Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Australian music publications of the 60s

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By far the most influential and popular music-related publication of the sixties was the weekly magazine Go-Set, which was published from 1966 to 1974. Founded in Melbourne in 1966 by a group of former Monash University students including Philip Frazer, Tony Schauble and Doug Panther, Go-Set chronicled all of the major events, trends, fads and performers in Australian popular music, as well as featuring regular columns by renowned Melbourne radio DJ Stan Rofe and Aussie fashion designer Prue Acton.

Go-Set also published the first national Australian pop charts in October 1966 (all charts prior to this were state-based) and it gave extensive coverage to overseas musical developments—it was one of the first international music papers to report on the emergence of Jimi Hendrix and two staff members—writer Lily Brett and photographer Colin Beard – travelled to the USA and the UK in mid-1967, reporting on the famous Monterey International Pop Festival and the burgeoning music scene in London, as well as chronicling the exploits of Australian musicians overseas including Normie Rowe and Lynne Randell. Another aspect of Go-Set's activities was its exclusive reporting and promotion of Australia's prestigious annual rock band competition, Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds, which ran from 1966 to 1972. Go-Set conducted a pop poll of performers which led to the King of Pop Awards starting with Normie Rowe in 1967.

Although it was explicitly established as a 'teens and twenties' magazine, in its later years, inspired by newer publications like Rolling Stone magazine, Go-Set took on a more mature presentation, with numerous rock performers including Jim Keays and Wendy Saddington writing for the magazine. In 1970 former columnist Ian Meldrum scored a world exclusive for Go-Set when he interviewed John Lennon in London, during which Lennon made his first public announcement that The Beatles were breaking up.

References

Australian music publications of the 60s Wikipedia