Probably not of much interest to those of you in the US, as this is an Australian story, but it’s a great little piece that puts Australian Rock historically in context, mainly focussing on the rise of AC/DC. It also tells the story of an “old school” music “mogul”, Ted Albert. Narrated by Men At Work’s Colin Hay…Worth a look if you have the time…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL7koay2AoI7YJ8Hhzqd5yThDH-p2NdraI&v=qlx5W0fCJWY
Looks interesting. Those bands were known to me, so it’s relevant. Especially AC/DC, I’m a pretty big AC/DC fan - all the obscure tracks going way back … not just the ‘hits’. And I like history, music history, band history, the world over.
I think I had read about Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, though that one wasn’t on my radar. But of course Billy Thorpe with Children of the Sun in the late 70’s was epic. MAW was pretty cool too, unusual, but fresh to my ears back then. And I learned something: What in the heck Vegamite was, and where it came from! 
Pretty cool way of tying all that together. I’m not ashamed to say I remember the EasyBeats. AC/DC constantly shows the importance of simplicity.
AC/DC, for sure. but what about the Hoodoo Gurus? there’s always been great power pop coming from down under…
I was in junior high when Children of the Sun came out and remember listening on headphones and going “whooaa…” 
In terms of time, The Gurus came slightly after the period covered in the documentary. I haven’t seen an actual Gurus show, but I went to see a side project under the name “The Persian Rugs”, which was basically all the band members playing under a different name, doing different material. It remains to this day to one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. Absolutely mind-blowing…
The fact is, there are so many great Aus bands that they could never cover them all in one documentary. This one focussed on Ted Albert as a music entrepreneur, Alberts Recording, and just a tiny section of the bands in that stable that he and his team developed.
The funny thing is, that record never really made much of a dent on the local scene in Australia. I’m sure it charted reasonably well at the time, and listening to it now, it is an amazing piece of work. It may be hard to imagine, but it certainly isn’t remembered with the kind of reverence that I’ve detected from people in the US…
Possibly because it was a bit out of step with Aussie tastes at the time.
Billy was an amazing singer. In Australia, he (along with his mate Lobby Lloyd) is remembered mainly for being one of the progenitors of the hard-edged “pub rock” that eventually spawned the likes of ACDC et al. His “breakthrough moment” in that personna here was his performance at the 1972 Sunbury rock festival.
Interesting side note: Both Billy Thorpe & Lobby Loyde grew up here in Brisbane. Billy went to school about 10 minutes from where I live.
I watched the doc the first time round on BBC 4. They frequently put out music-based docs like this, it is the channel I watch the most.
I dig this kind of stuff. Thanks for the link!
finally watched – that was good. Andrew, the band I was in during college opened for the Hoodoo Gurus on their first US tour in 1985, in Chapel Hill, NC for the Stoneage Romeos album. So cool to see them in a little club, but I have to admit they were better opening for REM the next year in a 4,000-seat Atlanta theater… such a tight band live, and Dave Faulkner wrote some super ear-wormy tunes.
Do you know a Melbourne band, the Skybombers? They opened in 2011 for Rooney, a California powerpop band – not sure if they are still around. My then 14-year-old son was really into Rooney, so I took him and we were both blown away by the Skybombers. Even better, after their set, the lead singer came out to watch Rooney and hang with the crowd. Son talked to him for a couple of minutes, and I still remember the singer for being a class act to a young fan. Pretty sure this was the band’s first US experience, definitely the first in the South. They were freaked out about how polite everyone was to them!
Very interesting, specially because I’m not a huge fan of them.
Thanks a lot for that sharing!
You could also spend another hour watching this one too (BBC four again):
Thanks for that - I’ll definitely have a look.
I’m a big fan of Bon Scott era AC/DC - post Bon, not so much. They just became a different band, more stadium rock than grimy pub rock. Plus Brian’s vocals never really did it for me the way Bon’s boyish, sly, atavistic, sexually charged yelps did 
Yeh seen this its a great documentary