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.
Prahran, Victoria
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Prahran is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,5 km south-east of Melbournes Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Stonnington, at the 2011 Census, Prahran had a population of 11,191. Prahran is a part of Greater Melbourne, with shops, restaurants. The area of Prahran, centred along Commercial Road was one of Melbournes gay villages, the shopping street Chapel Street is a mix of upscale fashion boutiques and cafes. Greville Street, once the centre of the Melbournes hippie community, has many cafés, bars, restaurants, bookstores, clothing shops, Prahran takes its name from Pur-ra-ran, a compound of two Aboriginal words, meaning land partially surrounded by water, in 1837 by George Langhorne. The proximity of the Yarra River and a swamp to the southwest explains that description, in 1837 George Langhorne named the area Pur-ra-ran, a compound of two Aboriginal words, meaning land partially surrounded by water. When he informed the Surveyor-General Robert Hoddle of the name, it was written as Prahran, Prahran Post Office opened on 1 April 1853. Large emporiums sprang up along Chapel Street, Prahran also became a major entertainment area. The Lyric theatre, built on the corner of Victoria Street in 1911, the Royal was the second old theatre built. The Empress, another theatre on Chapel Street, was destroyed by fire in 1971. The site was operated by the clothes and homewares chain Waltons for the next decade and was later developed into the Chapel Street Bazaar. Further complementing the high rise developments was a low density development between Bangs and Bendigo Streets, in the 1970s, the suburb began to gentrify, with much of the remaining old housing stock being renovated and restored. The area had a substantial Greek population and many took advantage of the rise in property values during the 1980s, paving the way for further development and it was during the 1990s that solidification of the areas homosexual community occurred. Many gay and gay-friendly businesses, including bars, clubs and bookstores were found along Commercial Road, in Prahran,61. 2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 4. 2%, Greece 3. 5%, New Zealand 3. 4%, China 1. 6%, Prahran is home to a large collection of architecturally significant commercial buildings, with many on the Victorian Heritage Register. Retains the original arcade, but decorative roof was removed in the 1950s, also known locally as Birdland due to pigeons which once bred in the recessed balconies of the building and the large eagles which adorn the facade, but are now screened by chicken wire. Was a Dan Murphys cellar for many years, but currently a JB HiFi store, reads Emporium - Built in 1914 on the corner of Chapel Street and Commercial Road. Its twin beacons, which sit atop large copper domes, were once visible like lighthouses for miles around
4.
Triple J
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Triple J is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 25 which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station places an emphasis on broadcasting Australian and alternative music compared to commercial stations. Triple J is government-owned and is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2JJ commenced broadcasting at 11,00 am, Sunday 19 January 1975, at 1540 kHz on the AM band. The new Australian Broadcasting Corporation station was given the official call-sign 2JJ, the station was restricted largely to the greater Sydney region, and its local reception was hampered by inadequate transmitter facilities. However, its frequency was a clear channel nationally, so it was heard at night throughout south-eastern Australia. After midnight the station would often use ABC networks – during their off air time slot – to increase its broadcasting range and its first broadcast demonstrated a determination to distinguish itself from other Australian radio stations. The first on-air presenter, DJ Holger Brockmann, notably used his own name, owing to 2SMs restrictive policies at the time, Brockmann, whose real name was considered too foreign-sounding, had been forced to work using the pseudonym Bill Drake in prior positions. After an introductory audio collage that featured sounds from the countdown and launch of Apollo 11, Brockmann launched the stations first-ever broadcast with the words, Wow, and then cued The Skyhooks You Just Like Me Cos Im Good in Bed. The choice of a Skyhooks song to introduce the station was significant, choosing an Australian band reflected Double Jays commitment to Australian content at a time when American acts dominated commercial pop stations. Most notably, the song was one of tracks from the Skyhooks album that had been banned from airplay on commercial radio by the industrys peak body. In contrast, their Sydney rival, 2SM, was owned by a company controlled by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. The inspiration gained from the UK led to Double J adopting the tradition of weekly, live-in-the-studio performances by pop, gough Whitlam was unable to also fulfill his aspiration for the establishment of a National Youth Radio Network, as he was controversially sacked. We also heard that the ABC was worried about its audience dying off, additionally, the station was one of a series of innovations that stemmed from the recommendations in the McLean Report of 1974. By the time 2JJ went to air, the Whitlam government was in its months of office. Marius Webb, one of the stations co-ordinators recalls an ABC executive informing him, thank you very much, Ive got another meeting. On 11 November 1975, Whitlams commission was revoked by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, in the subsequent 1975 federal election, Labor was defeated by the Liberal-National Party coalition that was led by Malcolm Fraser. During the more conservative media climate that emerged in the Fraser years, in its early years 2JJs on-air staff were mainly recruited from either commercial radio or other ABC stations. Later, in another first, the roster also featured presenters who did not come from a radio industry background, including singer-songwriters Bob Hudson and John J. Francis, and actor Lex Marinos
5.
Universal Music Group
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Universal Music Group is an American-French global music corporation that is a subsidiary of the Paris-based French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMGs global corporate headquarters are in Santa Monica, California and it is considered one of the Big Three record labels, along with Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Universal Music was once the music attached to film studio Universal Pictures and its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in September 1934. The Decca Record Co. Ltd. of England spun American Decca off in 1939, MCA Inc. merged with American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram in May 1998, however, the name had first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group. The PolyGram acquisition included Deutsche Grammophon which traces its ancestry to Berliner Gramophone making Deutsche Grammophon UMGs oldest unit, UMGs Canadian unit traces its ancestry to a Berliner Gramophone breakaway firm the Compo Company. With the 2004 acquisition of Universal Studios by General Electric and merging with GEs NBC and this is the second time a music company has done so, the first being the separation of Time Warner and Warner Music Group. On June 25,2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion purchase of BMG Music Publishing, after receiving European Union regulatory approval, doug Morris stepped down from his position as CEO on January 1,2011. Former chairman/CEO of Universal Music International Lucian Grainge was promoted to CEO of the company, Grainge later replaced him as chairman on March 9,2011. Morris became the chairman of Sony Music Entertainment on July 1,2011. With Grainges appointment as CEO at UMG, Max Hole was promoted to COO of UMGI, starting in 2011 UMGs Interscope Geffen A&M Records will be signing contestants from American Idol/Idol series. On January 2011, UMG announced it was donating 200,000 master recordings from the 1920s to 1940s to the Library of Congress for preservation, in March 2011, Barry Weiss became chairman & CEO of The Island Def Jam Music Group & Universal Republic Records. Both companies are restructuring under Weiss, in December 2011, David Foster was named Chairman of Verve Music Group. Among the other companies that had competed for the music business was Warner Music Group which was reported to have made a $2 billion bid. However, IMPALA has said it would fight the merger, coincidentally, UMG sister company StudioCanal has owned the EMI Films library for several years. On September 21,2012, the sale of EMI to UMG was approved in Europe, UMG divested Mute Records, Parlophone, Roxy Recordings, MPS Records, Cooperative Music, Now Thats What I Call Music. Jazzland, Universal Greece, Sanctuary Records, Chrysalis Records, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, the Beatles recorded music library was allowed to remain with UMG despite being considered part of Parlophone and is now managed by UMGs reorganized Capitol Music Group worldwide. Robbie Williams, who had recorded for Chrysalis, had his transferred to Universals Island Records
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
7.
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
8.
Polydor Records
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Polydor is a British record label and company, that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a relationship with Universals Interscope Geffen A&M label. In turn, Polydor distributes Interscope releases in the United Kingdom, Polydor Records Ltd. was established in London in 1954 as a British subsidiary of German company Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. The Polydor label was founded on 2 April 1913 by German Polyphon-Musikwerke AG in Leipzig, during World War I on 24 April 1917, Polyphon-Musikwerke AG acquired the German Deutsche Grammophon-Aktiengesellschaft record plant and company from the German government. The German state was taken over Grammophon and the British holdings as enemies property during World War I, Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Polyphon-Grammophon-Konzern group. It was used as a label since 1924. The British and German branches of the Gramophone Company were so departed during World War I, in turn, Deutsche Grammophon records exported from Germany were released on the Polyphon Musik and Polydor labels. The new foreign branches were founded for example into Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Polydor became a popular music label in 1946, while the new Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft label was to become a classical music label in 1949. The previously used label, Grammophon, was disbanded, DGG gave, with an agreement dated 5 July 1949, an exclusive license from 1 July 1951 to use the Nipper-dog with gramophone to the original owners company Electrola, the German branch of EMI. In 1970, Polydor acquired the Hong Kong-based Diamond Records, which had owned and founded by the local Portuguese merchant Ren da Silva in the late 1950s. In 1972, The Grammophon-Philips Group reorganized to create PolyGram, the Polydor label continued to run as a subsidiary label under the new company. The name PolyGram is a portmanteau of Polydor and PhonoGram, into the 1980s, Polydor continued to do respectable business, in spite of becoming increasingly overshadowed by its PolyGram sister label Mercury Records. Polydor took over management of British Deccas pop catalog, A&R manager Frank Neilson was able to score a major top ten hit in March 1981 for the label with Do The Hucklebuck by Coast to Coast as well as signing Ian Dury and Billy Fury to the company. In 1984, the name was parodied in the rockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. By the early 1990s, Polydor had begun to underperform, in 1994, as Island Records recovered from its sales slump, PolyGram dissolved most of PLG into it. Meanwhile, Polydor Records and Atlas Records merged, briefly called Polydor/Atlas, in 1995, Polydor/Atlas became simply Polydor Records again. Over the next few years, Polydor tried to keep itself afloat with new artist signings, new releases, in 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram and absorbed into its Universal Music Group. Today, in America, the Polydor Records name and logo is used on reissues of older material from its 1960s and 1970s heyday
9.
The Canberra Times
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The Canberra Times is a daily newspaper, published by Fairfax Media in Canberra. The Canberra Times was launched in 1926 by Thomas Shakespeare along with his oldest son Arthur Shakespeare, the newspapers first issue was published on 3 September 1926. It was the paper to be printed in the city. Between September 1926 and February 1928, the newspaper was a weekly issue, the first daily issue was 28 February 1928. In June 1956, The Canberra Times converted from broadsheet to tabloid format, Arthur Shakespeare sold the paper to John Fairfax Ltd in 1964, on the condition that it continue to advocate for Canberra. Soon after, in July 1964, the format was switched back to broadsheet, offices remained open in the civic retail precinct until April 1987 when The Canberra Times moved its entire operation to the new office of The Federal Capital Press of Australia, also in Fyshwick. The paper was sold to Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, which in turn sold it to Kerry Stokes in 1989 for $110 million. Rural Press Limited bought the paper from Stokes in 1998 for $160 million, the Times rejoined the Fairfax stable in 2007 when Rural Press merged with Fairfax. The paper first went online on 31 March 1997, on 17 October 2008, The Canberra Times was distributed with a sticker advertising the ACT Labor Party on the front page. Complaints about the sticker prompted the manager, Ken Nichols. A new editorial team was appointed in November 2015, with Grant Newton as editor of the newspaper and Scott Hannaford as deputy editor. In March 2016, staff at the newspaper were told there would be a restructure at The Canberra Times, Fairfax Media also announced they would be cutting 12 jobs from the newspapers staff. The papers editors have included Jack Waterford and Michelle Grattan, the first female editor of a daily newspaper in Australia. A recent editor-in-chief, Peter Fray, left in January 2009 to edit The Sydney Morning Herald and he was succeeded by Rod Quinn, who announced the formation of a new senior editorial team in 2012. Editorial cartoonists have included Geoff Pryor, David Pope and Pat Campbell, list of newspapers in Australia The Canberra Times Digitised historic Canberra Times from the National Library of Australia
10.
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
11.
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
