With the death of Elvis
I could no longer believe.
Since listening to Flaming Star
on a winter Saturday, 1973
I had been a sucker for his elegies.
Suspicious Minds took me out of the paddocks
and into a bedroom with an older brother,
where my education in music began with Slade,
the Jackson Five, Skyhooks, our sisters
into the Osmonds, Sherbet, David Cassidy.
Pubescent and wanting more
than Playboy and gunslinger Westerns
I forked over calf money for 16
Teen Beat, Circus and Cream.
Shakespeare Didn't Play Guitar,
he didn't rate.
Like the acne on my face
I opened up to body shirts,
played under-17 football at thirteen.
My brother read Ram, Juke, NME
became obsessed withbands the radio station didn't play.
He stashed magazines under his bed
for future reference, testing me
on the original members of The Yardbirds, Black Sabbath,
until it became clear
the magazines were holding up his bed.
In the clean-out we found a dead rat,
a smell we hadn't noticed
staring up at posters of The Stones and Foghat.
Each night our room was a succession of guitar solos –
Jimmy Page, Ted Nugent, Lobby Lloyd always
within grabbing distance of the record player.
Despite Mum thumping on our door for tea
The Sex Pistols helped me to see.
a different side to milking 180 cows twice a day.
My brother cut his hair, dying it blonde
around the ears so as not to offend
our neighbour, the footy coach.
With a Boys Next Door quiff
he was still a relieving ruckman
in the forward pocket.
As a centre-half forward I was more ambitious
but I hadn't read anything
outside Stan Barstow's A Kind of Loving,
a mournful antidote
to Richard Allen's skinhead epics
which I read in conjunction with English music,
and formed an early distaste for Royalty.
Outside footy and Mass
we didn't go anywhere there was
to go. With some neighbours
we started our own blue-light disco,
decorating the local hall with footy streamers.
Word got around
but the dance floor was watched by my father.
I pashed on in the back corners
to Ami Stewart and Thelma Houston,
coloured lights strobing the Honour Rolls,
my brother ran his first car into a drain.
- 120: DIALOGUEwith E Chong 119: FITwith E Collyer 118: PRECARIOUSwith A Jackson 117: NO THEME 14with A Creece 116: REMEMBERwith M Sahhar and A Te Whiu 115: SPACEwith A Sometimes 114: NO THEME 13with J Toledo & C Tse 113: INVISIBLE WALLSwith A Walker & D Disney 112: TREATwith T Dearborn 111: BABYwith S Deo & L Ferney 110: POP!with Z Frost & B Jessen 109: NO THEME 12with C Maling & N Rhook 108: DEDICATIONwith L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik 107: LIMINALwith B Li 106: OPENwith C Lowe & J Langdon 105: NO THEME 11with E Grills & E Stewart 104: KINwith E Shiosaki 103: AMBLEwith E Gomez and S Gory 102: GAMEwith R Green and J Maxwell 101: NO THEME 10with J Kinsella and J Leanne 100: BROWNFACE with W S Dunn 99: SINGAPOREwith J Ip and A Pang 97 & 98: PROPAGANDAwith M Breeze and S Groth 96: NO THEME IXwith M Gill and J Thayil 95: EARTHwith M Takolander 94: BAYTwith Z Hashem Beck 93: PEACHwith L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong 92: NO THEME VIIIwith C Gaskin 91: MONSTERwith N Curnow 90: AFRICAN DIASPORAwith S Umar 89: DOMESTICwith N Harkin 88: TRANSQUEERwith S Barnes and Q Eades 87: DIFFICULTwith O Schwartz & H Isemonger 86: NO THEME VIIwith L Gorton 85: PHILIPPINESwith Mookie L and S Lua 84: SUBURBIAwith L Brown and N O'Reilly 83: MATHEMATICSwith F Hile 82: LANDwith J Stuart and J Gibian 81: NEW CARIBBEANwith V Lucien 80: NO THEME VIwith J Beveridge 57.1: EKPHRASTICwith C Atherton and P Hetherington 57: CONFESSIONwith K Glastonbury 56: EXPLODE with D Disney 55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUSwith M Chakraborty and K MacCarter 55: FUTURE MACHINES with Bella Li 54: NO THEME V with F Wright and O Sakr 53.0: THE END with P Brown 52.0: TOIL with C Jenkins 51.1: UMAMI with L Davies and Lifted Brow 51.0: TRANSTASMAN with B Cassidy 50.0: NO THEME IV with J Tranter 49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH with M Hall and S Seita 49.0: OBSOLETE with T Ryan 48.1: CANADA with K MacCarter and S Rhodes 48.0: CONSTRAINT with C Wakeling 47.0: COLLABORATION with L Armand and H Lambert 46.1: MELBOURNE with M Farrell 46.0: NO THEME III with F Plunkett 45.0: SILENCE with J Owen 44.0: GONDWANALAND with D Motion 43.1: PUMPKIN with K MacCarter 43.0: MASQUE with A Vickery 42.0: NO THEME II with G Ryan 41.1: RATBAGGERY with D Hose 41.0: TRANSPACIFIC with J Rowe and M Nardone 40.1: INDONESIA with K MacCarter 40.0: INTERLOCUTOR with L Hart 39.1: GIBBERBIRD with S Gory 39.0: JACKPOT! with S Wagan Watson 38.0: SYDNEY with A Lorange 37.1: NEBRASKA with S Whalen 37.0: NO THEME! with A Wearne 36.0: ELECTRONICA with J Jones


Do you have, as the pop song goes, the 'music in you'?
Studio: a Journal of Christians Writing recently turned 20. In its pages it has published the work of a variety of Australian writers, including Les Murray and Kevin Hart. Paul Mitchell spoke to the journal's managing editor, Paul Grover, about the spirit in the journey.
In April this year, Michael Farrell and US poet Andrew Zawacki travelled to the Queenscliffe Festival of Words, catching a dose of cabin fever on the way –
For five glorious, sweltering days each October, Newcastle plays host to one of the biggest youth arts festival in Australia. Under the umbrella of This Is Not Art (or TINA) not one but four festivals are held simultaneously in the steel city. Amanda Kerley directed the National Young Writers Festival in 2000. Carlie Lazar barely survived it –