Sunbury Pop Festival or Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

festival held on a private farm between Sunbury and

Diggers Rest, Victoria Diggers Rest (formerly Diggers' Rest) is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Hume and Melton local government areas. Diggers Rest recorded a population ...

, which was staged on the

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port ...

(26 January) long weekend from 1972 to 1975. It attracted up to 45,000 patrons and was promoted by Odessa Promotions, which was formed by a group of television professionals, including John Fowler, from

GTV 9 GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. History GTV-9 was amongst the first television stations to begin regula ...

Melbourne. Although conceived and promoted as Australia's

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

, the Sunbury Pop Festivals signalled the end of the

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

peace movement of the late 1960s and the beginning of the reign of

pub rock Pub rock is a rock music genre that was developed in the early to mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement which incorporated roots rock, pub rock was a reaction against the expensively-recorded and produced progressive rock ...

. The early festivals were financially successful and featured performances by Australian and New Zealand bands including,

Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian rock band formed in Sydney, New South Wales. The group enjoyed success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early 1970s to become one of the most popular Australian hard-r ...

, Max Merritt and the Meteors,

Chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. ...

and

Wild Cherries The Wild Cherries were an Australian rock group, which started in late 1964 playing R&B/jazz and became "the most relentlessly experimental psychedelic band on the Melbourne discotheque / dance scene" according to commentator, Glenn A. Baker ...

. Various live albums were recorded at the festivals including '' Aztecs Live! At Sunbury'' issued in September 1972, which peaked at No. 3 on the ''

Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...

'' Top 20 Albums; and the triple live album, ''Sunbury 1973 - The Great Australian Rock Festival'' which was the inaugural release by

Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival M ...

. Looking to pull in bigger crowds, the founders booked international acts with British rock band

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

performing in 1974. They arrived late, and were initially booed by a crowd who expected to see home grown acts, but they finished their set despite crowd screams of "go back to Pommyland, ya pooftahs". Lead singer

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...

retorted with "When we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!". A fledgling

Skyhooks Skyhook, sky hook or skyhooks may refer to: Fiction * 'Skyhooks' or 'Skyhooks II', parts 1 and 8 respectively of the Adventure Time Elements (miniseries), Elements miniseries. * ''Sky Hook'', a Hugo-award nominated science fiction fanzine * Sk ...

were also booed and returned the following year with a new lead singer, Graeme "Shirley" Strachan. In 1975 another British band,

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Originally formed as ...

, were head-liners. A fracas developed on-stage between Deep Purple's roadies and

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, but the band calls it ...

's roadies and members. Due to poor weather and high ticket prices the attendance was down to 16,000. Odessa Promotions was liquidated after paying out Deep Purple but most local acts were not paid by Odessa. Late in the year, Deep Purple placed money into a fund so that unpaid artists were paid at the full musician's rate. In

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

, the Sunbury Pop Festival was inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame. There is footage on YouTube about the Sunbury Rock festival .

History

Sunbury Pop Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival that was the seventh of more than a dozen major outdoor rock festivals staged in Australia between 1970 and 1975, but it was the only one that became a continuing event, at least for four years. It was promoted by Odessa Promotions, which was formed by a group of television professionals headed by John Fowler from GTV9 in Melbourne. Festival publicist Jim McKay recalled, "It was a good idea over coffee at the Channel Nine canteen... We were a bit bored, wondering what to do next... Why don't we do a pop festival, like

?" From late 1971, Odessa Promotions touted the forthcoming festival as "41 hours of non-stop entertainment. Sunbury, the rock happening of 1972. Three days of sun-filled togetherness". In Australia, Sunbury signalled the end of the

peace movement of the late 1960s and the beginning of the reign of

. According to Australian music writer, James Cockington, "The Woodstock spirit of peace and love and bad brown acid was largely replaced here by VB, Tooheys and West End, depending on the state". In a 2003 interview for Melbourne newspaper, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', on the 30th anniversary of the second festival,

guitarist Phil Manning, who performed there, commented: :"It was a time when the hippie thing was declining and the drunken afternoons of too much beer, sun and basic rock developed. The music went from being experimental to being just moronic entertainment for yobbos". Sunbury—which has often been compared to Woodstock—has been accorded a

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

ary status in the history of

Australian rock Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock and Aussie rock, is rock music from Australia. The nation has a rich history of rock music and an appreciation of the roots of various rock genres, usually originating in the United ...

. Claims persist that it marked a turning point because it featured an all-Australian line-up, but this is misleading, as there had already been several "All-Australian" festivals by the time of Sunbury '72 and some of the performers there were

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

ers. Sunbury has acquired its status due to its financial success, which enabled it to run annually for four years, and because the inaugural festival was comprehensively documented on film and multi-track audio, which gave it a privileged status in the visual media compared with other contemporary festivals. The film, ''Sunbury'' (1972), was produced and directed by John Dixon, with Ray Wagstaff as coordinating director, and includes footage of

, Max Merritt and the Meteors,

, Pirana and SCRA. Artists and audience members were interviewed by ''

'' journalist,

Ian "Molly" Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent co-ordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular mus ...

including a naked woman, "What sort of made you sort of just get up and shed your clothes like this?" Another large festival, the Meadows Technicolour Fair, was staged in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

near Meadows township, from

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

over the same long weekend in 1972. This event attracted almost 30,000 people, and featured many of the same Australian acts, as well three imported acts: singers

Mary Hopkin Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer-songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists ...

, Tom Paxton and pop band Edison Lighthouse. This festival attracted almost as many people as Sunbury, despite South Australia having less than 10% of the eastern states population. The Meadows festival was not filmed nor recorded and has remained virtually unreported, it is not mentioned in any of the major print references on Australian rock music. Music entrepreneur Michael Gudinski was involved with the first Sunbury festival—as well as managing several major acts that appeared—he operated a lucrative concession selling watermelon to festival-goers. British-owned record company EMI released a double-album of live performances from the 1972 festival. Gudinski's new record company,

, established later in 1972, became associated with Sunbury thanks to its inaugural release, a three-disc set of live recordings from the 1973 festival. Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs also released a live album of their performance that year on the independent Havoc Records label. In 1973, the festival included its first international act - Spirit featuring the Staehely Brothers, John (guitar) and Al (bass), with drummer Stu Perry. They played in the line-up not long after Indelible Murtceps,

Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...

's alter ego, and were well received. The Staehely Brothers had been touring Australia for several weeks. In 1974,

arrived 2 hours late, and according to some, were initially booed during their set to screams of "go back to Pommyland, ya pooftahs". Lead singer,

retorted, "When we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!" In May 2009, on '' Spicks and Specks'', Daddy Cool front man Ross Wilson disputed this as an urban legend and said Queen finished their set, even doing an encore. The early version of

were also booed and, after watching a recording of their performance, lead singer Steve Hill quit and was replaced by Graeme "Shirley" Strachan. The 1975 festival ran at a loss with head liners

pocketing $60,000 while most local bands were unpaid when Odessa Promotions was liquidated soon after the event. Periodically attempts are made to resurrect Sunbury, in 2005 promoter Michael Chugg tried to revive the concept. The widespread success of

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

festivals since the 1990s (for example, the

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

) make a successful resurrection unlikely.

Location

The four Sunbury Pop Festivals were held on the same private farm along Jacksons Creek, 3.5 km south of Sunbury and 2 km north-east of Diggers Rest. The property was owned by 50-year-old farmer and local identity George Duncan who offered the use of his land at no cost to the organisers. Duncan and his son, George Jr, volunteered to erect the site fences and, for subsequent festivals, gave permission for organisers to construct permanent toilets and rubbish bins. The property was known locally as "Duncan's farm". The entrance gates to the Sunbury Pop Festival were off Watsons Road, Diggers Rest. Promoters rejected the name of Diggers Rest '72 in favour of Sunbury '72 as being more suggestive of a good time and sunny destination. The festival venue was closer to the smaller township of Diggers Rest, so many attendees who travelled by train alighted at

Diggers Rest railway station Diggers Rest railway station is located on the Sunbury line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the north-western Melbourne suburb of Diggers Rest, and it opened on 2 October 1859.

, and not Sunbury. The

Diggers Rest Hotel The Diggers Rest Hotel is an early hotel on the original route to the Bendigo goldfields in the town of Diggers Rest, Victoria, Australia. It was originally built in 1854 and is one of the few Mount Alexander Road goldrush wayside hotels known ...

became a de facto festival bar and site of scuffles between fans and police.

Residential subdivision Subdivisions are the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known as a subdivision. Subdivisions may be simple, involving only a single sell ...

in the area has since altered the landscape and restricted public access to the site. Despite the Bulla Shire Council (merged with the Hume City Council in 1994) opposing the original festival, Hume Council now holds the site to be of national heritage significance for its connection to the Festival and

Attendances

Although the 1972 Sunbury Pop Festival was not the first held in Australia, it benefited from a high level of publicity and, despite flagging attendances at 1975 festival, it consistently attracted large crowds. As many as 40,000 people attended Sunbury in 1972, although figures vary considerably depending on the source, and more conservative estimates place the figure between 30,000 and 35,000. Looking back in 1973, promoter John Fowler, who worked with property owner George Duncan, as site manager, said "The papers put it at anything from 25 to 60,000 people. How can you tell for sure?" In 1974 about 30,000 attended. The final festival had a crowd of 16,000 which was affected by poor weather and the higher cost of admission.

1972

The first Sunbury Pop Festival was touted as the "Rock Happening of 1972" and ran from 29 to 31 January. The attendance was approximately 35,000 and the entry fee was $6.00 (3 days), $5.00 (2 days), $1.00 (1 day). EMI/ HMV released a double-album of live performances, ''Sunbury'' by various artists:

The La De Das The La De Da's were a New Zealand rock band of the 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in New Zealand in 1963 as the Mergers, they had considerable success in both New Zealand and Australia until their split in 1975. In Australia the band is proba ...

, Pirana,

, Indelible Murtceps,

Max Merritt & the Meteors Maxwell James Merritt (30 April 1941 – 24 September 2020) was a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter and guitarist who was renowned as an interpreter of soul music and R&B. As leader of Max Merritt & The Meteors, his best known hits are " Slipp ...

, SCRA and

. Calendar Records issued a single live album, ''The Stars of Sunbury!'' with Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs,

Country Radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. Th ...

, Pilgrimage,

and

(credited to lead guitarist

Lobby Loyde Lobby Loyde (born John Baslington Lyde, 18 May 1941 – 21 April 2007), also known as John Barrie Lyde or Barry Lyde, was an Australian rock music guitarist, songwriter and producer. He was a member of two 1960s groups: Purple Hearts, which had ...

). Meanwhile, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs released their own double-disc, '' Aztecs Live! At Sunbury'' by September, which peaked at No. 3 on the ''

'' Top 20 Albums. John Dixon directed and produced the film, ''Sunbury'' (1972). Band line-up The 1972 festival was opened by progressive rockers,

Madder Lake Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Historic ...

. MCed by Gerry Humphrys, one-time lead singer of 1960s group, The Loved Ones. *

Blackfeather Blackfeather are an Australian rock group which formed in April 1970. The band has had numerous line-ups, mostly fronted by founding lead singer, Neale Johns. An early heavy rock version recorded their debut album, ''At the Mountains of Madness ...

* The Bushwhackers & Bullockies Bush Band * The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band * Glenn Cardier * Carson *

* Company Caine * Greg Quill & Country Radio *

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Li ...

* Healing Force * Highway * Indelible Murtceps *

MacKenzie Theory MacKenzie Theory was an Australian jazz rock group formed in September 1971 in Melbourne. Rob MacKenzie (lead guitar, ex-Leo & Friends, King Harvest, Great Men) and Cleis Pearce (electric viola) were the mainstays. They recorded two albums, ''O ...

* Phil Manning *

* Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band * Barrie McAskill & Levi Smith's Clefs * Pilgrimage * Pirana *

Wendy Saddington Wendy June Saddington (26 September 194921 June 2013), also known as Gandharvika Dasi, was an Australian blues, soul and jazz singer, and was in the bands Chain, Copperwine and the Wendy Saddington Band. She wrote for teen pop newspaper ''Go-S ...

* SCRA *

Tamam Shud Tamam Shud is an Australian psychedelic, progressive and surf rock band, which formed in Newcastle in 1964. The initial line-up were known as The Four Strangers with Eric Connell on bass guitar, Dannie Davidson on drums, Gary Johns on rhythm ...

Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian rock band formed in Sydney, New South Wales. The group enjoyed success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early 1970s to become one of the most popular Australian hard-r ...

* Total Fire Band *

Charts

1973

Sunbury '73 ran from 27 to 29 January. The attendance was 25,000 - 30,000 and the entry fee was $8.00 (3 days), $7.00 (2 days), $5.00 (1 day). Promoter, John Fowler provided a documentary, ''Sunbury 1973'', which was aired on GTV9. Music entrepreneur Michael Gudinski was involved with the first Sunbury festival—as well as managing several major acts that appeared—he operated a lucrative concession selling watermelon to festival-goers. His new record company,

, was established with Ray Evans late in 1972. It became associated with Sunbury thanks to its inaugural album, a three-disc set of live recordings from the 1973 festival, ''Sunbury 1973 - The Great Australian Rock Festival''. Guitarist,

and his band, Coloured Balls were joined on-stage by Billy Thorpe and

Leo de Castro Leo de Castro (born Kiwi Leo de Castro Kino; c. 1948 – 3 March 2019) was a New Zealand funk and soul singer-guitarist. From 1969 to 1995 he worked in Australia in a variety of bands before returning to Auckland. He contributed to ''Rocco'' ( ...

(Friends) to record a live set, ''Summer Jam'', which was issued in November. Carson released their own live album, ''On the Air'' in April but had disbanded by that time. Veteran rocker, Johnny O'Keefe, was initially booed but won the crowd over by his performance and went on to do several encores. Band line-up The 1973 festival was MCed by comedian Paul Hogan. *

Bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who w ...

Band of Light Band of Light were an Australian blues rock quartet formed in October 1972 by Tony Buettel on drums, Phil Key on lead vocals and guitar, Peter Roberts on bass guitar and Norm Roue on slide guitar. Roberts was soon replaced by Ian Rilen on bass ...

* The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band * Glenn Cardier * Carson * Coloured Balls *

The Flying Circus The Flying Circus were a short-lived Toronto-based group fronted by singer/songwriter, Bruce Cockburn. The band, which was active between late 1967 and early 1968, also featured Neil Merryweather and future Mapleoak members, Marty Fisher and G ...

* Healing Force * Indelible Murtceps *

* Mighty Mouse *

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

(backed by a full orchestra) * Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band * Johnny O'Keefe * Sid Rumpo * Spirit featuring the Staehely Brothers * Matt Taylor *

The 69'ers The 69'ers were an Australian rock, pop, jug and country band formed in 1969. They released two albums, ''The 69er's Album'' (1971) and ''Francis Butlers 69er's Live'' (1974). The group toured Australia and appeared at the Sunbury Pop Festival i ...

* Dutch Tilders *

Charts

1974

Sunbury '74 ran from 25 to 28 January. The attendance was approximately 30,000 and the entry fee was $12.00 (3 days), $10.00 (2 days), $5.00 (1 day). A new concept of a second performing stage was added to include alternative performances such as jazz recitals, theatre, dance, mime, poetry and acoustic music. Mushroom Records released two separate albums, ''Highlights of Sunbury '74 Part 1'' and ''Highlights of Sunbury '74 Part 2''. Blackfeather issued their own album, ''Blackfeather Live!''.

released, ''Francis Butler's 69ers Live'' from the previous year's performance. This was the first appearance in Australia of British rock band

. Many sources claim that Queen were booed off stage. In May 2009, on '' Spicks and Specks'', Daddy Cool front man Ross Wilson disputed this as an urban legend and said Queen finished their set, even doing an encore. Lead singer

bravely told the audience "When we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!" Queen returned to Australia to perform again in 1976 at the height of their fame. The early version of Australian group

were also booed and, after watching a TV broadcast of their performance, lead singer Steve Hill quit the band and was replaced by Graeme "Shirley" Strachan. Band line-up The MC was former The Masters Apprentices lead singer

Jim Keays James Keays (9 September 194613 June 2014) was a Scottish-born Australian musician who fronted the rock band The Masters Apprentices as singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica-player from 1965 to 1972 and subsequently had a solo career. He ...

. * Ayers Rock * Ballet Victoria *

Buster Brown Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the American public in th ...

* Commonwealth Youth in Concert * Daddy Cool *

The Dingoes The Dingoes are an Australian country rock band. They were initially active from 1973 to 1979, and reformed in 2009. Initially based in Melbourne, the band relocated to the United States from 1976. The most stable line-up comprised John Bois on ...

* Kush *

* Matt Taylor *

Ross Ryan Ross Edwin Ryan (born 13 December 1950) is an American-born Australian singer-songwriter and producer. His signature tune, " I Am Pegasus", was released in September 1973, which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian Singles. Its parent album, ' ...

* Sid Rumpo *

* Skylight * Sherbet * Full Moon

1975

Sunbury '75 ran from 25 to 27 January. The attendance was only 15,000-16,000 and the festival suffered terminal financial losses. The entry fee was $20.00 (2022:$150). A second stage was repeated for this year to cater for "alternative" acts such as dance, mime, poetry and acoustic music. A

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

, ''Australia – The Sunbury Symphony'' was commissioned. British hard rock band

went home with $60,000 (2022:$450,000), while most local groups went home empty handed. AC/DC allegedly refused to play after Deep Purple roadies provoked a fistfight with them. According to Deep Purple's lead vocalist,

David Coverdale David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of Whitesnake, a hard rock band he founded in 1978. Before Whitesnake, Coverdale was the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, after wh ...

, "Apparently, a young Aussie band had jumped onstage, plugged into our gear and started playing! Well, all hell broke loose, from what I was told. Our roadies (big buggers to a man) wrestled with the young band to get them off our equipment and off the stage. Chaos and frolics ensued".

Angus Young Angus McKinnon Young (born 31 March 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and only remaining original member of the hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances, schoolbo ...

relates that there were incidents both before and after Deep Purple played.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
Jim Keays performed his solo concept album ''The Boy from the Stars''. Keays and his band were reportedly the only act to have been paid for their appearance, having arranged an outside sponsorship. Later in the year, Deep Purple planned a tour for 1976 and after the Australian Musicians Union "made it clear ... that the proposed tour of Deep Purple could lead to considerable unrest" the UK band placed money into a fund so that artists appearing at Sunbury '75 were paid the full musician's rate. Band line-up Although slated to appear,

did not perform. *

* Ariel * Ayers Rock *

* The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band *

* Daddy Cool *

* Kush *

* Linda George * Matt Taylor *

* Renée Geyer and Sanctuary * The Keystone Angels *

* Solid Rock Big Band * Sherbet * Skylight * Foreday Riders The girl group, The Cookies, sang as backing singers for various artists including Kush and Linda George (they sang at three of the four festivals).

Popular culture references

The Fauves Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' ( French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values reta ...

in 1998 released a song called "Sunbury 97" on their album, ''Lazy Highways''. The lyrics include: ''There's the tree where mum & dad conceived me / Do you believe that I'm a child of Sunbury '73?''. Chris Wilson recorded the track "Sunbury '73" on his 1998 release, ''The Long Weekend'', that reminisces about a

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance journey on the road. Typically, road trips are long distances travelled by automobile. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by ...

south from Sydney to attend the concert. The television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

, '' All Together Now'' (1991-1993) features Jon English playing an ageing rocker trying to maintain a music career after his glory days as one of the performers at Sunbury.

Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post ...

issued a 50c stamp featuring the poster artwork of the 1972 festival as part of their series, ''Australian Rock Posters.'' Excerpts from Dixon's 1972 film ''Sunbury'' have been featured in many Australian TV specials and series including the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...

's ''

Long Way to the Top ''Long Way to the Top'' was a six-part weekly Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) documentary film series on the history of Australian rock and roll, from 1956 to the modern era, it was initially broadcast from 8 August to 12 September ...

'' in 2001. In 1993, festival organiser, John Fowler donated his collection of Sunbury memorabilia to the Performing Arts Museum of the Victoria Arts Centre. At the Music Victoria Awards of 2015, the Sunbury Pop Festival was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

References

;General * * * Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. ;Specific

External links

The 69'ers at Sunbury 1974

Sunbury Community Website

Photographs
of Sunbury Pop Festival, 1972 at

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "maint ...

{{Coord, -37.618, 144.743, display=title Rock festivals in Australia Recurring events disestablished in 1975 Music festivals in Melbourne Sunbury, Victoria Music festivals established in 1972 Pop music festivals

History

Location

Attendances

1972

Charts

1973

Charts

1974

1975

Popular culture references

See also

References

External links