CHERISH by DAVID CASSIDY Story by Peter Maskell
On the black and white TV one show in particular held my attention. It was about a large family. I was eight years old and, became, yes, a bit obsessed with the show’s star.
OLD WHITE MEN by VANCE GILBERT Story by Luke R Davies
Can’t think of a song all festival that blew me away like Old White Men did. When I caught it at the tail end of Vance Gilbert's set I welled up like everyone else.
ANARCHY IN THE UK by THE SEX PISTOLS Story by Paulie Stewart
This was my music. It sounded like the musical equivalent of Attila The Hun sacking Rome. If punk hadn’t come along I probably would have willed it to appear anyway.
DON’T WANNA BE THE ONE by MIDNIGHT OIL Story by Leo Grogan
Like footy fans at finals time, we queued at the local Bass outlet for tickets. Revelling in the early morning banter with the diehards, who were lucky enough to have witnessed the band at full tilt in the ‘early days’ of the late 1970’s. Other standout gigs were re-lived: Astor Theatre ’82, Kooyong ’85, Venue ’86 and Festival Hall ’87.
HOWZAT by SHERBET Story by Rick Kane
So there I was, at the WACA indoor nets with 100 flushed and excited teenage girls, ready to bowl to Daryl Braithwaite.
BEST SONG EVER by ONE DIRECTION Story by Martina Medica
Sometimes salvation can be found in the unlikeliest of songs. I find the one I want in the playlist, the one you call your dancing song, and turn it up loud.
HANDYMAN BLUES by BILLY BRAGG Story by Vin Maskell & Paul Bateman
I'm up on top of the house looking at a hole in the roof. A storm is coming. I’m thinking rain, I’m thinking possums, I’m thinking Handyman, wherefore art thou?
HAPPY MAN by SUNNYBOYS Story by Shane Sullivan
The next few minutes were life-changing. Well not really, but they did change the direction of my musical life. My friend's cassette got thrashed that weekend and I knew the lyrics to most of the songs by the next day.
EVERYTHING GONNA BE ALRIGHT by BIG MAMA THORNTON Story by Rijn Collins
In 2014 I applied for a one-month writing residency in Ólafsfjörður, a remote Icelandic fishing village near the Arctic Circle. To my shock, I was accepted within the week.
HARVEST LOVE by TASH SULTANA Gig review by Sean Mortell
After calling out to the members of the audience who had ever experienced mental turmoil, or just emotional struggles as a whole, the rollicking beauty of steady electric guitar along with the angelic high pitched crooning of Sultana, the flash light on thousands of phones swayed in time to a truly memorable cacophony of sound.