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Pub Rock in the UK and Australia: From the 1970s to the twenty-first century

Edited by Andy Bennett, Edited by Jon Stratton

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This book critically examines two versions of the genre identified as pub rock as they evolved in the UK and Australia. Both evolved in the communal spaces of pubs and both had their heyday in the mid-to-late 1970s. Indeed, the two have so much in common that AC/DC, sometimes thought of as the quintessential Australian pub rock group, became hugely popular in the UK while other Australian groups such as the Sports, outliers of pub rock, also had success there. At the same time UK pub rockers like Graham Parker and the Rumour and Rockpile toured Australia. Three of Parkerâ€™s albums climbed to higher places on the Australian chart than on the UK chart. However, a great deal separated the two genres. In the UK pub rock is often misleadingly viewed as the insipid music which was violently replaced by the uproarious and rebellious punk sounds of Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Slits and the other do-it-yourself groups of 1977 and later. Many members of groups later identified as punk, including Sex Pistols and the Clash, had previously played in groups identified as pub rock. In Australia, pub rock, played by groups including Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, the Angels and Rose Tattoo, formed the basis for the mainstream guitar rock sound that dominated Australian popular music through the 1980s and into the 1990s. The book makes a valuable contribution to popular music and cultural studies.