STRANDED (1996)

“It was a dodgy job, but somebody had to do it. That is, open up a can of worms by trying to write a history of Australian independent music” - John Encarnacao, DRUM

Stranded was published by Pan Macmillan in Australia in 1996, hot on the heels of the enormous success of Highway to Hell. There had been a spate of revisionist post-punk rock histories just published overseas – books like Please Kill Me, From the Velvets to the Voidoids and England’s Dreaming, fine books all – and while it wouldn’t be accurate to say that they were an inspiration to me (because as far back as Inner City Sound I was trying to place Australian music on an even keel with music overseas), there’s no doubt they helped sell the pitch to Pan Macmillan. The real inspiration for Stranded was Otto Friedrich’s history of Hollywood in the 40s, City of Nets, and the idea that Inner City Sound was an unfinished story that needed to be completed in this sustained narrative form. Stranded started out stranded in the suburbs of Brisbane in the late 70s, and, finding a form of salvation (the Saints!) in punk, it traces the development of subsequent post-punk independent music in Australia up to the commercial consummation of grunge in the early 90s. The book turned out to be pretty successful, and it softened the market for such fine books to follow as Craig Mathieson's The Sell-In (2000) and Andrew Stafford's Pig City (2004). And even though it should be said that despite a succession of producers, a documentary version of the book never got past the pitch stage (read the full backstory on this here), the fact that by 2015, a film called Stranded about the early days of Brisbane punk in the late 70s, could go into production, is at the very least some vindication for my thesis. But when the first print run of the book sold out, it was not reprinted, and it’s still my hope that before long I will get it back into print as Stranded (Expanded), like a sort of extended 12” remix of the original. Put it this way: In 2005 when I read Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start Again when it came out, and he wrote in its introduction, “For reasons of sanity and space, I have regretfully decided not to grapple with European post-punk or Australia’s fascinating deep underground scene,” I thought, Shit, he obviously doesn’t know about Stranded. Because if he did, he’d know that I’d already done the job, or at least got a start on it.

“Clinton Walker comes out swingin’ ... Desert island discs from a desert island rock scene. When no-one else is doin’ what he thinks is right he marches on stage, grabs some sort of fuckin’ guitar and does it himself”
- Dave Graney

“Traces Australian music’s transition from a provincial cargo cult to world power. The appeal of the book lies in seeing Walker juggle narrative and economic history, biography and autobiography, interview and prose ... mercifully free of the backstage hijinks, purple prose and PR puffery that plague rock journalism”
- Chris McAuliffe, SUNDAY AGE

“Part memoir, part scrapbook, part history, part gossip, all linked by Walker’s passionate, sardonic commentary. He makes a strong case for the significance of embattled, innovative, underrated Australian bands whose impact is only now being understood and appreciated” - Philippa Hawker, MARIE CLAIRE

“Stranded is more of ‘a’ history than ‘the’ history. But who’s complaining when the vision of this rock journo makes such a rollicking read?” - Andrew Block, AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

“It is with personal detail that Walker captures the tragedy of wasted talent, but more often the incredible rush that accompanies original artistic work” - Catriona Jackson, CANBERRA TIMES

“I could not put Stranded down: it helps fit the pieces of the historical puzzle together and answers many of those ‘Whatever happened to?’ questions” - Chris Thomas, SUNDAY TIMES

“For someone who was there for some of this period, this is a fascinating read. It may not have been your 80s, or even mine, but it’s a version worth reading” - Bernard Zuel, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

“A great piece of nostalgia for those who were there and a handbook on how not to do it for younger bands”
- Peter Lalor, DAILY TELEGRAPH

“A self-indulgent wankfest” - Paul Stewart, HERALD-SUN