ROCK MUSIC in WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The Western Australian rock and pop music scene since the 1960s has been a microcosm of national and international trends in the music business, fed by exposure to overseas and Eastern States artists through records, radio and television, and live tours.

Original local music has largely been shaped by isolation and distance. Talented local performers have generally found it impossible to achieve Australian success from the West. The usual pattern has been to gig around Perth, then go East (to Sydney or Melbourne) and start the process again, with the aim of securing a recording contract.

Johnny Young was an early exception, managing to score a national no. 1 pop hit from Perth on the local Clarion label in 1966. A slightly rougher pop style was purveyed by the Valentines, who were memorable for having Bon Scott as a singer and for being the first Australian band to be busted for marijuana possession.

A series of blues- and jazz-influenced pub bands like the Bakery, the Elks, Fatty Lumpkin and Sid Rumpo recorded with some success in the 1970s. Blues rock legend Matt Taylor moved to Western Australia in 1975 and continued to record and tour with a series of bands.

Dave Warner emerged from the pub/punk scene in the later 1970s, with vignettes of teenage suburban life and a somewhat self-conscious Ocker focus on beer, sport and sex. 1981 saw the beginning of the Hoodoo Gurus, who combined elements of garage pop, psychedelia and punk into a successful mix. They were led by Dave Faulkner, who had first attracted attention in the Victims, one of Perth's first punk bands. He had also been in Midget and the Farrellys; their blend of retro pop and garage was partly inspired by the Dugites, who achieved some national recognition in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The punk scene also produced Kim Salmon, who went East with cult punk band The Scientists.

The Eurogliders had considerable success in the 1980s with a sophisticated pop sound. They were led by Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch, who had learned his craft in Perth with bands like Rip Torn and the Stockings. The mid-1980s also saw the retro power-pop of The Stems, drawing on the music and visual styles of the 1960s. After a national hit with "At First Sight" they split up on the verge of bigger things.

Johnny Diesel (American-born Mark Lizotte) started out in Perth in the 1980s before achieving national no. 1 albums, firstly with the Injectors and later as a solo artist, playing guitar-driven Southern rock. Harder to categorise were The Triffids, led by David McComb, who produced a series of laid-back and evocative albums in the 1980s which were critically acclaimed but had limited popular appeal.

In the 1990s the willingness of ABC Radio's Triple J to play original music from across the nation, together with the National Campus Bands Competition, made it possible for some young Western Australian bands to achieve national exposure without necessarily moving East. Acts like Ammonia, Eskimo Joe and Jebediah all had some national success.

By the early 21st century, Perth was home to a very competitive and busy rock scene, described by some as the Liverpool of Australia. Local recordings proliferated, in every conceivable style, as the cost of recording dropped significantly. Several bands were managing to achieve national and international recognition with a mixture of frequent touring and local recordings. Most promising among them were roots- and folk-derived acts like John Butler and The Waifs, as well as the melodic pop of The Sleepy Jackson.

The increasingly mixed ethnic and national origins of Western Australians were reflected in the variety of world and roots music being made in the state. A small but vibrant indigenous rock music scene, especially in the Kimberley region, continued to build on the earlier success of the Pigram Brothers and Jimmy Chi's musical Bran Nue Dae.

Live local rock music began in the dance halls of the 1960s, like the old Embassy Ballroom. These gave way to pub rock in the 1970s, with venues ranging from smaller, colonial pubs like the Governor Broome to huge, characterless beer barns like the White Sands. Pub rock was hit hard by the introduction of random breath testing in the mid-1980s, but made a comeback in the 1990s when a considerable number of hotels and bars again hosted live local music. By the early 21st century, live venues were again closing down or being converted to DJ-driven dance music, often in response to complaints from new inner-city apartment residents.

Some large-scale festivals were held on sporting ovals and semi-rural properties. The Parkerville Amphitheatre was the location for several Woodstock-inspired events in the early 1970s. Other regional events have included the annual Bridgetown Blues Festival, the Fairbridge Folk Festival, and the Bindoon Rock Festival in the 1980s and 1990s.

The most unusual venue was probably the Anglican Cathedral of St George in Perth, site of a series of "rock masses" in 1970 and 1971, where the Dean of Perth, John Hazlewood, presided to the accompaniment of the heavy rock sounds of The Bakery.

References

X Press magazine (21 June 1985- ).

Diesel. Rewind (EMI, 1996)

Eurogliders. Maybe I Only Dream (Sony, 1992)

Hoodoo Gurus. Ampology (Capitol, 2003)

Stems. At First Sight (Violets are Blue) (Mushroom, 2003)

Triffids. Australian Melodrama (Mushroom, 1994)

Dave Warner. Suburban Sprawl (Mushroom, 1990)

Toby Burrows