Make a Change: The experience, identity and culture of pub rock music in Adelaide, South Australia (1962–1994)

Abstract

This thesis, submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, is the first major scholarly study examining the specific genre of rock music known as pub rock that evolved in the local music scene in Adelaide during the 1970s and 1980s. This investigation has drawn upon the limited existing literature and contributes to the knowledge using a combination of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methodology to investigate the experiences of several nationally recognised artists. In doing so it has generated new primary source materials in the form of detailed interviews with the idiom’s leading practitioners. The timeline of the work extends from 1962 through to 1994 in order to contextualise the transformations in music leading to the pub rock genre and to trace its eventual global influence. The work draws upon a range of music media supported by an online catalogue of musical examples from seminal works, and published interviews. The participants include Glenn Kristoffer, from The Black Diamonds/Tymepiece; John Freeman, from Fraternity; John Bywaters, from The Twilights; Mark Meyer, from The Richard Clapton Band/Moving Pictures; Mike Rudd, from Spectrum; Rod Boucher, from Buffalo Drive; and Stuart Day, from F A B. The thesis argues that the cultural significance of Australian pub rock music can be measured by its global dissemination and explores the extent to which pub rock as an iconic South Australian style influenced the evolution of rock music worldwide.