Jump Head-first into this riotous and righteous collection of rock and roll stories

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By The Barman

The Barman

22 August 2025

Hits: 247

Headonism
By Peter Head with MJ Cornwall
(BookPOD)

The history of Australian rock and roll is chockablock with yarns about people who had their shot at The Big Prize. Adelaide-born Peter Head (nee Beagley) gave it a better shake than most,  rising to prominence as pianist for prog rockers Headband, touring his bum off and playing in a pre-AC/DC band with some bloke named Bon Scott.

This is a man who rubbed shoulders with everyone from Elton John to John Mayall, John Farnham to the Rolling Stones. Adelaide-raised, Head did what a lot of Aussies did in the‘60s and followed his nose to work as a muso in England...only to suffer the same fate as many, if not most, of his peers and have it rubbed in Pommy squalor.

In the ‘80s Head transplanted himself to Sydney and became a fixture in the piano bars of Kings Cross. It was probably a natural progression for a bloke who kicked off his career as a 13-year-old backing bump-and-grind dancers in seedy Hindley Street bars. Along the way, he directed stage shows, toured nationally with the likes of Robyn Archer, carved out a regular place on the bill of the Adelaide Festival, filled in as backing pianist for “Here’s Humphrey”. 

• rolling stones
• bon scott
• elton john
• mark cornwall
• mj cornwall
• headonism
• peter head

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The Gin Palace soars before Swaggerland puts iceing on the collaborative cake

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By John Ventoura

John Ventoura

18 August 2025

Hits: 1214

_{Happy Hour at The Gin Palace.}

The Gin Palace
+ Swaggerland
Factory Floor, Marrickville
Saturday 9 August 2025 

On a wet and miserable Sydney winter night, a cosy Factory Floor welcomed around 50 punters to  share an intimate musical experience. It was the long awaited gig to launch The Gin Palace’s online single “Petrichor” and album material from Bronwyn Eather’s latest project  Swaggerland 24.

First up The Gin Palace: A super group of players, with a pedigree drawn from, among others, Crow, Glide, and Copperline, they are a six-piece band and welcomed us with a short set of songs from upcoming album, “The Year of the Dog”. As it turns out, it was a set that was almost too big for this little stage, as The Gin Palace powered through an effortless and positive set of numbers with their unique, euphoric sound.

• factory floor
• peter fenton
• marc lynch
• the gin palace
• swaggerland
• bronwyn either

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Mind blown by a singular talent

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By Ed Garland

Ed Garland

18 August 2025

Hits: 1138

Keep Moving – Xani (Live At Fight Night Records)  

It’s been a month since I saw Xani at The Recital Hall in Sydney, in support of John Cale. Those in attendance that I’ve spoken to were blown away by the lone figure on stage with her Irish jig footwork and extraordinary violin playing.

That night Xani produced a vast array of sounds from that tiny instrument. Of course, in a studio with multi-track recording, an artist doesn’t need the same level of complexity, timing and, in Xani’s case, looping. I suspect the songs in a studio setting came first and looping is a means of reproducing a wild tapestry of sounds when playing live. 

• john cale
• xani
• keep moving
• live at fight night records

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The Crisps are screaming for your love

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 August 2025

Hits: 484

Sydney via Berlin band The Crisps have a new video single. “Scream For My Love” is the song and it’s available on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. It’s a re-configured Crisps line-up with drummer Stu Wilson (aka Stu Crisp) still the main vocalist, drummer and songwriter. This time he’s joined by Phil Hall (bass), and Matt Galvin (guitars).

Other band members are Graham “Hoody” Hood (The Johnnys), Dave Thomas (Doomfoxx) and Chris Nacard (Orange County).

The Crisps have undertaken Australian tours in the last couple of years on the back of a self-titled mini-album of revived material from their original existence in the early 2000s. Expect a new album before the end of 2025 once Stu Crisp has finished a European tour with Van Ruin and an Australian run with Chris Masuak’s Dog Soldier.

Russell Pilling mixed “Scream For My Love” and the video is by Charlie Wilson.

• stu wilson
• the crisps
• scream for my love

The Handsomest Man In Rock and Roll returns to the record racks

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 August 2025

Hits: 863

Back On Broadway EP – Handsome Dick Manitoba (Heavy Medication/Ghost Highway/Take The City)

He’s back and as bombastic and brash as ever. Handsome Dick Manitoba and the band he made his name with, The Dictators, are irrevocably divorced, but The King of Men punches on with this four-song vinyl EP, comprising two new studio tracks and a brace recorded on the road.

In case you didn’t know, Manitoba’s been doing a bit of touring in the USA and Europe with his own bands after the big split and something of a slow motion fall from grace away from the stage. If you’re not familiar with the story, the title track “Back On Broadway” spells it all out:

• dictators nyc
• handsome dick manitoba
• heavy medication
• back on broadway

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Revenge is a dish best served on top of a valve amp

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 August 2025

Hits: 1623

Revenge – Plastic Section (Chaputa Records)

If you ask us, “refinement” and “Rock and Roll” make strange bedfellows and Melbourne’s Plastic Section is a case in point. This retro trio is so out of kilter with 99.999 percent of the straight musical world that it hurts. And in a time where music is an ever debased commodity, that is very much a good thing.

Plastic Section take their lead from rockabilly, rough-edged R&B and ‘50s rock and roll. “Revenge” is their album nomenclature, but reverb is their religion and they worship at the altar of Link Wray.

It should be no surprise. The band’s lineage is in outfits like The Exotics, Wrong Turn, The Wraylettes, Wet Ones and Girl Monstar. They probably wouldn’t have existed over the course of a couple of albums and an EP in any Australian city other than Melbourne.    

• garage
• rockabilly
• link wray
• plastic section
• revenge
• chaputa records
• retro

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Chris Masuak's Dog Soldier announces Australian tour

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By The Barman

The Barman

12 August 2025

Hits: 583

He’s lamenting the chronic shortage of real guitar rock and roll afflicting this ever fracturing planet, so ex-Radio Birdman, Hitmen, New Christs and Screaming Tribesmen guitarist Chris Masuak is returning to Australia to do something about it. Chris Masuak’s Dog Soldier will play shows in New South Wales, Queensland and Canberra in November on the back of a new album.

It’s been more than two years since Masuak left his adopted home of Spain and came back to his longtime old stamping ground of Australia but he hasn’t been idle. As well as gigging through Europe, he’s released an EP with his main Spanish band, Los Revelators, and a swansong single with his other Spanish band, The Viveiro Wave Riders (on US label Savage Magic).

• hitmen
• new christs
• stu wilson
• radio birdman
• screaming tribesmen
• phil hall
• australian tour 2025
• chris masuak's dog soldier

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Punching above its weight and it's a knock-out

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

10 August 2025

Hits: 1888

LightHeavyWeight 3 - Jack Howard (self released)

If you don't know who Jack Howard is, I can only assume you are a newcomer to Australian music, and probably a newcomer to this website. For the benefit of the uninitiated, he played trumpet with Hunters & Collectors, toured the world with Midnight Oil as their multi-instrumentalist and has played with the likes of Rodriguez, The Violent Femmes, The Living End, You Am I, Tex Perkins and Kate Ceberano. 

So let's move straight away to the nitty-gritty. It's the music, it's the beat, it's the soul. Those are the only things that matter.

• jack howard
• hunters and collectors
• midnight oil
• lightheavyweight 3

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One Short story you won't be able to put down

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

08 August 2025

Hits: 1772

Night Comes Down
By Bob Short
(Earth Island Books)

Who could trust time when reason was lost?

I got pretty lucky. I did all the dumb things and I'm still here.

First, it's such a delight to read that I've snorked coffee over it several times in my usual cafe, as well as other unpleasant substances on the bus. So, if it's a horror story, it's one where you spray coffee over it, your table, pants and some lady's nice white frock. 

Perhaps you could instead think of “Night Comes Down” as an amusing memoir with layers of horror? No, that won't work, there's just too much real horror. 

Even the unreal can still feel like it is real. That hunk of meat in our heads is a totally unreliable narrator. We make excuses for things and pretend things never happened and yet weirdness is always nipping at our heels. Is anything true?

Perhaps you'll read it and think it's all made up. Strangely enough, Bob Short is (as usual) one step ahead of us.

• bob short
• radio birdman
• blood and roses
• filth
• night comes down
• earth island books

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