NO FIXED ADDRESS
The story of Australia’s trailblazing Aboriginal rock ‘n’ reggae band
The ground-breaking Indigenous Australian band that led the way …
By Donald Robertson
Release by Hybrid Publishers 1 May 2023
‘In the beginning of No Fixed, it was a lovable, commercial band. We looked up to the Beatles, we looked up at Skyhooks, we looked up to Cold Chisel and we wanted to be in that commercial scene. Then we started getting booked, gigs and they cancelled us. So openly. “That’s an Aboriginal band. We don’t want them here.” ‘So, we turned political. When you’re talking political, that’s singing the truth. So, what’s so political about it? We sing the truth of our lives. And it’s taken us all the way to a brand-new day, as they say.’ –Les Graham, No Fixed Address
‘They came crashing into middle-class Australia. And it changed everything. Really. I think “tip of the spear” is an appropriate term.’ –Shane Howard, Goanna
Aboriginal band, No Fixed Address – Bart Willoughby, Les Graham, Ricky Harrison and John Miller – appeared on the Australian rock circuit in the early 1980s. Playing a hybrid form of rock ’n’ reggae that powered a set of hard-hitting songs about their experiences as young urban Aboriginals, their impact was immediate. Whites were stunned by the directness of their lyrics, while Indigenous people whispered, ‘Can they say that?’
In 1980, author Donald Robertson wrote in Roadrunner magazine, ‘For a whole lot of reasons, political, historical, and musical, No Fixed Address is probably the most important new group in this country today. When they perform ‘We Have Survived (The White Man’s World)’ it’s as if a whole people are speaking out with pride and defiance … The voice that they speak with has been too often suppressed in the last two hundred years. It’s about time it was heard.’
This definitive biography charts the band’s beginnings at the South Australian Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music, through the making of the award-winning 1981 film Wrong Side of the Road to the challenges involved in being the first black band to crash their way into the lilywhite Oz rock scene.
No Fixed Address’s debut release was the first album by an Aboriginal band to feature original songs in a contemporary idiom. From My Eyes was launched by future Prime Minister Bob Hawke and the band performed the title track on Countdown, becoming the first Aboriginal band to appear on the iconic ABC-TV program. They clocked up thousands upon thousands of kilometres crisscrossing the country on the booming Australian pub rock circuit, playing with Midnight Oil, Men at Work and INXS, touring with Cold Chisel, Redgum and Goanna and supporting overseas visitors The Clash, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Peter Tosh.
Their music was adopted by the political protest movements of the era – the push for an Aboriginal treaty, Rock Against Racism, the Brisbane Commonwealth Games protests etc., and ‘We Have Survived’ became the unofficial anthem of the land rights movement.
There were downs as well as ups. A fatal truck crash on the Nullarbor Plain destroyed all their equipment. Their record label folded. There were disagreements, even fights. Members came and went, and the band was down to a three-piece when it went to England in 1984, becoming the first Aboriginal band to mount an overseas tour.
The distinctive drone of a didgeridoo underlined their messages in song when they ventured overseas again, this time behind the Iron Curtain on a white-knuckle tour of Eastern Europe during the Australian bicentenary. The stress told, however, and on their return, they broke up.
It was hard enough being a rock band on the road in Australia in the 1980s. The casual, everyday racism they experienced as a black band – racism that shocked white people in their company – just added another degree of difficulty. A lot of the time, No Fixed Address really must have felt they were on the wrong side of the road. But not only did they survive; they persevered. And they endured.
Told in their own words, and including the memories of those who worked with them, supported them, played with them and experienced their music, this is their story.
About the author: Donald Robertson is a respected Australian music writer. He started and published the Adelaide-based national music magazine Roadrunner (1978-83), and was the first editor of Countdown Magazine (1983-86). His previous books include On Tour with INXS (Music Sales, 1986), Roll Over Beethoven: Contemporary Music Education for Secondary Schools (Fairfax, 1987), Rock Around the Clock: Careers in the Australian Music Industry (Ausmusic, 1992) and The Big Beat: Rock Music in Australia 1978-83 (Roadrunnertwice, 2019). He has written for The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Advertise
