While some of us are on the topic of Go Betweens-adjacent books and writing, it’s about time I mentioned here that the book, Pig City, has been reissued for its 20th anniversary. Even Tracey Thorn’s book references it!
Pig City is obviously a book about music: the subtitle is “From the Saints to Savage Garden”, which nods (with intended irony) to Clinton Heylin’s book on New York punk, From the Velvets to the Voidoids, an obvious influence. But really, it’s a book about Brisbane, during and immediately after the Bjelke-Petersen years; about the tension between art and politics, and how each can exert a push and pull on the other. From cult heroes the Saints and the Go – Betweens to national icons Powderfinger and international stars Savage Garden, Brisbane has produced more than its share of great bands.
The Go-Betweens are, naturally, a massive part of that story both Robert Forster and Lindy Morrison were kind enough to offer their endorsements for the book’s reissue (as well as an alumni, the great Peter Milton Walsh, from the Apartments). Grant McLennan, a few weeks before his death, had said the book had been passed around the tour van on the band’s final run through Europe.
All these things make me proud and while it’s had its detractors too, I’m astonished to still be talking about it all these years later. At the very least it started a conversation, and maybe the best part is that conversation remains ongoing, here and elsewhere.
The Fat Angel Sings 