“We were the main kind of organisers but everyone else pitched in, led by Rob Laurie, Mel Wishart, Trevor Brown and all the old creative art people. Everyone sort of pitched in. There was a whole group of us. We all went through the School of Creative Arts in the mid to late 80s when there was a real push for inter-arts, you had to be inter-arts … I actually went there to do painting and theatre and ended up hanging out with all the musos. If the School of Creative Arts hadn’t been there it wouldn’t have happened. 

That time was my sort of heyday, it was a golden era for me in the 90s, there was a lot going on, it was very creative in this area, everyone was playing in bands, there was so much happening. Maybe it’s just because we were younger but you know what I mean? It was a golden time for pub bands and performers. I was in three goddam bands and it was before the pub scene died because of DJs and pokies, the whole live pub scene just died a sad death in the 2000s. But at that time, there was a lot going on and I don’t think it was just because we were all twenty, thirty years younger, maybe that was something to do with it… I wouldn’t have time now, we’ve all got jobs. I’m a care worker with disabilities and I remember in 1992 I had just started my job and this was all sort of happening, that’s putting it into some fuzzy sort of timeframe.”

– John Bonner, 17 August 2017

Image: Trevor Brown and Ali Jane Smith in the Star Cafe ’91 – photo supplied by Ali Jane Smith