
na
venue the Funh med the Oxford Tavern
ouse - with a na
me inspired by
Iggy Pop and it
be
and revolutiona came the most memorable
ry
cost of admission venue of the era. And the
?
and a dollar at m Between 75c
ost.
Our podcast talk
s
about the wild fir to Birdman’s Rob Younger
st days at the Fu
nhouse.
In the beg
ning
there was in
French’s…
Link
Missing s all…
explain
ry zones
day were d t
e
th
f
o
s
e
u
e mos
e ven
Many of th ee environments. Th ely named
v
fr
or alcohol em was unimaginati w a gay
o
th
n
f
t,
o
S
le
d
b
r
ta
fo
o
n
t 124 Ox
a
e
g
la
il
V
Beatle
s.
wn as Palm
Village
venue kno
one, Beatle
z
y
r
d
a
ly
ds of the
upposed
Although s ny of the wildest ban Throb,
a
e
h
m
featured
eatures, T rld
ing The Cr
o
60s includ n, The soon-to-be w st of them all:
e
e
m
d
il
w
o
w
h
e
S
th
e
Th
- and
ts
a
e
b
y
s
a
E
famous
g Links.
have
The Missin
wild. They n
y
ll
a
e
r
e
r
k betwee
g Links we
The Missin ed as the Missing Lin psychedelia.
ib
d
r
been desc
B, punk an described as
, blues, R&
o
rock’n’roll rously they were als ble, too dirty,
e
ta
g
s
n
n
a
u
d
o
e
Mor
us, to
o outrageo h entirely.
to
,
d
u
lo
o
c
to
just too mu
too scary –
ger Andy
res lead sin recalling
tu
a
fe
t
s
a
c
d
s
Jame )
Our po
t
hen Andy
(t
n
o
rmances a
s
r
e
d
An
razed perfo
c
d
n
a
ic
n
their ma
ge.
Beatle Villa
The Missing Links
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WALK OF FAME ‘N’ SHAME
OXFORD STREET
7
A free hour
tour…
of fame and
shame
Crossing Taylor
Square our wal
k of fame and
shame takes us
past what once
was Gilligan’s
Island, an isolat
ed
became a second traffic island outcrop which
(or sometimes on
the delirious, th
e drunk and the ly) home for
down and out.
We also walk pa
st the home of ju
stice of the
Darlinghurst Co
ur
Australia’s natio t House building where
na
once spent a wee l poet Henry Lawson
ke
Starvinghurst Ja nd, dubbing it
il.
But in the late si
xt
legal about a lot ies there was nothing very
of activities in th
was Sydney’s ow
is area. It
n
hippie locale Hai version of San Francisco’s
gh
music was giving t Ashbury. Musically folk
way to more hy
of blues, folk, ju
brid forms
g and rock all fu
sing into a
healthy and real
ly vibrant live sc
ene.
9
Nothing
tays
the sames
…
Once the eleg
ant Albury H
store, this p
ot
ub was famou el, now a sports
s for its statu
Sydney’s top
s
ga
shows galore y pub. The Albury put on as
to entertain
drag
Sy
international
visitors thro dney and
and early nin
ughout the ei
eties.
ghties
Earlier on it
was also a m
usic venue of
remembered
note,
p
band The Man articularly for the resid
en
gr
t
ov
e
Boogie
Rilen’s X, w
ho were also Kings and Ian
longtime Ox
and Sydney
ford St
favourites.
8
Welcome to
(Mrs) Whitty’s…
At 207 Oxford St is the well-known Bookshop
Darlinghurst. In the sixties and seventies
number 207 was (Mrs) Whitty’s wine bar,
the real heart of this musical scene featuring
bands such as the Starving Wild Dogs and
the Original Batterseas Heroes. Terry
Darmody talks about the scene at Whitty’s
on our podcast.
e
share thIc
Mentals f
N orn
10 secret o the U
a
Victori
k is opposite
al
w
up
e
th
of
n
gentle climb
This sectio
ginning of a
of
be
e
ea
th
ar
il
at
ta
s,
Barrack
e main re
of the
d towards th
Oxford St an e trendier sister suburb ford St.
th
x
O
Paddington
t stretch of
Darlinghurs
more worldly
the area’s
mains one of enties the
re
ar
B
ge
n
The Fri
the sev
lly tiled,
and back in
popular bars The Unicorn, a 1930s, fu .
se
ed
ou
ll
h
blic
pub was ca
P&O style pu
ed
n
io
sh
fa
d
for one
good ol
unching pad r
la
e
th
e
m
ca
be
ula
The Unicorn
and most pop
s continuing l as Anything.
a’
li
ra
st
u
A
of
esses - Menta
es their
musical succ arist Martin Plaza shar
it
Singer and gu ory on our podcast.
em
m
e
v
ti
ec
ll
co
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WALK OF FAME ‘N’ SHAME
OXFORD STREET
Moving on
11 upstairs...
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number 182
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The
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During th
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great shows
as
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including a gi as part of their only Aust
as
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re
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The Gun
remembe
perhaps best bands such as
l
tour. It was
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t Sekret,
a venue for p Dead Travel Fast, Sekre
gt 465
e
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13
12
Still
standing?
Walking up tow
ards the Paddin
gton Town Hall,
still on the nort
he
the still-standin rn side of Oxford St, there’s
g Pa
extraordinary po ddington RSL - a venue of
pularity for mid
ing acts such as
-sized tourthe first ever H
enry Rollins/
Rollins Band to
ur;
Richman; and Th an oh-so-charming Jonathan
e Chills from Ne
w Zealand.
For local heroes
Died Pretty ther
famous show in
e
January 1991 w was a
hich included
a free and now
very rare, giveaw
single record –
ay 45
only available at
this
Paddo RSL show
.
THE KING & QUEEN
OF POP...
And across the road is Oxford
Street’s King, or
Queen, or at least long-reigning
monarch of venues:
the Paddington Town Hall.
This was the venue for the Apr
il 3, 1977 double
bill with Radio Birdman and The
Saints as well as
Radio Birdman’s final Australian
show on December
12 before heading to the UK. It
was to be their last
before their mid 90s reunion tou
r. The April show
saw both bands’ sets tear the hou
se down; with
Birdman’s appearance in their
“uniforms”; and the
banner bearing their symbol as
a huge backdrop –
causing some unknowing observ
ers to accuse them
of Nazi leanings.
Rob Younger of Radio Birdman
downplays any talk
of bad blood between The Saints
and Birdman even
though Deniz Tek of Birdman and
Chris Bailey of
The Saints did not get along wel
l. Listen to our
podcast for his revealing chat
about these times.
The December farewell show of
Radio Birdman
was a pretty strange affair. The
crowd was probably three times the size of any
other gig they had
played with the majority of the
audience seeing the
band for the first time. The cro
wd was in a frenzied
state: there was damage caused
to the building and
cars outside after the show and
blood splattered
over walls and down the baniste
rs.
Nobody who was there can forget
their rendition of
Kraftwerk’s “Radioactivity”, or
lead singer
Rob Younger jumping into the cro
wd to punch out
a heckler who’d been spitting at
him. It was the last
hurrah from perhaps the countr
y’s greatest live
band of that period.
During the sixties the Town Hal
l was also a venue
for UBU, filmakers and pioneer
s of the psychedelic
lightshow in Australia alongsid
e their
contemporary, Ellis D. Fogg.
During the eighties there were
the RAT parties.
The core of the self-styled Recrea
tional Arts Team
was Jac Vidgen, Billy Yip and Ren
o Dal. Vidgen,
an energetic party-thrower who
had come to
Sydney from Brisbane, became
the de facto
promoter and organiser of the
se RAT parties which
were the forerunners of the dan
ce parties and
raves of the 1990s. The crowd
were a mix of old and
young, gay and straight, rocker
and
a time when cultures melded and disco queen gave birth to a
more tolerant inner city commu
nity
Produced by Hugh Liney and Ashley Russell for Gti Media
Written by Hugh Liney and Frank Cotterell
Research by Frank Cotterell
Design by Cameron Moss for Millmaine Entertainment
Original Poster Artwork by Warwick Gilbert Radio Birdman Blitzkrieg; and Sheona White Mental as
Anything from Plastered: The Poster Art of Australian Popular Music by Murray Walding with Nick Vukovic
Thanks to Dr Rock at Mojo Music, Rob Younger, Martin Plaza, Andy Anderson, Terry Darmody,
Peter Simpson, Jim Blackfoot, Mark Gerber, Stuart Matchett and Tim Ritchie.