The Fat Aussie Barstard

The last word

Keith Rupert Murdoch - say no more.

Robert Stigwood: Greatest pop empresario of all time

Robert Stigwood was born in 1934 in Adelaide, South Australia and was educated at Sacred Heart College. He began his career as a copywriter for a local advertising agency but in 1955 aged 21, he moved to England. At first he took odd jobs including working as an assistant in institution for "teenage boys" in East Anglia. There he became friends with Stephen Komlosy and they decided to start a small theatrical agency. One of their first clients was a handsome young actor called John Leyton. Stigwood spotted his potential as a pop singer but after Leyton had been turned down by a number of recording companies, Stigwood took him to meet Joe Meek. Meek was an independent record producer who had his own small recording and company, RGM Sound Ltd. He used a small roster of artists and wrote, produced and recorded their works before offering the completed tape to established record companies to manufacture and distribute. Leyton’s first couple of singles, a cover of ‘Tell Laura I love her’; and ‘Girl on the Floor Above’ were released in 1960 but met with no interest. As John Leyton’s agent, Stigwood managed to get him cast in the role of a pop star, Johnny St. Cyr ("sincere") in a new TV soap called, Harper's West One. The role called for Leyton’s character to perform a song on the show. The single, ‘Johnny Remember me’ became an instant Number One hit in the UK. Encouraged by initial success Stigwood became more involved in record production. Other artists like Mike Sarne, and Mike Berry soon joined the Stigwood stables. The Stigwood/Meek success set a new pattern for the industry and within a couple of years over half the hits in the UK were independent productions. Despite this success Robert Stigwood became increasingly dissatisfied with Joe Meek's erratic behavior. Eventually they parted company and Stigwood took on the role of record producer and made a deal with Sir Joseph Lockwood, (managing director of EMI) in 1961. Now agent, manager and independent producer, he continued to thrive as a music publisher and pop concert promoter. Keen to encourage greater success for his UK acts, the entrepreneur reversed the normal process fir UK acts by regularly visiting America to acquire potential songs to rush release UK covers before the originals hit the American charts. His business rapidly expanded and Stigwood bathed in excess with success. His management style was abrupt and was not always popular. By the mid 60s his business was in serious financial trouble although Stigwood managed to avoid complete disaster he went bankrupt but kept his creditors at bay as he re-established himself. Within two years, he was back on top. The music business is aggressive and highly competitive and a common practice for agents then, was to try and ‘pouch’ acts from other agencies. This often met with violent repercussions and it is alleged, Don Arden reacted menacingly to Stigwood when he made advances to The Small Faces to switch to his agency. Stigwood took on a new business partner, David Shaw, to strengthen his financial position. The Robert Stigwood Agency (RSA) remained intact as he worked to rebuild his career as a manager and independent producer. In 1966, Robert Stigwood became, The Who's booking agent and eventually lured the band to join his Reaction Records and record, "Substitute". Cream, consisting of Eric Clapton (John Mayall's Bluesbreakers), bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker (The Graham Bond Organisation) were also an aspiring act in the UK but the trio had never appeared in the US. Stigwood arranged for them to debut at a 9 day gig in New York for the Who in 1967. To finance this venture he released capital by moving his recording activities to Polydor Records in a lucrative deal. The band went on to record at Atlantic Records with producer-engineer Tom Dowd. In the same year the Australian entrepreneur signed a career-making deal with his friend and colleague Brian Epstein to merge their two companies. This was not a popular decision as Stigwood had a reputation of being a ruthless and a cavalier style that upset many people. The move effectively placed him at the pinnacle of the British pop industry however whilst Brian Epstein remained manager of The Beatles. Stigwood was now in control of most of NEMS other acts but Epstein would soon found himself at odds with his new partner. Why Epstein decided to merge with Stigwood remains uncertain. There had been numerous other offers made for NEMS over the previous few years which Epstein turned down. They were friends but Stigwood’s reputation as a tough operator, meant Epstein’s decision to merge was not too popular. Stigwood was effectively placed at the pinnacle of the British pop industry, but Epstein stayed as the manager of The Beatles, with the responsibility for the other NEMS acts passing to Stigwood. Epstein would soon regret the partnership. The next big break came only weeks after he started with NEMS with The Bee Gees. They arrived from Australia with hopes of making it in the UK, and Stigwood signed them to a five-year deal while still at NEWS. Later when he left the company he took their contract with him and signed them to Polydor. Their first single flopped despite heavy hype, but undeterred, and with NEMS' resources behind him, he embarked on a concerted campaign (no to break The Bee Gees in the UK. Their second single, New York Mining Disaster 1941, was a major UK hit and was followed by Massachusetts, which went Top 5 in both England and the USA. After Brian Epstein died Robert Stigwood left NEMS to form his own company, The Robert Stigwood Organisation. By the end of the sixties, Stigwood was enjoying huge success with his music ventures. Cream and The Bee Gees were the biggest attractions in the world and Stigwood took production credits on their early works. He moved into theatre production in 1968 after he saw the Broadway production of Hair. He decided to stage it in London and it was a huge success and followed this with a series of other successful productions: Oh Calcutta!, The Dirtiest Show in Town, Pippin, Sweeney Todd, Sing a Rude Song, John, Paul, Ringo and Bert, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar. By the beginning of the 70s Stigwood's companies had expanded into almost every field of entertainment, including both film and TV production. Stigwood had purchased a controlling interest in Associated London Scripts, an independent writers' agency co-founded in the 1950s by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, which subsequently developed the hit series All in the Family and Sanford and Son in the USA, which were adapted from the popular British TV shows Til Death Us Do Part and Steptoe and Son. In 1973 Stigwood moved into film and produced Jesus Christ Superstar as a motion picture in association with its director, Norman Jewison. He followed this with the acclaimed film version of The Who's Tommy, directed by Ken Russell. RSO Films then produced Saturday Night Fever with a sound track by the Bee Gees. This became the largest-selling soundtrack album ever released, and one of the biggest-selling albums in recording history. Stigwood followed this with another huge success, Grease, which became one of the most successful film musicals ever released. His company produced the cult 'gangster' movie for kids, Bugsy Malone, as well as Peter Weir's Gallipoli and Evita, starring Madonna. Not all the musical movies were a great success and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees, bombed at the box office. He has continued with mixed fortunes in the film industry. By the mid 80s, RSO had shuttered and its catalogue was sold off. RSO teamed up with Bob Banner Associates in 1975 to produce a stunt game show, Almost Anything Goes (ABC) which lasted four seasons. He became more active in the second half of the 1990s, producing the long-awaited film version of another Lloyd Webber/Rice concept album-turned-stage musical, Evita (1996), and being involved with the stage version of Saturday Night Fever (1999).


Worth a listen
John Leyton
Johnny Remember me (1961 )

The Who
Substitute (1966)
I’m a boy (1966)
Happy Jack (1966)
Pictures of Lily (1966)
I can see for miles (1967)
Magic Bus (1968)
Pinball Wizzard (1969)

The Cream
Strange Brew (1967)
Spoonful (1967)
Sunshine of your love (1968)
White Room (1968)
Crossroads (1969)
Badge (1969)

The Bee Gees
New York Mining Disaster 1941 (1967)
Jive talkin’ (1975)
Styin’ Alive (1977)
Night Fever (1978)

The King's Speech

Welcome to talking Australia

G'd Day

As a new Australian I thought it would be fun to research the origins of Australian English. Starting with the convicts my study took me through the various developments of the Big Brown Land and the myriad of influence which made up the lexicon of Australia. The works were originally part of a series of radio broadcasts which I compiled into a blog and enhanced with YouTube clips. I do hope you enjoy it.

The Media Moguls and Soap Operas

The Australian media magnets, that’s the Paker, Murdoch, and Fairfax families (now Fairfax Media Limited) dominate global communication and have done so for several decades. Their combined interests in radio, film, television, satalite television, telecommunications and newspapers not to mention the internet has everyone from Palestine to Paris; from Singapore to Seattle aware of what’s happening in Ramsey Street (Neighbours) or and Wentworth Detention Centre (Prisoner) long after home based Aussie fans may have filed it away as been there and done that. Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch were both very much Ockers and made no attempt to disguise their Aussie true blue background regardless of how rich and powerful they’ve became. Not confinded to the big brown land the Australian media magnets have taken the Australian life style and flaunted everywhere and on every level of communication suffice everyone now talks Australian or at least is familiar with Aussie customs and venacular which is now regarded as modern living and modern talking. Buying and selling as they did much of the TV culture of Australia gradually started to appear overseas. From the 80s onwards no longer was the Chips O’ Rafferty version of Australiana taken as a stereotype when the impact of Austalian Soap Operas shaped global culture. Soap Operas started on US radio in the thirties and were short ongoing episodic dramas, broadcast during daytime slots and principally directed at female audiences. The original kitchen sink broadcasts were sponspored by soap companies like Colegate Palmolive and became know affectionately as soaps. The same principle was applied to television and soaps are now the most-watched genre of television program with a conservative estimated two billion viewers worldwide. No surprise then when the Australian mogels had space to fill on their televion stations they chose Australian soaps. The Australian television industry of the 60s and 70s became very adept at making programs (for home consumption) on the cheap. Whilst many remain memorable by comparison to modern standards they were pretty awful but that did not stop the Australian entertainment industry from becoming most adept at working to a very high standard within a limited budget. All this proved invaluable as Australian technicians, actors and writers became an integral part of the US Entertainment business and of course with the Australian mogels taking greater control of world media then the Australian Front was complete. Australian soap operas focus on everyday characters and situations, set in working class environments. Most plots explore real life storylines often puling no punches but with romance never far away and always tinted with a comic element. Experts believe the strength of Aussie soaps lie in the portrayal of family relations and suburban reality with drama that remains recognisable and relevant. This contrasts starkly with some UK soaps which are serious and humourless and the US soaps which glorify glamor. The first Australian TV series to make an international impact was The Sullivans in the mid 80s. Not only was it a big hit in the UK it became hugh in Gibraltar. Prisoner came later then Sons and Daughters followed. Prisoner continues to have a massive worldwide audience with cult following in Sweden. It became the first Australian soap to be screened on late night TV in the UK and the US and has subsequently achieved enduring success with fans snapping up books, plays and even a musical. All of which is dwarfed by the enourmous success of Neighbours which is broadcast in Belgium, France (titled Les Voisins), Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Kenya, Barbados, Catalonia, Galacia, Iceland, Cyprus, Canada, US, and Israel. Almost as successful is Home and Away (for a teenage demographic) which is distrubuted worldwide. Now it is very common to find Australian colloquialisms like, "no worries" in common use in American and UK lexicons. According to linguistic experts Australians now provide more new words to the American lexicon than any other country in the world. I suppose we are justing getting our own back for earlier intrusions into Australian English. Of course something we may not recognise is when it comes back at us (rather like a boomerang). If we were in Swahili just now and I said ‘Hakuna matata’ which literally means "There are no worries". In 1994 the American animated movie The Lion King brought the phrase international recognition, featuring it prominently in the plot and devoting a song to in the movie. So in conlcusion I would have to agree with Oscar Wilde when he said US and the UK were “Two nations divided by a common language,” but I am proud to say they are now connected because we all talk Australian.

Strine

Strine (Australian) was started as a spoof by Alistair Morrison but soon grew to what we now know and love as talking Australian. Under the pen name Afferback Lauder (Alphabetical Order), and illustrated by Morrison’s alterego, (Al Terego), Professor of Strine at the University of Sinny authored several books in the 60s including Lets Stalk Strine (1965), Nose Tone Unturned (1966), Fraffly Well Spoken (1968), and Fraffly Suite (1969). Morrison. The fundemental aspect of the joke was it was Australian words written phonetically and pronounced as they sounded. For example:

"Spewffle climber treely" - It's a beautiful climate, really
"Emma chisit" - How much is it ?
"Egg nishner" - air-conditioner
"yerron yerrone" – you are on your own
"snow ewe smite" – its no use mate

‘Strine’ became a form of creole language (or hybrid language) with it own lexicon, syntax of course littered with idioms, similes, invented words and slang. Strine matches perfectly with the Australian humour and has kept international audiences laughing from Barry McKenzie to Kath and Kim. One of the greatest exponents of Strine was the former PM Paul Keating. His vivid imagination, dry wit and colourful command of the language made him a deadly adversary as well as a joy to hear. His genius was exposing inconsistencies in others and seldom did he miss the opportunity to score points using Strine. This gained him the title the Lizard of Oz. Who could forget classics like. "I was nearly chloroformed by the performance of the Honourable Member,” and "The Opposition crowd could not raffle a chook in a pub." He described the efforts of others as……like being flogged with a warm lettuce leaf….” And the classic put down. "I suppose that the Honourable Gentleman's hair, like his intellect, will recede into the darkness." Almost Churchillesque in his oratory command but done distinctly with tongue in cheek and as dry as a Pomme’s towel (according to Cunard the English immigrants only had a bath once per month) Australian humour is anti-authoritarian, self-mocking, ironic and full of extremes. We like to look for the lighter side but have the ability to find humour even in the darkest of circumstance. The same trait is found in Celtic humour and this it has been suggested was a coping mechanism for a brutal past. In 1903 Joseph Furphy wrote Such is Life describing his works as 'a tale told by a vulgarian, full of slang and blanky (swearwords), signifying nothing' The novel consisted of a series of comic and tragic variations based on Furphy's own life as a failed selector, a bullock driver ruined by drought and a foundry worker. The same comic larrikin tradition is evidenced today throughout the works of Kathy Lette, Clive James, Tim Winton and poems of Les Murray. Australian humour is infectious and wether its films like like Crocodile Dundee (1986), Strictly Ballroom (1993), Muriel’s Wedding (1994) and The Castle (1997) or television sitcoms like Mother and Son , Kath and Kim, the Paul Hogan Show, Roy and HG, and Dame Edna the world is entertained with its mirth and merriment laughing wityh Australians and not at them. It was of course television coverage of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 that introduced Australians and Australian humour to a global audience. Considered to be one if not the best Olympics ever many of the US commentators were stoked at the thought of talking Australian. The popularity of Australian personalities in the film and entertainment industry over many years has led to Barry Humphries (in all his persona), Paul Hogan and probably the best known Australian on the planet, Steve Irwin from becoming household names from Jindabine to Jerusalem; and Kirribilli to Kilmarnock.