John Kennedy returns with new album, Australian dates

Australian singer-songwriter John Kennedy has survived a stroke, crossed continents, and emerged with an album on I-94 Bar Records that sounds nothing like business as usual.

"The Berlin Trilogy (And Other Collaborations)" is released on 25 September and pre-sales are open on Kennedy's Bandcamp and the label Bandcamp. 

Following his stroke in 2025, Kennedy relocated to Berlin, where former bandmate Moe Jaksch challenged him to leave his familiar pop-rock territory behind. Their Rocking Chair Studio sessions produced three songs Kennedy dubbed "The Berlin Trilogy", a tongue-in-cheek nod to David Bowie’s Berlin years.

The project grew after Kennedy moved to Spain, bringing together an international cast including Peter Loveday, Paco Peneranda, Frank Kearns, Paul Scott, Hybride Goldking, Peter O’Doherty and Hunting At Dawn. 

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• i-94 bar records
• john kennedy
• The Berlin Trilogy (And Other Collaborations)

We're all Not That Way Anymore

Not That Way Anymore 
By Frank Secich
(High Voltage Publishing)

Circumstantial Evidence
By Frank Secich
(High Voltage Publishing)

So my good friends, I'm having some medical problems that are slowing down my productivity in every area of my life; I don’t get around much like I used to. So sorry I'm late, all my brothers and sisters and friends of the Revolution, but here in the shadows of balls-out, flock camera, no-due-process concentration camps, evisceration of the Fourth Amendment, torture gulags where underage immigrant girls are being impregnated by the homegrown masked Gestapo, tech Fascism and WW 3 - and pretty much everything Lords Of The New Church and The Wanderers spent all their most vital life force trying to warn us about, so it could all be avoided - is coming to life all around us.

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• dead boys
• stiv bators
• frank secich
• circumstantial evidence
• not that why anymore

Vale Cheetah Chrome: Frank Meyer remembers

_{Sylvain, Sylvain of The New York Dolls, Cherie Curire of The Runaways, Cheetah Chrome of Dead Boys and Frank Meyer. Photo: Frank Meyer supplied.} 

I met Cheetah Chrome in 2003 when Monte A. Melnick and I were writing the book “On the Road with the Ramones”. Cheetah was a treasure trove of wild stories about his beloved NY music scene.

A year later, myself and his former Jeff Dahl bandmate, Bruce Duff, did a tour with Cheetah in Spain, where we were joined by his old Dictators pal Andy Shernoff. It was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had in my life.

Bruce and I played in his band for many years after that — soooo many Dead Boys songs — culminating with a 2014 tour with him and our band, The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs. Lots of miles, lotsa van talk, lots of Sensational Alex Harvey Band, lots of backstage hangs, soundchecks, incredible shows, and mainly just lots of friendship and good times.

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• james williamson
• dead boys
• cheetah chrome
• cherie currie
• andy shernoff
• frank meyer
• streetwalkin' cheetahs
• sylvain sylvain
• bruce duff

Pete Ross and The Sapphire take stock with self-ttiled album

After nearly a decade living in and touring Europe, Pete Ross and The Sapphire return to Australia with their self-titled album — a collection that traces the band’s journey through their years overseas. 

The self-titled album is released 1 October 2026 o through  Australian labels Outtaspace Records (vinyl) and CD on I-94 Bar Records. Pre-orders for the CD are open here.

Formed in 2011, the Australian and New Zealand duo of Pete Ross (guitar and vocals) and Susy Sapphire (bass and vocals) is now based in Sydney after performing extensively across France, Spain, Germany, Italy and beyond.

Their music found a home with acclaimed French label Beast Records, releasing “Rollin’ On Down The Lane” (2012) and “The Boundless Expanse” (2015), while continuing to build a reputation through live performances and festival appearances.

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• i-94 bar records
• outtspace records
• pete ross and the sapphire
• pete ross
• susy sapphire

Ghost in the machine: The Darts overcome adversity to score a bullseye Down Under

The Darts (US)
+ The Spivs
+ Jollee
Vinnies Dive Bar
Southport, Queensland, Australia
Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Words: ANGELA EVOL
Photos: MARK CHANDLER

Wednesday nights are not traditionally the stuff of rock ’n’ roll legend, particularly at a venue that doesn’t usually put bands on midweek. Someone forgot to tell the Gold Coast.

The opening night of The Darts’ first Australian tour sold out Vinnies Dive Bar and filled the room with a crowd ready to make a night of it. By the time the headliners appeared, there was no standing around waiting to be convinced. Vinnies was hot, packed and ready for trouble.

There had already been plenty of trouble before anyone played a note, although nobody in the audience would have known it.

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• australian tour
• the spivs
• 2026
• the darts
• Jollee
• vinnies dive bar
• southport

An insider's cautionary rock and roll tale that's well told

Confessions of a Pub Rock Promoter
By Bob Yates
Peach Tree Press

Not every half-baked musician, rock manager, pseudo academic or person who has dipped their toe into the entertainment industry can write a music book.  The output often makes good doorstops. Music writing is an art of its own. Not everyone can write a song, either, but that’s another story.

That said, we do have some great writers in this country with an ability to capture a vibe. The best have a vibrancy to their work and an ability to translate exciting moments.

Some memoirs make an emotional connection or show a deep understanding of a moment in time. Overseas, Suzi Rotolo’s book on the early NY folk scene and her relationship with Bob Dylan springs to mind. Locally, the darkly cynical work of Bob Short and his musical journey, or Jim Moginie’s autobiography, are examples.  

When an author is able to combine all of the above, you have gold.  

Bob Yates manages this, both with his candid story of his deep love and regret about the loss of his dutiful and talented partner Virginia, and his journeys through the Australian music industry.

The book opens with a vista of the the beige world of Australia in the 1950s and ‘60s. A world of Menzies, portraits of Queen Elizabeth, and blokes who wore long socks and shorts.  Like many kids, Bob’s world changed suddenly with the arrival of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Dylan and then war in Vietnam.  

Bob and Virginia were a young couple building a home and a life together. Bob’s story about the loss of his marriage while deeply involved in music carries a sense of regret and ultimately humility.

Sydney kid Bob Yates had already proven to have that entrepreneurial spirit; the local paper boy who mowed lawns for a few shillings with his sleeves rolled up. In his teens, he was playing the stock market and made heaps of money - enough to pay half the deposit for house in Balmain. He then lost a small fortune and was in heavily in debt.

The character of a hard-edged promoter was shaped at early age, along with an ability to climb out of a hole. Bob was back waking up at 5am to start work again, putting in enormous hours in factory work, mowing lawns or as a cleaner.

Yates fell into the world of booking, and promoting gigs from his early 20s. It was completely street level, handing out flyers, doing poster runs and hiring halls. He held packed events at Balmain and Paddington Town Halls, as well as in assorted community and church halls, and some of his gigs drew almost a thousand people.

Bob’s book provides insights of a scene that I knew little about. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Balmain was a hub of Sydney culture. “Confessions of a Rock Promoter” shines a light on acts like Jeannie Lewis and Captain Matchbox as well as the lesser known ones - including Ward and Johnston, the duothat Bob  managed, That he ended getting major international supports for them like Ike and Tina Turner provides an understanding of the wheeling and dealing involved. Bob Yates was certainly a mover and shaker for close to a decade.

It was towards the end 1976 that Bob sensed a change in Australia. The impact of Radio Birdman on Sydney has been well documented. It was not only the music. Doors were now open to a variety of new music and new venues were springing up – especially iun their home town Sydney.  

The legendary underground spot, French’s Tavern on Oxford Street, was changing its booking policy and opening a rock room downstairs. A band with a fervent following on the city’s northside had recently changed its name from FARM to Midnight Oil, and was dropping its prog rock pretentions with a nod to Radio Birdman’s twin guitar attack. Birdman’s impact was equally evident on The Angels who were evolving out of being a roots boogie band from Adelaide into something more theatrical and calculated.

Bob Yates’ story of Midnight Oil auditioning for the Stage Door Tavern where he was now the booker is hilarious – especially with the arrival of the fast talking and intense Garry Morris as their manager. Bob booked the Civic Hotel in Goulburn Street and by 1978 it was a bastion of a new breed of bands, hosting the art students from Mental as Anything and early gigs by The Angels and Cold Chisel.

It was here that the early postpunk scene emerged into the light and it was full houses most nights.  You can feel the energy of that time in Bob’s writing. Rooms like The Civic gave a home to arty indie bands and allowed them to be creative. Punk venues were also opening in the rundown parts of the city near Central Station and were drawing mostly underage kids.  It was, as Yates relates, a real changing of the guard.
 
The book explodes as Ian Rilen makes his entry into its pages. Bob Yates perfectly captures the man’s spirit and charisma – the wildness and raw talent.

Ian’s formation of X had really made an impact on Sydney. A tough, street level bass player with a grounding in bands like Fraternity, Band of Light and the early Rose Tattoo, Ian left that latter band with “Bad Boy for Love” before departing because he thought they were heading in the wrong direction. Now he had a new beast.

Unlike Midnight Oil, who were allocated a Tuesday audition, Bob gave  X their first Civic gig on a Friday night on reputation alone - and for a huge guarantee. The line-up down Pitt Street was full of a new breed of inner-city audience with a red “X” painted or stencilled onto ripped jeans and tee-shirts. X drew a full house, leaving scars on the carpet and broken glasses as far as the eye could see. Yet they were welcome back as they broke the bar record.

A couple of years later, Ian wanted Bob to manage his stunning new band Sardine V. Yates, had a fair a bit to do with Ian securing a publishing deal. Ian was certainly one of the most talented songwriters to have emerged on the scene.

Bob’s description of the inner-city music scene of punk and post punk is raw and exciting.  Yates was well over a decade older than most of the musicians on stage and even older than an audience mostly aged in their teens. His background was a decade in folk music and roots bands. He describes the sudden shift as a massive tidal wave with words conveying the rawness and passion of the music itself. These bands he cites are names many of us know; Laughing Clowns, Lipstick Killers, Hitman, Ward 13, The Passengers, Jimmy and Boys, Flowers and The Professors among them, just to name a few.

Bob was now booker and promoter of The Civic, Stage Door and the Royal Antler on the Northern Beaches that was the Oils were packing out. A pivotal point for Bob was the arrival in 1978 of Mi-Sex from New Zealand, following a well-worn path trod by Dragon and the La De Das. Suddenly, they were the new band to check out. Yates was impressed.

A large section of book is focused on him taking them from a midweek, $50 a gig support band to being the biggest pop drawcard in Australia. It is tale of a gigantic rise to the top, built on belief, bravado and bold, sharp managements skills by a man who became workaholic. Sweeping up all the awards of 1980 and dealing with the American arm of CBS Records, the small-time Sydney promoter of a few years earlier found himself working with the biggest names in the industry and walking into the boardroom of a record monolith in New York City.

These are heartbreaking aspects to this. CBS were dickheads and it’s a body-blow to Bob when they don’t keep their word. There is a lot of fast talking. And the next thing can be another conversation and another line of coke. It’s a fascinating story and a warning to those who romanticised the industry without saying what really goes down.

Sadly, in world of inflated egos is a lack of understanding that what goes up can fall very quickly. Bob realises this is not his world and decides he wants out.  He seen enough of where he does not want to be.

Bob’s final major foray into the big time was a Tiny Tim show, presented with artist Martin Sharpe at The Sydney Opera House. It’s a tale set in the twilight zone where art and street level promotion were never meant to meet.

Here we are in 2026 and the industry is completely changed and has lost its sense of alternative, counterculture. Private colleges have diplomas in music management and it’s a world away from the tough side of dealing with underworld figures with pistols in backroom offices drawers, bundles of cash in car boots, and amphetamine-fuelled roadies driving 3000 kilometres to get a band’s gear to a gig on time. A world with no Instagram, Facebook or band websites.

“Confessions of a Pub Rock Promoter” is a rip-roaring read by a gifted writer and a window into a time many decades ago.

Buy it

• midnight oil
• bob yates
• stagedoor tavern
• civic hotel
• mi-sex
• confessions of a pub rock promoter

They Smashed Us Up

The Damned
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, NSW, Australia
September 10 2026

Words: ASHLEY THOMSON
Images" CELIA CURTIS

As a young teen, then living on the southside of Brisvegas, I listened to this fledgling radio station run outta the Uni called 4ZZZ. Michael Finucan was doing the heavy lifting of the morning show and introduced me to all this modern high energy music coming out locally and from all around the world, one of those being a punk band called The Damned. 

I brought The Damned records from an import record shop in the city and was duly impressed. along with the overall sound I was transfixed by the huge cacophony of the drumming, this wasn’t your dads Ringo Starr, this cunt literally sounded like the Tasmanian Devil on speed. Impressive.

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• the damned
• sydney opera house
• final damnation

Ninth Life: Mudhoney's Steve Turner brings the fuzz back down under

_{Steve Turner. Kerrie Geier photo.}

You lucky Eastern Australian Coast gits. This October, Mudhoney return to Australia for their ninth tour. But they ain't playing Adelaide (or Perth.)  Bastards.

Right, well, I figure that you know who Mudhoney are and they shouldn't need the likes of me to introduce them yet again.

It's interview time afor the band's guitarist Steve Turner and I am not interested in asking about "Sea**le" and "gru*ge" as I'm sure everyone's heard all about it by now. The band must be bored to death by answering the same questions over and over. 

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• mudhoney
• steve turner
• new zealand tour
• austraian tour
• 2026

Johnnys prepping "Rarehide" release with VIC shows

Cowpunk trailblazers The Johnnys - formed out of the original Hoodoo Gurus line-up and famously fronted in the '80s by the late Spencer P Jones - are releasing a new compilation “Rarehide: Out Takes, B-Sides And Rarities”.

Before they do that, however, the band has a run of Victorian shows, with national dates to follow.

While the full details are sketchy for now, “Rarehide” includes versions of two songs written for them by Paul Kelly (the classic single "Bleeding Heart" and the band's never-before heard version of "White Train").

There's also an early version of their near hit "Injun Joe" and killer versions of rare tracks "Rebel Yell" and "Pray To John Wayne", loomking as a single on October 2.

The Johnnys - who are Graham "Hoody" Hood on bass and vocals and drummer Billy Pommer Jr and  guitarist Paul "Slim" Doherty - are heading to Geelong, Balnarring and Melbourne.

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• the johnnys
• the stems
• rarehide