">My Big World Of Crap

A bunch of music experts have come up with a list of the 50 most significant moments in Australian rock and pop music history. The list was put together to celebrate Australian Musician Magazine’s 50th edition. According to them, the number one moment was the moment George Young met Harry Vanda in 1964 and formed the Easybeats.

The full list:

1 VANDA AND YOUNG Meet in migrant hostel
Had Harry Vanda and George Young not met in the Villawood migrant hostel in Sydney 1964, there would not have been an Easybeats as we know them, possibly no Stevie Wright solo career, certainly not the Albert productions that made AC/DC a huge success, and none of those classic Countdown songs by artists such as John Paul Young, William Shakespeare, Cheetah etc, as well as their own hits under the Flash and the Pan name. The obvious choice I suppose. The Easybeats were good, the other stuff that Vanda and Young did was mostly crap.
2 COUNTDOWN Goes colour - I watched Countdown fairly religiously in its heyday. Lots of crap but the occasional gem made it worthwhile.
3 MEN AT WORK Number one in USA and UK simultaneously - bleh!
4 THE SAINTS I’m Stranded Record of the Week-UK Sounds magazine - great song, great band. Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey both went on from here to do lots of good music.
5 MIDNIGHT OIL’S Sydney Olympics protest - was the best thing in the closing ceremony, and I guessed placed the aboriginal rights issue in the spotlight at least for a while. Also renewed my interest in Midnight Oil for a while.
6 SKYHOOKS Release Living in the 70s with 6 songs banned - was a breath of fresh air compared to the music around at the time, one of the first records I paid much attention too. I remember 2JJ playing “You just like me coz I’m good in bed” as its first song.
7 LEE GORDON Arrives in Australia
8 MUSHROOM RECORDS The label legend begins - Mushroom was good for having many of the best Australian bands
9 SILVERCHAIR All five albums go to number one - don’t mind them
10 BIG DAY OUT Goes national - never been to one
11 BEATLES Tour Australia and launch a thousand bands - I’ve never really been impressed by the Beatles.
12 TRIPLE J Goes National - were good, see my comment about Skyhooks. Too much(c)rap and crap now.
13 BON SCOTT dies - proved to be a mere bump in the road for AC/DC
14 CROWDED HOUSE Farewell concert - very nice, Crowded House produced a great body of work, as have the Finns in other guises
15 AC/DC It’s A Long Way To The Top … on the back of a truck - heavy metal is not my cup of tea, but it was always fun to sing “Its a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll” (usually done while drunk, around a campfire, and when I was much younger)
16 GO SET Our first real rock magazine - too early for me … RAM and Juke were the music mags of choice for me when I was at uni and had plenty of time to kill catching trains to and from home - I used to read a shitload of papers and magazines then.
17 SUNBURY FESTIVAL - too early for me.
18 JOHN BUTLER first independent artist to top national chart - good for him, I don’t think he’s anything special
19 SLIM DUSTY releases 100th album - hardly rock or pop, but a worthy achievement
20 AUSTRALIAN IDOL The juggernaut begins - haha! They must be joking to include this rubbish.
21 JET The band that launched a million ipods - don’t like them at all!
22 JOHN FARNHAM Jack’s back - boo! hiss! piss off!
23 JOK Our first national rock star - I only really know “Shout”
24 COLD CHISEL Khe Sahn-A legend begins - I liked Chisel, my favourite being “Flame Trees”; can’t say the same for Jimmy Barnes solo work.
25 KYLIE dates MICHAEL HUTCHENCE and changes forever - Kylie gained credibility when she did “Where the wild roses grow” with Nick Cave.
26 INXS Sometimes you Kick! - INXS were good for about their first 3 records … then they went bland. They really lost the plot after Michael Hutchence died (I was going to say wanked himself to death while hanging from a belt with a plastic bag over his head, but I thought that was in bad taste)
27 FAIRLIGHT COMPUTER Beginning of sampling - yeah ok.
28 SICK PUPPIES 13 million You Tube hits and US fame - whatever
29 NORMIE ROWE joins the army - good on him, but hardly memorable or significant except for him
30 YOTHU YINDI our first charting koori band - Warumpi Band were better, “My Island Home”, “Blackfella, whitefella” are better than “Treaty”
31 RATCAT redefine ‘indie’ - why? Nothing special about them

32 WAVE AID A nation reacts - it was decent, but hard to say it was particularly astounding or that significant
33 OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN Grease is the word! - bleh! to ONJ …although (guilty confession time here) Grease is/was fun.
34 UP THERE CAZALY Music and Sport unite - bland pap!
35 LRB Reminiscing - please fill my ears with putty/cement so I don’t ever have to listen to LRB again ….boring, bland (no wonder they did so well in America)
36 THE BIRTHDAY PARTY Arrive in Berlin - great band, and Nick Cave and Mick Harvey are still making great music. Saw them once, must have been just before they left for Europe, and it was great, wild and on the edge of out of control.
37 SEVEN AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS IN TOP 10 - when was this?
38 SAVAGE GARDEN most played song for the year in USA for 2000 - see comment for #35, although I’ll concede Savage Garden were not as bad as LRB
39 THE RECORD BAN ushers golden era of OZ music - ok I’ll believe it
40 STAN ROFE switches from 3KZ to 3UZ - who?
41 BEE GEES return to England, sign to Stigwood. - why does Australia lay any claim to the Bee Gees? They are in the same boat as LRB as far as I’m concerned.
42 ABBA mania in Australia - why is this significant to Australian music?
43 HOADLEY’S BATTLE OF BANDS shape changing event - before my time
44 HELEN REDDY Australia’s first Grammy Award - I assume this was for “I am woman”?
45 DADDY COOL First #1 Album by Australian band - yeah, they were decent.
46 SEEKERS First Aussies to have UK number one - their song “We are Australian” would make a nice national anthem
47 the WHITLAMS meet Whitlam - so what? A mediocre band meets a mediocre (and failed) politician
48 ROGER SAVAGE arrives in Australia - who’s he?
49 DELTA GOODREM breaks Jack’s back - errrk! Her cancer was timely for her …it created more interest than her music was ever likely to.
50 ARIA CHART our first official chart - wow!

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