TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Jet Jackson, a 60s pop musician started the project back in 1997 when he became sick and tired of reading books that were never correct..
Unfortunately 12 months later he suffered serious setbacks after undergoing cataract operations that he'd had three years earlier and after four major eye operations was declared a vision impaired person. This placed him in a situation where he was finding it very hard to cope. His mind which had been so active for years was now starving for the information that his eyes were no longer supplying to the brain. Jet said he went into days upon days of deep depression.
His carer told me that on a number of occasions he almost became suicidal.
This could have been the end of a valuable life if it hadn't been for the love and time put in by his assigned carer Monika who was able to convince him what he was going through was normal and that he needed to get involved with something that interested him enough to give him a reason to live. A telephone conversation with another friend whom he had worked with back in the 60's told Graham that he too felt the same way about books written on Australian Rock 'n' Roll, plus inspiration from Australia's first Rock 'n' Roll artist Alan Dale, who was the man Johnny O'Keefe turned to for advice when he was still young and starting off in the industry, got Graham back into this project on what would have been an exhausting task just for someone with all their faculties.
Three years later and after three trips down to the Southern states, and thousands of dollars worth of phone calls, Jet accomplished the impossible by personally speaking to almost every singer and band that were part of the beginning of music as we know it in Australia today together with other enthusiasts who have written articles on artists from this era line Greg Lynch. 50's - 60's dance and record promoter from Melbourne.
They also Included:- The Leader of Johnny O'Keefe's band the Dee Jays (Catfish Purser), the drummer and lead guitarist and Pianist from the Joy Boys (John Bogie, Dave Bridge and Bruce Gurr), the lead singer from the Crescents (Colin Loughnan - who eventually became the lead singer of Australia's No.1 Vocal group the Delltones) and also Pee Wee the most well known member of the Delltones.
During his interviews with singers who had originated from Melbourne in these early years, Jet discovered there was an invisible wall that had been erected between Sydney and Melbourne. Top Sydney DJs were not interested in playing records that came out of Melbourne. On the other hand Melbourne's Popular DJ Stan (the man) Rofe took up the challenge from Sydney and started this, until-now-not-talked-about-war that existed between the two states. Jet talked to Stan and he has explained exactly how this came about.
"It seems there is so much we didn't know" said Jet. Melbourne actually led Sydney in most of the firsts ever done, and Jet has also uncovered many more of the never-before discussed achievements in Melbourne, before they finally went on to become the Pop Capitol of Australia at the beginning of the next musical era.
Jet Jackson spent hundreds of hours talking about these times to the singers and groups themselves who played around Melbourne back then.
There are of course many artists Jet couldn't interview who have now passed on, but to get the true story he has talked to; Johnny O'Keefe's first wife Marianne Renate, who tells a different side of O'Keefe that has been kept out of the other books on Australian Rock 'n' Roll, Laurel Lea's husband Kevin Todd, and the writer of the new life story of Henri Bource etc etc.
Jet has also spoken to and obtained valuable information for the book from Bob King Crawford, the owner of Australia's oldest Rock 'n' Roll Record Company "Planet Records", Allan Heffernan who was part of the Lee Gordon empire.
After nearly three years of hard work Jet had hundreds upon hundreds of pages on how it really was, straight from the people who were there, with each one telling their own story of their setbacks, how they achieved what they got, and what they are doing today. There were no rules back then, no-one to tell you how to make a record, no-one to tell you of their experience, it was music in the raw.
This book is a must to understand what singers had to go through in those early days, and where the roots of all the famous bands of the 70's & 80's came from. The information contained in these publications would be priceless to someone who is interested in Australian History, or a record collector. It also explains why Australian artists scared the pants off visiting American singers, who were produced in studios rather than getting an apprenticeship in front of live audiences.
This is not a small book over 150 pages have been written on full size A4 sheets in reference style, and includes pictures given to Jet by artists who worked back then. Jet also interviewed many artist that have never been written about before in other publications.
Credits for the book include:- its inclusion in many libraries across Australia, being nicknamed the "Australian Rock 'n' Roll Bible" at Wintersun in June 2000, being the chosen to represent music at the Qld Festival of Literature in March 2001, and the only book of its type placed in the Powerhouse Museum of Australian Music in Sydney this year.
Wintersun 2001 dedicated a night to the Pioneers of Rock 'n' Roll, in June of that year, and it is now used as a reference book on all research on Australian music in England, America, Holland and Germany.
ISBN: 0-646-41610-3
A4 Paperback - 159 pages with photographs
