Pub Rock in the UK and Australia: From the 1970s to the Twenty-First Century

This book critically examines two versions of the genre identified as pub rock as they evolved in the UK and Australia. Both developed 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 Parker’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. This book makes a valuable contribution to cultural sociology, popular music and cultural studies.

Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University and Affiliate Professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Porto. He is a Faculty Fellow of the Yale Centre for Cultural Sociology and co-founding Editor of the journal DIY, Alternative Cultures and Society.

Jon Stratton is an adjunct professor at Adelaide University. Jon has published widely in Cultural Studies, Popular Music Studies and on race and multiculturalism. He is the author of fourteen books and co-editor of four. Jon’s most recent book is Spectacle, Fashion and the Dancing Experience in Britain 1960-1990 (2022). Jon is the senior editor on the series 33 1/3 Oceania.