Tender Prey is the fifth Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds studio album and was recorded and mixed over eight months in various studios in Berlin, London and Melbourne between late 1987 and early 1988. Well reviewed on release, chart success came only in the UK, although it has since been recognised as an important stage in the group’s artistic development. The album is notable for its approach to the recording process, being built up from layered-over fragments and ideas rather than being based on a solid rhythmic foundation. The best known track is 'The Mercy Seat', a mainstay of Cave’s live shows ever since, and covered by Johnny Cash.

From the album, Tender Prey ( Mute Records/EMI Australia)

TNT was the second studio album from AC/DC and defined their style of hard edged, riff-based rock music. The first track on the LP, 'It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n’ Roll') has become an anthem of this genre of music, and the phrase has become part of the Australian language. It is also notable for the use of highland bagpipes in rock music. TNT was an Australian-only release with most of the tracks being released overseas on High Voltage (Atlantic Records) which included a slightly shorter version of 'It’s a Long Way to the Top'.

This is a formative recording of Australian Hawaiian music. The Kailis were Hawaiian-born musicians who toured and recorded in Australia in the 1920s and early 30s, making 23 records for Parlophone between 1927 and 1932. David Kaili was one of the first generation of steel guitar players and had been recording since 1914. The music of the duo, sometimes billed as The Hawaiian Entertainers, inspired the first Australian musicians playing Hawaiian music. Their Australian recordings are rare and have mostly never been re-released.

While Jimmy Little had been recording since the mid 1950s, it wasn’t until the release of Royal Telephone in 1963 that he became better known outside the country music genre. This was the first recording by an Indigenous Australian to achieve mainstream chart success, reaching no.1 on the Sydney charts and no.10 nationally. The song established him as a star in Australian popular music and his career continued for over 40 years.

Festival FK453

This is an extract from episode 7 of the 1940s radio crime drama Nightbeat, by Grace Gibson Productions.

Contributors: Howard Craven (NRT), Ross Napier (SCR), Ron Ingleby (SCR), Lawrence H Cecil (PDR).

Cast: Alan White (Randy Stone)

In 1934, Texas-born Grace Gibson was brought to Australia by Sydney radio station 2GB’s general manager, AE Bennett, to help sell American radio programs within Australia. Within ten years she had formed Grace Gibson Radio Productions, one of the most successful radio production companies in the world.

Gibson’s company specialised in soap operas and serials, ranging from long-running family dramas Dr Paul and Portia Faces Life, to crime serials Night Beat and Dossier on Dumetrius.

Scripts were often imported from the United States and adapted for Australian audiences, produced using local actors and then syndicated to radio stations across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Canada. Many shows were so popular that they were still produced for up to 14 years after the original American scripts ran out, employing local writers to take over.

When Gibson sold the business in 1978, Grace Gibson Productions had produced and sold around 40,000 quarter-hour episodes.

The Necks are a unique and widely admired three-piece band who play distinctive improvised music. The group is Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. Their music is improvised around rhythmic or melodic patterns and one piece can be an entire CD. Aether is a masterpiece of their style.

Aether is The Necks' eighth album and consists of a single 'song' that is played for over an hour. Their music is often called improvisational jazz but could also be called ambient or even new age. As a listener you have the impression that the song is fully created on the spot and unlikely to be repeated. This effectively adds a sense of immediacy and drama and makes the recording seem more like a ritual than a mere performance. Even the title has magical overtones. 'Aether' is a reference in classical literature to the substance that fills the the universe above the earth. 

Aether starts teasingly slowly with large spaces of silence. It's as if the song itself is being born, being breathed into life. As it progresses the voids are filled with washes of cymbal rolls, a pulsating double bass and delicate piano playing. The listener is teased into thinking the momentum and volume will increase but the band keep everything in check, creating a kind of sonic tension. Aether is possibly The Necks' most successful album.

There are not many radio field recordings made by on-the-ground reporters in the ABC’s archival collection. Even if there were, this recording would stand out in the crowd. Bowden’s 1966 documentary is part reflection on the Vietnam war and part field recording. Made for the ABC radio program Fact & Opinion, it is comprehensive at 40 minutes. The content ranges from graphic recordings of mortar attacks to US Marine banter as they carry out their patrol and interviews with the soldiers about what they think they are doing there. It is an amazing historical document and a riveting radio documentary.

This is the 'B' side of a Barry Humprhies EP, A Track Winding Back (Philips 6205 019). It features Edna Everage singing 'True British Spunk', originally written for a BBC TV series in 1969 but excised before broadcast. One Humphries biographer has noted that his best songs are written for Edna.

Barry Humphries’ recording career has paralleled his stage and screen activities. On the 'A' side to his EP A Track Winding Back (Philips 6205 019), he is joined by Australian actor Dick Bentley (who appeared with Humphries in the first two Barry McKenzie films) for 'Along the Road to Gundagai' and 'Is’e an Aussie is’e Lizzie'.

Linguist Luise Hercus has spent over 50 years recording and studying Australian Aboriginal languages. She produced over 1,000 hours of unpublished recordings documenting Aboriginal languages from Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. This invaluable collection includes recordings of more than 40 Aboriginal languages which are endangered or no longer spoken, including Arabana, Birladapa, Diyari, Kuyani, Madhi Madhi, Malyangapa, Ngarigu, Wangkangurru, Wergaia, Wirangu, Yardliyawarra, Yarluyandi and many others. It contains the only known recordings of some of these languages.

This clip features a verse from a wind arresting song belonging to Pirlakaya native well ‘Beelaka’ and sung by Mick McLean in Port Augusta on 31 January 1974. Mick McLean’s birthplace is in the central Simpson Desert and the language he’s singing in is Wangkangurru.

Percy Herford was a well known performer in Australia from the 1890s on. 'The Black Watch' is a black wax cylinder record and the only example from the output of the Australia Record Company held in the NFSA collection.

The Australia Record Company operated in Glebe, Sydney, between 1903 and 1910, recording and releasing a number of Australian popular (mostly music hall) performers. From newspaper advertisements of the time, it appears that 'The Black Watch' was released in 1907.

It is likely that it was the first company making commercial recordings in Australia. The company had at least two addresses: one in 73 Glebe Rd, Glebe, and another at 81 St Johns Rd, Forest Lodge.

It was variously called the Australia Moulded Record Co and the Australia Phono Record Co.

This is an episode of Dossier on Demetrius (1951), from Grace Gibson Productions.

In 1934, Texas-born Grace Gibson was brought to Australia by Sydney radio station 2GB’s general manager, AE Bennett, to help sell American radio programs within Australia. Within ten years she had formed Grace Gibson Radio Productions, one of the most successful radio production companies in the world. Gibson’s company specialised in soap operas and serials, ranging from long-running family dramas Dr Paul and Portia Faces Life, to crime serials Night Beat and Dossier on Dumetrius. Scripts were often imported from the United States and adapted for Australian audiences, produced using local actors and then syndicated to radio stations across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Canada. Many shows were so popular that they were still produced for up to 14 years after the original American scripts ran out, employing local writers to take over. When Gibson sold the business in 1978, Grace Gibson Productions had produced and sold around 40,000 quarter-hour episodes.

Contributors: Lawrence H Cecil (PDR), Lindsay Hardy (SCR).
Cast: Bruce Stewart (Gregory Keen), Frank Waters (Tommy Coutts), Guy Doleman (Dumetrius), Dinah Shearing (Hedy Bergner), Reginald Goldsworthy (Peter Ridgeway), Alan White (Godowski), Ruth Cracknell (Dora).

This is an episode of the radio serial Cattleman (1961), from Grace Gibson Productions.

In 1934, Texas-born Grace Gibson was brought to Australia by Sydney radio station 2GB’s general manager, AE Bennett, to help sell American radio programs within Australia. Within ten years she had formed Grace Gibson Radio Productions, one of the most successful radio production companies in the world. Gibson’s company specialised in soap operas and serials, ranging from long-running family dramas Dr Paul and Portia Faces Life, to crime serials Night Beat and Dossier on Dumetrius. Scripts were often imported from the United States and adapted for Australian audiences, produced using local actors and then syndicated to radio stations across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Canada. Many shows were so popular that they were still produced for up to 14 years after the original American scripts ran out, employing local writers to take over. When Gibson sold the business in 1978, Grace Gibson Productions had produced and sold around 40,000 quarter-hour episodes.

Contributors: RS Porteus (AUT), Grace Gibson Productions (PDC).
Cast: Frank Waters, Nigel Lovell, Lyndall Barbour, Lynne Murphy, Muriel Steinbeck, John
Gray.
Summary: The story of Ben McCready based on the novel by RS Porteus.

This is an extract from the 1980s radio serial Castlereagh Line, by Grace Gibson Productions.

Contributors: Ross Napier (AUT), Grace Gibson Productions (PDC).

Cast: Ric Hutton, Wynne Nelson, Deryk Barnes.

Summary: Set in 1880, The Castlereagh Line commences with the establishment of a Coach Line in northern New South Wales.

In 1934, Texas-born Grace Gibson was brought to Australia by Sydney radio station 2GB’s general manager, AE Bennett, to help sell American radio programs within Australia. Within ten years she had formed Grace Gibson Radio Productions, one of the most successful radio production companies in the world.

Gibson’s company specialised in soap operas and serials, ranging from long-running family dramas Dr Paul and Portia Faces Life, to crime serials Night Beat and Dossier on Dumetrius.

Scripts were often imported from the United States and adapted for Australian audiences, produced using local actors and then syndicated to radio stations across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Canada. Many shows were so popular that they were still produced for up to 14 years after the original American scripts ran out, employing local writers to take over.

When Gibson sold the business in 1978, Grace Gibson Productions had produced and sold around 40,000 quarter-hour episodes.

This is an episode of radio serial Dr Paul (1963), from Grace Gibson Productions.

In 1934, Texas-born Grace Gibson was brought to Australia by Sydney radio station 2GB’s general manager, AE Bennett, to help sell American radio programs within Australia. Within ten years she had formed Grace Gibson Radio Productions, one of the most successful radio production companies in the world. Gibson’s company specialised in soap operas and serials, ranging from long-running family dramas Dr Paul and Portia Faces Life, to crime serials Night Beat and Dossier on Dumetrius. Scripts were often imported from the United States and adapted for Australian audiences, produced using local actors and then syndicated to radio stations across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Canada. Many shows were so popular that they were still produced for up to 14 years after the original American scripts ran out, employing local writers to take over. When Gibson sold the business in 1978, Grace Gibson Productions had produced and sold around 40,000 quarter-hour episodes.

Contributors: Reg Johnston (PDR), Therese Desmond (PDR), Judy Johnstone (SCR), Richard Lane (PDC, SCR), Hilda Scurr (PDR), Eden Rutter (PDR), Kathleen Carroll (SCR), Creswick Jenkinson, (SCR), Ron Roberts (NRT), Lever Brothers (SPO).
Cast: John Bushelle (Dr Paul), Alastair Duncan (Dr Paul), Dinah Shearing (Virginia Martin), Lynne Murphy (Virginia Martin), Laurel Mather (Elizabeth), Michael Plant (Ricky Scanlon), Alan White (Dr John Cabot), Margaret Christensen (Virginia Martin), Amber Mae Cecil (Leota), Brigit Lenihan (Molly, Dr Paul’s housekeeper).

This is a formative recording of Australian Hawaiian music. The Kailis were Hawaiian-born musicians who toured and recorded in Australia in the 1920s and early 30s, making 23 records for Parlophone between 1927 and 1932. David Kaili was one of the first generation of steel guitar players and had been recording since 1914. The music of the duo, sometimes billed as The Hawaiian Entertainers, inspired the first Australian musicians playing Hawaiian music. Their Australian recordings are rare and have mostly never been re-released.

This is one of the Sydney recordings by touring Hawaiian artists David and Queenie Kaili, also known as The Hawaiian Entertainers. It is a formative recording of Australian Hawaiian music and one of 23 records that the Kailis made for Parlophone in Australia, between 1927 and 1932. These Australian recordings are rare and have mostly never been re-released.

David Kaili was one of the first generation of steel guitar players and had been recording since 1914. The music of the duo inspired Australian musicians playing Hawaiian music.