Hi, I’m an assistant curator working on the 1980s exhibition, and I’ve been asked to guest-blog about heavy metal in the 1980s.
British hard rock groups of the 1970s such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were popular in Australia well into the 1980s. However, it was really, in the early 1980s, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) bands, as the movement was known in the music press, which started the culture of headbangers or metalheads in the suburbs of Australian towns and cities. Bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard and Motorhead spoke to teenagers, primarily male, and primarily European, in a language that was distinct from, and in opposition to the benign pop music of the time. The local band scene was slower to react to what was happening in the UK though. Sydney bands like Surrender and Cobra were still playing Deep Purple, Rainbow and Jimi Hendrix covers and sticking to the 70s hard rock formula.
In the early to mid 1980s, American metal bands were becoming hugely popular: Van Halen, Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken, and WASP offered a more polished, though still heavily guitar driven sound. These bands also put emphasis on stage show and image – drawing on the earlier 1970s glam image, but cutting it with the leather and studs of bands like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. These American bands showcased innovative and skilful guitar playing, and this inspired local headbangers to practice what chops they had non-stop. Although these bands had limited exposure here in Australia, the Sydney metal scene responded with bands like Shy Thunder, Lightning Rock, Roxx, Assassin, Lotus, and White Widow – all aspiring to be the Australian Van Halen or Ratt. These bands played in Sydney pubs regularly and gathered a following. The metal scene was born.
In America, the flashiness of Motley Crue and Ratt (who had gotten progressively glammier) wore thin on fans. Enter San Francisco band Metallica. The band’s 1984 debut album Kill ‘em All was raw, honest and addictive to metalheads. Other bands quickly followed: Anthrax from New York, Megadeth from LA, and Slayer (much heavier and rawer than the others) all started to garner massive followings.
In Sydney, the only place to obtain heavy music not on major labels was Utopia Imports in Martin Place. The tiny shop was always full of headbangers, some of whom would travel hours to get there. The shop was a micro-scene itself. The latest metal from OS would be playing through the stereo, and the guys who worked there were aficionados of all things metal. Metallica, et al, were discovered there by countless ’bangers.
The Sydney scene too was bored of would-be guitar heroes and men in tights. In the Western suburbs – Blacktown, Parramatta, guys started jamming much heavier, less pretentious stuff. Slaughter Lord, Death Mission, Massive Appendage all started gigging at the same places Roxx, Lightning Rock, and Lotus, et al had been playing, and bringing crowds that got drunker, looked heavier, and had a far more conspicuous good time than previous hard rock crowds had. Other bands joined the scene: Addictive, Detriment, and Mortal Sin – who went on to lead the scene, getting a major record deal with Polygram and scoring big supports (Metallica, Anthrax), and touring Europe with burgeoning thrash group Testament.
The scene revolved around several pubs and clubs: The St James Tavern in the city had metal every Thursday night, The Hills Inn at Seven Hills every Saturday night, The Coogee Bay had metal bands regularly, The Sutherland Inn was a regular, as was The Den at Penshurst and The Bexley Hotel; The Cobra Club at Parramatta had metal on Fridays, and other smaller pubs regularly had metal bands: The Lewisham Inn, The Vulcan Hotel, The Teacher’s Club in the city, The Lansdowne, The Hopetoun, The Mortdale Hotel, The Wagon Wheel at St Marys. Crowds and bands alike inevitably moved afterwards to someone’s house for a party. All headbanger group-houses were decorated with the trophies of such parties: tens, even hundreds of consumed bourbon and vodka bottles!
The metal scene was mortared together by a deep passion for heavy music and like-mindedness, but it ran on alcohol – the drug of choice. A close second was marijuana, and then speed. There were very rarely fights though. If there were they were over girlfriends – who were in limited supply in the scene. Self mutilation was something some headbangers practiced as a ritual at gigs: Some headbangers had to be carted off in ambulances several times when the glass-inflicted cuts on their arms and torso bled uncontrollably. Every weekend there were parties or a gig somewhere. No one cared how wasted you got. It was a badge of honour. No one cared how poor you were. Heavily worn and ripped clothes were preferred. There was camaraderie in ‘chucking in’ with your mates to buy a case of beer and a ‘stick’ of pot, and consuming the above while listening to Slayer. Band T-shirts, tight black jeans or faded blue jeans, white hi-tops, denim or leather jacket, and long hair was the uniform. Though the hair was an option, most ’bangers grew it as long as they could. Mundane society was to be laughed at. As were pop music, pop culture in general, politics, and the police. Sydney headbangers in the 1980s aligned themselves with the punk movement. There were a few bands that crossed the punk/metal divide: Death Mission, Mass Appeal, The Hard Ons. Headbangers saw themselves as anti-establishment, and as a definite sub-culture. The hair band trend that saw a resurgence in the US and subsequently in the Australian mainstream charts – bands like Bon Jovi, Europe, Poison and Whitesnake (post 1987) – brought metal out of the underground, but by and large these bands were ignored by the Sydney metal scene, or were at least laughed at. Headbangers still wanted harder and heavier bands. Mortal Sin, Addictive, Detriment, and Frozen Doberman – all ‘thrash’, street clothe image metal bands – were the biggest crowd drawers in Sydney during the hair band era. Death Metal took the metal scene into the 1990s, where it remains the predominant metal genre for the current scene. Glammier bands have seen a resurgence, though really purely for a nostalgic aesthetic. Mortal Sin have continued, in one form or another, through the 1990s to now.
To all you 1980s headbangers – the Powerhouse Museum would like to hear from you. Tell us about your experiences of gigs, parties, life as a ’banger in the 1980s in Australia. We’d also like to see any photographs you may have kept, or if you’ve kept any of those 80s metal T-shirts, old jeans, hi-tops or jackets, we’d like to know about them as well.
