cultural resistance radio and who wanted to play political music. We called our-selves Zero and our first gig was at the Aehepa Hall in West End. We went through many metamorphoses from Zero to Xero to Xiro and back to Xero and somewhere in there we became brave enough to write our own songs. So many Brisbane Bands did the same. The Brisbane Band scene became a Col-lective of sorts, in the true sense of the word. We often battled with the Police who came to break our events up – it was a clash of ideas and metaphorically we battled with our songs, our music, and the events we organised. We all played in each others Band and shared our musical excitement. Performance Art was another way of proclaiming “Viva la difference”! I was involved with small groups of Artists who put on ‘Happenings’ of sorts, in and around the City . This involved the first Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane which sponsored a Performance Art evening at The Crypt – Brisbanes own ‘ruin’. It also involved do-ing a walking Performance Art Action, down Queen Street to the South Bank – then empty industrial space, on the first Shopping-night in the City. We lit fires, broke mirrors and the Fire Brigade shut us down. Art spaces opened and resistance was futile.
thday party & 279 Fantastic Flyers. Bir rphy handbills by Terry Mu n Willsteed. joh by l bil nd ha X roads t Xero. ou ab le Courier Mail Artic
Flyers, Posters pasted up on city walls – the work of Designers lit up the Vacuum and, proclaimed that change was coming. One cannot ignore 4ZZZ in this Cultural Resistance. This public radio station bound us all together by supporting our Music and Art Events. It agitated to subvert that Paradigm and it was the only Media outlet where we could engage with alternative sounds and ideas from around the planet. It cross pollinated us with other forms of audio stimulation and introduced us and Brisbane to the great sounds and culture of the Murri population. We were a number of disparate individuals who took up artistic arms to change the stagnant pond we grew up around. I would like to think that we flushed that pond and made a better place. But most of all, we became a family of sorts bound by storming the barricades of complacency, conservatism and corrup-tion.
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Zero at Da
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Xiro from Independent Cassette releases.
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