ORSTRALIA - A PUNK HISTORY 1974-1989

Tristan Clark

[Punk - Australia]

More subterranean than the national scandal that was punk back in “homeland” Britain, Australia’s own punk bands nonetheless came to be heralded internationally. Punks there were routinely met with insult, fist, or the police baton. Orstralia represents the first definitive account of the country’s initial years, from progenitors the Saints and Radio Birdman in the mid-70s, through the emergence of hardcore in the 1980s, typified by a new aggressive sound that took its lead from US (bands like Sick Things, Civil Dissident, Depression, Mad Flowers) to the stylistic diffusion that accompanied transition to the 1990s. Based on over 130 interviews, Orstralia documents the most renowned to the most fleeting and obscure acts the nation produced.

PM Press (2024) 320 p. 15 x 23 cm - In English