It's amazing what turns up on Google

I was listening to the ABC this morning and the chat was about googling yourself, so I did. It’s amazing what turns up - like this article I found written I don’t know when.

Sound: Popular Music in Australian Fiction

By Peter Doyle, Macquarie University,

The following is an extract from the article:

“The commercial publication of a work of fiction involves many differentiated labours. The authors research, contemplate, write, rewrite, correct, and so on; publishing houses edit, typeset and produce the physical book, identify its audience, celebrate its merits and hopefully promote it with vigour.

“Eric Scott‘s The Sound Mixers of 1977 might be the first Australian rock novel as such. The cover blurb reads, ‘The Sound Mixers is a dramatic expose of the rock industry: fiction that reads like fact…‘.

Although actual music is sketchily represented, the novel has numerous authentic touches. At one point a band named ‘The Romanticas‘, is booked to play a club but deemed ‘too ethnic‘. Their name is changed by the booker to Fantails. The five piece band will earn $250 for the gig — $50 a head, which seems a fair reflection of what such a band might have earned in Melbourne 1977.

(Depressingly similar figures would likely apply now). There is a young heavy rock band in the book plausibly named ‘Crackrock‘. The action moves, ‘at a breathtaking pace to a devastating climax‘ (in the words of the cover blurb), which happens during the performance of a world famous, Queen-like rock band named ‘Andromeda‘ at the Myer Music Bowl — typical of the rock novel/movie, the narrative climax coincides with a musical performance.”

Fascinating stuff! The pic is the original cover. It is till available as an e-book on all bookseller website.

Then I found Associate Professor Peter Doyle, Associate Professor in Media at Macquarrie University. He is an author of fiction and non-fiction books. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) from UTS and a PhD from Macquarie University. He is a musician (steel and slide guitar) with a long association with the Sydney blues, rockabilly, country and pub rock scenes and is an exhibiting visual artist. He has also written essays, feature articles, reviews and short pieces for Meanjin, Heat, The Bulletin, HQ and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has been a columnist for Max and Sydney City Hub.

Then I learned that I have ten books translated into Russian! No roubles have entered my bank account yet though.

The world gets smaller!