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louise dickinson

  • lemon 16Half a Cow in the inner-western suburb of Glebe was the coolest bookshop in Sydney; an advocate of the underground with shelves bulging with left-of-field fanzines, authors who had been banned and musical output from alternative voices.

    It was a literary anti-establishment.  It all came crashing down, in my view, one afternoon in early 1993, during my fortnightly visit to the shop.

    A phone call had been made earlier that day and I witnessed the removal of issues of “Lemon” magazine from the shelves.

    I asked: “What has Lou done?” and was shown a review of indie-folk pop stars Club Hoy, buried in the back pages. 

    It was just six words: “These girls deserve a good raping."

    "Lemon" magazine was now officially banned. It started one of the most controversial weeks in the history of the modern Australian music industry.

    Indeed, it was the flashpoint of the underground openly clashing with the mainstream.