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sydney opera house

  • iggy soh bwThe World's Forgotten Boy.  Miriam Williamson photo.

    Iggy Pop
    Sydney Opera House
    Monday, April 15 2019
    Miriam Williamson photos

    Iggy Pop and band put the torch to the Sydney Opera House the same night that a fire devastated Notre Dame in Paris. Coincidence? I think not.

    The Pop has been a semi-regular tourist to Australia since 1983 and I’ve caught him on every run but one. Stooges excepted, this was close to his high-point. 

    It is true that at age 71 - a pubic hair’s breadth away from bringing up 72 - James Osterberg moves a little more gingerly these days. The stage-dives are gone - at least where hard-backed seats are fixed to the floor - and he’s clearly pacing himself to go the distance. 

  •  iggy lisa doust soh2

    Iggy Pop
    Sydney Opera House
    Monday, April 15, 2019
    Lisa Doust photo

    Firstly, you have probably all heard that Iggy still has it and he does. But the damage is there. You can see how fucked his leg is. And when rugby prop forward size fans manhandle him, you see that he's actually a five-foot-one man* in his 70's who may have shrunk an inch or two.

    Stage security takes much greater care of him. Iggy also takes more care of himself, adapting the old poses into well timed rest breaks. Once or twice, he lives on his back. He feigns leaps into the crowd only to step back. He has learnt how not to be dragged off stage. He makes robot like motions to cover the limp. He uses the stairs.

  •  soh damned portrait

    The Damned
    Sydney Opera House
    Sydney, NSW, Australia

    September 10 2026

    Words: ASHLEY THOMSON
    Images" CELIA CURTIS

    As a young teen, then living on the southside of Brisvegas, I listened to this fledgling radio station run outta the Uni called 4ZZZ. Michael Finucan was doing the heavy lifting of the morning show and introduced me to all this modern high energy music coming out locally and from all around the world, one of those being a punk band called The Damned. 

    I brought The Damned records from an import record shop in the city and was duly impressed. along with the overall sound I was transfixed by the huge cacophony of the drumming, this wasn’t your dads Ringo Starr, this cunt literally sounded like the Tasmanian Devil on speed. Impressive.