Radio Birdman: Retaliate First: How One Band Smashed the Rules of Australian Rock 'N' Roll

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Murray Engleheart

Radio Birdman

Retaliate First: How One Band Smashed the Rules of Australian Rock 'N' Roll

Murray Engleheart

$36.99

Paperback

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English

Allen & Unwin
02 July 2024

Music; Punk, New Wave & Indie; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups

'Radio Birdman live brought loyalty as strong and powerful as their music. Yeah hup!' Anthony Albanese, PM and fan

'Radio Birdman are analogous to dark matter: largely unseen yet profoundly influential.' Brad Shepherd, Hoodoo Gurus

'Murray's raw passion somehow doesn't mess with his skill to present the story, the context and the truth.' Tim Rogers, You Am I and The Hard-Ons

Sydney's legendary Radio Birdman were a stake through the satin and scarfed hearts of the mid seventies' music scene, revolutionising the conservative Australian industry in the process. Regarded as one of the earliest punk bands, before the world had heard of the Sex Pistols, Birdman were feared and loathed by many, yet adored by fiercely loyal fans. But their story has never been told in depth-until now.

Murray Engleheart's Radio Birdman: Retaliate First is drawn from more than 150 interviews with the band members, their closest associates, devotees and observers. From tales of singer Rob Younger filling his mouth with sheep brains from a human skull to fans breaking limbs while dancing wildly at gigs and publicans cutting the power in a desperate bid to halt their force-of-nature-like performances, the Radio Birdman story is one of confrontation, commitment and inspiration.

With 2024 marking their half-century of existence, and a commemorative tour that may be their last, it's the perfect time to look back over fifty years of the band that never took a backward step and made rock and roll thrilling and dangerous once more. Radio Birdman: Retaliate First is the ultimate insider's guide to how Australia's most hated act were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and became global icons.

'Riveting and insightful.' Stuart Coupe

By: Murray Engleheart
Imprint: Allen & Unwin
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
Weight: 511g
ISBN: 9781761069642
ISBN 10: 1761069640
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 02 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sydney-based journalist and author Murray Engleheart has written millions of words about music over more than four decades with his work published from Moscow to So Paulo, Japan to New York. From first doing album reviews in a high school magazine in 1974, he has interviewed a virtual who's who of rock and roll from Keith Richards, Lou Reed and Patti Smith to Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker and David Bowie. His first book was the global best sellerAC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll with Arnaud Durieux (2006) and his second, Blood Sweat and Beers - Oz Rock from The Aztecs to Rose Tattoo (2010).