About the Book

Imagine stepping into a dimly lit room, walls adorned with photographs capturing the raw energy and unfiltered emotion of Melbourne’s vibrant rock and roll scene in the early 1980s.

My book, Moments In Time presents these photos.This historic collection, featuring both local and international bands, offers a rare glimpse into a bygone era of music that pulsated through the city’s pubs and clubs. Most of these photos have never been published, making their debut all the more poignant.

I’m originally an Adelaide boy who moved to Melbourne in the late 70’s. It was for a relationship! Love or lust or whatever you want to call it, but ultimately not successful.  When that broke up in ‘79 it was time to reassess my direction in life.  I was single, I had grown up with a strong love of music, (my dad was the principal clarinetist for the Adelaide and Sydney Symphony Orchestras), and I'd taken to going everywhere with a camera in my hand.

The Melbourne night life beckoned. It was magnificent. In the early 80’s the pub, club and band scene was insane with amazing talent on display. It was raw, wild, and exciting.  Drury’s lyrics, “Sex and drugs and rock n roll” was a mantra for many of the punters, the baby boomers. They were buzzing. The bands were electrifying, professional, and always aiming to be better. They just loved music and performing. When their mums and dads learnt their child was going to make music a living, many rolled their eyes and urged them to go get a real job. Luckily quite a few managed to make it their real job, and myself and many people out there are eternally grateful for what they gave us then, and continue to give us now, whether they are still with us, or sadly departed. My photographic essay touches on both.

I started reading Rolling Stone magazine and photographer Annie Leibovitz caught my attention and the concept of music photography took off in my brain. I think it was sometime in 1981 that I met Dominic Barbuto, a great guy with many contacts in the Melbourne scene. Dom teamed up with the lovely Colleen Johnson, the boss of Goodtime Magazine and my involvement with them led to many photographic opportunities in Melbourne's nightlife. The Mushroom Records 10th Anniversary Party at Luna Park on the 1982 Australia Day weekend was one such opportunity. 

My photographic technique was quite unusuaI for the time I used Ilford HP5 400ASA (ISO) which I pushed to 1600ASA.  You couldn't buy a 1600ASA film at the time but I liked the grain and contrast, which increases as you push the ASA and of course the light sensitivity also increases lessening the need for a flash. Sometimes I took the process further, placing the 1600ASA 35mm negative in an enlarger which I would expose onto lithographic film. This created an extremely high contrast 2 ¼” negative which I would then print on the highest contrast Ilford grade 5 paper. The colour prints are made from slides using the Cibachrome, (later Ilfochrome), process. Photoshop has been used to get rid of 40-year-old scratches and other injuries to the negatives.

My book Moments in Time is the result. I’ve found that when my friends look through it reminiscing takes place about bands, music in all contexts, relationships at the time, what people were doing then and where they are now. They create their own personal essay. Those discussions are generated by the photos. They are always informative, therapeutic, and great fun to listen to. I hope it is the same for you.

 

Nick Martin