Country town residents relive AC/DC, Sherbet tours of the 1970s

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

Brent Ladyman remembers seeing AC/DC perform for just $3.20 like it was yesterday.
He not only saw the rock band play live, but went to the local pub with the band members afterwards.
But laughing together and clinking glasses in the dimly lit pub in 1975, he could not have predicted their mammoth international success.
The now multi-platinum rock band toured Australia in 1975 and visited regional towns such as Katanning, nearly 300 kilometres south-east of Perth, where Mr Ladyman worked at the local radio station.
"They were a new band and like all the bands … they needed to be promoted, so the way to do it was to contact the local radio station," he said.
Now a retired farmer, Mr Ladyman said there was an obvious "buzz" around town as locals waited in anticipation to see the band perform.
"It was huge. It was in the Katanning Town Hall. I think the hall held about 600 people," he said.
"We promoted it as part of the radio station, so [the space] was full.
"It was pretty rowdy, and I just remember when we arrived and met the band, the instruction for me was to stand by the stairs at the stage and not to let any girls on the stage, which I thought was a bit odd but there you go."
Mr Ladyman said after the gig, he and the band, including Bon Scott, headed to the pub together.
"Don't remember too much really," he laughed.
"It was late in the night, I think there were some card games that were going at the time … I remember being in the bar and drinking beer with these guys."
The Sydney-formed rock band were not the only artists to visit the Katanning community.
Katanning Travel Centre owner Andrew Pritchard recalled playing cards with Daryl Braithwaite, when he was the lead singer of Sherbet.
"In the '70s and '80s there was just live music everywhere … but no-one ever imagined that they were going to be world-stage and as big as they were."
Mr Pritchard said the local shire tried to get INXS to perform at the new recreation centre in 1997.
"When they did actually approach the management of INXS, they said they'd need $100,000 as a starting point and we sort of thought, 'Gosh what would we have to charge ticket-wise?'"
Mr Pritchard said while they were not able to get INXS to play, he had countless fond memories of Australian artists trekking out to his country town.
Mr Ladyman said it was a pity that bands and festivals "barely made it to Perth" these days, let alone the regions.
"It would be nice to get back to the old days, but I just can't see it happening because it's just a numbers thing," he said.
Regional Sounds arts development officer Sarah Hinton said travel logistics were a barrier to getting acts out of the bigger cities.
"The cost of travel, the accessibility to flights, and then how are you going to cart all your equipment around?" she said.
Despite this, Ms Hinton said the economic and social impacts of a music festival were "just massive".
"At a live music event, you get great entertainment, but then there's also food-truck vendors … the small businesses that provide the fencing, toilets … tents, there's the hire cars that help get the artists around, there's hotels," she said.
"We will always say that the government can subsidise us, but we will provide a huge return on that investment."
Ms Hinton said work was being done to get more concerts to regional WA, and triple j's Hottest 100 countdown was a good way to get people to talk about music.
"It's been so nice listening to all these songs on the radio … and then hearing people call in and talk about their memories," she said.