Radio Birdman: Retaliate First - Softcover

Engleheart, Murray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1761069640 ISBN 13: 9781761069642

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2025

Synopsis

Sydney's legendary Radio Birdman were a stake through the satin and scarfed hearts of the mid seventies' music scene, revolutionising the conservative Australian industry in the process. Regarded as one of the earliest punk bands, before the world had heard of the Sex Pistols, Birdman were feared and loathed by many, yet adored by fiercely loyal fans. But their story has never been told in depth-until now.

Murray Engleheart's Radio Birdman: Retaliate First is drawn from more than 150 interviews with the band members, their closest associates, devotees and observers. From tales of singer Rob Younger filling his mouth with sheep brains from a human skull to fans breaking limbs while dancing wildly at gigs and publicans cutting the power in a desperate bid to halt their force-of-nature-like performances, the Radio Birdman story is one of confrontation, commitment and inspiration.

With 2024 marking their half-century of existence, and a commemorative tour that may be their last, it's the perfect time to look back over fifty years of the band that never took a backward step and made rock and roll thrilling and dangerous once more. Radio Birdman is the ultimate insider's guide to how Australia's most hated act were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and became global icons.

About this title

About the Author

Sydney-based journalist and author Murray Engleheart has written millions of words about music over more than four decades with his work published from Moscow to São Paulo, Japan to New York. From first doing album reviews in a high school magazine in 1974, he has interviewed a virtual who's who of rock and roll from Keith Richards, Lou Reed and Patti Smith to Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker and David Bowie. His first book was the global best seller AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll with Arnaud Durieux (2006) and his second, Blood Sweat and Beers - Oz Rock from The Aztecs to Rose Tattoo (2010).

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1761069640
• ISBN 13: 9781761069642
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448