1.
Sydney
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Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australias east coast, the metropolis surrounds the worlds largest natural harbour, residents of Sydney are known as Sydneysiders. The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years, the first British settlers, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural. As at June 2016 Sydneys estimated population was 5,005,358, in the 2011 census,34 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home and it is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has a market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia, there is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as one of Asia Pacifics leading financial hubs. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors. The first people to inhabit the now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago, the earliest British settlers called them Eora people. Eora is the term the indigenous used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is from this place, prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans. Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan, the principal language groups were Darug, Guringai, and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells. Development has destroyed much of the citys history including that of the first inhabitants, there continues to be examples of rock art and engravings located in the protected Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The first meeting between the people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. He noted in his journal that they were confused and somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors, Cook was on a mission of exploration and was not commissioned to start a settlement
2.
Country music
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Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the genre of United States, such as folk music. Blues modes have been used throughout its recorded history. The term country music is used today to many styles and subgenres. In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, immigrants to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of Europe and Africa along with them for nearly 300 years. Country music was introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon, Bristol, Tennessee, has been formally recognized by the U. S. Congress as the Birthplace of Country Music, based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. Prior to these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a musical heritage. The first generation emerged in the early 1920s, with Atlantas music scene playing a role in launching countrys earliest recording artists. Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records in 1924, many hillbilly musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s. The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville, during the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Bob Wills was another musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a hot string band. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had played at Carnegie Hall. Gospel music remained a component of country music. It became known as honky tonk, and had its roots in Western swing and the music of Mexico. By the early 1950s a blend of Western swing, country boogie, rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, and 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres
3.
Tex Perkins
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He has also released many solo records. In 1997, a portrait of Tex Perkins by artist Bill Leak won the Packing Room award at the Archibald Prize and he later formed Salamander Jim with Kim Salmon from The Scientists and Richard Ploog from The Church. Due to touring commitments for Ploog & Salmon, Perkins formed a different line up with Stu Spasm, Lachlan McLeod, in 1985 this line-up recorded and released their only record, an EP titled Lorne Greene Shares His Precious Fluids on Red Eye Records. Perkins and Peter Read formed Thug in Sydney in 1987 when Reads flatmate had a fascination for collecting and amassing electronic equipment, after using some of the gear on initial recordings in Reads home studio, Perkins was eager to take it to the stage. With the help of Lachlan McLeod and others, Thug became one of Sydneys most unusual and confrontational live acts, thugs live sets would last twenty to twenty-five minutes, featuring dancers, theatrics, bizarre electronic equipment and—at one performance—an entire audience showered in flour. Each Thug gig would end with its members mock brawling amongst themselves, sometimes it would get out of hand, during one such mock brawl, Perkins required stitches after landing on a broken glass someone had thrown onto the stage. Thug, along with Lubricated Goat and Kim Salmon & The Surrealists spearheaded a very overlooked and underrated era of Australian music in the late 1980s and this output was released on the Red Eye Records offshoot Black Eye Records. Thugs debut 7 single was the legendary Dad/Thug, an affair which was an assault on the ears. The tracks from the Mechanical Ape / Proud Idiots Parade EP, another early group, The Bumhead Orchestra, was revived in 2005 for performances at festivals such as What Is Music. and Big Day Out. The group usually consists of roughly 20 members, and Perkins acts as a conductor, the Beasts of Bourbon grew from a simple side project to a true supergroup of the Australian pub rock scene. Forming in Sydney in 1983, the original Beasts lineup comprised Perkins, Spencer P. Jones, James Baker, Kim Salmon, in 1993, the group toured extensively to support the double album From the Belly of the Beasts, then disbanded temporarily. They reformed to release Gone in 1997, which received lukewarm reviews, in 2003, they reformed to record a live album, Low Life, released on Spooky Records. In 2006, they reformed to play the Big Day Out Festival around Australia, in late December 2006 it was announced that Albert Productions had signed an exclusive worldwide recording deal with the band and on 23 April 2007, released their new album Little Animals. In 1989 Perkins started joining them onstage and this sparked an interest from Red Eye Records, and the band was signed and released a 1989 album Down Below featuring Perkins on vocals. They received an ARIA award nomination in 1993 following the release of their second album, the instrumental single 4 and the title track received high rotation play on independent and commercial radio. The groups third album, The Honeymoon Is Over, and its title song and they followed with a high-profile world tour. 1995 saw the release of the hugely successful Three Legged Dog album and they claimed another ARIA award in 1995 for Best Group with their work on Three Legged Dog. The band then took a break during which time Perkins released his first solo album
4.
Don Walker (musician)
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Don Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter known for writing many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. He played piano and keyboard with the band from 1973 to 1983 and he has since continued to record and tour, both solo and with Tex, Don and Charlie, and worked as a songwriter for others. In 2009, he released his first book, richard Clapton describes Walker as, the most Australian writer there has ever been. Don just digs being a sort of Beat poet, who goes around observing and he soaks it up like a sponge and articulates it so well. Quite frankly, I think hes better than the rest of us, Walker is considered to be one of Australias best songwriters. In 2012 he was inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame, donald Hugh Walker was born in Ayr North Queensland to a farmer father and schoolteacher mother. Walkers father was a player and fan of Larry Adler. He had served in Papua New Guinea and the Middle East in World War II and he owned a cane farm on Rita Island on the Burdekin River, where Walker lived until the age of 4. His family later moved to Grafton, where a piano teacher taught him, a little bit of Chopin. a lot of Fats Waller repertoire. Later, he, got into organ and the influences were Stevie Winwoods 60s stuff. Having completed a degree in physics in the 70s, Walker was working for the Weapons Research Establishment, Walker moved to Kings Cross in Sydney in 1976, and stayed there for more than three decades. Kings Cross locations are mentioned in many of his songs, from the earliest days Walker was the creative songwriting force for Cold Chisel. He became known for his passionate and raw lyrical observations on the Australian society and his songwriting credits include the hit singles Flame Trees, Saturday Night, Choirgirl, Goodbye, Cheap Wine, and the Australian Vietnam war song Khe Sanh. Many of these songs still receive airplay on Australian radio to this day and have become ingrained in Australian music culture, during his time with Cold Chisel he produced his first work outside the band, the soundtrack to the Australian movie Freedom, directed by Scott Hicks. The soundtrack was released as an album and featured members of Cold Chisel and Michael Hutchence, the Age described it as, the best rock music written for an Australian movie. After Cold Chisel disbanded in 1983, Walker had a hiatus before resuming recording and performing. Initially, he had considered hiring an actor to front the band, ostensibly a band, Catfish was in effect a solo project, featuring Walker on vocals, keyboards and penning all the songs. Catfish featured various backing musicians, such as Charlie Owen, Ian Moss, Ricky Fataar, the first album, Unlimited Address, released in 1989, showed a jazzier, Eastern European side to Walkers songwriting, reflecting his travels during the previous years
5.
Beasts of Bourbon
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Except for mainstays, Jones and Perkins, the line-up has changed as the group splintered and reformed several times. Their debut album, The Axemans Jazz, was the best selling Australian alternative rock album for 1984 and their debut single, Psycho, is a cover version of the Leon Payne original, and was the best selling Australian alternative rock single for that year. However the group disbanded by mid-1985 and each member pursued other musical projects and they reformed in 1987 and issued a second album, Sour Mash, in December 1988 on Red Eye Records. According to rock historian, Ian McFarlane, it virtually redefined the parameters of guitar-based rocknroll. The Cramps-influenced swamp-rock of old had been discarded for a more adventurous slab of gutbucket blues, Perkins voice had matured into an authentic blues growl. Their fifth studio album, Gone, reached the Top 50 ARIA Albums Chart and their seventh studio album, Little Animals on Albert Productions, which also peaked into the Top 50. Beasts of Bourbon were formed in August 1983 by vocalist Tex Perkins to fulfil bookings for his previous band, Tex Deadly and the Dum-Dums, and began playing in small Sydney venues. The initial version of the group was James Baker of Hoodoo Gurus on drums, Spencer P. Jones of The Johnnys on guitar, Kim Salmon on guitar and Boris Sudjovic on bass guitar, both of The Scientists. This line-up was featured on the bands first album, The Axemans Jazz, in January 1984 the line-up of Jones, Perkins, Sujdovic, Brett Rixon on drums and Tony Thewlis on guitar played gigs in Perth. In July that year the album was issued on Green Records and according to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane and it was the best-selling Australian alternative album for 1984. It also went on to sell over 30000 copies in Europe, a cover of Leon Paynes Psycho was issued as a single in July, which was a hit on alternative radio and became the best selling Australia alternative single for 1984. By early 1985 the line-up of Baker, Perkins, Spasm, although the album became an underground success, the band was largely a side project for its various members and Beasts of Bourbon disbanded by June that year. Perkins worked with Salamander Jim and various projects, Jones had The Johnnys. Baker tried a group, The James Baker Experience, backed by Perkins and Spasm and joined by Roddy Radalj on guitar. The ensemble released a single in June 1985 and promptly separated. In March 1988 Beasts of Bourbon reconvened after both The Johnnys and The Scientists had disbanded, the line-up of Baker, Jones, Perkins, Salmon and Sujdovic recorded Sour Mash with audio engineer and producer, Phil Punch. The album appeared in December on Red Eye Records, with McFarlane declaring that it redefined the parameters of guitar-based rocknroll. The Cramps-influenced swamp-rock of old had been discarded for a more adventurous slab of gutbucket blues, Perkins voice had matured into an authentic blues growl
6.
Cold Chisel
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Cold Chisel are an Australian rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia. They had chart success in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Cold Chisel are regarded as having a distinctly Australian popularity and musicianship, exemplifying pub rock and highlighting the working class life in Australia. The group changed its name several times before settling on Cold Chisel in 1974 after writing a song with that title, Barnes relationship with other band members was volatile, as a Scot he often came to blows with Liverpool-born Prestwich and he left the band several times. During these periods Moss would handle vocals until Barnes returned, Walker soon emerged as Cold Chisels primary songwriter. Walker spent 1974 in Armidale, completing his studies and in 1975 Kaczmarek left the band and was replaced by Phil Small, Barnes older brother John Swan was a member of Cold Chisel around this time, providing backing vocals and percussion but after several violent incidents he was fired. In May 1976, Cold Chisel relocated to Melbourne but found little success, six months later, in May 1977, Barnes announced he would quit Cold Chisel in order to join Swan in Feather, a hard-rocking blues band that had evolved from an earlier group called Blackfeather. A farewell performance in Sydney went so well that the singer changed his mind, the following month the Warner Music Group picked up Cold Chisel. In the early months of 1978, Cold Chisel recorded its debut album with producer Peter Walker. All tracks were written by Don Walker except Juliet, for which Barnes wrote the melody, khe Sanh has since become Cold Chisels signature tune and arguably its most popular among fans. The song was remixed, with re-recorded vocals, for inclusion on the international version of 1980s East. The bands next release was a live EP titled Youre Thirteen, Youre Beautiful and this had been recorded at a show at Sydneys Regent Theatre in 1977 that had featured Midnight Oil as one of the support acts. One of the EPs tracks, Merry Go Round was later recorded on the follow-up and this album was recorded between July 1978 and January 1979 with experienced producer Richard Batchens, who had previously worked with Richard Clapton, Sherbet and Blackfeather. Batchens smoothed out many of the rough edges and attempted to give their songs a sophisticated sound. This approach has made the album sit a little uncomfortably with the band ever since, once again, the majority of the songs were penned by Walker, with Barnes collaborating with Walker on the first single Goodbye and Moss contributing to Dresden. Goodbye became a favourite for the band, and even went on to be performed by U2 during Australian tours in the 1980s. By now the band stood at the verge of national success, even without significant radio airplay or support from Countdown. In spite of the subject matter, the track became a hit. Recorded over two months in early-1980, East reached #2 on the Australian album charts and was the second-highest selling album by an Australian artist for the year, Cold Chisel is the only Australian rock band to score hits with songs written by every member of the group
