I grew up in a town on Australia’s east coast called Brisbane after our family moved back there from various locations in South-East Asia, where my Father had worked as a Civil Engineer heading up regional assistance programs for developing nations.
So the humidity and odd bit of lawlessness was no surprise. (I jest – back then it was… on the quiet side).
Fast-forward to my teenage years and here we were in the lurid, Wham-filled, mullet-having, ’80s. I went through school during this period, attending St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace.
Terrace was a great school – not too rich that it took what small privilege we had for granted, and not too budget-strapped that it couldn’t provide the breadth and depth of study, opportunity, and support that I certainly needed for my mindset at the time.
Finishing up at GT on the cusp of 1990 and uncertain as to whether any of my last-ditch efforts in year 12 had led to anything, I found to my lasting surprise that I’d been accepted into a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Queensland.
What I would do there I wasn’t sure however I has a rough plan: first – party; second – study one thing that you love, like English; third – study one thing that pays, like IT.
But first to party – and so began the ’90s, with all the sweat-filled youthful non-urgency they entailed. There was live music, local bands with attitude, and venues where fashion and phones weren’t present and didn’t matter. Like any formative period of life I miss those days, but remember them well. Luckily and out of what was pretty uncharacteristic forethought, it seems I consciously collected, curated, and preserved the pieces of that map – the flyers, the gig posters, the show bills – all those handed out on the street, flung onto cigarette ash and bourbon stained bars, or plastered onto light poles against “Bill Posters will be prosecuted” orders (Brisbane was something of a Police if not Nanny state at the time – something which fuelled its growing counter-culture).
This collection lay in my various piles of storage across all the intervening years until I rediscovers it last March; neatly tucked away in a set of airtight mailing tubes; one of which featured above – from the one and only Rocking Horse Records. There were 5 containers in all, containing about 40 posters, flyers, and others.
So I set aside a day, unfurled, categorised and took photos of each – which I now present for your memory-lane enjoyment below. I’ve done my best to add a note to each describing when and from where it came – click on any of the images for the details, or check out the listing in Sneaky appendix 1 for the condensed view.
The big acts
These were the ones were I kind of shook my head in disbelief as they’re for some heavy hitters, and they survived not only being pinned up and blu-tacked all across Australia, but also all that time packed away and never being lost, but also that a couple of them I’d managed to get signed in person.
Some other big names either on tour or appearing, including some local legends:
Local and national
Some bands from around Australia, including one of its long since bulldozed bowling alleys, including the much-loved an amateur-music-friendly Milton Bowl:
Flyers and bills
Notices and handouts promoting various venues, acts, and artists.
Street press
A couple of pages from Rave which was the eminent street mag of the time, and also it’s accomplice Time Off, wherein I had my moment of fame as Sgt. Kabukiman (third pic, bottom right). I was working part-time at the Schonell Theatre at that point, and for some extra cash was paid to get around the Valley with the Toxic Avenger to promote the Troma movie festival. This involving being led by our nervous guide to edgy nightspots in full costume and drinking beer through straws.
Also a snip from the Griffith Gazette in 1994 showing me at my first job; this one involving handling a human heart and having big hair.
Not music but cool
Some local flyers, a movie poster, an alternative magazine flyer, some from overseas (Spanish, German, Swiss, Czech), one from UQ, and the mailing tube used to store some of them – a delivery from Shock Records to Rocking Horse Records via the soon-to-be-defunct national carrier at the time – which I guess is kind of a piece in itself.
And that’s it for now
I hope you enjoyed checking these out. Like I said, I’d be really interested to hear any thoughts you might have around these – any memories or stories it might bring up from back in the day. Maybe you were at some of these events or hung out at the joints in question ? Which of the bands did you used to see or places did you used to frequent ? How does it compare to now ?
Feel free to leave a comment below, or catch me on Twitter @andrewreardon.
Sneaky appendix 1 – all the things listed
I thought I do up a list just showing the details along with some notes for each.
Sneaky appendix 2 – all the things in one shot
And here’s all of them in one place.
