In 1986 the mighty juggernaut of Midnight Oil toured the Territory with lights blazing, PA stacks booming and an entourage of journalists and film crew. In 1984, also out of South Australia – from Koonibba Mission, west of Ceduna – came Coloured Stone, with their anthem ‘Black Boy’, a giddy-up reggae song: “Black boy, black boy, the colour of your skin is your pride and joy.” They followed up soon afterwards with the mutant ska heavy metal song ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’. Billy Inda from No Fixed Address played didgeridoo on the track, the first pop song to feature that instrument. ![]() 2 on the Australian charts and spent 26 weeks in the top 50 through 1982–83. ![]() ‘Solid Rock’, a land rights anthem written by Shane Howard and recorded by his band Goanna, reached No. ![]() The following year, Papunya’s Warumpi Band debuted with the first rock song sung in an Aboriginal language, an upbeat, infectious shuffle entitled ‘Jailanguru Pakarnu’, which means ‘out of jail’ in Luritja. Some years before, in 1982, No Fixed Address, a band formed in Adelaide at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music, had released the groundbreaking reggae protest song ‘We Have Survived’. It seemed a thousand flowers were blooming in the desert, and though they seemed to spring out of nothing their roots touched deeper waters. I loved the band names, loved their dusty country rock sound and the idiosyncratic phrasing of the singing in local languages – Luritja, Warlpiri, Arrernte. The folks at CAAMA always loaded us with cassettes when we visited: compilation records – From the Bush, Look at Us! Walpiri Mix – and individual albums by Areyonga Desert Tigers, North Tanami Band, Lajamanu Teenage Band and the like. Bands gain confidence and get better quickly. Putting it down on tape, hearing it back, working out what you’re doing and then hearing it played on the radio is another, and it creates a strong feedback loop. Playing music in your local community is one thing. By 1988 it had a television arm, Imparja, and, with a bigger studio now, was recording bands and releasing their music on cassettes.Ī record label operating a long way from the mainstream can have a powerful effect. No room for a drum kit so our drummer tapped a tape box.ĬAAMA began with the radio station in 1980, broadcasting into communities all over the Territory, with the aim of fostering and showcasing Aboriginal music and culture. One of our early B sides was recorded in their small studio late at night after a gig. Most times we lobbed in Alice Springs we would drop in to CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) radio station to do an interview and play. We played Darwin and Alice Springs pretty regularly with occasional extra shows in Tennant Creek, Katherine, Jabiru and further afield in Groote Eylandt, Yirrkala, Maningrida and Barunga. The tour I was on was one of several trips the band and I made in the ’80s and ’90s to the Territory. Archie Roach’s family knew it no doubt long before he picked up a guitar. A song that people still play and pass on. You won’t hear it on a golden oldies radio station, but it’s been a hit nevertheless for more than 40 years. “Yowie, yowie.” The soft howl of those wordless words said it all, returning after each verse of the inexorable story.īob Randall wrote the song in 1964, the year after Jimmy Little released ‘The Royal Telephone’, and recorded it in 1971, 20 years before Archie Roach’s song on the same subject, ‘Took the Children Away’. I felt the hairs stand up on my arms from the very first keening notes – “Yowie, yowie, my brown skinned baby, they take ’im away.” Almost everyone there knew the words and sang along. The guitars and songs were being passed around along with kangaroo tails singed in the coals. I first heard Bob Randall’s ‘Brown Skin Baby’ by a camp fire in the late ’80s when I was touring with my band in the Northern Territory. ![]() Thirty years of Australia's hidden hit parade
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