I arrive at Bassendean railway station. Phone box. I ring Lynda Nutter; popstar, teacher, mother, actor and activist. She answers the phone and says she’ll be there in five minutes to pick me up in her car. I’m tempted to reply, “In your car? No let’s not go anywhere let’s just drive around”. The same words she uttered on ‘In Your Car’ The Dugites radio friendly single that exposed Australian listeners to her golden tonsils for the first time back in 1980. From six years with The Dugites Lynda went on to cabaret work...  more

West Australian two guitar based rock and roll band The Tricks seem to have a ‘kick back and let it roll’ approach to life and their music. The impatient revs and screeching tyres of peak hour traffic had little impact as they enjoyed a cold beer on a hot afternoon at the Flying Scotsman in Mt Lawley. Guitarist Phil Barry sums it up, “We have a reputation for fun, we party, drink beer and play music. We’re aiming for a rock and roll lifestyle”. Ah! The maverick ambition for many musicians. Meanwhile, mix a youth worker, a gardener, an IT computer...  more

And it was still ringing in my head, the opening line to that song I heard, and it really felt like I had connected with the band, to the rhythm of their life. When you hear a band and you don’t gel with their sound and their message it feels like it contains only one note constricting in ever tightening circles around your throat. When you connect with a band you search for those hidden nuances and will often repeat your favourite track over and over until the plastic/vinyl is redundant. The Meaning Of are one local act who present a subtlety within their music...  more

“Is this . . . is this relevant?” says John Phatouros, the fine upstanding Volcanics frontman just as I’m about to delve into his family history. Not that there are any alarming skeletons in the closet unless you regard a Partridge Family singalong band involving John’s brothers and sisters as a crime against society. I quickly come to my senses. I am his guest he is supplying the beer and John wants to talk rock and roll not his life story. So straight to it...  more

The Honeyriders like to beckon. They like to call us in as listeners. All over ‘Dreamer Come In’, their debut CD there are cries of “come”. Either to come home or to come in or to come away. Maybe Rebecca O’Brien and Trevalene Neil are twenty first century musical mermaids serenading us when we’re lost in a sea of despair. Hopefully we won’t come to ground on the North mole. As I talk to Rebecca about the Honeyriders amazing six-year journey it is easy to forget about the many shipwrecks along the way. I congratulate her...  more

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