The Best Music Writing Under the Australian Sun

Oceans apart, low down, far from the world’s music-making epicentres is a country - Australia - that throws up music unlike any place else. This music moves the people who live there in strange and deep-felt ways, gives them something to rage, shout, dream, dance, remember, love and break up to. Best Music Writing Under the Australian Sun lays all that history, all that emotion, down in essays by Australia’s finest authors and musicians.

Here is a treasure trove of scoops … Sex lessons from Bon Scott. Scary encounter with Chrissy Amphlett. On the trail of Keith Richards’ Melbourne wife. The whirlwind genius years of Molly Meldrum. Normie Rowe’s ten months in London. Cold Chisel in LA. The Triffids in Berlin, Camden, Leederville. How Nick Cave got me through my Soviet adolescence. Around Australia in eighty days with Sherbet and the Ted Mulry Gang. The happy-sad genius of Barry Gibb. Doc Neeson smashed unconscious by traffic sign. Grant McLennan in the record racks. François Tétaz and the making of Gotye. My three days stalking The Police. Nights at the Sebel Town House. Where is Lanny K? Was Michael Hutchence happy?

'Powerful writing that shouldn’t fail to resonate with lovers of our country, its people and its music ... A mighty tome.'

David Johnston, Rhythms

'The most interesting and attractive book on Australian rock ever.'

Robert Forster, critic and Go-Between

'The writing is superb - lyrical, deep, sad, funny, engrossing, heartfelt.'

Ian McFarlane, Addicted to Noise

'From crucial outsiders to AC/DC, Ryan has done a remarkable job in covering the classic figures via a weighty sprawl of skewed personal perspectives.'

Michael Dwyer, Sydney Morning Herald