_{Check out the magnetism: Paul Berwick, Jiom Diockson, Matt Galvin and Nick Kennedy.} 

You could say they’re about to “step into the light” because that’s the name of the debut single for Sydney band Paul Berwick’s Magnetic Quartet. Bandleader Paul Berwick was the guitarist, singer and songwriter for Sydney’s late 1980s favourites Happy Hate Me Nots and has teamed with old friends Matt Galvin (guitar), Jim Dickson (bass) and Nick Kennedy (drums) to produce new original songs.

The individual band members have a wealth of experience (Happy Hate Me Nots, Radio Birdman, New Christs, Knievel, Big Heavy Stuff, Died Pretty, The Orange Humble Band and Settlement) but have played only a couple of shows together as Paul Berwick’s Magnetic Quartet. They’re a class outfit as evidenced by their I-94 Bar promoted support to Leadfinger earlier this year.  

They’ll launch the single with good mates Joeys Coop (featuring Died Pretty guitarist Brett Myers) at Sydney’s MoshPit Bar on Friday, November 12. Limited numbers of in-person tickets (and unlimited streaming passes) are selling here. (We’ll post a link to the single on Bandcamp after the gig.)

It’s being lauded as a definitive word on the this was geelong.    Geelong rock and roll scene. It’s a 680-page book called “Bored! This Was Geelong” and one of the fertile breeding ground’s offspring is making sure they mark its release with a bang.

Warped is releasing a seven-track batch of compilation-only and live tracks called “Precocious Little Bastards”. You can see them both if you drag your mouse over the image at right. 

But frst things first. The book is out now and the first 500 copies comes with two limited edition 45s featuring Bored!, White Noise and Seminal Rats. It’s selling here. It ain't cheap ($A225) but it looks incredible. For detailed information about the contents, hook up with the publishers on Facebook here.

Warped formed in 1990 as “three teenagers armed with three  chords and no fear”, taking to the stage of the Eureka Hotel in Geelong to support The Dirty Lovers and Bored!. Beer cans flew, obscenities were flung and a beast was born.

Thirty years on and the band are still going strong, a force in the rock landscape of Australia.

The first line-up, featuring Lightning Watkins on guitar, Cris Crime on drums and Darren “Dez” Dare on bass, laid the groundwork for the decades to come, worshipping at the altar of cheap pedals, noisy rock and one-up-manship on stage.Partial to destroying gear and the occasional Humphrey B Bear chair, they stormed through supports with the likes of Hard-ons, Bored!, Celibate Rifles, 5678s, Dead Moon and Fugazi.

In 1992 Darren parted ways with the band and formed Toad with Dave and Buzz from Bored! and Thee Vinyl Creatures. Ben and Cris have continued on to tour extensively and release many records. “Precocious Little Bastards” is available in digital form here.

One of Europe's top trash garage and go-go weekenders, The Wild Weekend, is coming to Australia for the first time. The three days of monstrous mayhem will run in Melbourne. From December 31 to January 2.

Presented by The Luwow & Zombie Zoo Productions, The Wild Weekend has been held in Europe since 1998. This insane weekender has blazed a trail for other trash festivals across the world and brings a wealth of entertainment experience and an insane level of production detail to a crazy event.

Zombie Zoo Productions’ Skipper Josh and Babz Collins present a weekend of retro fuzz, crazy Ccstume parties and vinyl throwbacks, set in various venues in the Melbourne CBD. The Wild Weekend features top retro trash bands, gruesome go-go goddesses, deviant decor, dastardly disc-jocks, crazy cabaret, mad movies, a boat cruise to nowhere and the Surf-fink Swap-meet.

Full details and tickets are here. Here’s the band line-up: