- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 13202
Well, there are a lot of crappy rock books. This is brilliant, however.
We could start with the book’s blurb:
“‘The One & Only’ is a roller-coaster ride through one of rock’s wildest, most unpredictable careers. Granted full access to the reclusive Perrett and everyone who matters in his story, Antonia unflinchingly traces his path from privileged childhood to drug dealer; from musical obscurity to decadent rock icon submerged in narcotic slumbers in an antique-filled mansion... before the dream spectacularly fell apart. The story of The Only Ones became an industry by-word for how not to succeed in the record business; yet the music, along with the allure of Perrett’s mysterious persona, has endured… Despite the casualties that careen through these pages, including Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious - Perrett played with both - this is ultimately a story of redemption and rebirth.”
And, frankly, that lot should be reasons sufficient for any self-respecting rock’n’roller to pick this one up, pay at the counter, and scurry home, nose and eyes down. Apart from that, if you own the Johnny Thunders’ album, "So Alone", but no Only Ones, you have a little Perrett in your collection.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 8886
After nearly 40 years in the music industry, you can excuse Steve Kilbey for forgetting a few things. The lack of detail is the only real quibble with what’s one of the best Oz music reads of the last few years.
I approached this book with mixed feelings. Kilbey has a reputation for being a bit of a narcissist. The Church’s music is hit or miss for me - which is to say I left them alone after their first two albums, dipped back in at “Starfish” and walked away after the stodgy “Gold Afternoon Fix”, with only occasional revisits. So this was a book to be read from a position of not having much skin in the game.
Then I got sucked into the whole melodramatic, up-and-own, self-destructive and ultimately self-redeeming saga, and warmed to Kilbey’s flawed and fallible ways. I consumed “Something Quite Perculiar” in a couple of satisfying gulps.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 9255
You can’t half tell the folks at Unbelievably Bad zine are Hard-Ons fans. So is anyone with a modicum of taste. So this edition of UB should sell its arse off. It’s wall-to-wall Hard-Ons. More Hard-Ons, in fact, than the US Navy on shore leave after six months at sea.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 11314
Call me biased and armed with far too much hindsight for my own good, but for a brief time in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Detroit was the lesser-known but undeniable epicentre of genuine rock and roll. The music industry, as it was, might have had its moneyed roots deeply planted on America’s East and West Coasts, but the real action was occurring deep in the US Midwest.
Sure, there was Motown and its over-ground success that eventually shifted to L.A. to mutate and die but we’re talking a parallel universe here that was populated by a different cast of characters plying a blue-collar strain of music. It’s an eternal truism that musical scenes never last. The Motor City’s rock and roll had its moment but succumbed to fashion, drugs, shifting attention spans – whatever factors play to your own historical biases – and has never recovered.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 8136
There’s barely been time for a dog’s fart to clear since the last issue hit the post box so hopefully that’s a sign of life in the Unbelievably Bad camp.
- Details
- By Edwin Garland
- Hits: 1145
Sacred Cowboys
+ Belle Phoenix Band with Jeffery Wegener
+ Pete Ross and The Sapphire
Marrickville Bowling Club, Sydney
Saturday 18 April, 2026
WORDS: Ed Garland
IMAGES: The Barman
Tonight was one of the strongest bills for some time at the Marrickville Bowlo with the common thread that all three bands are on the legendary record label Beast Records.
Beast is an ultra-cool French imprint that has always gone for the musical underbelly, putting out soulful stuff with swagger and a sense of the street. And more importantly bands with great songs – acts like HITS, Kim Salmon, Six Foot Hick, Spencer P Jones and numerous others, The label is also part of the iconic Binic Festival where tonight's headliners Sacred Cowboys are playing later this year.
It’s been 20 months since I saw tonight’s opening act, Pete Ross and The Sapphire, when they supported Charlie Owen at the Camelot Lounge in Sydney. What I took away from that night was that they were a class band of great players, with incredible songs and Pete Ross’s soulful voice.
More than a year-and-a-half on, they could still be the most underrated act on the Sydney circuit, but they remain unpretentious and humble. Tonight, they were playing as a three piece and you might say it was “The Sapphire going Nirvana”. They were certainly more direct and more rocking.
- Details
- By Ed Garland
- Hits: 634
Full Flower Moon Band
+ Drunk Mums
+ Smoking Single Party (aka TISM)
Howler, Brunswick, VIC
Sunday, 29 March, 2026
Photos by Garry Gray
It's been almost three years since I stood at a small festival in Sydney’s Marrickville on one of the hottest days in recent memory, watching new-ish Brisbane band Full Moon Flower Band in awe.
Their album “Diesel For Ever” had just been released and they were making some serious inroads online, with their intelligent, dark and cinematic videos.
The band was the vision of the mind-blowing talent that is Kate Dillon who was already a filmmaker in her own right. She’d collected a mob of like-minded, tough street-level rock and roll players who had one foot in the 1980s roar of outfits like The Bad Seeds and PJ Harvey and the other in Stoner Rock territory with a glazing of psychedelia.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 589
TV Smith’s Adverts
+ The Dark Clouds
+ Cammy Cautious and the Wrestlers
Landsowne Hotel, Sydney
Friday 10 April 2026
Words and images: The Barman
There's no time to waste so this will be succinct and to the point: TV Smith and his Adverts (aka the Hard-Ons) were every bit as great on their Australian tour as reviews would have it. There’s only one show left in the tour (tonight at La La La's in Wollongong.) If you have the ability to be there, do it.
TV who? Listen up…
TV Smith and his band The Adverts were part of the first-wave of UK Punk. Along with the Pistols, The Damned, The Clash and Buzzcocks. The Adverts might have been the most literate of the bunch, with their observations on mass media, society and “the system”. As fitted the times, they were urgent and angry.
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 1974
TV Smith's Adverts
The Tote, Collingwood, VIC
Friday 3 April 2026
The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, North Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 5 April 2026
Words & Pictures: Robert Brokenmouth
I cannot believe it’s been so long since I’ve seen the Hard Ons. Been in a tunnel for a few years. Never mind.
I sent some rude words to the publicist, Dave Laing, when I found out TV Smith was touring - but (understandably) not to my hometown, Adelaide. I did an interview with TV Smith, and was glad that I’d got a few things right.
- Sydney gets a ride on Guitar Wolf's Jet (and its another win for Japan)
- Boris and Merzbow - and the best Adelaide Festival review you'll read this year
- Don't use The C Word (that'd be cabaret) on The Tiger Lillies
- The Beasts' "Black Milk" show is a Sydney triumph
- First responders with a serve of old time Oz punk? Fuck The Neighbours finds its feet in The MoshPit
- The Big D gets his Soft 'n' Sexy Sound on at The Gov
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Get in touch: barman@i94bar.com
The Living Eye
The New Christs
+ Jupiter 5
+ The Stallers
Marrickville Bowlo, Sydney
- June 19
Tickets
Sister Paul (JP)
Australian Tour
MAY
21 - Kindred Studios, Yarraville, VIC (lunchtime)
22 – Medusa, Geelong, VIC
23 - Trash Cult, Eaglehawk, VIC
24 - Social Club Balnarring, Balnarring, VIC
25 - Northcote Social Club, Nothcote, VIC
28 - The Espanade Hotel, St Kilda, VIC
29 - The Painted Lady, Ballarat, VIC
30 - The Belgrave Hotel, Belgrave, VIC
Tickets
Black Flag
Australian Tour 2026
MAY
30 – Crowbar, Brisbane
31 – Vinnies Dive Bar, Gold Coast, QLD
Tickets
Lydia Lunch
The Songs of Suicide and Alan Vega
featuring Andrew Coates (Black Cab)
JUN
14 - Meow, Wellington, NZ (as part of Lōemis)
17 - The Tote, Melbourne (with Black Cab)
+ Belle Phoenix & Jeffrey Wegener
18 - The Tote, Melbourne (with Black Cab)
+ Tongue Dissolver
20 - Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
21 - Factory Floor, Sydney
+ Rebel Yell
24 - Ed Castle, Adelaide
+ Messianic Gloss
25 - The Milk Bar, Perth
+ Streets of Separation
Tickets
FEAR
Australian tour
JUNE
26 - Marrickville Bowlo - Sydney
27 - Thrashville Festival - Hunter Valley
28 - La La Las - Wollongong
JULY
3 - The Tote - Melbourne
4 - Vinnies Dive Bar - Gold Coast
5 - The Brightside - Brisbane
Tickets
Indie Sounds of the Harbour City Vol 2
Launch Tour
JUL
3 - Dissent Bar, Canberra ACT
4 - Ryans Hotel, Thirroul
5 - The Marlin Hotel, Ulladulla
10 - Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle
11 - Six String, Erina
12 - Deadsset, Darlinghurst, Sydney
17 - Lou Lou Room, Wynnum, QLD
18 - Coffs Harbour Hotel, Coffs Harbour, NSW
19 - Blah Bar, Lismore, NSW
24 - Crowbar Sydney
25 - Vi-Nil HQ, Ourimbah, NSW
26 - Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
31 - The Vic, Orange, NSW
AUG
1 - Crossroads, Dubbo, NSW
7 - Diamond Dogs, Dapto, NSW
8 - Wings & Tins, Dee Why, NSW
Amammoth + None For One
+ Old Heathens + Buzz Wagon
+ The Limited + Headspacer
+ My Velvet Exit
Lazy Thinking, Dulwich Hill, NSW
2.30-11PM
- July 25
Smoked Salmon
Totally Sick!! Tour
JULY
24 - Mojo's, Fremantle, WA
25 - Prince of Wales, Bunbury, WA
31 - Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, VIC
AUG
1 - Shotkickers, Thornbury, VIC
2 - Wheatsheaf, Adelaide, SA
6 - La La La's, Wollongong, NSW
7 - Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham , NSW
8 - Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
9 - The Oak Tighes Hill, Newcastle, NSW
(free)
14 - Tanswells, Beechworth, VIC
(free)
15 - Smiths Alternative, Canberra, ACT
21 - Republic Bar, Hobart, TAS
22 - Royal Oak, Launceston, TAS
28 - Junk Bar, Brisbane, QLD
29 - Blah Bar, Lismore, NSW
30 - Cabarita Beach Club, Cabarita, NSW (free)
SEP
4 - Young St Tavern, Frankston, VIC
The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper
Ed Kuepper 50 Years Retrospective
JULY
30 - Avoca Theatre #
31 - Canberra, The Street
AUG
1 - Wombarra Bowlo
6 - Adelaide, The Gov
8 - Melbourne, National Theatre
9 - Barwon Heads Hotel
15 - Fremantle, Freo Social
20 - Brisbane, The Princess
21 - Coffs Harbour, The Jetty Theatre
22 - Murwillumbah, Regent Theatre
27 - Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Tickets
Huxton Creepers
12 Days To Paris Tour
AUG
7 - Sooki Lounge, Belgrave, VIC
+ Icecream Hands
8 - Croxton Bandroom, Thornbury, VIC
+ Icecream Hands
14 - Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW
+ The Johnnys
15 - Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW
+ The Johnnys
16 - Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle, NSW
(afternoon show)
+ The Johnnys
21 - Norton Music Factory,
Caloundra, QLD
+ The Johnnys
22 - Crowbar Brisbane, QLD
+ The Johnnys
+ Mick Medew and Ursula
23 - Wallaby Hotel, Mudgeeraba, QLD
(afternoon show)
+ The Johnnys
The Damned
Final Damnation 50
Australia and New Zealand
SEP
8 - AUCKLAND, Powerstation
10 - SYDNEY, The Opera House
11 - BRISBANE, The Tivoli
13 - MELBOURNE, The Forum
Tickets
Pre-sale: Wednesday April 22d at 9:00am Local
General Public: Friday April 24 at 9:00am Local
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